by j9robinson | May 3, 2016
Tips and Ideas for Coalition for Access Essay Prompts: The First and Last If you are using the new Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success to apply to college for 2016-17, you first need to check if the college or university you want to attend...
by j9robinson | Jun 21, 2013
College Application Essays A Mini-Lesson from a Storytelling Pro I found this brilliant little example of how to understand what makes up a good story today in a column written by the talented sportswriter and journalist named Tommy Tomlinson. If you are...
by j9robinson | May 8, 2009
Roy Peter Clark was a famous writing coach when newspapers started directing their reporters to tell the news through a story-telling format in the late 70s and 80s, a genre called New Journalism and made famous by Tom Wolfe. (The main difference between New...
by j9robinson | Jul 27, 2008
One of the best ways to write about yourself is to start with a little story, also known as an anecdote. Not only are these mini-stories compelling and natural “grabbers,” they are an excellent way to “show” the reader about yourself instead of...
by j9robinson | Sep 12, 2015
Go Deep to Reveal Your Intellectual Vitality! When writing narrative-style college application essays, I advise students to start by sharing a real-life story that illustrates one of their defining qualities or characteristics. Once a student shares a real-life...
by j9robinson | Jun 10, 2015
The Best Way to “Show” in Your College App Essay When I started as a young reporter at my first newspaper job in Illinois, I was assigned to cover a half dozen small farm towns. I didn’t think much would happen out there. But after about a month,...
by j9robinson | Jun 7, 2013
College Application Essays: What They Mean When They Ask for a Story Most students have never written narrative essays, which are so different from most essays taught in English classes. The classic 5-paragraph essay has a formal style, uses the third person, includes...
by j9robinson | Jun 14, 2010
In my last post, I talked about how to ditch the 5-paragraph essay by switching to the “show and tell” approach. For you visual learners, I put together a simple outline of each so you can see the difference. Read more about how to Show and Tell to write a...
by j9robinson | May 10, 2016
Find help for writing your personal statement essay for The Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success application (new this year!). There are five prompts to choose from, including the fifth, which is “Topic of Choice.” Read more about the required...
by j9robinson | May 10, 2016
You Believe That? Coalition for Access Essay Prompt 3: Has there been a time when you’ve had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged? How did you respond? How did the challenge affect your beliefs? So you need to write your core essay for the new Coalition for...
