I know I’m cutting it really close to the deadline, but I’d like some input on whether or not this idea for UC Prompt #1 (Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.) is a solid idea.
After reading up on several sites on how to go about doing this, I’m leaning towards the idea of writing about my “world” of graphic design. I’ve been toying around with Photoshop ever since 8th grade, and since then I’ve moved on to Adobe Illustrator, designing anything from T-shirts to cover photos to club logos. People ask me all the time to design things for them and their respective clubs, and my senior year I had been appointed as ASB Historian. Now I design school merchandise and flyers for school events at the school’s discretion, all the while designing things for other people. Since my intended major has next to nothing to do with graphic design or art in general, I’d like to focus my essay on what lessons I’ve learned from being a graphic designer: determination, attention to detail, appreciation of simplicity, and ability to receive criticism to name a few. Does this essay-in-a-nutshell answer the prompt? Any suggestions are appreciated! (-:
Ok, take everything I say here with a grain of salt.
Your supposed story of graphic design is nice and all but I don’t feel as if it fits at all to prompt #1. I think it would fit much more into prompt #2. Being said that, even if you wrote that essay for prompt #1, you would still need to explain why graphic design is so significant to your life, not just the qualities that you have gained from it and why graphic design has influenced your dreams.
I agree! Graphic design was a topic I had considered for prompt #2, but I ended up going in a different direction on that essay. Would you suggest maybe describing a SETTING I did my work? For example, I like to do all my graphic design on the kitchen table, headphones in and eyes glued to the screen amidst all the stuff that goes on in the kitchen on a regular basis. Would this be a unique take on the idea?
If you really feel that you want to write about graphic design more than other topics (family, your origins etc…), I say go for it. However, make sure your essay is relatively on the main topic (yourself, not graphic design) and don’t forget to write about how graphic design has shaped your aspirations.
Again, I could see another problem about how you choose to write your essay. Make sure to include much more than just you sitting at a kitchen table with a laptop in front of you. Highlight the experiences that you had all the way back from the 8th grade to where you are today.
I feel as if this essay has some risks into It and I cannot really find out which kind it is either. Being said that, I think this essay has much more potential than the average immigrant or sob story essay if portrayed correctly and effectively.
This sounds like it would answer Prompt #2 more effectively than it would Prompt #1. I think you could definitely make it work if you talked a bit about how your family/community/surroundings influenced you or brought you into the world of graphic design.
This essay would be much more compelling if you were looking at a career or major with some connection to graphic design. Or if graphic design ‘fed your soul’ in some deep and meaningful way or shaped the way you look at your world. As a ‘I have this hobby and this is what I learned from it (while sitting at the kitchen table)’ essay, it lacks power.