Steps to writing a college essay, steps to writing a college essay.

All of these threads stemmed from the brainstorming exercises in this post.

If a student is still very much struggling through the challenges they describe, the admission reader may wonder if the student is ready for college.

Rewrite the bold sentences so that they do connect (i.e., flow) together. Once you’ve done that …

Your theme could be something mundane (like your desk) or something everyone can relate to (like the concept of home), but make sure that it is elastic (i.e. can connect to many different parts of you) and visual, as storytelling made richer with images.

Would you Rather watch instead?

Moment of Truth: At his lowest point, he decides to do something about it. “I grew determined to improve the quality of life for my family and myself,” he writes, then goes on to tell us all the amazing things he taught himself, the skills he learned, and interests he pursued. It’s inspiring.

Go to www.onetonline.org and use the “occupation quick search” feature to search for your career. Once you do, a huge list will appear containing knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for your career. This is one of my favorite resources for this exercise.

Many students are the same in their personal statements—they name cliché qualities/skills/values and don’t push their reflections much further.

Imagine the essay you could write about the time you painted Mr. Lurker's claws.

Here are two quick but essential college essay tips you can implement easily.

• Get other people to look at your essay.
• Be prepared to change, cut, and rearrange a lot!

In many ways, the most labor-intensive part of your college application process is the essay. It’s not just about forwarding transcripts or entering a list of extracurricular activities—you have to craft something personal and compelling to show the admissions committee who you are beyond your resume.

13 College Essay Tips: Key Takeaways for a Great College Essay

• Create a plan of attack for all of your essays so you can keep track of everything.
• Start early—at least two months before the due date, if not more.
• Choose the right prompt and topic for you.
• Decide between a narrative or a thematic approach to the topic.
• Outline before you start writing!

Choosing the right topic has two facets: first, choosing the right prompt (if there’s a choice) and second, choosing the right topic to write about for that prompt.

Whatever you write about should be primarily about you. You should be the focal point. Even if you’re writing about someone who has influenced you, for example, you need to relate it back to yourself. What does this tell admission officers about you?

Which essay you should write first: You’ll probably want to start first on the essay with the earliest application deadline. Alternatively, if you have plenty of time or the deadlines are close together, you could start with the longest essay (which will take the most time) or the essay that will be used for the most schools (like a Common Application essay). Do what you feel most comfortable with.

• By observing the balance of nature in her gardens, listening to lectures, and reading everything she can get her hands on about insects and native plants, Lucinda has grown passionate about natural balance. "It's easy to get passionate if you just take time to look," she says.

Write a paragraph about each of these key points, using the information you've pulled from your notes. If you don't have enough for one, you might need a stronger key point. Do more research to support your point of view. It's always better to have too many sources than too few.

You've almost finished. The last paragraph of your essay is your conclusion. It, too, can be short, and it must tie back to your introduction.

Knowing how to write an essay is a skill that you can use throughout your life. The ability to organize ideas that you use in constructing an essay will help you write business letters, company memos, and marketing materials for your clubs and organizations.

Body of Information

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Before you can start writing, you must have an idea to write about. If you haven't been assigned a topic, it's easier than you might think to come up with one of your own.

Do you love gardening? Sports? Photography? Volunteering? Are you an advocate for children? Domestic peace? The hungry or homeless? These are clues to your best essays.

1. Purpose and Thesis
2. Title
3. Introduction
4. Body of Information
5. Conclusion

“For my personal statement, I wanted to write about a milestone in my life, but I didn’t know how to make it meaningful. By learning how to include the elements of the BEING Compass, the process became easier because each step felt like a very natural progression through my story. The more I got into it, it felt less like a task and more like creating a memoir. It became an opportunity to take the time for self-reflection and discovery of who I really am.”

“Before using the five-step method of the BEING Compass, the writing process was slow to start and difficult to realistically portray myself in the essays. But with the Compass, I was guided towards a clear understanding of how my essays would reflect me while highlighting my strengths and personality in a fun, personal way.”

Most likely, outside of your own journaling, you probably haven’t learned much about this in class. Most schools don’t even teach how to write a personal statement that is self-reflective. Your college essays may well be your first essays that cast you as the central character and topic. And believe me, it's not a piece of cake . especially with the added pressure of having so much at stake.

“I appreciate the value of Janet’s system of starting with self-exploration worksheets. My answers helped me to articulate my passion for science while sharing about my volunteering background. Once I started drafting my common app personal statement, I saw how this work upfront came into play as I followed the BEING Compass to address my challenges and highlight my insights while sharing many facets about myself – all within the word limit.”

In the wake of COVID, college essays are sure to gain the spotlight as a key element together with GPA to get into the college of your choice. Knowing the secrets to creating great essays can set you apart.

You know what else could be a deal breaker or deal maker to get into the college of your choice? Your essays. Maybe your English teachers are helping as best they can with the essays. While that's good news, most English teachers are not trained in writing college essays. They are great at reviewing expository, analytical, and argumentative essays, but in your college essays, admissions officers want to know about you – who you are, how you think, and what makes you tick.

“When I first started trying to write my essays, it was difficult for me to express my ideas and transmit my message, so learning the five-step process in the BEING Compass was very important in helping to give me a structure to shape my ideas into an essay in a way that admissions officers could relate to and have fun reading!”

“After learning to integrate the five steps of the BEING Compass into my personal statement, I was able to connect more deeply with my story and share from a personal level and then tell about how I overcame my challenges in a way that truly revealed my inner strengths.”

It's not too late to write great college essays for your applications.

For writing the actual essay, because I had planned and articulated my thoughts so methodically, words just flowed out of my fingertips into my computer. I told in detail the vivid memory I had, gave an example of a time during school I lived by my mantra, and talked more about how the language barrier affected my life, and made me who I am today.

The hardest part of the process was coming up with an idea. I wanted to pick a moment, or a story, that really stuck with me throughout life. After trying to start essays, only to give up on them a quarter of the way through, I stumbled upon an old essay I had written in 8th grade. The prompt of the essay was to talk about something that you struggled with and overcame. To me, that was the language barrier between my grandfather and me. My grandfather speaks fluent Vietnamese, while I only speak English, so throughout my entire childhood communication was lacking. Although he spoke broken English, the opportunity to tell anecdotes, give advice, and more were nonexistent. I reread that essay four to five times before I decided that it was going to be my college essay topic.

Lastly, receiving feedback is another quintessential step in the entire process. Although your college essay topic might be a very personal and intimate, it’s still important to get feedback from multiple people. For me, that was my parents, former English teacher, and guidance counselor. I wanted to receive constructive criticism from all angles: content, language, grammar, and more. Having numerous perspectives from people with different backgrounds really gives light on the holes and weaker parts of your essay. For me, I wrote three to four drafts before finally feeling comfortable with the finished product — all while having the people I mentioned revise it.

Having a planning step in the college essay process is essential because it gives you time to think and reflect upon your ideas at a more detailed level.

Plan Your Essay

One thing about writing your college essay the first time is that you have to know it is not going to be perfect. You will have to write multiple drafts, but the first draft is vital because it is finally putting all your ideas and planning into fruition.

Your college essay is something that you should not only be proud of, but also something that you genuinely want to showcase to college admissions offices. The writing piece itself should display your character, goals, and accomplishments. When I was going through the process of writing mine, I struggled because I didn’t think I had a story good enough to tell. However, after really thinking it over, I finally curated a body of words that I am extremely proud of. Here is how I wrote my college essay.

My biggest advice for choosing an idea is to pick something you are passionate about. From this, the voice in your writing will display your passion — and be a lot more interesting to read.

Instead of diving right into the writing process, I wanted to plan out the points I was going to hit before putting pen to paper. Like I said earlier, I really wanted to focus on my character, goals, and accomplishments. Because of this, I decided to choose a monumental moment I experienced with my grandfather and build off of that. The moment I chose was when I was 9 years old, I was raking leaves with him, and doing a subpar job. He looked at me and said a sentence in half English and half Vietnamese — but I knew what it meant.