Please help me brainstorm ideas for this essay prompt!

ADad
Sun, 18 Mar 2012 23:24:18 +0000

Could you guys tell me if you think these are strong topics?



Topics are not inherently strong or weak. What matters is whether a topic allows you to write the most personal, detailed, revealing essay, the essay that, ideally, is so you that no one else could write it. The best or strongest topic for you probably would not be the best or strongest topic for someone else.

There is great advice here: [Essays, Admission Information, Undergraduate Admission, U.Va.](http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/writingtheessay.html)



Intellectual vibrance: I really enjoy teaching myself things. For example, I learned web design by myself and am now trying to learn programming languages such as JAVA.



These ideas could be good. You would want to present details, a focused story, as Tizil7 suggested. Make sure that you Show, don’t Tell:

[Show, don’t tell](http://users.wirefire.com/tritt/tip1.html)



Collaborative spirit: This relates back to intellectual vibrance, but one of my most profound experiences of working in a group happened to be for a web design project. I spent a lot of time working with my team and although we didn’t fare as well as we wanted to, we became pretty good friends.



I like the fact that you used the word profound. It sounds like this experience meant something to you, and as you said it combines intellectual vibrance with collaborative spirit. You could show details of how your own private work and discoveries led to being able to collaborate effectively with others.



Social responsibility: Hm… I’ve done volunteering, but nothing profound really came out of that. I also feel like that’s an overdone topic. I’ve had several jobs that required me to work extensively with kids, and I have some things I can show about that (but since I got paid for my work… I don’t know if that would count)



So this does not sound like an area or topic that would be good for you to write about.



I also feel like that’s an overdone topic.



Well, imo there are no overdone topics. There are only overdone treatments of topics. It is quite possible to write scintillating, original, strong essays about volunteering. I’ve read quite a few of them. However, it does not sound like this topic will work for you. Which is not a problem!