How to Write a Definition Essay
Whats not on his resumé? Josh has a complicated relationship with pianohis parents pushed him into it, and hed like to quit as soon as possible. And, hes very close to his big brother, who recently left for college. He also has a little sister, who hes never been tight with. Ramyas essay is going to focus on loyalty: a big theme, one that would sound terribly weak if she introduced it in the first line or even paragraph, but one that is surprising and interesting here because shes juxtaposed it against a unique setting and seemingly light faresports at a bar. (Ramya has, at some point, assured the admissions committee that shes not drinking in this bar!) Resolving the Specific Experience Essay requires a student to point to some kind of realization garnered as a result of the experience. It doesnt have to be an enormous Eureka! or epiphany, and in fact, it can come later. Michaels reflection on the experience of learning to surf with his grandfather occurs over a decade after he first hit the waves. Anitas comes during an English class two years later when she first reads the poetry of John Keats and William Wordsworth and realizes these writers were engaging with exactly what she experienced during her solo in the wilderness. Secondary or supplemental essays: These are the essays that schools can choose to have you write on top of the core Common App Essay. They might invite you to talk more about an extracurricular activity on your resumé, to reflect on a quote from a famous alumna/alumnus of the college, or to share your thoughts on any number of wide-ranging topics.
There are a number of ways to approach freewriting, and all of
them are meant to keep you limber, loose, and free. You want to
sound authentic in your essaywhich means not stiffening up under
pressure, trying to sound formal, or more stereotypically adult
or learned, as many students do. The more you can sound like you
while freewriting, the stronger position youll be in when it
comes to drafting the personal statement. The Common App
Additional Information section offers the opportunity to provide
context about hardships you might have faced during high school.
This is another place you could consider explaining bad grades or
the like. Even here, its important to not simply state, I had bad
grades but improved them. A better explanation provides context
and explains what specifically helped you turn things around. For
example: Many students and parents wonder how big of a role
essays play when it comes to college admissions decisions. While
the importance of college essayswhich are written over a period
of a few weeks or, ideally, a few monthsvaries from school to
school, most experts estimate that they make up for anywhere from
10 to 30 percent of admissions decisions! It would be just
perfect if you end your essay the way you started.
4. The Mini-Odyssey Essay: The last classic and powerful module is the good old problem-driven essay. In this type of essay, our hero (you, the writer) meets a challenge in the first paragraph, and then the essay is devoted to showing us how it is solved. Lets say Michael wanted to write not about learning to surf from his grandfather, but about learning that his grandfather was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The Common App Essay word limit is 650 words. We strongly recommend using all 650 words, though you are not required to do so. If youre well below that limit, its worth asking yourself why your personal statement is so short. Check it against the outlines weve worked through in this post. Have you used your five-paragraph essay fully? Has your essay demonstrated change over time, or personal growth? Perhaps youve told a story but forgotten to reflect on it. By the way, heres the prompt that helped Ramya settle on the Patriots: Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you? While this one isnt among the current Common App essay prompts, itor any other promptcan be used to generate an essay that fits under the umbrella of the open prompt, Prompt 7. Freewriting is one of the fun parts, so the more you can do it, the better.
A fresh joke or an apt quotation would work. The best way to finish your concept essay is to leave the reader with an interesting idea and a tasty piece of brain food. That idea is introduced in atopic sentence. The topic sentence should generally lead on from the previous paragraph and introduce the point to be made in this paragraph. Transition words can be used to create clear connections between sentences. Make a list of experiences that have been important to you. These do not have to be dramatic, tragic, traumatic, or prove that you changed the world, though they can be any of those. Perhaps a particular summer that mattered a lot? Or an experience with a friend or family member who shaped youit could be a specific day spent with them, or a weekend, summer, or year. Add a citation whenever you quote, paraphrase, or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text. If youve spent your summer freewriting and then carefully selecting the right essay topic, youre now in a strong place to start writingideally at the end of July or early August.
How to write a concept essay - Then take your printout and write out what the function of each paragraph is in the margin. Might get a little tough, right? If you cant answer the question, What is the goal of this paragraph? or, What do I want the readers to garner from this paragraph? then youre probably missing a topic sentence.
(Remember that if you are applying early action or early decision to schools, your deadline will come at the start of November, whereas regular decision applications will generally have December and January deadlines. ) In discussing loyalty to herself, Ramya demonstrates maturity, independence, and the abilities to grow and absorb lessons. Reflections like This included deciding that I only wanted to stay friends with people who make a positive impact on my life help us see her as a person of integrity who can think for herself. As such, its easy to imagine her as a student who will make valuable contributions to a college campus. While we noted earlier that Ramya never struggled with striking the right tone in this essay, its worth noticing the balance of polish and casualness that she achieves. The result is an essay that is effortlessly readable yet mature and, most importantly, authentic to her own voice. If you instead use an individual story as a stand-in for something larger, or for something else, your essay becomes a kind of parable or lesson that educates your reader both about you and, hopefully, about a part of the world theyve never previously considered. There are many types of essays you might write as a student.
1. Anecdote and specificity. As you saw in the prompts above, were big advocates of beginning with a particular story or anecdote. This is not the only way to start an essay, but its a classic one. Journalists call this a ledeits a hook that brings the reader into a wider topic. Your essay will always go beyond the anecdote, but an anecdote offers a reader an easy, smooth way into your personal statement. The papers outline is the skeleton of your paper. It is great for ensuring that your paper is logical, well organized, and flows properly. Outlines help you see the logical steps of development in your essay. Use it to list ideas, main arguments, and supporting sources. Its crucial to outline your writing as it will guide your pen and keep you on track. We talked a lot about whether Josh would do best avoiding writing about pianoits the main thing on his resumé and sometimes it can be good to show things off-resumé, as Ramya and Anita plan to. Josh did some writing about his relationship with his sister and his brother, and that might find a home in the secondary essays. But it became clear that Josh has an obsessive, if not always positive, relationship with piano, and so theres something there.