WRITING TIPS FOR THE COLLEGE COMMON APP ESSAY
WRITING TIPS FOR THE COLLEGE COMMON APP ESSAY
How to Make Your Essay Stand Out and Get into the College of Your Choice
I’ve taught college essay writing now for over 15 years, in collaboration with area schools, at writing conferences, in one-on-one sessions, and through District Writers’ Academy’s own virtual College Essay Bootcamp.
If I could give one piece of advice to rising seniors about their essay, it would be this: Focus more on how you write than on what you write about.
This is not to downplay the importance of topic selection. We do a rigorous topic brainstorming session in our College Essay Bootcamp, and there are certainly better, and worse, topics, as well as topics that are hackneyed or inappropriate. Yet, year after year I see students place inordinate stress on what to write, cycling through various possibilities, polling friends, families, teachers, changing their mind, returning to their original choice, scratching it again, failing to realize that most (see caveat above) topics have extraordinary potential if they are written well.
Like a professional musician friend once told me: he doesn’t have to spend a lot of money on a guitar; he can make any guitar sound good! The same little secret applies to writers: In the hands of a good writer, any scenario, any topic, any situation can be brought to life in a vivid, meaningful way.
To demonstrate this, I love to have students look through websites of “Essays that Worked” posted by some colleges and universities every year (My go-tos are Johns Hopkins and Connecticut College, as they give a range of perspectives from large university and small liberal arts college admission counselors). There, students find all kinds of oddball topics: cooking a family recipe, playing board games, growing strawberries in a locker, along with the more expected essays that explore academic and career passions. My own students got top raves (and top admittances) for essays about opening doors, reviewing home movies, the challenges of being a twin.
What I hope this shows students is that the success of their essay depends only a small part on topic choice. More important is their approach: Are they writing engagingly, in a way that makes their story relatable, moving, humorful, insightful, captivating? Do their introduction and structure draw the reader in and keep them? Does their use of language create a tone of confidence, competence, and authenticity?
Writing Tips That Will Make Your Essay Stand Out
Below I’ve compiled my list of top writing tips from our College Essay Bootcamp that help students bring their college essays to life. And here’s the thing: these writing skills are crucial not just for the personal essay, they are the foundation of all good writing, and will help students in college and beyond, which is why I love to teach them.
- Write where the energy is. People write best when they are invested. Writing comes alive, energy springs off the page when it has the passion of the writer behind it. For this, there is no substitute. So, when it comes to topic selection, all other things being equal, I encourage writers to write the topic where they have most to say, the topic that makes the light come on in their eyes, where they perk up. Go there. Write that story.
- Write vividly and specifically. This is the crux of any good writing and especially the personal essay. Specificity is key: The more precise the description, the more you have your readers eating out of the palm of your hand. What color was the swimsuit that wouldn’t stay up? Bright red? Tell us. What was the name of the sports team your twin loved, that you rooted against, just to get his goat? Name them. It was hard hiking up that mountain? Tell us about your blisters. Detail is the staple of all good stories: It creates intimacy with the reader, putting them in our world. It conveys mastery of language, signaling a strong and confident writer who knows their material.
- Start Strong. Having a good hook is like having a firm handshake. You won’t get another chance to make a strong first impression. Start with a vivid description, an anecdote, or a snippet of dialogue. Don’t overdo it or be melodramatic, but do think about putting your reader into the scene with the first sentence, so they will connect. Try a few different introduction strategies and start where you have the most energy.
- Work in stories.Learning how to weave narrative into your essay is key. To do that, you need to know how to expand and compress stories. A story can be as long as the whole essay, or as short as six words. It can take up a whole paragraph or only one sentence. Which anecdotes are your major examples, requiring a paragraph or more? Which ones could you compress into one or two sentences to provide an emphatic counterpoint?
- Succinctness: The best thing about writing the Common App essay is that it is short—650 words short, almost alarmingly short for first-time writers! To fit it all in, you must write concisely, which is the same as writing well. Learn to recognize your subtle repetitions, to identify language constructions (abstract nouns, passive voice, empty subjects) that take up precious word counts and don’t deliver energy. Focus on dynamic verbs, concrete nouns. Honing the essay and learning these writing and editing skills will take you to another level of writing that will serve you well over a lifetime- it is worth investing in.
More Resources
If you or your child is working on a preparing a college application essay, and would like help or more information about any of these skills, here some resources available for them. We would love to welcome them into our community of young writers!
College Essay Bootcamp: From August 18-21, we will run our final College Essay Summer Bootcamp (Session II) of the summer. This eight-hour workshop is designed to teach the skills listed above, while guiding your students through the process of drafting their essay. It’s a fun, interactive and efficient way to get through the process and learn something at the same time! Please click here to enroll or email us for more information.
Individual Mentoring: Through one-on-one sessions we can work your students through. the essay process, teaching the skills described above, focusing particularly on the areas that your child needs help and ensuring that they emerge from the process with a solid first draft. Email for more information.
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