<p>self expplanatory, i guess. Help?</p>
<p>My understanding is that many people do that as a “hook” with which to begin their essays. Since application essays do not have to adhere to the formality and technicality of academic papers that one writes in high school, my take is that it is not frowned upon to kick off an essay with a quotation.</p>
<p>However, do note that the use of quotations (which, in its originality, was meant to differentiate the essay and conjure interest in the readers) has become such common practice that, by now, it is viewed (at least by me) as a cliched approach. So just be careful with that.</p>
<p>No, it would probably add some depth to your essay. Whenever I wrote an essay and had it critiqued by my english teacher, it seemed to be encouraged to begin with something “unique”.</p>
<p>^^Actually no, most high school English teachers would want students to “begin and end with their own writing,” rather than borrowing someone else’s words in the form of quotations. But then again, it is College application essays we are talking about, so high school paradigms no longer apply.</p>
<p>I disagree with all of the previous responders and say hell yes, it’s frowned upon. A college essay isn’t about using the words of others, but about your efforts to convey your own emotions through your own insightful words.</p>
<p>Ahh well, but you see many prompts supplied by colleges are in fact quotations, and the instructions for the optional topics are often “Choose a quote like prompts #1~4 and write on it.” Using a quote is not so much “using the words of others” as it is providing a basis for one to reflect, through which one conveys one’s qualities.</p>
<p>It doesn’t say that, it usually says something like “In the spirit of the other prompts” or something to that effect. Every credible book on college essays will say that quotes are a no-no because they’re not legitimately good “turn-ons” for essays. Whatever a writer can come up with on their own will almost always be better than a quote.</p>
<p>I am most glad for not being an author on college essay-writing.</p>
<p>Just saying, I’d trust books by Princeton Review, Barron’s, Fiske, and those “Ex-Admissions Counselors” blogs/books over anyone’s opinions online.</p>
<p>“Whatever a writer can come up with on their own will almost always be better than a quote.”</p>
<p>I’m quoting you here, and I’m using it to start my post (pwned!). Anyways, all jokes aside, this is certainly not true at all. You can not put so much faith in the average student. Yes, good writers can think of good hooks for essays, but poor writers can not do that as easily. </p>
<p>But I do agree with the gist of what you said. Unless a prompt asks to use a quote, or implies the use of a quote, try to think of something creative. Not only are opening quotes becoming somewhat cliche, but they are not always perfectly pertinent, and they are signs of a lazy, unoriginal writer.</p>
<p>I guess to go back and rework my initial statement, I’d say that it’s ‘okayyyyy’ but, depending on where you’re applying to and how high you’re aiming, students will have more creative, enticing hooks that quotes don’t match up so well against. So if you can come up with something better, do try to.</p>
<p>Or just nevermind the damn hook all together. Worked well enough for me.</p>
<p>If you can make it work and tie it into something about YOU, then do so. If you’re just doing it as a lame attempt to be creative, I’d say to think harder :)</p>
<p>Just to be safe, I would avoid it. You never know how the reader will react or what his or her opinion on the matter will be, so take a few extra minutes to find a stronger way to introduce the essay. It’ll be worth it in the end to not have started with a quote, for you won’t be paranoid and constantly asking CCers if you’ll be rejected now because of it…lol</p>
<p>I wouldn’t start off with a quote. It’s so formal…like you are writing a paper for English class.</p>
<p>Like anything else, it depends on how you do it. If it’s a quote you live by or something that you can tie in to say a lot about yourself, go for it. If you’re just trying to sound fancy it’s a waste of space.</p>
<p>Just realized 3Point said the same thing…</p>
<p>Well I disagree that quotes are always bad. Maybe if you start or end your essay with a MLK or Lincoln quote, which would be lame…but if you start with a quote from your friend and go on in the essay to describe what you gained/learned from your friend, it could work well. and if you try to follow “the ten commandments of writing” or something like that, you’ll probably end up with a boring essay.</p>
<p>In the Fiske “real college essays that work,” of the 109 sample essays, only five out of 109 start with a quote. A lot more, maybe a third, start with a quote that is part of dialogue. But I assume you mean opening with a famous quote from literature, for example “My philosophy, like color television, is all there in black and white” --Monty Python.</p>
<p>It most certainly is not frowned upon. Just because you use quotes does not mean that you are not writing about your original ideas; it means that you are using the thoughts of others as a springboard into your own. As a college student, or anyone really, your paper and ideas are best supported by borrowing the credibility of an expert–after all, they have studied the topic probably far more than you have. That said, the object of using quotes is not to skirt the responsibility of being original; good writers and thinkers synthesize ideas from different places to form their own understanding about something. This is how we learn. Use quotes or paraphrase the ideas of others (with proper citation, of course), then sandwich them in how you interpret them, what you get out of them. (Source: I am a Writing Tutor at the University of Oklahoma Honor’s College Writing Center)</p>