essays about death...

mhartmann
Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:09:08 +0000

I’m sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.

People say to avoid the three D’s partly because they’re difficult subjects to write about well–it’s too easy to attempt to rely on cliches and highly dramatic language. If your essay moved your English teacher, that’s a good sign that you’ve gotten beyond those pitfalls. How you write is more important than what you write about. To be sure the essay is working well, I would suggest showing it to at least one other adult who can give you impartial advice to confirm that it’s not just her. Also, if you’re still revising, make sure you’re being as honest and specific as you can. You may even want to seek out other well-written essays about death to get some ideas about how to write about it successfully.

I also agree with the previous poster that focusing on how you’ve grown is key. Having read many other young writers’ attempts at the three D’s, I can tell you that a common pitfall is to focus on the drama of the event itself and then skimp on explaining what the significance is or convincing the reader that the change is real. The writer will be vague and conclude by stating that “this experience has taught me to value each day” without explaining what that means for him/her or how this has played out in his/her life. It sounds like your essay probably gives concrete proof that you’ve changed and thus is on the right track.

However, don’t go in the other direction and skim over the death itself. While the focus needs to be on you and how you’ve changed, the reader needs to have a feel for the pain of the experience you went through so that he or she can understand its effect. Limiting yourself to a paragraph or two on the death is a good idea, but describing it in just a couple sentences would not be enough.

You may also want to consider how admissions committees might view your past reckless behavior. Overcoming this and your friend’s death certainly shows you to be a strong person, and others would have responded to such circumstances by continuing along a downward spiral–but sometimes colleges can be a little paranoid about candidates with questionable pasts. You may want to talk to your guidance counselor about how to present this in the context of your whole profile as a student.