Bedford School Sixth Former’s Linguistics Essay Receives Rare Commendation

Published by Bedford School on Friday 8th of June 2018

Sixth Former Rahul Sheemar recently received high praise from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University, for his entry in their Languages and Linguistics Essay Competition. Rahul’s 2,500-word essay was on the subject of machines such as Siri and their use of language, and was completed alongside his regular studies. Michael Dawson, Teacher of Modern Languages at Bedford School, said, “Rahul is a budding academic and an excellent linguist who hopes to read Philosophy and Linguistics at a top university. With this essay, he has taken his first steps into academia. The feedback he received from Corpus Christi is testament to his talent, insight and potential as a scholar.” Individual feedback from Corpus Christi, Cambridge on individual entries is almost unheard of; understandably, Rahul was overjoyed with the feedback given. Corpus Christi commented: ‘As a rule feedback is not usually provided to Essay Competition entrants however this year the essay markers have asked that you be sent the following comment on your essay. This is an excellent essay! It is written with great clarity, and the structure could be that of an academic paper. The writer defines all terms used, showing a clear understanding of all phenomena discussed. The essay tackles a wide array of different aspects of language, all exemplified well, culminating in philosophical considerations about language and the mind. The writer has clearly done a lot of reading around the topic, tackling some quite advanced themes, such as Prototype Theory, and using these effectively in the essay.’ Rahul is currently completing the first year of his International Baccalaureate (IB) studies, with German, Philosophy and English at Higher Level and Maths, Economics and Biology at Standard Level.