10 Tips For Writing A Great College Admission Essay

10 Tips For Writing A Great College Admission Essay Although you may have a million ideas and pieces of information you believe are important, it is imperative that you discern what is most significant to propel your narrative. The envisioning process is both strange and abstract, but crucial to creating a successful outline. Envisioning helps you establish your central narrative that you will focus your essay on, but is actually a bit of a misnomer. One that has worked for many teens is to have them brainstorm 21 fun facts about themselves that most people won’t know about them. Again, I think that this is a place where parents can provide a little support. Sometimes, teens don’t recognize their own unique traits â€" but we do. So, it can help your student if you can throw out some ideas too. Reading has always been my passion and it likely always will. I have done most of my studying up to this point at home, and I believe I am ready to move forward into a new setting. If you need to listen to music to drown out noise, use lyricless music. Ambient electronic and mellow piano are good places to start. Double check that your outline is aligned with the prompt.If it is, proceed with writing your first draft. While it sounds like this is something you do in your mind, it is actually best done on the page. I don’t think it’s a terrible thing to help your teen to edit their essay if they’ll allow it. But, I do think you need to stick to giving feedback related to spelling, punctuation and other grammatical errors. Your teen’s “voice” is the one that needs to come through. Have a few people review it.Once you have completed a draft, ask someone you trust to review your work. Ask them to check for grammatical errors and provide feedback. Remember to limit the number of people who review your essay to one or twoâ€"too many opinions can muddle your voice. When you actually paste your essay into the Common Applicationâ€"read your essay once again and fix any formatting errors that may have occurred in the system. After all your hard work, you don't want careless errors to detract from your message. Try to step away from your essay for a few days between drafts. Understand that just because someone else wrote ten drafts doesn’t mean you should. Repeat the above suggestions as many times as you deem necessary. If it isn’t, identify why not and consider either changing the outline or selecting a different prompt more aligned with your developing story. Don’t trap yourself with the 5 paragraph structure, but do focus on a few central moments in time. And no matter how hard you try, you won’t sound like a teen. Your writing just doesn’t sound like a teen’s writing. You may think it’s better than your teen’s writing and you may be correct. “How I changed and matured in high school” or anything similar. If there is something specific you’d like feedback on, ask for it. Some reviewers may be better equipped to provide feedback on individual aspects of your essay. Turn off your cell phoneâ€"at least your notificationsâ€"and any other distracting technology. There are plenty of online applications that prevent you from being distracted by the internet. For more information about how the classes are run, please read about online classes. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.