You have created some material and received a response to your initial search for material with which to address the question you are working on. Now you are ready to dig deeper and then write a formal version of your experience. Here are the steps to creating an essay that sounds like you, but delves deeper than you can in a conversation; in other words, that does the querying we expect from good writing.
Write an Outline of the Essay You See Shaping Up
Where does the essay start? What information must the middle have to properly fill the reader in? What is the discovery that leads to the ending? In following the outline form, which requires we have no I without a II, no A without a B, no 1 without a 2, and no a) without a b), you will push yourself to fill in the details.
One way to warm up to doing your outline is to make one for an essay you have read and liked. This also allows you to figure out which question you have strong material for answering. To do this, read the essay closely and outline its beginning, middle, and end.
I have been collecting copies of student application essays for years and often request permission to share these essays anonymously with the students I am teaching. Here are examples from the applications of three high school seniors who have agreed to allow the reprinting of their work.
This first essay is written in answer to a college specific question about how you have used your education to date to good advantage:
Hello. Hola. Privet. I am proud to be able to greet you in three languages. I came to this country from Tashkent, Uzbekistan as a nine-year-old. One year later at the end of fourth grade, I was fluent in English. Now, I am on my way to fluency and proficiency in Spanish. Being multilingual in Slavic, Germanic and Latin languages familiarizes me with diverse cultures, opening my mind and allowing me to gain insight into the world.
I continue to speak Russian with family members and friends and read Russian books; I attend Russian theatre productions, ballets, plays, and community events to retain my connection to my roots. I have taken four years of Spanish, going beyond the minimum high school requirement, and I still rush to my Spanish classes eager to gain a new piece of the Spanish language puzzle. I have learned from four different instructors and understand the diversity of the language. I regularly read Spanish books and do Spanish book reports and have made a short movie with Spanish dialogue. I visit museums to learn about the Latin culture.
In college, I plan to continue my Spanish studies and participate in a year abroad program in Spain to better comprehend the culture and become absolutely fluent in the language. Furthermore, I will study French because the culture’s extensive and dynamic history of rulers, such as Louis XIV, and engaging authors, such as Alexander Dumas, fascinates me. By learning the language, I know I will better appreciate the culture and add even further to my interpretative skills, creating a solid foundation for my career in communication and international and political affairs.
Here’s an outline that suggests the method of organization for this essay:
- Show lingual ability and where it came from.
- Home country
- Talking with native speakers at home
- Current and future school studies
- four instructors
- read books in foreign language and write book reports
- made a movie with dialog
- visit museums
- plan on more courses and studies abroad
- Better fluency
- Better understanding of culture
- Better interpretive skills
Making an outline of an essay that works for you provides a short cut for you to create one for writing on your own topic and being able to zero in on what details are important. Too often in short essays, writers think they have to summarize and generalize, when well-chosen details do more to show who the speaker is and how he or she will add to the class and become a credit to the school.
Think of the ways you have utilized your education. Which of the ways is most important to you? See what happens when you attempt an essay from an outline similar to the one presented here. Even if you don’t have to answer the particular question this outline addresses, you will get some experience going on the “write” track before you tackle longer essays.
Thanks for joining us as we continue with Staying Sane through the College Essay Writing Process, an ongoing series that offers college applicants and their parents advice on how to stay on track for completing Ivy-worthy essays…without flying off the handle. We hope you enjoyed this next part of the series, and STAY SANE!
By Sheila Bender, former Accepted.com editor and founder of Writing it Real, a “community and resource center for writing from personal experience.”