I work for ACT and I score the essays. Yes, the essay portion still exists. Students can take the ACT with or without the essay portion, they even have up until the time the test begins to decide whether or not they want to take it. It is mostly optional, but some institutions prefer a writing score.

I'm not sure what happened here, but I thought you raised some interesting points. And I liked that you wrote about understanding the thought behind a controversial comment while still condemning this horrible procedure. Not everyone on the internet is a jerk. Just keep doing what you're doing.

No girl wants this to happen to her. If a girl acts like she does, its because she lives in a culture that tells her she will have it done or she will be thought of as a whore and will be unable to get married. This isn't Americans making a mountain out of a mole hill; these women suffer the effects of this for the…

Yes, yes to the questions that you raise. There is more to identifying yourself as female then just slapping on makeup and heels. Heck, I wouldn't want a young girl that age to be dressing up like that. And wouldn't it be better for these children if the adults didn't make it seem like they either fit into the…

I agree that I couldn't imagine how his parents are enduring this right now. And did you see the lawyers afterwards? Praising the American justice system and talking about how it's flawless? It was the cherry on top of this shit sundae.

Matt Bors did a piece on this same topic, in cartoon form!

He did not come up with this theory. Cracked did it first.

A Jane Austen Education is a very good book. I also recommend A Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After by Elizabeth Kantor. It sounds cheesy, but its actually a critical look at the characters in Austen's novels that shows why their happiness comes about because of the people they are and the decisions that they…

In fairness, a woman's reputation at the time was important to maintain and this is explicitly stated in each book. However, I think Austen was showing that a good reputation isn't all that's necessary for a good marriage. In Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Hurst had a good reputation going into her marriage but she's not…

While I'm glad that sexual assault in the military is getting more attention, it does seem like the male victims get overlooked a lot. Just look at the controversy surrounding the documentary The Invisible War which was addressed in a past Jezebel article: http://jezebel.com/5983168/male-m…

It gets tiring every time some celebrity says something horribly offensive and people act like their First Amendment rights are being violated. How many times do we need to have this discussion? Freedom of speech protects your rights to say what you want but it doesn't protect you from people seeing you as a bigot…

I think it's hard to assume how people will respond when a traumatic event occurs. People deal with stress or pain in their own way and it shouldn't be held against them. Now, people may roll their eyes to this defense at times (ex. Casey Anthony was drinking and partying BECAUSE she's sad her kid was dead), but it…

What if the government is monitoring all of the people who buy 1984? You know, because this whole thing started when it came out that the government is monitoring our internet habits. Just saying, it would be pretty damn funny. People should have just gone to a used book store instead.

What if the government is monitoring all of the people who buy 1984? You know, because this whole thing started…

I find it odd that the jury is not more diverse. I also find it odd that so many people in this discussion are saying that Zimmerman will get off now because of it. Or is everyone joking? Is this whole thing a bad joke? Because it certainly has felt that way ever since the story first broke.

I think the publishing companies jinxed the world when they started giving people seven figure book deals for the same premise. I fear we'll be seeing a lot of this type of story in the future. Maybe they'll jazz it up by changing the setting; like take the same characters and story from Twilight and put them on a…

And Hunger Games. And The Selection. And Wither. Egads! The list goes on and on and on... :)

I think Game of Thrones has plenty of strong female protagonists and it is written by a guy who describes himself as feminist. So how can this book being the "female version" of Game of Thrones...maybe it'll be completely through the eyes of a teenage girl who has two guys who like her for some reason though her…

I'll admit that I have not seen an episode of this particular show and so I can't comment on how the man in the adulterous affair has been portrayed. I do know that in his last movie called Temptation that a woman cheats with a man who's a thinly veiled metaphor for Satan. So its not like the audience is going to…

I am all for TV programs that portray minorities in a positive light, something that is seriously lacking in the mainstream media. But seriously, you're not going to find that with ANY story that Tyler Perry writes. I read a Jezebel article about his last movie really opened my eyes to his disdain for sexually…

Even though that argument itself is a gross over simplification.