<p>I have been doing policy debate for 3 years now. Over that time, I have really improved my speaking skills and become interested in possibly pursuing government or politics in the future. I want to write an essay about how my experiences have shown me the power of debate and how to discuss complex issues with other people and get to the heart of disagreements, yadda yadda. I want to talk about how I now realize that good debates are where the world’s problems get sorted out, and I want to be part of this. However, this realization has come over many years and is difficult to get down into a single experience that could be retold in an essay. In order to make it more interesting, I’d like to center the essay around one debate round, as opposed to my entire three years in debate. Would it be ok to talk about a single round where I realized the power of debate, etc. etc., even though in reality this realization occurred over many years? In essence, it would be saying the same thing but in a more interesting/suspenseful way. Is this dishonest or is it just creative license?</p>
<p>Yes, this is often the very best way to write an essay - setting the reader in the midst of a single experience. You can certainly use creative license to have the realization occur “on the spot”. Or you may well be able to work in a sentence or phrase to indicate that the realization crystallized at that moment (still might be creative license) but had been “incubating” over the whole 3-year experience. Good idea!</p>
<p>I think it would be ok, but you could solve the dilemma by saying that the realization emerged over 3 years and that this one round can best serve as an example of how the potential of debating became apparent to you.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. I have included a few phrases like “began to realize” and “an example was” that still keep the action more or less in once experience but imply that there may have been other as well. Is this a good enough mix of perfect honesty and creative license?</p>
<p>Yes, I think so. In essay writing, you want to be true to the essence of an experience but you are not writing an eyewitness account of an accident for insurance purposes. It is more like painting a portrait of yourself ( with some poetic or artistic license) than turning in a mug shot or passport photo-where accuracy of detail is more important than overall impression.</p>
<p>222: </p>
<p>This is a perfect situation to use my “Secret Formula for an Admissions Essay:”</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=31692[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=31692</a></p>
<p>Look at the formula and see if you can see what I mean regarding your topic. Also, check out Northstarmom’s comment at the end. Maybe it is corny, but I think it works.</p>
<p>Another example of “the formula” with a tongue-in-cheek spoof of an essay can be found in post #35 on this page:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=34528&page=2[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=34528&page=2</a></p>