<p>Good luck to your DD, wilberry. I know what you mean, but it is hard to put into words. “Trying too hard”, “find your own voice”, more easily said than done, but it is the key, I think.</p>
<p>One of the speakers last night made the point that if the essay is very difficult to write, maybe the topic is wrong; with the right topic it should come relatively easily.</p>
<p>When my DS went through this two years ago that’s what happened with him. He labored for days on a “meaning of life” type essay and a few more days on a “reconciling death of a friend” essay. Both topics were too big for a 500-1000 essay; he labored and labored and the result wasn’t good.</p>
<p>Finally, he decided to take a try on a more whimsical essay, about a strange occurance on a family vacation a few years earlier. He wrote it in less than forty-five minutes and it was beautiful. An hour or so of editing was all it needed.</p>
<p>I started this thread a few weeks ago while trying to help a friend of DD with her essay. She had written a generic platitude-filled sports essay. I advised her to try to tell a story as she would to a friend. She came up with two good topics, one sports related but not of the generic “winning the big game” or “sports are good because…” type. She later showed me drafts of both and they were a huge improvement. I have no doubt she will be accepted at her HYP school. She probably would have been with the weak essay, but why chance it?</p>