Sample College Application Essays as Guide Materials for Writing Your Own Essay
Basically, an essay is putting your thoughts into writing, by collecting various information, organizing them in your thoughts, and eventually jotting them down on a piece of paper. An essay may take on different purposes, but the basic structure never changes. It’s always the same. You may write an essay to simply state some facts or share information or knowledge, explain the necessary steps for a particular procedure, persuade and convince your reader to agree with you on a particular viewpoint, or simply raise opinions from your reader. Whatever your reason for writing an essay, it all boils down to the same thing, that you are going to write something and write it using the most effective way that you can.
Steps in writing an essay
Before starting to write, you have to first decide on your topic, and contemplate on how you are going to introduce this topic. Write your thesis statement and then, based on the information you’ve previously gathered, give some supporting information or backgrounder to establish your main idea. You should also support this main idea with relevant information, while following the correct paragraph format. This part comprises the body of your essay, so you have to make the content as informative and engaging as possible. One good tip to follow is to avoid using long words or words that are more than three syllables. If you use shorter words, readers would feel non-threatened when they read your essay. Focus and never ever stray away from your main idea. And support it by providing subpoints from your subheads. The best way to do it is by preparing an outline or skeleton for all your ideas, so as to come up with a focused and well-written essay. But how does one really create an effective essay?
Things to remember when writing your essay
Again, remember to plan what you intend to write. You can do this by dividing your essay into three parts — the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. The introduction part is especially important because if you come up with a weak introduction, the reader may not feel the need to finish your essay. List down all your ideas that will go for each part, at the same time researching for more information to support each section. How much research you need to do will depend on how complicated your topic is, and how much personal knowledge you have of your topic. Furthermore, always bear in mind that, as a writer, you should always keep the reader in mind. Your readers are actually the members of the admissions committee, who will be going through thousands of essays just like yours. So it’s important to come up with an essay that will stand out from the rest.
The title is yet another integral part of an effective and creative essay. As a writer, you should catch the reader’s attention right away when they read your title. Follow it up with an alluring lead, so they will not stop reading before they find out how good your article is. And lead them on some more to the point they look forward to how you are going to end your essay. Add your finishing touches to your essay, and that’s when you give them an ending or conclusion that makes a huge impact on your readers.
There are many sample college essay samples that you can use as a guide before you write your own essay or personal statement. These essays are free and some of them are very well-written, so they can be used as effective resources.
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How Sample College Application Essays Can Help You Add Depth to Your Own Essay
Many college applicants feel stressed out when they are asked by the school they’re applying to to write their own personal statements. Imagine: writing personal things about you; divulging personal things to people unknown to you; to be critiqued by people who will judge if you are worthy of the slot you’re vying for, or if that slot is better off given to the “more worthy applicants.” That really is something to rack your nerves!
Organize your thoughts
The objective of writing a personal essay is to allow the selection committee to get a glimpse of how you think and how you are as a person. That is why it is important that, before you start writing, you have to organize your thoughts and plan, so as to market yourself as one of their best applicants. Introduce yourself such as stating briefly who you really are, what you want to be in the future, what experiences you’ve gone through, and how you made them work for you. Follow up by specifying your goals, long-term and short-term, and emphasize your academic values and experiences.
Check out for “depth”
Once you have jotted down your thoughts on paper, check out for “depth.” Remember, this is the one thing that will always reveal how good you are as an applicant. Your writing may be gramatically perfect without any spelling errors and it may be insightful but lacks specificity or depth, then it only shows what kind of person you really are. Don’t forget to use subtopics. These will help you present your ideas in a more systematic manner, and therefore give your writing material more depth.
As you present your ideas, make sure you also have “breadth,” wherein you completely cover your main topic. However, it doesn’t stop there, because your readers will also check for depth. So, the best way to handle this is, before wrapping up your writing, check it again. If after re-reading it many times over, and you’re convinced that your readers will not give comments such as “please elaborate” or “cite some more examples to enlighten us,” then you have successfully written an effective article. But should you still need to add some more depth to your essay, simply cite authors, list facts, and give examples. There are many sample college application essays that you can read for free in the Internet. These essays can be used as a guide in writing your own essay that deeply elaborates on the main topic.
Layering arguments for more “depth”
Another way to add more depth to your essay is by trying to not just present your own arguments on the paper, but to attack it by dealing with the opposing side. For example, you can literally oppose the argument or counter-attack the presented argument. You can also counter-argue the counter-argument, and so on, until you reach that maximum depth this layering of arguments can bring to your piece of essay.
Last, try building a longer essay by expanding on your ideas to create depth and end it with a solid conclusion. Instead of flatly saying, “This is the happiest moment of my life,” you can improve the sentence to read, “This is the happiest moment of my life, not because I am now loved, but because I have learned that you have to love yourself first in order to be loved. I have been liberated.” In this case, you do not only expand your essay, but you also give more meaning and clarity. But remember, kick the habit of “padding” your essay with trivial words. It takes a skill to make your essay longer by adding relevant information to create depth.
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How Sample College Application Essays Can Help You Discuss in Your Personal Statement Why You Had to Ask Extra Credits from a Teacher
If you are a student, whether in college or in high school, chances are, you might be required to write an essay for school admission. Since there are so many topics to choose from, you will really have to think hard about an interesting topic before you plunge yourself into writing it. And one theme or topic that would really be good is about “asking for extra credits from your teacher.”
It is a fact that there are countless students all over the world who ask their teachers for extra credits in order to get better grades. So, when you start writing it, make sure you clearly state the main reason why you should want to ask for extra credits from your teacher. If it is simply for the reason that you want to excel in his or her class, or maybe get a grade higher than your peers and classmates, then make it a part of your introduction so your reader will know your main idea of writing the essay. Establish in your essay that you are that type of student who just can’t get satisfied with average grades and that you ask your teachers for extra credits. Elaborate how you go about telling your teacher you are concerned about your grades and, therefore, you are asking for something that goes beyond the minimum requirements. For sure, the admissions committee reading your essay will be impressed with your confidence to discuss such matters with your teacher.
Jotting down your ideas
As a student, understand that your written personal statement has a big bearing on your application. It is where you can sell yourself as a potential candidate, so you better make your essay really interesting and coherently written.
As a general rule in writing, begin by jotting down several ideas from your head. You can start by discussing the reasons for choosing that particular topic, such as asking for extra credit from your high school teacher or professor. You may also elaborate the possible effects of this on students competition for college admissions in the future. Of course, the school admissions committee always puts great value on persistence, so you can highlight this as one of your attributes which can usher you to reach your goals in life. Furthermore, it will pay to highlight your leadership ability, volunteering to be a spokesman for the class.
Providing details for depth
These are the main things to start with in writing yor own essay, or you can further provide more relevant details to add depth to your essay and make it more convincing to the admissions panel. Many students have trouble writing, but the key to writing is jot down notes from your ideas, organize the written thoughts, and create subpoints to add depth or specificity in your writing, as these are the main ingredients of a good essay. And last, make sure you answer the predicted questions of the admissions committee, which is whether they want you on the particluar course you’re applying for, or whether they want you to be a part of their university or not. If you keep all these points in mind, then you’ll never go wrong.
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