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Discovering Your Path to College Essays: Insights & Tips

Explore pathways to writing compelling college essays with helpful tips on choosing topics, generating ideas, and overcoming roadblocks. Learn from examples, prompts, and valuable advice from experts in the field to craft impactful essays. Fuel your writing journey with self-awareness exercises and meaningful reflections.

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Discovering Your Path to College Essays: Insights & Tips

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  1. The Road to Writeby Andrea Gorman and Barbara Simmons Finding Pathways to the College Essay

  2. The Essence Box: Brainstorming • Food for Talk – Prompts to Inspire Self-Awareness • Examples from www.foodfortalk.com • TED Talks • Share some of these with your students • Values/Objects Exercises • Try this yourself * * http://www.collegeessayguy.com

  3. Choosing a Topic/Prompt • Is this a topic leading toward an essay that only I could write? • Is this something I feel strongly about? • Would you want to read an essay about this topic? • Is this original? How many essays on this topic will someone in admissions have to read? • Are you the only one who could have written this essay ? • * from the NVCC-Annandale Reading and Writing Center

  4. Fueling Up for your Road to Write • Remember that human beings read your words ~ • We need to hear your voice. – William Conley • If you’re not funny, now is not the time to experiment. – Michael Thorp • Serious thinking and reflection. – Peter Osgood • We want to see a slice of your life that is the most meaningful to you. – Lloyd Peterson • …we get a good idea of how the student thinks through the essay. – Elizabeth Moser • ** see Gen and Kelly Tanabe, Accepted! 50 Successful College Admissions Essays

  5. Checking the Map for Cities • First lines --- the starting point for the road to write ~ • As writers, your students are taking themselves and their readers on a journey • The writer AND reader will know more than when they started out ~ • INCREASED KNOWING • Continue to ask yourself “why am I writing this essay?” ** from Sheila Bender, Writing it Real

  6. Detours and Directional Changes • When your initial direction changes….follow! • New roads, new insights • Trust – the best “compass” for the writing journey • Our greatest summons is really to see the things of this world ~ Rilke

  7. Other Roadblocks • Fears ~ • That what we have to say is not important • That we are not up to the task of doing the experience justice in our writing • Responses ~ • What is your occasion to write? • Ask: Why are you writing this essay right now?

  8. Destination – Final Stopping Point • Souvenirs at the end of the trip • Remind your students that they can use their road-trip memories for other “roads to write” • Keep souvenirs of “upper-case” and “lower-case” moments you’ll remember for your next “road trip” • New maps? • Remember to fuel up with • TED Talks • Brain Pickings ~ www.brainpickings.org • NY TIMES ~ Corner Office feature every Sunday

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