College Application Essay Examples Admission Essay Topics

College Application Essay Examples Admission Essay Topics I don’t want you to make the mistake of just “getting by” through school, waiting desperately for summer breaks and, eventually, graduation. The thing I regret most about high school and college is that I treated it like something Ihadto do rather than something Iwantedto do. However, within those guidelines, find room to express something that is uniquely you. Stop trying to write a good essay (or even a “good-enough” essay). Instead, write aninterestingessay, write an essay you think is fascinating. And when you’re finished, go back and edit it until it’s “good” according to your teacher’s standards. That means that the best essays are about surprise, “You probably think it’s one way, but in reality, you should think of it this other way.” See tip #3 for more on this. Every story is about conflict and change, and the truth is that essays are about conflict and change, too! The difference is that in an essay, the conflict is between different ideas, the change is in the way we should perceive those ideas. Yes, you need to follow the guidelines in your assignment. If your teacher tells you to write a five-paragraph essay, then write a five-paragraph essay! Then, when you edit, you can make sure everything lines up correctly. In college, I discovered a trick that helped me go from a B-average student to an A-student, but before I explain how it works, let me warn you. This technique ispowerful, but it might not work for all teachers or professors. As you research your essay topic, search for this story of surprise, and don’t start writing until you can find it. You don’t have to stay in one place and write from beginning to end. Give yourself the freedom to write as if you’re circling around your topic rather than making a single, straightforward argument. It’s a great way to organize thoughts and determine the order in which you’ll represent them to readers. So, make a list of the sections in your paper and fill in the corresponding example, depending on your essay type. Restate your thesis and write a concluding statement, aka a sentence addressing the importance of your thesis and proposing solutions to the problem you addressed in the essay. For all others, start with outlining your introduction. Write a sentence about your topic and introduce your thesis. You can also mention an essay hook here â€" a sentence you’ll use to make the audience interested in reading your work. More than that, professors may ask you to submit an essay outline for their review. That’s why the skills of planning your papers will come in handy anyway. Templates can help you get a better idea of essay outlining. Every once in a while, I would write a really good essay, but mostly I skated by with B’s and A-minuses. As far as you write an essay outline for yourself , feel free to organize it accordingly. If you are going to describe all 23 constellations in detail , feel free to add each to your essay outline. If you are going to write about all 23 in general, with no details to each, there will be no need to add all those A, B, C, D, F… for every constellation to your essay outline. Each essay needs Introduction, Body , and Conclusion; so, a general format of your essay outline will include all these components. An essay outline is a plan of your academic paper, where you structurize it and organize the main points into paragraphs so it would be easier for you to write an essay. The final body paragraph is the fourth part of the five-paragraph essay, and this section should present your weakest argument in support of your thesis statement. Although this may be your weakest argument, do not suggest this in the essay or overcompensate by providing too many examples; structure it in the same way you did the previous two body paragraphs. End the third body paragraph with a concluding statement that makes it obvious to the reader that this is the final major point you will make. Here you’ll mention the topic of your essay and its thesis. As you know, essays can’t live without a thesis; so, a thesis statement in your outline will help you support it in each paragraph of your essay body. When outlining your essay, keep them in mind so you wouldn’t miss any arguments, evidence, and examples while writing. While college essay types are many, the common structure for most of them is five-paragraph.