The Prospect Cooks Up Delicious Essay Recipes!

If you’ve been looking for help with your college application essay, I assume you have discovered the mountains of information (some helpful; a lot no so much) out there on the Web. One of my favorite resources for students is The Prospect, which is an organization centered on college admissions and high school/college life.

The main reason I love The Prospect so much is that it is all about helping students survive high school and get into the college of their dreams–but it’s also run by students like you! Their talented staff offered to share some of their best essay-writing tips here on Essay Hell. I think you will find their foodie-approach fun, inspiring and useful! (more…)

Hottest Guides for Writing Narrative Essays

 

I already featured this list of my favorite books on how to write essays–narrative-style, “slice of life,” personal essays–at the end of an earlier post. These are exactly what you want to write for your college application essays. (Don’t let anyone talk you into writing a stiff, formal academic style essay for your college admissions essay!) I didn’t want you to miss them in case you want to learn more about how to write in this style.

Needless to say, I also believe my own guide on writing college application essays, Escape Essay Hell!, has great advice on writing these essays, because it’s specifically geared toward helping students find unique topics, and then write them using this story-telling style. But I drew many of my ideas from these other guides. When it comes to writing, you can never learn enough. (more…)

Just How Creative Should You Get?

College Application Essays

Yes, You Can Go Too Far

 

Colleges are encouraging students to get creative with their essays.

This is great.

However, I think students should be careful of trying too hard to showcase their creative writing skills.

Rather, I believe they should put those creative writing tools to work to write an engaging, meaningful essay.

There’s a difference.

Some people think creative writing is a goal in itself.

They think it’s when a writer gets kind of wild, breaks the conventional English language rules, and cuts loose with what they have to say and how they say it.

The essays start to read more like rambling poetry.

The goal of a college application essay is not to create a “piece of creative writing.”

Instead, the goal is to use creative writing techniques to express yourself better.  (more…)