Think Movies! Another Great Way to Write Your College Application Essay
I’m always on the lookout for great writing guides—especially books on how to write narrative, slice-of-life essays (like mine).
Only recently did I discover this book, Concise Advice, by Robert N. Cronk.
What I loved was that his approach was different than mine, but arrived at the same goal—a compelling college application essay that reveals the writer’s unique personality, character, passions, talents, goals, etc.
This is what I wrote about our two different approaches in a review for Amazon on the latest (third) edition of his book:
I was surprised at how similar this book was to mine, although it offered a different approach–and our goals were very similar. My guide steps students through the process of finding their defining qualities, and then looking for slice-of-life “moments” or “incidents” that illustrate that quality in a compelling way. I encourage them to look for “times” when they encountered some type of “problem,” and use that to show how they handled it and what they learned. The result are highly readable “narrative” essays that do a beautiful job of revealing what makes a student tick. (more…)
