<p>Could this be about an author, the act of influencing through a book?</p>
<p>Besides, the point of this prompt is to show insight into the applicant, not the subject, and that could easily be done writing about an author.</p>
<p>Sure. Sounds good.</p>
<p>I’m wondering how much this can be stretched before the essay, no matter how well written, becomes a detriment to my application.</p>
<p>Basically, I wrote a 500 word essay to Harvard roughly following their suggested “books that have affected you” prompt. It’s a great essay that I’d love to reuse… but it focuses more on content of the book and background of me before reading the book, than the author per se.</p>
<p>I don’t want them to think I’m lazy in using another essay (which might be obvious that I did? idk?), and I’m certainly not going to reuse it if it is a bad idea. I’m sure I could come up with <em>something</em> for their dreadfully annoying essay prompts.</p>
<p>I suppose they are not interested in the author. They want to know about you, so rather than talking in detail about the plot or the autnor, your essay should insist on the effect the book had on you</p>
<p>agreed. the point of all these essays are for the admiss. officers to get to know YOU</p>
<p>Could you perhaps write about the protagonist of the novel rather than the author? </p>
<p>The point of the essay might be to learn about you, but that doesn’t give you the freedom to write about whatever you want. Your essay should not be tangential to the topic.</p>
<p>I’ve actually decided on topic 4 instead. To my amazing fortune, I found a lovely quote that fit perfectly with the theme of my essay on the second page of the book.</p>
<p>@glassesarechic
There isn’t a protagonist because this is a non-fiction… well… it’s not a story at least. It’s more a speculative book about the near future, grounded in statistics, etc.
<em>But</em> I think writing about the protagonist is a wonderful idea for someone writing about a book suitable to that method.</p>