<p>Some more essay writing advice…</p>
<p>1) Find out what makes you unique, defining characteristics, maybe 3 to 4 things you really, really value. For me, two things that I really love are learning and my friends… thus my extended essay ended up being a typical conversation with my friends with some commentary. </p>
<p>2) Don’t worry too much about being terribly creative. I really believe that virtually any topic can work well. Clearly anything involving you getting in trouble with the law, an intimate encounter with your boyfriend/girlfriend, etc. is probably not a good idea. Even really cliche topics can work. You just have to make them personal and use lots of detail and really show how it impacted your life. Maybe building houses in Mexico or your grandparent’s funeral really did have a profound effect on you. So write about it. And MAKE IT PERSONAL. It doesn’t have to gush with emotion, just make it is really specific to you. If you know anyone else who could have written the essay, toss it out. </p>
<p>3) Don’t try to impress the adcoms with your essay. Don’t use big words just to use them. Use, more or less, your style that you’d use while speaking. If you try to impress them it shows, and it makes it seem more fake. Fake = not “you,” thus it’s bad. </p>
<p>4) After you’ve done some brainstorming, just start writing. Write a lot. Try different intros and different directions. If you get stuck and don’t know what to write next, feel free to just try again. In each draft you might like only a couple of sentences. That’s fine. The more you write the more phrases and sentences you’ll find that you like and the more you’ll discover about yourself. You might have four or five essays you think are your final drafts and then realize that they just aren’t quite right. </p>
<p>5) Edit your essays down. A lot. Make them more concise and to the point. At first I was VERY resistant to this. I’m often quite wordy, so being concise was quite difficult for me. However, it made my essays MUCH better! I think I cut down one short answer from about 400 to 250 words and it was a million times better because it had a clear purpose and direction. Figure out what the essay is about, what you want to communicate through the essay (and it might be several things). Cut out anything that doesn’t add to it’s purpose. </p>
<p>6) Have a few close friends and/or teachers who know you well read through the essays. See if they think they are “you.” I had my best friend read through one of my essays I thought was my final personal statement and she was like “this isn’t quite right… I really don’t like it and think you should start over.” We talked about it for a while and I realized that she was right. My final personal statement was much more “me.” Teachers can really help you be more concise. Find a teacher who hates wordiness and ask him/her for help in finding parts that don’t need to be there.</p>