Gut Feelings What’s more New York than a Deli with a botanical name pushing questionable health foods? Well, courtesy of my local deli comes a lesson in writing an authentic and gutsy college essay. In the GARDEN DELI window, a sign reads, “Fresh food all day.” The rub? The poster advertises the least fresh-looking food conceivable. Who you going to trust? It challenges famously. My words or your own (lying) eyes? Some delights cannot be feigned. Writer, take note. Continue Reading …
Integrity
A Writer’s Inheritance: Fake it, then make it
Free-write Faker I follow my own rules for creativity when I’m with my students. When we free write, the law of the land is don’t stop writing no matter what. Because I am used to this physical commitment, rarely does nothing come out. So when my mind careened into a non-verbal ditch at an inopportune moment, in order to stay with the game, I kept on by fake writing. Not faking writing, but writing fake words. Pen still in motion. Rule not broken. Continue Reading …
College Essay Boot Camp: Don’t Give Your Mind a Cramp!
College Essay Boot Camp is all the rage right now: go ahead, Google it. "Boot camp" prevalence implies that your admissions essay, like world domination, is not going to happen if you don't get all militaristic about it. But get this: Essay Intensive brings you a nouveau college essay boot camp model: with us, you figure out ways to respect and maximize what you've already got going on so intensely that you wind up with a product (an essay!) only love could have made. Make love, they say after all, not war. We buy that trade-off. Because the following is not where you thought you'd turn for essay-writing, is it? Continue Reading …
Meet Tim, Our Creative Web Designer
Meet Timothy, our web designer and collaborator, student and (yes) teacher. Meet Timothy: our savvy website designer, Creative Lead at Iron Bound Designs, and participant in Essay Intensive Summer 2013 Workshop. Freshly accepted into RIT, his first choice school, Timothy can also be found levitating (with his laptop). Today, Tim is our featured student (on the blog screen)--not only the awesome invisible force who makes our online presence possible, presentable, professional and...teen-tastic. We love Tim. E.I: What’s your favorite word? Tim: Schadenfreude [He spells it out.] E.I.: When did you learn the word—and how to spell it correctly? Tim: My music teacher—formerly an airline steward! One of his things was vocab in music class. How that makes sense is unknown. E.I.: Why do you love the word? What does it mean? Tim: It sounds nice. Unbastardized German: Taking pleasure in someone else’s pain. Continue Reading …
Grammar As Game-Changer
Risky Statements Supposedly, Martin Luther King Jr. began his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on bits of toilet paper—the only paper he could get in confinement. His need to express his position on peaceful protest, like the need to use the bathroom, was that urgent. This was a personal statement, impeccable in its grammar, that risked his personhood in order to stand up for non-violent resistance as a radical act of love. This mission was why he was alive, and also why he would not be alive for very long. Continue Reading …
On Destiny and Saying YES in Your Essay
In Taoist philosophy, it is understood that each of us is born into the world with a curriculum. This curriculum is a set of challenges and themes and things our souls are here to learn. We do this kind of learning simply by moving through our lives. Just being yourself is following this curriculum. It is said that our souls are a piece of the sky scooped out by the big dipper. Continue Reading …