Master the Art of Application Essay Writing
This article contains three parts:
Step One: Brainstorming By
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The most important part of your essay is the subject matter.
You should expect to devote about 1-2 weeks simply to brainstorming
ideas. To begin brainstorming a subject idea consider the following
points. From brainstorming, you may find a subject you had not
considered at first.
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What are your major accomplishments, and why do you consider
them accomplishments? Do not limit yourself to accomplishments
you have been formally recognized for since the most interesting
essays often are based on accomplishments that may have been
trite at the time but become crucial when placed in the context
of your life.
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Does any attribute, quality, or skill distinguish you from
everyone else? How did you develop this attribute?
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Consider your favorite books, movies, works of art, etc.
Have these influenced your life in a meaningful way? Why are
they your favorites?
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What was the most difficult time in your life, and why?
How did your perspective on life change as a result of the
difficulty?
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Have you ever struggled mightily for something and succeeded?
What made you successful?
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Have you ever struggled mightily for something and failed?
How did you respond?
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Of everything in the world, what would you most like to
be doing right now? Where would you most like to be? Who,
of everyone living and dead, would you most like to be with?
These questions should help you realize what you love most.
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Have you experienced a moment of epiphany, as if your eyes
were opened to something you were previously blind to?
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What is your strongest, most unwavering personality trait?
Do you maintain strong beliefs or adhere to a philosophy?
How would your friends characterize you? What would they write
about if they were writing your admissions essay for you?
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What have you done outside of the classroom that demonstrates
qualities sought after by universities? Of these, which means
the most to you?
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What are your most important extracurricular or community
activities? What made you join these activities? What made
you continue to contribute to them?
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What are your dreams of the future? When you look back on
your life in thirty years, what would it take for you to consider
your life successful? What people, things, and accomplishments
do you need? How does this particular university fit into
your plans for the future?
If these questions cannot cure your writer's block, consider
the following exercises:
If you cannot characterize yourself and your personality traits
do not automatically leap to mind, ask your friends to write a
list of your five most salient personality traits. Ask your friends
why they chose the ones they did. If an image of your personality
begins to emerge, consider life experiences that could illustrate
the particular traits.
While admissions officers are not interested in reading about
your childhood and are more interested in the last 2-4 years of
your life, you might consider events of your childhood that inspired
the interests you have today. Interests that began in childhood
may be the most defining parts of your life, even if you recently
lost interest. For instance, if you were interested in math since
an early age and now want to study medicine, you might incorporate
this into your medical school admissions essay. Analyze the reasons
for your interests and how they were shaped from your upbringing.
Many applicants do not have role models and were never greatly
influenced by just one or two people. However, for those of you
who have role models and actually aspire to become like certain
people, you may want to incorporate a discussion of that person
and the traits you admired into your application essay.
Before you sat down to write a poem, you would certainly read
past poets. Before writing a book of philosophy, you would consider
past philosophers. In the same way, we recommend reading sample
admissions essays to understand what topics other applicants chose.
EssayEdge maintains an archive of over 100 free sample admissions
essays. Click
here to view sample essays that worked.
Life is short. Why do you want spend 2-6 years of your life at
a particular college, graduate school, or professional school?
How is the degree necessary to the fulfillment of your goals?
When considering goals, think broadly. Few people would be satisfied
with just a career. How else will your education fit your needs
and lead you to a fulfilling life?
If after reading this entire page you do not have an idea for
your essay, do not be surprised. Coming up with an idea is difficult
and requires time. Actually consider the questions and exercises
above. Without a topic you feel passionate about, without one
that brings out the defining aspects of you personality, you risk
falling into the trap of sounding like the 90 percent of applicants
who will write boring admissions essays. The only way to write
a unique essay is to have experiences that support whatever topic
you come up with. Whatever you do, don't let the essay stress
you out. Have fun with the brainstorming process. You might discover
something about yourself you never consciously realized.
Good Luck!
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Step Two - Selecting an Essay Topic
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Having completed step one, you should now have a rough idea of
the elements you wish to include in your essay, including your
goals, important life experiences, research experience, diversifying
features, spectacular nonacademic accomplishments, etc. You should
also now have an idea of what impression you want to make on the
admissions officers.
We should remark that at this stage, undergraduate applicants
have a large advantage over graduate school applicants. Whereas
nobody questions a high school student's motivation to attend
college, graduate and professional school applicants must directly
address in their essays their desire to study their selected field.
You must now confront the underlying problem of the admissions
essay. You must now consider topics that will allow you to synthesize
your important personal characteristics and experiences into a
coherent whole while simultaneously addressing your desire to
attend a specific institution. While most admissions essays allow
great latitude in topic selection, you must also be sure to answer
the questions that were asked of you. Leaving a lasting impression
on someone who reads 50-100 essays a day will not be easy, but
we have compiled some guidelines to help you get started. With
any luck, one or two topics, with small changes, will allow you
to answer application questions for 5-7 different colleges, although
admissions officers do appreciate essays that provide convincing
evidence of how an applicant will fit into a particular academic
environment. You should at least have read the college's webpage,
admissions catalog, and have an understanding of the institution's
strengths.
Consider the following questions before proceeding:
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Have you selected a topic that describes something of personal
importance in your life, with which you can use vivid
personal experiences as supporting details?
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Is your topic a gimmick? That is, do you plan to write
your essay in iambic pentameter or make it funny. You should
be very, very careful if you are planning to do this. We
recommend strongly that you do not do this. Almost always,
this is done poorly and is not appreciated by the admissions
committee. Nothing is worse than not laughing or not being
amused at something that was written to be funny or amusing.
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Will your topic only repeat information listed elsewhere
on your application? If so, pick a new topic. Don't mention
GPAs or standardized test scores in your essay.
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Can you offer vivid supporting paragraphs to your essay
topic? If you cannot easily think of supporting paragraphs
with concrete examples, you should probably choose a different
essay topic.
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Can you fully answer the question asked of you? Can you
address and elaborate on all points within the specified
word limit, or will you end up writing a poor summary of
something that might be interesting as a report or research
paper? If you plan on writing something technical for college
admissions, make sure you truly can back up your interest
in a topic and are not merely throwing around big scientific
words. Unless you convince the reader that you actually
have the life experiences to back up your interest in neurobiology,
the reader will assume you are trying to impress him/her
with shallow tactics. Also, be sure you can write to admissions
officers and that you are not writing over their heads.
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Can you keep the reader's interest from the first word.
The entire essay must be interesting, considering admissions
officers will probably only spend a few minutes reading
each essay.
-
Is your topic overdone? To ascertain this, peruse through
old essays. EssayEdge's 100 free essays can help you do
this. However, most topics are overdone, and this is not
a bad thing. A unique or convincing answer to a classic
topic can pay off big.
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Will your topic turnoff a large number of people? If you
write on how everyone should worship your God, how wrong
or right abortion is, or how you think the Republican or
Democratic Party is evil, you will not get into the college
of your choice. The only thing worse than not writing a
memorable essay is writing an essay that will be remembered
negatively. Stay away from specific religions, political
doctrines, or controversial opinions. You can still write
an essay about Nietzsche's influence on your life, but express
understanding that not all intelligent people will agree
with Nietzsche's claims. Emphasize instead Nietzsche's influence
on your life, and not why you think he was wrong
or right in his claims.
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In this vein, if you are presenting a topic that is controversial,
you must acknowledge counter arguments without sounding
arrogant.
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Will an admissions officer remember your topic after a
day of reading hundreds of essays? What will the officer
remember about your topic? What will the officer remember
about you? What will your lasting impression be?
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Step Three: Writing the Essay, Tips
for Success
By EssayEdge.com:
Our Editing Makes the Difference
Even seemingly boring topics can be made into exceptional admissions
essays with an innovative approach. In writing the essay you must
bear in mind your two goals: to persuade the admissions officer
that you are extremely worthy of admission and to make the admissions
officer aware that you are more than a GPA and a standardized
score, that you are a real-life, intriguing personality.
Unfortunately, there is no surefire step-by-step method to writing
a good essay. EssayEdge editors at http://www.EssayEdge.com/
will remake your essay into an awesome, memorable masterpiece,
but every topic requires a different treatment since no two essays
are alike. However, we have compiled the following list of tips
that you should find useful while writing your admissions essay.
You can follow the next 11 steps, but if you miss the question,
you will not be admitted to any institution.
Even seemingly boring essay topics can sound interesting if
creatively approached. If writing about a gymnastics competition
you trained for, do not start your essay: "I worked long
hours for many weeks to train for XXX competition." Consider
an opening like, "Every morning I awoke at 5:00 to sweat,
tears, and blood as I trained on the uneven bars hoping to bring
the state gymnastics trophy to my hometown."
Admissions officers want to learn about you and your writing
ability. Write about something meaningful and describe your
feelings, not necessarily your actions. If you do this, your
essay will be unique. Many people travel to foreign countries
or win competitions, but your feelings during these events are
unique to you. Unless a philosophy or societal problem has interested
you intensely for years, stay away from grand themes that you
have little personal experience with.
For some reason, students continue to think big words make
good essays. Big words are fine, but only if they are used in
the appropriate contexts with complex styles. Think Hemingway.
If you are not adept with imagery, you can write an excellent
essay without it, but it's not easy. The application essay lends
itself to imagery since the entire essay requires your experiences
as supporting details. Appeal to the five senses of the admissions
officers.
Expect admissions officers to spend 1-2 minutes reading your
essay. You must use your introduction to grab their interest
from the beginning. You might even consider completely changing
your introduction after writing your body paragraphs.
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Don't Summarize in your Introduction. Ask yourself
why a reader would want to read your entire essay after
reading your introduction. If you summarize, the admissions
officer need not read the rest of your essay.
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Create Mystery or Intrigue in your Introduction.
It is not necessary or recommended that your first sentence
give away the subject matter. Raise questions in the minds
of the admissions officers to force them to read on. Appeal
to their emotions to make them relate to your subject matter.
Your introduction can be original, but cannot be silly. The
paragraphs that follow must relate to your introduction.
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The conclusion is your last chance to persuade the reader
or impress upon them your qualifications. In the conclusion,
avoid summary since the essay is rather short to begin with;
the reader should not need to be reminded of what you wrote
300 words before. Also do not use stock phrases like "in
conclusion, in summary, to conclude, etc." You should consider
the following conclusions:
-
Expand upon the broader implications of your discussion.
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Consider linking your conclusion to your introduction
to establish a sense of balance by reiterating introductory
phrases.
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Redefine a term used previously in your body paragraphs.
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End with a famous quote that is relevant to your argument.
Do not try to do this, as this approach is overdone.
This should come naturally.
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Frame your discussion within a larger context or show
that your topic has widespread appeal.
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Remember, your essay need not be so tidy that you can
answer why your little sister died or why people starve
in Africa; you are not writing a "sit-com," but
should forge some attempt at closure.
Spend a week or so away from your draft to decide if you still
consider your topic and approach worthwhile.
Ask editors to read with these questions in mind:
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WHAT is the essay about?
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Have I used active voice verbs wherever possible?
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Is my sentence structure varied or do I use all long or
all short sentences?
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Do you detect any cliches?
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Do I use transition appropriately?
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Do I use imagery often and does this make the essay clearer
and more vivid?
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What's the best part of the essay?
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What about the essay is memorable?
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What's the worst part of the essay?
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What parts of the essay need elaboration or are unclear?
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What parts of the essay do not support your main argument
or are immaterial to your case?
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Is every single sentence crucial to the essay? This MUST
be the case.
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What does the essay reveal about your personality?
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Could anyone else have written this essay?
-
How would you fill in the following blank based on the
essay: "I want to accept you to this college because
our college needs more ________."
- Take the free online admission essay course and evaluate
yourself. click on the link below.
Free
Online Admissions Essay Course
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