What Is An Essay?

What Is An Essay? Some students try so hard to be creative, or to entice the reader with a sense of intrigue, that they sacrifice clarity. If your reader is one paragraph in and thinking, “I don’t have a clue what this student is talking about,” you’ve moved from arousing interest to creating confusion. It’s certainly possible and often effective to begin your essay with a description that piques interest without necessarily revealing exactly what the description is about. But while enticing and intriguing are good, bewildering and unintelligible are not. The examples, tips, topics and prompts outlined above should help you rock your college application essay. Admissions officers read thousands of essays every year. Yours doesn’t have to be the most creative; it just has to be a good read. The moral to the college essay is that there need not be a moral. You are writing a personal narrative, not a parable, so don’t feel compelled to conclude with a lesson learned or a happy ending. Regardless of the topic about which you choose to write, be sure the essay reveals more about you than the other characters or places in the story. Membership includes a 10% discount on all editing orders. The essay also provides you with an opportunity to say what hasn’t been said in your application and do so in your distinct voice. Showing that students can write, however, does matter. Their stylistic choices matter, their word choice matters, and their authenticity matters. The college application process is stressful, and the essay can seem like an insurmountable hurdle. Don’t procrastinate on this part of your application. Once you zero in on your topic, it’s time to organize your ideas. You might want to use an outline, laying out your main points, developing supporting ideas, and sequencing your thoughts logically. This should help you to organize a clear rough draft. If you begin taking these steps well ahead of your deadline, you should have plenty of time to read through your own work, make revisions, share your essay with others, and incorporate feedback into future drafts. So what’s the takeaway from this array of unexpected, possibly even bizarre essay questions? Well, first of all, you can presume that some admissions officers are just bored of essays about challenges you’ve overcome or experiences that have changed you. They want to see how you function when removed from the safe confines of formula and expectation. Some colleges and universities are actually notorious for their unusual â€" and in some cases, genuinely strange â€" college application essay prompts. According to Business Insider, Tufts University and the University of Chicago have both earned reputations for their out-of-left-field essay questions. Cited a few real-world examples of college essays that actually worked. Another very simple tip, but many of the less compelling essays we read each year fail to focus. Think about the special nugget of information you want the reader to know about you at the end of your essay and write with that central theme in mind. The essay is valuable to you and the colleges to which you are applying. If you think of the application as pieces of a puzzle or as independent voices coming together to tell your story, the essay is part of the puzzle over which you have complete control. Because UVA and Michigan request similar word counts, she will not have to adjust these for length. Rachel takes a few days to relax after completing 11th grade before creating a spreadsheet listing her colleges. She then uses both the Common App and individual colleges’ websites to find guidelines, deadlines and essay prompts. If Rachel has established a relationship with a college admissions representative, she will ask if supplemental essay prompts for next season will change. If she hasn’t been in touch with a rep, she will use this year’s prompts as a guide. Right now, halfway around the globe, an American high school junior is gearing up for the U.S. college admissions process. Let’s give her the way-too-peppy name of Rachel Resilient. And hopefully, this is an illuminating part of the process, one that not only helps you get into the college of your choice, but one that also helps prepare you for success once you get there. Putting your ideas into the right words may take time.