To write powerful personal essays, make it a habit to use your voice early and often Immersing yourself in reading personal essays is a great way to develop range. The following sample personal essay was written by my former student Awa D. She is a truth-dropping 8th grader at The TEAK Fellowship, where I teach some of NYC's most dazzling public schoolers who are hellbent on shaping their futures through education. After reading Junot Diaz's short story, "How to Date a Brown Girl, (Black Girl, White Girl or Halfie)," the students were prompted to write their own "How To ______" personal essays about something in which they consider themselves an expert or authority. Awa wrote hers about being "that one black girl" at an interview for an NYC private school. She is observant, tough and tender, gentle in person, rigorous in word. Her personal essays have never shied away from the beauty or difficulty of being a person of color. Her family immigrated here from Mali, and she observes us all with special eyes. If you want to know how to help students write awesome personal essays for college admissions, I say: just start them writing personal essays earlier. Teach the hot skills of observation and reflection, and let them practice til their hands, minds and hearts catch fire. If you're looking to help yourself get stronger at writing personal essays, I'd say: pay attention to your life, and write, write, write what you notice, about whatever feels like a little fire under your skin. From Sample Student Personal Essays How To Be That One Black Girl At An Interview--by Awa D. This interview will make you wish you just had fresh box braids done at the local Fatima’s African Salon on 125th and Park Avenue. The itchy scalp, tightly added extensions that you had to take an Advil for, and chatter of 10 African ladies gossiping about the salon across stealing their customers would have all been worth it. But no, you just happen to have cut your hair to a Continue Reading …
Stories
All the things you didn’t read…but need to
Make time to read these! I love when sites I respect go ahead and compile their best-of essays! Why? Because writers need to read. And there is so much good stuff out there, it's easy to miss. Check out the links in this post to bump up your personal essay range, and to see what 2017 dished up that's good to read. And if you're applying to one of these schools whose application deadlines are still looming, maybe one of the essays will inspire a new approach to your supplement. Maybe. Mostly, it's just important to read your face off. Because the work is so good. And so, naturally, you can write your head off. If an idea or thought stream comes to you while reading-- put that essay down and write, write, write. Some Go-To Essays to read for 2017 The "most moving" (does anyone not want to be moved?) essays of 2017 according to Bustle can be found here. Longreads, a great place to learn. Each essay tells you (approximately) how long you'll need to spend reading, and you won't be sad-- can be found here. This one, "Mothering Class" is from Salon's best, which can be found here. Collections you might want to pick up, especially if you're not even sure you like to read essays-- can be found here. (But be awesome and order from local bookseller!) Enjoy, and remember, if holiday season plans aren't leaving you enough time to read, no one can stop you from locking yourself in the bathroom, can they? We'll be reading right with you. Engage! If you have something to say about one of these essays, why not throw your comments on our FB page? Because the point of good writing is to stir us, move us, make us think, feel-- and connect. Want a prompt customized for you from one of these essays? Request that right here. Use the code IREADITNOWHAT in the body of your message to have a free Essay Intensive prompt sent to you-- but be sure to specify which essay you read! And, of course, pass on links to your favorite essays to everyone Continue Reading …
Can’t I write about sports?
No, You can't write about (just) sports Here's why-- if you write about sports, the likelihood of your essay being cliched, or, worse, of you not realizing it's cliched-- is mighty strong. But also, Yes, you can. If you can make a surprising connection while writing about sports, you're golden. Admissions officers will remember you for (most of) the rest of their lives. Example of brilliant sports essay (Hint-- it's not about Sports!) Here's an incredible essay by Natalie Diaz, an amazing poet and thinker and former b-ball champ: She is not writing about basketball-- she is writing about basketball, and. Basketball and _______: violence against Native peoples how Brown bodies are subjugated growing up poor the visceral nature of writing as a body used to being in motion. escape cultural navigation Get it? Sports, And What? If you are hell-bent on writing about sports, I suggest making your list of and's. Consider: Why are you writing about this sport, really? What other story about your life is it helping you tell? Avoid these cliched approaches to sports essays I could recite the following essays in my sleep, because I've read them too many times. So have you. No surprises here. Please don't write these overdone, canned essays-- even if you really mean them. (And I really believe you mean them) "And then I heard my ligament pop and knew my life would never be the same." "I learned that life is like a game and you need to be a team-player!" "We turned in around in the last quarter, and that taught me I could overcome anything!" (Because, actually, that's a premature conclusion! MAYBE you can overcome anything; or maybe you just overcame this.) I believe in being a realist with teenagers. When you step beyond the cliches and the lessons you could have read somewhere else, you learn something more true, and more valuable, about your life and yourself. Get your game-writing on Here's Continue Reading …
A Mother and Daughter Reflect on the Challenges of the College Essay Writing Process
How Can I Help? The College Essay Predicament When Your Parent Is A Writer Some families know they’ll need outside help navigating the college essay, and seek it. Other families have help conveniently located at home-- which you might think is a perk, or wish was your situation. But it's not simple. Here’s one [longer form] revelation of what happens when mom-- writer Anne Anthony-- has the very skills her daughter--Samantha Hess-- needs when crafting her application essay, but their working dynamic becomes an emotional challenge. At the end, we invite you to share your (horror, triumph) stories of parent input. Sara: Thank you both for agreeing to reflect on the college essay experience. I thought it’d be interesting to hear from a mother and daughter who’ve gone through it and offer a perspective (and maybe advice or guidance) to those starting that journey. So, Anne, why don’t you give my readers some background. Anne: I’ve loved to write all my life and value a well-written sentence more than most mothers do. So, my daughter faced a harder critic in me than she would have with a different parent. I’d worked as a technical writer and analyst. Putting together words in the clearest and most effective way-- read, college essay gold!-- was something I did every day. I wonder how my daughter felt about my ‘help’ with her college essays. Too much? Too critical? Samantha: As the daughter of a writer, I always enjoyed reading and writing. English was my favorite subject in high school as it came naturally to me and I excelled at it. I took a lot of pride in my writing. Writing in general is also incredibly personal. Anne: She was good. Maybe that’s why I expected a lot from her. I wanted to make sure anything she submitted would be her best. Sometimes I felt like I pushed too hard, expected too much. Maybe the way we worked together didn’t help. She’d send me drafts by email. I’d mark up the draft with my edits which always appeared in red on the Continue Reading …
Writing Change and Loss
September 11th, a day of tremendous change and loss for so many in NYC and their families. Every year, the old is new again. If you're applying to college now, you were barely born then; or maybe you newly knew how to say plane, tower, fall, fire, help. You didn't know how to deconstruct it, or what it really meant. This terrible catastrophe was emblazoned in American Consciousness-- you were there even if you weren't THERE. That's because all of America was there, vicariously. Everyone knew 9/11 marked a seismic shift in how we thought about our vulnerability, how vulnerable we really are. Memory Challenge Memory is funny that way. Remember when the Challenger Space Shuttle blew up? You were definitely not alive then if you're just applying to college now. I was, though. In my mind, I'm again watching the disaster at blast off happen on TV, the huge TV they wheeled in to our elementary school classroom. On our walls were block-letter ideas of the future-- how we could write more clearly, add more exactly, have dreams, penmanship, and punctuation. Everyone took the same freaked out breath at once, and the sky streaked with grey. A decade and a half later, bodies fleeing and jumping from the sky. God, that third grade teacher, Christie-- (was she?) floating back to earth, detached from ship and smoke. No more report cards. I don't know why I imagined her landing in a pile of old math worksheets and guinea pig pellets, in the yard of some public school somewhere, some school inevitably just like mine, kids pausing their ball games and pulling each others' bright plastic barrettes to go check out the damage. We are still checking out the damage. I figured, with my kid-logic, that her astronaut suit- though burnt-- would provide the necessary extra padding so that she didn't smash onto the concrete, but landed gently. Oh, to be on the earth again, oh that the tallest things fall. After a Big Continue Reading …
The college essay that got me into Brown
I wanted Brown badly I wanted to go to Brown University because all my favorite people from high school went there, many of them writers; I wanted to go to Brown because I knew there students had autonomy over course selection and I was used to picking for myself. I wanted to go to Brown because...it felt like a natural fit. And because I drank the elitist cool-aid, sorta. I didn't exactly approach the process with an open mind, more like a targeted mind that was open to me getting what I wanted most... "I can see myself there!" I said. And so said everyone else. Sometimes, everyone else's predictions for you feel annoying. But it's most annoying-- and probably also most accurate-- to imagine that all of that conviction could be irrelevant. Continue Reading …