THE COLLEGE ESSAY: SHOOTING YOUR OWN FOOT? Expository Writing

Shooting Yourself in the Foot  A Phony Life-Changing Experience – Have you ever been a different person since the day you lost the big game while learning a valuable lesson?  Doubtful. An admissions officer wont buy it!  Making Everything Peachy Keen – Avoid telling how you encountered a problem, found a solution, and lived happily ever after.  Self-congratulation does not play well in an essay, and neither does the superficial sense that everything works out in the end.

Shooting Yourself in the Foot  Social Problem of the Year Bandwagon – Remember Hurricane Katrina? Want to guess how many essays were written that year about responding to disasters and taking care of refugees?  Don’t touch global warming or similar topics with a ten-foot pole. Don’t write about an issue that everybody is else is talking about.  Melodrama – Straining for the dramatic always ends badly.  Do so, and you’ll get something like, “the last gleaming rays of the sun bathed the field in a soft orange glow as we strode confidently from the huddle to begin the fourth quarter.”

Shooting Yourself in the Foot  Quoting Pop Lyrics – What sounds profound on your iPod may seem silly or trite in an essay.  Bob Dylan, Boxcar Willy or something similarly out of the ordinary – okay. Rebecca Black – do I even have to say it.  Edit, Edit, Edit. From main idea to weak verbs, edit your work.  P.S. Don’t trust spell check!

The College Essay Fiske, Edward and Hammond, Bruce. Real College Essays That Work. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, Print.