Essay brainstorming/ideas thread

[musisat]

<p>I just thought I would make a thread for people to talk about the process for writing a common app essay, which topics are good choices, etc.</p>

<p>To start off, I think I read somewhere that it is not the best idea to write about "topic of your choice." Does anyone have any opinions?</p>

[weedbythewall]

<p>I would think that it would be best to avoid “topic of your choice” but that might just be me. I’d personally be afraid of getting carried away without an actual prompt to reference. Also there’s always the temptation of using a “canned” essay. </p>

<p>But I’m not really an expert :P</p>

[littlepenguin]

<p>I’m curious to know more about this “topic of your choice” no-no. I never heard about this before, so I went for it :P</p>

[musisat]

<p>I don’t remember where I heard/read this. Now that I think about it more, the topics seem more like suggestions for essays if you’re not sure what to do. It is probably more important to make sure that the essay is in your voice and says something about you.</p>

[digmedia]

<p>No one seems to get that the “topic” doesn’t matter. There is only ONE topic of a college essay, and that is YOU. The prompt only provides a backdrop for your story. What are the ingredients for a successful essay (back to the subject of topics in a minute):</p>

<p>Show, don’t tell… Now that’s easy to say, but what the heck does it mean? It mean you must tell a visual (or other sensory) story. What is the most visual medium that entertains you and draws you into characters? Movies… the ultimate “show, don’t tell” example. Does that mean your essay needs to be a movie script? Not exactly, but it should have some of the elements of a script. You want the audience (the reader) to come away from the essay having felt like they have gotten to know you better (and like what they see).</p>

<p>So what are these elements? The first is character development. That is why so many essay prompts ask you to describe an obstacle or a “bump in the road” or a problem you had to overcome. They don’t care what that problem was… they just want to see the character development, making you a stronger, wiser character. So give them that. SHOW (via “scenes” in which you DESCRIBE the situation and environment) your change from the first of the essay to the last paragraph, which DESCRIBES a scene that SHOWS a stronger you.</p>

<p>There are many other tricks of the trade that movies use to make the characters powerful and memorable.</p>

<p>Now for topics: If you want a personal, powerful, memorable essay, it has to come from one of your personal, powerful memories. Take some time to think back on your life and see which memories pop to the fore. Good memories? Bad memories? If you can find those moments that tested you or led to a stronger, better you, then that will be your topic. You might think these would be somewhat tame memories. After all, you didn’t find a cure for cancer or solve world hunger. But remember, the SPECIFIC TOPIC DOESN’T MATTER. It just needs to SHOW your transition - your story arc - your character development.</p>

<p>Next post will have an example of what I’m talking about, in case you haven’t seen this from me before.</p>

<p>–Robert Cronk, author of [Concise Advice: Jump-Starting Your College Admissions Essays (Second Edition)](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/dp/0974386723”>http://www.amazon.com/dp/0974386723&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

[digmedia]

<p>Now here is the most mundane topic I can think of an example for: a girl who wants to major in art talking about the gift she got from her sister on her 14th birthday. To make matters worse, she didn’t even understand WHY her sister was giving her such a present. However, it turned out that the present changed her and led to her interest in art.</p>

<p>She thought back to that birthday and tried to conjure up the scene visually (and with sounds and smells), which became the first paragraph of the essay:

The fourteen candles were blown out and smoke was rising above the cake. The acrid smell always reminded me of birthdays. As my mom moved the cake away to cut it into pieces for all of my friends, I turned to the pile of presents on the chair next to me. Everyone gathered around as I picked up the first one, the largest, wrapped not in the frilly paper that all the others had, but in a simple tan monochrome wrapping with a frayed cord that had been tied into a bow knot. I noticed that it was from my older sister. My friends laughed at the sound of ripping paper as I hurried to see what it was. I was a little confused when I saw the large sketchpad and the set of pastels and charcoal. What was this and why was my sister giving it to me?

That was the before. Now here’s a trick to writing a good essay: after you have the first paragraph, write the ending paragraph. This is where you want to end up, showing you AFTER the transition. This accomplishes three things. It shows the changed you. It ties back to the beginning (a trick to wrap things up neatly). And it will help you focus your essay. All the middle section has to do is get you from the start to the end.</p>

<p>The writer now wants the end result (last paragraph) to show someone who is an aspiring artist, who wants to major in art, and looks back on that present as having changed her life, so the following is what she wrote.

My sister knew me better than I did. While I was originally disappointed in the gift, it became my closest companion. I can see in that sketchbook my initial evolution as an artist. Each page shows how I developed abilities to sketch not only the world which I could see, but also express the world of emotions inside me. I didn’t know it at the time, but it became the best present I ever received. It gave me a new passion in my life that is only growing stronger.

</p>

<p>So now it’s easier to fill in the “in-between” with FOCUS. Here is the entire essay:

*The fourteen candles were blown out and smoke was rising above the cake. The acrid smell always reminded me of birthdays. As my mom moved the cake away to cut it into pieces for all of my friends, I turned to the pile of presents on the chair next to me. Everyone gathered around as I picked up the first one, the largest, wrapped not in the frilly paper that all the others had, but in a simple tan monochrome wrapping with a frayed cord that had been tied into a bow knot. I noticed that it was from my older sister. My friends laughed at the sound of ripping paper as I hurried to see what it was. I was a little confused when I saw the large sketchpad and the set of pastels and charcoal. What was this and why was my sister giving it to me? </p>

<p>It was almost six months later when I thought of the gift in my closet. I was busily drawing on the cover of my textbook. I pulled out the sketchpad and pastels and opened to the first blank page. The whiteness and the texture of the sheet were much more inviting than the book cover, but I was afraid to start. No matter what I drew would ruin the newness of it all. I put it all away.</p>

<p>Later that afternoon I brought it out again, determined to start something in it, a way of breaking the ice between me and that sketchpad. I still remember the drawing I started, trying to capture the face of an old Barbie doll I had from when I was younger. I was only halfway through when I decided it was horrible and scratched through it with the black charcoal. I turned the page and was met with another white canvas inviting me to try again. Another terrible attempt, but I didn’t scratch it out. Maybe my next one would be better. And I could compare it and see where I needed to improve.</p>

<p>That sketchbook lasted a while, and I needed to go out and buy other ones. My art classes in school took on more meaning and I did get better. But I still treasured that first sketchpad as a documentation of my starting point, no matter how bad those first attempts had been.</p>

<p>My sister knew me better than I did. While I was originally disappointed in the gift, it became my closest companion. I can see in that sketchbook my initial evolution as an artist. Each page shows how I developed abilities to sketch not only the world which I could see, but also express the world of emotions inside me. I didn’t know it at the time, but it became the best present I ever received. It gave me a new passion in my life that is only growing stronger.*

</p>

<p>Works? I think it does. Can you see the transition, the character development, and the stronger person?</p>

<p>–Robert Cronk, author of [Concise Advice: Jump-Starting Your College Admissions Essays (Second Edition)](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/dp/0974386723”>http://www.amazon.com/dp/0974386723&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

[digmedia]

<p>If you have any questions about these, post them here.</p>