How to Write a College Essay
What is the secret to crafting winning college essays? Before we share with you some of the tricks, you should know that everybody can learn how to write a winning college essay. It’s not the ability we are born with, or some “writer gene.” It’s the matter of practice and training your writing skills. “So,” you’ll ask, “how do I write my college essay like a pro?” This guide will definitely answer your question.
Before writing your college student essay, you should answer the three most important questions: “What?” “When?” and “Why?” We’ll view those in more detail below. In the article, you’ll also find a bunch of useful tips for writing a college essay on any subject, of any complexity and size. So, let’s start with looking at the situations you’ll need your essay writing skills the most.
The “What”
What you write in the essay depends on the type and purpose of writing. It can be an SAT essay, application essay, or term essay. Moreover, you’ll be challenged with an essay writing task throughout your studies. There is a slight difference between how to write a college application essay and, say, English literature argumentative essay. We’ll get back to this later.
And now, what will you write about?
Picking the right topic is the key to an effective essay. Sometimes, you’ll have the prompts, like in the case of college application essay topics. Your task is relatively simple — go with the one that relates to you the best. If you have trouble choosing, then brainstorm. Write down the ideas that come to your mind and select the best one.
When composing a great essay, you’ll need to answer a number of additional “what” questions. “What information should I search for?” “What facts do I use?” “What conclusions do I need to make?” Choosing a specific topic and writing it down will help you partially answer those.
The “When”
“When” refers not only to the particular time when you are writing the essay or the deadlines you have to meet. It is more about the topic and its time frame. When did it happen, the incident that you are writing about? Was it long ago or has it happened just recently? What was the context of the situation at the time it occurred? And so on.
When you are writing a personal essay, your task is to engage the reader with your story. You can do it by placing him or her into the scene; to do this, you must create a sense of place and time. When you are doing an argumentative essay, you should refer to the time for the purpose of specificity. The “When” can help your reader determine the consequence of events, their order, and logical connection between them. So, don’t ignore the “when” question, better answer it in the beginning.
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