BRIGHT MINDS BUDDY

It's Your Process Know thyself (Ancient Greek) Show different sides of yourself Don't "work" on essays all the time Hooks: Short sentences, sometimes a single sentence paragraph, a quote, a line of dialogue, an unusual word, a question, a surprise. Don't make me worry about you You need helpers

Use the third person with caution While essays should have some structure, you do not HAVE to have a formal introduction and closing paragraph but should have a flow Avoid : Writing About Others: The person I look up to most in my life is my father. started humbly and built a business using his hard work and creativity. Trying to Impress Admissions: College Board. College Board has 12 letters. 1+2=3. There are 3 sides in the illumin'… Am I getting ahead of myself? Too much thesaurus: exposed to a rather expeditious and exacting situation. Embrace : Your favorite Parts of yourself: In fact, up until middle school the bulk of my day comprised of arguing with my brother about the best cartoon, my obsession with basketball, and looking for new games to play with friends. Reality: I would like to believe that my letters instigated the change, but I know the real stimulus lies elsewhere. Uncertainty: The “perfect” essay doesn’t exist.

Where to start Ideate (word of the day) Journaling Notes Conversations, interviews Free-writing What’s the takeaway? What’s important (to you)?

Organization Time   The Mechanics Excel, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Notes app Prioritize your list: start with your match or reach schools Recycle content CAREFULLY The Philosophy Writing personal essays is nothing but the journey of self-discovery Writing is a permanent form for organizing content, creating something brand new and communicating-it’s not thinking or talking (but can benefit from both!) Brainstorming, drafting, writing, editing & revising are distinct processes

School-Specific Essays Tips: Colleges are seeking best-fit students. Their essay prompts often reflect the colleges’ missions or cultures. How you connect to the prompts helps admission folks assess your fit with their college’s mission or culture.

Be sure you are answering the question Keep the “I”s to a minimum and try to use developed sentence structures Example: I would like to use this essay to tell you about a time I demonstrated leadership experience. I was the captain of my school’s football team. Example: Wearing shorts after an eternity of hiding felt like hearing my voice, only this time, not muffled by water. Growing up scarcely hearing girls around me speak up, I learned to keep my words contained within the lines of my books. This seemed feasible until I realized that if I don’t claim myself, someone else will.

  Plan Ahead Everyone’s process for writing a story is different. Embrace that difference Writing skills take time to build Take writing assignments seriously and read to help exercise that muscle Check for individual institutional writing requirements in advance Some schools may have multiple writing requirements in the form of essays or short answers Plan for at least one round of edits *This includes giving your counselors and essay reviewers time to review essays