BIG IDEA: The best personal statements (this is the type of essay you are writing for your college applications and scholarships) show off your personality and reach out to the reader as if you were sitting in the room having a deep and meaningful conversation about the core essence of who you are. The introduction is an important step in building to that goal. Your intro must engage the reader and compel them forward in your story.
 
How do I “engage and compel” my reader? There are three ways:
 
1. Present a problem that must be solved

• “When I flipped to the last page of the first pre­calculus exam of my junior year, a tornado of numbers smacked me in the face.”
• “As I sat in my chair, I started to shake. It was the nerves. Wiping my hands on my black cotton dress, I stood reluctantly to walk to the bench, suddenly regretting my decision to wear stilettos (the piece didn’t require pedals, and I’d foolishly taken it upon myself to wear fancy footwear accordingly).”
• “Keeping my head down and avoiding eye contact, I tried not to attract attention. Drunken shrieks and moans reverberated through the darkening light of the bus stop, while silhouettes and shadows danced about. My heart pounding, I hoped I would survive the next 40 minutes. I had never seen the homeless at the stop act so deranged. But I had never been there so late.”

 
2. Start with a detailed image that doesn’t at first make any sense

• “The idea that in the morning, LeBron James, somewhere in Ohio, brushes his teeth with the same Crest toothpaste I have sitting by my sink is amazing to me.”
• “Baba opened the door and embraced the dark-featured man on her stoop. His tallness enveloped her, making her short stature almost comically diminutive. She shooed us to the living room, flipping on Crocodile Hunter and pointing firmly at the couch where we were expected to stay. We didn’t sit still there for long.”

 
3. Just start the essay

• “In the back of my closet, amidst winter coats and old family keepsakes, sits the trumpet that once belonged to my great-grandfather, Lawrence Axelson.”
• “The Oath of the Night’s Watch begins with a vow: Night gathers and my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I share more than just a name with one of HBO’s most famous characters; Jon Snow and I share a sense of purpose: a determination to live a principled life of leadership.”

If you are wanting a space and guidance to think through what to write about, how to approach this essay, and feedback on how to take it from good to great, you might be a good fit for our College Essay Workshop. It's an intensive but phenomenally productive two days. We cram the class time full of examples and instruction, then you draft in between sessions, getting high-quality feedback on day 2 from two instructors in a class size with low student numbers. Registration is here (three spots left). 

​Along with time at the lake, a job at Bahama Bucks, and mornings spent sleeping in, the college essay is the often a fixture of summer for rising seniors.  Many students, however, run into a mental wall shortly after starting. What sort of topics are best to write about? How can I make my writing hold the reader’s attention while showcasing the types of qualities that will support a competitive application? How do I keep the essay from sounding braggy?
 
Writing the college essay is often the first time students are confronted with the task of writing a personal narrative. It’s an essay unlike anything they’ve written in school thus far, and if students try to approach it like an essay they would write for English class, there’s a good chance they will submit something rather mediocre. We wanted to start your summer off right by putting together a bunch of FREE resources your student can use to write a compelling personal narrative that strengthens their application instead of dragging it down.
 
What’s a personal narrative?
First, let’s define a personal narrative. A narrative is a fancy literary term for story. Your college essay is a personal story. A well-written personal narrative has focus and uses one story from the student’s life, allowing room or a deep dive so the reader can understand more of the student’s nuances and complexities. 
 
What does a strong personal narrative with focus and complexity look like?
Great question. Example here, and here, and here. Oh, and try this one on for good measure.
 
Ok, so where do I start?
My best advice? Go sit at the top of a mountain for an hour and think about who you are. Want something more practical? Use this values exercise to clarify what matters to you most as a person. There are a couple pieces of advice that if you do nothing else for your college essay I’d want you to do these things:

1. Be yourself, warts and all. We call this authenticity. Think of your favorite novel or movie. Are the characters perfect? Does the plot line have everything go perfectly for them all the time? No! That would make for a terribly boring story. Consider the same with your essay. Life is perfect. None of us is perfect. Don’t pretend to be perfect or manufacture experiences that you believe sound impressive because you will end up annoying your reader. Just be yourself.
2. Write about something the reader can’t otherwise learn about you. Your resume lists your activities, your transcript shows off your smarts, use the essay to be human and connect with the other real human(s) who will be reading your essay.

 
Which prompt do I choose?
Want to hear something crazy? My students don’t write to prompts (at least at first). I tell them to just write me a essay that tells me a story from their lives that teaches me something important about who they are. That’s it. That’s the heart and soul of the personal narrative anyway. Don’t limit your thinking by introducing a prompt prematurely. Also ignore word counts until the editing phase.
 
Once the first draft is done, then go back and see which prompt it best aligns with from the Common App and Apply Texas.
 
Just write
Struggling? Just write. Put pen to paper or fingers to keys or even voice to recorder if you think aloud like I do and let the story flow, perhaps in a stream-of-consciousness the first time to see what’s there, perhaps in something a little more formed, but either way, just write.
 
Ready to edit? Great. We have some handouts.
First, see if the topic of your essay is falling into one of the categories for things we suggest not to write about. There are exceptions to this, but most students are well-advised to steer clear of the things listed here.
 
Here are some suggestions on how to turn good writing into great writing. This handout was put together by Wendy Reimann, a professional writer who also partners with us for our essay workshops.
 
Are your students younger and this is not quite on your radar yet?
Have them keep a summer journal. Journaling is one of the greatest precursors to writing in the style of a personal narrative. Pick up a book of journal prompts from Barnes and Noble (and stop by my favorite place, The Flour Shop, while you are there!).  Have your student do three prompts a week, with a paragraph minimum.
 
Want to run through all of this together? We can do that.
Option 1: Essay workshop (camp focused solely on the college essay)
Option 2: College App Camp (essays + most everything else you need to apply)

It’s likely not a surprise that (most) students will have to write essays as part of their college application process. Yet, many are stumped when they see prompts like these:
 
“Tell us about the most significant challenge you’ve faced or something important that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?” -- MIT
 
“The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?” – The Common App
 
“If you feel you are in a black hole, don’t give up. There’s a way out,” Stephen Hawking said. Describe a time you faced a problem that seemed impossible to solve. What did you do to find a solution?” – Oklahoma State University
 
These students wrack their brains, look at their resumes of successes, and freeze. The F-word! They cringe. Their whole lives they’ve successfully avoided any sort of failure (yes, that f-word) only to find it’s everywhere in their college essays! Is it a trick question? If they divulge a weakness are they dooming themselves to the “no” pile?
 
I’ve learned a few (well, actually a ton) of things having worked with students in the college application process for many years now. One of those things is that they don’t know how to fail, so when it does finally happen (and it will because life is full of failures), it’s debilitating—even crippling in many cases. Their self-image, self-worth, and self-confidence is blasted by what should be a normal engagement in appropriate exploration or risk-taking.
 
I’m saddened, deeply, when I hear of a student who diligently worked on an application for a summer research fellowship, gathered her materials and letters of recommendations, wrote and rewrote her essay with insight and depth of thinking, only to open her email to see, “On behalf of the admissions committee we wish to thank you for your application…” But I’m alarmed when the student devolves to tears and isolates herself for the following week, neglecting her studies and other activities.
 
Or when a student is not selected for a scholarship when one of their “less talented” peers is, and refuses to apply to anymore believing it’s a waste of effort and time.
 
Many students haven’t been taught they are not entitled to opportunity. In the great big world of adult-life, hearing “no” is normal. Think about what we know to be true (and important) in our lives as capable adults. When you are job hunting, do you send out one resume and wait expecting a yes answer? Do you expect even a response to each resume you send out? No. 
 
Do we only begin only those things which offer us a guarantee of success—do we want that for ourselves and our children? I’m decently confident the answer is no, and I think we as adults all understand and accept failure on a regular basis. But the question is this: how do we expect our children to do the same?
 
If we do not encourage and normalize failure in high school (or earlier), we are leaving them to figure it out on their own later in life – in situations that are less safe and more high stakes. Colleges know this, and they also know that failure is nothing to be ashamed of. Failure is the result of risk-taking, and exploration, and often curiosity. Failure is going to happen in college, in small, or maybe big, ways. And colleges want kids who are prepared to not only "deal" with that in a healthy way, but leverage the failure to improve themselves, their ideas, and their communities. Hence, there are lots of essays asking students to reflect on their failures. 
 
Here’s my suggestion: normalize failure. Let your kids get used to hearing no. And let it sting. I have little kids, and already I know how difficult it is to see my child upset because I’ve denied her something that would make her genuinely happy. I imagine that gets even harder as they get even older and work for things they may not end up getting (leadership positions, summer opportunities, spots in an admitted freshman class at an Ivy League school). Don't swoop in to justify their shortcoming by blaming other factors to preserve their egos (and sometimes our own). Let it simmer and shake, then let them move on.

They will fail, and you will be there to teach them and help them understand the failure in context instead of be there to fix it for them, as much as you may want to (or be able to – that’s where this gets really tricky. When parents have the power to fix their student’s failures, sometimes that’s not in the long run the best thing for the student).
 
Teach them instead to see the “no” as an acronym (I’m about to get cheesy on you, watch out). N.O. stands for New Opportunity. If you can’t do the thing you wanted to do (you failed--I said it! And it's okay!), try something else out. There are many ways to reach success, and no one guarantees that the first thing you try is the thing that will work. Teach resilience by helping them learn how to use a growth mindset in which they learn to view failure as a New Opportunity (a N.O. moment--cheesy right? But kinda spot on).
 
The added bonus is that they will end up with a killer essay topic for their MIT application.

Fear not, we have some ideas to get you started. To begin, brainstorm a list of stuff you need tickets for. Come up with at least FIFTEEN ideas. Why fifteen? Because we want you to move past the stuff everyone else is going to write about. Yes, you need a ticket for a plane to the Bahamas. I can only imagine how many vacation essays the UT Admissions Office is going to read this year… keep thinking.
 
And thinking….
 
And thinking. Are you at fifteen yet? Good. See if you can come up with three more (How does that saying go? If it doesn’t challenge you…?). :) 
 
Ok, so you have your list. Think about your most honest answer to the questions in the prompt. Where is it you would go? If, after brainstorming, it truly is the Bahamas, so be it. But beyond that answer is a why question -- why would you go there? What is it you would gain from the experience? How will your life be different after that experience? It's the depth inherent in your choice that's interesting (meaning what your choice says about who you are rather than where it is you will go). 
 
So, next to each answer for where you will go with your hypothetical ticket, write down a few words about why you would go there, and think about what your choice says about you. Then, here’s the trick, move the essay forward. That same big idea about why you would go there? Think about how that idea will influence your life in the future. Where else will that idea take you in the proverbial journey of life?
 
This isn’t an essay about where you want to go, it’s an essay about who you are. 
​

Updated for 2015-16

It's officially December, which means the Pepperdine deadline is fast approaching. In the Common App, there are two supplemental essay questions aspiring Pepperdine students will need to complete before they can spend their next four years gazing over the beautiful Pacific Ocean from their perch atop Malibu. 

We've got some ideas to help generate some material for these mini essays (50-300 words) to help you out. Here are the prompts: 

1. Write a letter to your future roommate at Pepperdine. Tell them what characteristics would make you a good roommate and what you are looking forward to most in college. (50-300 words)

AND

2. As a Christian university, Pepperdine expresses its Christian principles through all aspects of academic life and administrative policy. The university affirms that truth, having nothing to fear from investigation, should be pursued relentlessly in every discipline. Students, faculty, and staff members of all faith traditions are welcome to become part of the Pepperdine University community. Please tell us a little bit about how faith has influenced your life.

For both these prompts your goal is to use an anecdote, allegory, or other interesting tidbit to bring your writing to life. You want to "show, don't tell" as the adage goes. For example, with the first, perhaps start your supplement with a short story about your life illustrating of the traits you think will make you a terrific roommate. 

For the second prompt, think about an anecdote that relates to either your own journey in faith, a turning point in your search for truth, or an object that might represent your faith, then tell that story. You don't have to be uber Christian to get in, and that's not what the admissions committee is looking for, but you do need to explain your awareness of your place in the universe and your thoughts therein in an articulate, reflective way. 

Here are some brainstorming questions to get your rolling for each prompt. 

Prompt 1: 
--Start brainstorming by listing traits about yourself that you believe make you a good roommate. 
--Choose several of these traits. Think of stories from your life that illustrate that trait. Use the story as way of connecting with the reader and answering the prompt. 
--Don't be afraid to get creative in your initial list (if you have a flair for design, or if you have the entire season of Parks and Rec on your computer at the ready for late night study breaks...)
​--At the end of the supplement, don't forget to answer the second part of the prompt: what are you most looking forward to about college. Be honest in your response (within reason, obvi). The goal is to write something interesting, memorable, and true. 

Prompt 2: 
--When did your journey with faith begin? 
--Is there a tangible object that represents your faith?
--An important experience that affirmed your faith?
--A time when you acted on your faith?

That's it! Happy drafting. If you are looking for help with this whole college essay thing, our services may come in handy. Check out our page explaining ways we can help you navigate this college admissions jungle, or send us an email for more information. 

Erika, The Guru.