<p>My daughter actually wrote an essay on a topic that I suggested… but the time line was rather extended. When she was in 11th grade she wrote a post on her blog that I thought was kind of moving – I mentioned at the time that it would be a good theme for a college essay. I guess that planted a seed – she had as much agonizing over essay topics as anyone else, but her senior year I bought the Bauld book and left it on her bed. The day she finally picked it up and read it was the day that the old blog post was resurrected and morphed into a pretty good essay. </p>
<p>Obviously the blog post itself was not suitable essay material – but it provided an idea and a theme. There were several other blog posts that also would have met the criteria – blogging teens tend to write what they are feeling at the time, so mining a blog might be a good place to find the “heart” part of an essay.</p>