Learning to write a good essay is important to your success. In many cases, this letter may be an applicant’s first and only chance to make a good impression. In fact, there are many scholarship competitions that are based solely on the quality of your essay. The essay is your opportunity to take charge of the impression you
make on a college or a scholarship committee and to provide information that does not appear in grades, test scores, or other materials. The main purpose of the essay is to give an in-depth view of you as a unique individual.
Most essay questions are designed to help evaluators discover the values, ideals, achievements, and traits that make up your personality. Therefore, a well-written essay may give evaluators a glimpse of your inner self through your ability to compose a cohesive, well-thought-out writing sample. The essay allows you to reveal your talent, intelligence, sense of humor, enthusiasm, maturity, creativity, sincerity, and writing ability. These factors all count in an admission evaluation and financial aid.
When admissions officers read essays, they search for evidence of curiosity, strong moral character and the capacity to commit to meaningful endeavors. They want to get a sense of your unique voice and distinctive
qualities. Write in a way that holds the reader’s interest. The admissions reviewers and scholarship judges read plenty of really boring essays about “how wonderful I am” and “my plan to end world hunger.” You will likely be asked to provide an essay related to a specific topic. Different schools might ask for different essay topics. The idea of writing dozens of essays for the possibility of a scholarship award may seem like a waste of your vital time and effort. But if you gather your potential scholarship applications together and review the specifics of what the essays are supposed to address, then you may find that one or two well-crafted essays
can be used for multiple applications.
Basic Steps in the Essay-Writing Process
Writing an admissions essay involves much more than simply putting pen to paper. There are no hard and fast rules on what steps you should follow. Adhering to some of the steps described below may help. Here is how to get through the process, from the first inkling to the final revision.
Brainstorm
You will need to brainstorm to come up with some ideas for topics. Even though you may be given a prompt on the application, you will still most likely need to come up with a unique and creative topic that allows you to write an interesting and compelling essay. Brainstorming involves more than coming up with a topic, however. It also involves seeing whether or not you can expand upon a topic. Basically, you have to determine whether or not a topic is worth writing about.
Outline
With your subject securely implanted in your mind, it is time to do some preliminary writing work. You need to flesh out the topic into an outline for your essay. You can do this by thinking of the various approaches
you can take on a topic. If the essay is to be argumentative, you will need to develop an outline that emphasizes the main argument and the supporting points you will make. If you are writing about your life, you may want to steer clear of the five-paragraph essay and go for something a little more linear or narrative in form, as though you were telling a story. The outline of the essay will mirror the structure the essay will take, and the structure the essay will take is based heavily on the content your essay will contain.
Talk with People
Before you dive into actually drafting your essay, take some time to talk to someone who is familiar with the process of essay writing. Your high school counselors are there to help you with precisely this sort of
thing, so be sure to take advantage of their services. If you don’t have a counselor, why not ask for help from an instructor? More often than not, they are delighted to help students who want to go to college.
You need to talk to someone before you set your draft down onto paper so that you get an idea of what is at stake and what your competition is like. You will probably be able to get your hands on sample essays, and your counselor can give you some hints and tips on what admissions reviewers are looking for. Don’t go into the essay-writing process without having this knowledge.
Write It Out
With all of this fresh knowledge in your head and your outline in hand, you can finally begin drafting your admissions essay. Don’t worry too much about structure at first. After all, you want to get your most creative ideas out on paper first, before you start complicating it with structure. You probably have the ideas in your head, so just let them flow out as naturally as possible. Once you have them all down on the page, try to set the whole thing aside for at least a week—preferably, two. This is the “marinade” stage. This way, you can come back to the table with a fresh perspective.
Revise
Revision is probably the most important step of the entire essay-writing process. When you revise your essay, you will be looking first at the content you have created. Do you support your points logically? Is your thesis clear? Is the focus of your essay concise? Do you provide enough examples for each point you make? Is any one point “heavier” in content than another? If you find issues in these areas, fix them first. You will also want to double-check your facts, if any, at this time.
Next, you will need to revise for structure. Does your essay have a solid introduction, supportive body paragraphs and a strong conclusion? Do you make smooth transitions from one paragraph to the next? Does anything seem out of place? If so, rework these parts until they are clear and consistent. You want one sentence to flow logically to the next.
Edit, Edit, Edit
Once you have completed the big revisions on your essay, it is time to get down to the nitty-gritty stuff like fixing grammar issues and spelling errors. Edit your essay several times. Cross out unnecessary words, fix punctuation errors, and watch your word usage. These may seem like nit-picky things to be concerned with, but you have to show the admissions reviewers that you take your writing very seriously. The more you edit it, the stronger it becomes. Avoid doing the writing, editing, and submission of the application in one sitting. Come up with a fairly finished draft and let it sit for a few days. You will notice things you may have overlooked had you done it all in one sitting.
Peer Edit
Once you have gotten your essay as good as it can be, let someone else have a glance at it. There is always room for improvement in writing and another set of eyes can help catch those small mistakes you might have
skipped over. Peer editors usually don’t catch big mistakes, but they do catch grammatical errors. Make sure you select someone you trust for this duty, like a counselor, teacher or parent.
Adhere to Deadlines
Keep track of your deadlines. As you start researching colleges, you will find that there are many places where you can apply. Being aware of their deadlines is important. Develop your own method of keeping track
of deadlines. Technologically savvy writers can use Outlook. Old-fashioned writers can jot down the deadlines on a calendar or post them on the refrigerator door.
Don’t put off writing your essays until the last minute. Plan them during the summer before your senior year, if you can, or early in your senior year, and write an individual essay for each college. Spend quality time
with your essay. Give each application individual attention. Don’t rush your writing because you have to meet an overnight deadline. Simmer your writing, research your topic, and spend time with your application. Seasoned reviewers can detect whether or not an application has been crafted at the last moment.
Attune Yourself with the College
Attuning, or finding your voice, refers to the way you decide to approach the essay. During the process of attunement, you are likely to find your unique voice. There are several ways of seeking attunement. Visiting
the college website is an excellent start. Although every college website is different, most of them follow similar formats and include the academic calendar, student activities, financial aid, faculty, course curriculum, and more. Know your prospective college: research, research, and research some more. Obtain as much information as possible about a prospective college. Understand the mission of the college, and study its programs and focus. Be sure to make a note of any academic preferences and/or limitations. See if your ideas fit within the guidelines of the college. Read through them and get a feel for the school.
When possible, talk with someone in the financial aid college who has a decision-making role or capacity. This gives you a sense of their preferred style of communication. Note whether their style is formal, scientific/
technical, or community oriented.
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