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today we're going to talk about how to select an essay topic and how to start
writing your essay
many of you have heard of and need to
start thinking about your personal statement
and hopefully you have used my Personal Statement Blueprint...it will really help you write your essay.
For those of you who haven't, I'm going to give you a quick overview...
A great way to start thinking about your essay
is to start thinking about adjectives or personality traits that you want
admissions office to know about you
to do this I have my seniors
pick five adjectives that they think describe them best
write them down
then I have them ask their best guy friend
and have that guy friend, give, write down, or text the
five adjectives that he thinks describes that person
then I want them to ask their best girlfriend. The girlfriend needs to write five adjectives that
she thinks describes you best.
Then lastly, I want you to ask a family member who knows you best and ask that
person he/she
to give you five adjectives that he or she thinks describes you best
they will have a total of
20 adjectives. Now a lot of those will be synonyms
a lot of them will just be repeats. So, I want you to cross off the repeats and group the synonyms
and start looking at your arrangement of adjectives
and think about an anecdote
where you show that personality trait.
remember we don't want to write an essay that tells the reader who you are
anyone can do that you want your essay to show the reader who you are
so you are going to use this essay to show one of these personality traits
now some applications have two essays, three essays, so you can show a few personality traits
but, for the ones that just have that one personal statement,
really sit down and think about the main personality trait
that you can't show from your resume or transcript or your application something
that makes you seem more three-dimensional what is that
personality trait if maybe that college doesn't have a chance to give you an
interview
what do you want them to know about you? That is where we should start
thinking and start brainstorming about an anecdote to show that personality trait.