Do people fictionalize their essay often? By how much??
I’m writing an essay with the prompt asking to “Describe an event in your life that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.”
I have NO idea what to write. Should I be writing about a specific event, a moment of an epiphony, or what? ANYONE have ANY suggestions as to what I should do and if it is OK to do something like write about your character using a fictional event??? Any advice would be great.
Thanks.
<p>Just my opinion, but wouldn't writing about your character using a fictionalized event be dishonest, thereby undermining your character? I think that you should think back, events that shape character don't have to be huge. You could talk about comforting a friend who was hurting or a moment while you were volunteering. Moments that shape our lives and character are usually small things that add up to something big. If I were writing the essay I think I would do some soul searching and come up with a true story to write your essay about, but then I'm only a high school senior writing my own applications.</p>
<p>Ha. Good point about the fictionalizing. The only reason why I ask is becuase I was reading a book of successful application essays and a large number of them seem pretty fictionalized, so I was curious as to if that was an acceptable thing to do. Now that I think about, it was a stupid question. The main question that I had was for assistance in what to write about. Thanks for the suggestion. Any more? Thanks.</p>
<p>I'm not even going to go into the dishonesty thing because I think most people at least slightly embellish their essays. The heart of the matter, however, is that the admissions officers are not dumb. If something rings slightly false, they will go with their gut instinct, and put that app you worked so hard on in the garbage, so it is probably better to come up with your own idea. It isn't so much the story you tell as it is HOW you tell it. If it is real and meant something to you, it'll come across stronger than you think to the reader.</p>
<p>I would recommend that you take a true an incident or story or whatever you're going to write about. The truth is that almost everyone writes their essays "based on a true story." That's what good writing is, adding detail that you slightly remember and making it stand out as something important to the reader. Maybe not everyone does it, but I would assume that most people take little true stories and turn them into bigger mostly true essays.</p>
<p>i think it is always better to write what you know because then you can truly pour your heart into it. it can be a simple event but it is the way you write it and how you convey it that's important because that's what make a "wow" essay different from a good essay. i think people want to be wow by your writing style and people's writing style really show through when they are writing something that they are emotional connected it. but then again, it is just my opinion.</p>
<p>I personally would never make up an event on an essay. What I was referring to were essays in the 50 Successful Harvard Essays. A specific example would be an essay that was written by a Harvard student that shifts from the factual event of her working in a deli, to various machines around her coming to life and attacking her. The point of the essay being that she worries that machines are replacing human interraction. The essay's prompt (I believe) was asking for a factual and specific event.</p>
<p>My point being: is it acceptable to use creativity to demonstrate your point through imaginative fiction (not trying at all to pass it off as true)? I suppose it doesn't matter, as I wouldn't either way. Just curious as I read through this book of essays.</p>