College Essay #1 Assignment - Henry County Schools



College Essay #1 Assignment Due: October 27, 2015

1. Your first writing assignment this 2nd quarter will be the college essay. Many of you will be asked to submit writing samples and essays with your applications this year. This exercise is a good way for us to address this assignment as well as an opportunity for me to help you with your writing.

2. This essay should be typed and no longer than two pages. Use the proper format for essays as far as margins. You are using MLA formatting. There is a format sheet for all essays on my website. READ IT.

3. The key to writing a good essay for this assignment is to choose one specific experience, relationship, challenge, or obstacle. You must answer the rest of the prompt with specific details that will demonstrate both your ability to write and your maturity. Remember that this is not a narrative of your life up to this point. Develop your essay with specific examples and specific details that will make this memorable experience, relationship, challenge, or obstacle come to life. It is important that your writing reflect you – don’t be too generic – after writing your essay, read it and decide if it could have been written by any in-coming freshman. The reflection should be a valid description of you – not Roget’s Thesaurus nor someone else’s. Write clearly and succinctly and concisely.

Here are some good editing tips taken from The College Application Essay published by The College Board:

1. Remember that good writing has a natural, easy-to-read quality. Keep the language and structure simple, direct, and clear. Don’t try to hide shoddy thinking behind elaborate language. Use the fewest and simplest words possible.

2. Strike a balance between a personal and a formal tone. In a choice between a long, fancy word and a short, simple one, choose the simple word. Avoid the thesaurus, be yourself, and don’t substitute a stuffy style for substance.

3. Remember that your audience is the admissions committee, not the English faculty’s poet-in-residence or chairman of the chemistry department. Be intelligent and knowledgeable, but above all, be yourself.

4. Avoid clichés and sentences that sound good but don’t mean anything. Make every sentence count.

5. Avoid worn-out literary sources. Forget “to thine own self be true.” Over-used quotations, old saws, and familiar maxims will sap the freshness of your performance.

6. Use active verbs and vigorous expressions. Instead of “Due to my parents’ coaxing, I decided to try once more” say “My parents coaxed me to try again.” Instead of “My interest in sports was encouraged by my father” say “My father encouraged my football career.”

7. Avoid empty words and phrases like “really,” “special,” “unique,” “interesting,” “each and every,” and “meaningful.”

8. Avoid vague and predictable conclusions: “I learned a lot,” “I interacted with others different from myself,” “I benefited from the love and support of my family,” “I learned to work with others.”

9. Proofread, proofread, proofread. The essay that began, “If there is one word that can describe me, that word is ‘profectionist,’” did not make a favorable impression on the admissions committee. An admissions reader may not disqualify you for grammatical errors, but why take the chance? Essays are read as an indication of writing skill.

10. Still not sure how to start it? Continue reading-

(Look back at what you learned and see what personal qualities or characteristics you used or developed while dealing with this problem

In your conclusion, discuss how you would/could use these qualities or characteristics, or what you learned, in your future endeavors.

You are telling a story about yourself where you encountered a problem, and it affected you in some way, which you then explain and analyze.

*****The Anecdote (THE END ALL AND BE ALL OF THE PERFECT COLLEGE ESSAY)

If you can write an anecdote, you can write a powerful essay.

Simply, it’s really just a weird word for a little story or animated description of something that happened.

Usually they are very short.

If done well, they make excellent introductions for all essays since they grab the reader’s attention. In essays, an anecdote is an example of a point you want to make that uses a little story or animated description.

Example: You want to make the point in your essay that you are a creative person. So, you write about the time when you were super creative- in class while working on a project, coming up with ideas in a club meeting, etc. You could describe something creative that you made, or you could describe yourself making something interesting. You get the point.

Good luck students!

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