Common Writing Assignments

Common Writing Assignments Be genuine to your own voice and to your own experiences. There’s only one you out there and that’s who we want to learn more about. Opening with a definition, like “Persistence is defined as…,” will probably not be a strong start. Please email us at find out if your institution is doing everything it can to reach qualified, prospective students. The My College Options ® Resource Center provides up to date news and information for students and parents. Contact us for your free 15-minute phone consultation with Dr. Kristen Willmott to discuss your graduate school plans and our graduate admissions consulting programs. You might not have enough space to tell your entire life story, but if you focus on a couple of examples, it can make your essay vivid and make it come to life. Take the prompt of each essay and break down its parts. Think about why an admissions official would ask this and what they are hoping to learn about you that makes you a good fit for their institution. Next, pair personal stories or experiences that illustrate your answers. Organize your thesis along with these anecdotes, in bullet-point format, into a clear beginning, middle, and end. Another element in my desire to devote my life to service to humanity was my parents’ divorce. Because I believe that this is valuable preparation for college and, beyond, life. At college, for instance, one is liable to find yourself living in a situation in which people don’t get along, especially in bathrooms. Bathrooms are in that sense a microcosm of the macrocosm. Your reader doesn’t need you to define words, they need you to tell a story that will help them learn all about you. If your essay is about persistence, explain how you personified that trait. Use your available space to give the necessary details. Kennedy once said…” is already on the wrong track. Today it is The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, already worn and slightly crumpled. They say the best books tell you what you already know, resonating with your own thoughts and emotions. As I read, it is as if the tempest of my thoughts is spelled out on paper. The overflowing sense of hyper-reality in Tim O’Brien’s words of warfare spills into my world. His words somehow become my words, his memories become my memories. Despite the high speed of the bullet train, my mind is perfectly still â€" trapped between the narrative of the book and the narrative of my own life. Not what your college consultant has to say, not what your mom wants you to write, and not what you think we want to hear. Unless the quote was actually directed at you, your reader cares a lot more about what you have to say than they do about any famous person’s pithy words. Imagine you were telling a friend a story about life as a pitcher on the baseball team. Bathrooms also can be a truly dramatic crucible, as the playright Arthur Miller has demonstrated in his dramaturgical magnum opus by that title. Okay, maybe I’m overreacting â€" but I cannot for the life of me understand that award. You wouldn’t start with, “Often in life, we face difficult situations that ultimately benefit us. While we may not see it at the time…” You’d lose the person’s interest before you ever get to the good stuff. Here are five ways not to open your essay,in other words, what's more likely to lose a reader’s interest. They’re competing for an admissions officer’s attention, and you don’t want to lose your reader before your story ever really gets going. While considering your anecdotes, focus on specific details and really flesh out the scene. “Most Original” always let me down, and as a result, I hated to be original in any context. In my hometown of New Haven, Connecticut, where normality was…well, the norm, I tried to be a typical student â€" absolutely, perfectly normal. I blended into crowds, the definition of typical. I became a person who refused to surprise people. Unsettled, I turn to my ever-present book for comfort.