My favorite color is red, well, maybe…
It is hard to write about yourself. The college essay often asks you to describe who you are, and what is most important to you. Those are tough questions, for anyone.
It’s like someone asking you to pick your favorite color. Maybe you really like red, but not all shades of red. And even though you like it a lot, you also have other colors you really love. So how do you answer? “I think I like red, sometimes, don’t you?” No. Way too wishy-washy. Instead, make the statement as though it were the truth. “My favorite color is red.” Then, if you need to, you can qualify your statement later.
When you write these personal essays, you need to write with authority. Even though you might have huge doubts or uncertainly about your answers (life is gray!), you must assert yourself and your opinions with confidence.
The trick is to use strong, simple statements. Natalie Goldberg, author of “Writing Down the Bones,” describes it this way:
“The world isn’t always black and white. A person may not be sure if she can go some place, but it is important, especially for a beginning writer, to make clear, assertive statements. ‘This is good.’ ‘It was a blue horse.’ Not “Well, I know it sounds funny, but I think perhaps it was a blue horse.’ Making statements is practice in trusting your own mind, in learning to stand up with your thoughts.”
TIP: One way to strengthen your writing is to avoid “indefinite modifiers,” such as perhaps, maybe, somehow, almost, really, very, etc.
How to Show and Tell your Story
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 just “telling” them. (Want to learn how to “show” your reader what sets you apart from the pack, and write in a narrative, or story-telling, style? Read THIS.)
So let’s assume you have chosen your story. (Click HERE to find great story topics!) Now, where do you start? Make sure the beginning has the most interesting, dramatic, compelling part of the story–otherwise you won’t hook your reader. It is quite common to “bury your lead,” that is, have the best part of your story, the highlight, the drama, the irony, etc., too far down in the narrative. If this is the case, just bring it up–and background it later.
Start your story at the best part, even if it happened in the middle. Start with the good stuff, the action, the impact, the peak of the problem, the punch of the moment, whatever has the most “juice.” Usually, you will only describe “a time” or moment that only lasted a few minutes. Often, this incident also will reflect on your larger message–that’s why it has that “juice.”
If you start in the middle of your story, and describe the highlight, you just need to quickly take your reader back to the beginning of your story in the following paragraph. You always want to go back and start at the beginning because that’s the most natural way to tell a story: chronologically. That way, you also end at the end, so writing your conclusion is natural and simple.
Read some sample essays that tell stories and note where the writer starts her or his story, and study how the narrative was handled. If you want more help on writing a mini-story or anecdote, read THIS POST on how to write an anecdote. If you need help getting started with your college admission essay, try my Jumpstart Guide.
More on “Show, Don’t Tell”
I remember wanting to improve my writing in high school, and feeling frustrated by all the “tips” in the popular how-to-write books: “Be concise,” “Use action verbs,” and the all-popular, “Show, don’t tell.”
OK, but how do I write better?
Later, I came upon one writing book that made a little more sense, called “Writing Down the Bones,” by Natalie Goldberg.
Here is what she said about “Show, don’t tell,” that helped me:
“‘Don’t tell, but show.’ What does this actually mean? It means don’t tell us about anger (or any of those big words like honesty, truth, hate, love, sorrow, life, justice, etc.); show us what made you angry. We will read it and feel angry. Don’t tell readers what to feel. Show them the situation, and that feeling will awaken in them.”
And she goes on: “Some general statements are sometimes very appropriate. Just make sure to back each one with a concrete picture. Even if you are writing an essay, it makes the work so much more lively.”
One great way to “show” readers is to be specific with your writing and use details! I talk about how to be specific when writing your college application essay in this post.
Put yourself behind the camera
A strong college admissions essay often involves creative writing. These essays often tell a story, or use an anecdote (a mini story using narrative writing style) to lead into the piece. Sadly, many high schools and English teachers don’t have a lot of time to teach creative writing, and focus on more conventional essays (such as those that compare works of fiction, you know the ones, where you use theme, diction, etc.) It’s great to learn how to structure those essays, but often students don’t get a chance to explore creative writing.
A great way to try to switch into writing creatively is to think visually. You have probably heard that you should “show, don’t tell,” when trying to describe something, such as a scene or event. So put yourself behind an imaginary video camera, and point it at a past event and simply describe what you see (or saw).
Pretend you are describing it to someone who can’t see it. You can start with a general, sweeping description, but quickly zoom in on the details. Include those 5Ws, who, what, when, where and why. In general, you usually can’t go wrong when you present information in the form of a story. And if you add visual pictures, it will be even better, like a movie.
Don’t forget, once you pound out your story, full of description and action and detail, remember to go back and slice out the words you don’t need. Read it out loud. Does it bog down in spots? Then cut those. At some point, you will like what your hear–and see!
Check out my Jumpstart Guide to help get you started on your college application essay!
Choosing a Topic: a jumpstart
My daughter will be a senior this year, and has started working on her college admissions essays. Like a lot of kids, she has a hard time just getting going–especially in the middle of summer!
We talked about how these essays are supposed to be a student’s “personal introduction” to the college she or he wants to attend. So the key is to make them genuine. (And obviously, answer the question posed in the prompt!)
To do that, though, take some time to explore what is most important to you. Then you can move on to choosing a compelling topic. I typed out a mini-assignment for my daughter to help jump-start the process. See if this works for you:
If you can zero in on something you have done or experienced that illustrates one of your unique qualities as well as explores a subject that means a lot to you, you could have found a strong essay topic.
Nobody’s perfect–and that’s a good thing!
Back to my pal Anne Lamott. Another quality that blocks our ability to jump into a writing assignment is perfectionism. Especially if we are readers, we have very high standards of what we consider good writing.
When it comes to writing those college essays, I think a lot of students already have perfectionist tendencies, which are symptoms of the parent-driven push toward over-achievement.
So listen what Anne has to say about perfection when it comes to writing:
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will leave you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.”
She goes on, “…perfectionism will ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness and playfulness and life force (these are words we are allowed to use in California). Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground–you can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip. Tidiness suggests that something is as good as it’s going to get. Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation, while writing needs to breathe and move.”
So no matter what you are writing, go ahead and get out what you want to say and don’t worry if it’s too sappy, or too wordy, or doesn’t make sense. That is your mess. But at least it’s something to work with. Then you go back and clean it up: edit.
That is a basic process of all writing. In fact, it’s the creative process, whether it’s painting pictures or writing songs.
Back to Anne:
“Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist’s true friend.”
(If you like this stuff so far, maybe just go get her book: Bird by Bird!)
Where to start
One of the biggest obstacles in writing anything, especially “essays,” is getting started.
The other night, I walked into my 15-year-old son’s room where he sat at his desk, very distraught.
He admitted up front that he had blown it. The assignment, to write about homelessness for his human ecology class, was given several weeks ago. But he had been absent and failed to find out what he missed, let alone do the catch up research.
Anyway, the rough draft was due the next day. He said he had just spent the last hour staring at his computer screen, trying to write the introduction. He was totally lost and starting to panic.
I remembered the story that one of my favorite writers, Anne Lamott, said inspired the title for her popular book on writing, Bird by Bird.
She said years ago her younger brother, then 10, was trying to write a report on birds that he had had three months to write. It was due the next day. Her brother was surrounded by books on birds, binder paper, pens and paper, and was totally overwhelmed and close to tears.
Lamott’s dad, a famous writer himself, put his arm around his son and told him, “Just take it bird by bird.”
My son had a similarly overwhelming assignment. How do you get your arms around “homelessness”? The subject fills thousands of books alone! So I gave my son similar advice: Don’t try to take on the whole subject at once. You need to break it down into smaller ideas.
Then plug those into an outline. And never, ever, start with your introduction. You have to know what you are going to say first.
When faced with those open-ended college admissions essay questions–along with the impossible expectation that you define the essence of who you are in 500 words–you probably will experience similar feelings of helplessness, dread and panic.
Just remember: Take a deep breath. Relax. Think “bird by bird.” All you need is a plan!
Learning to write better essays to get into college
My name is Janine Robinson and I am a professional writer, editor and journalist. For the last 20 years, I have reported for top daily newspapers, been the editor for a monthly lifestyle magazine and worked for an Internet company for teachers.
Currently, I am working toward my credential to teach secondary English in California.
I also have two teenagers, both of whom are starting to consider college. My daughter, a junior, has already started taking the standardized tests (including the essays), as well as begun working on her college entrance essays.
In the past couple years, I have taught creative writing classes during the summer, as well as done some private tutoring for Language Arts.
I am planning on offering some informal writing classes/workshops this summer to local teenagers who have started their college quest. One of the classes would focus on writing those dreaded college entrance essays.
I am not a techno whiz, but I thought it might be interesting to start a blog so I can share what I know about writing, as well as what I learn about tips, ideas and inspirational advice on writing college-related essays.
So stay tuned. Maybe if we work together on these essays it won’t have to be so painful!
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