Fiske Real College Essays That Work - Softcover

Fiske, Edward B.; Hammond, Bruce G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1402201648 ISBN 13: 9781402201646

Publisher: Sourcebooks Inc, 2006

Synopsis

1. Writing your essay doesn't have to be stressful.
Every fall, thousands of aspiring students just like you spend hours staring into a computer screen, searching for a clever opening line or a life-changing experience. It doesn't have to be that hard!

2. Counselors want to learn about you-and that's all!
A good essay does not need to be a literary masterpiece, or a scholarly treatise worthy of Albert Einstein. The best essays come from high school students being themselves, with all the depth, wit, charm and quirkiness you bring to your daily life.

3. So let your best come through!
College-admission experts Edward B. Fiske and Bruce Hammond give you all the advice you need for an application essay that will open the door of the college of you choice. Fiske Real College Essays That Work includes samples from both great and not-so-great writers, and describes how to take your essay from initial draft to final submission.

Real essays on these topics and more:
o Athletics
o Arts
o Race and cultural experiences
o Personal growth
o Family
o Travel
o Humor

About this title

About the Author

Edward B. Fiske served for 17 years as education editor of the New York Times, where he realized that college-bound students and their families needed better information on which to base their educational choices. He is also the author of the Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1. What Makes a Great Essay?
Mention that you're writing a college essay and you'll probably get an earful of advice:

· "Write about your trip to Mexico," offers your mom. "You can show that you've broadened your horizons."
· "Community service always looks good," says Dad. "Talk about your work with Habitat for Humanity."
· "Write something funny," advises your best friend. "They love essays that make them laugh."
· "Make yourself stand out," says your guidance counselor. "In a pile of one thousand essays, yours should be the one they remember."

If you're lucky, you won't hear all of the above-at least not all at once. But the odds are good that you'll get some of it, particularly the one about making yourself stand out. How, exactly, do you accomplish that one? Have you scaled Mount Everest? Overcome a terminal disease? Saved a toddler from a burning building?
Of course not. Neither have 99.9 percent of the rest of us. The best essays are seldom about a dramatic event or "significant experience" that changes the author's life. Real people don't get hit by lightning and suddenly realize that they should live their lives differently. Human development is a step-by-step, day-by-day process that happens almost imperceptibly.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sourcebooks Inc
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1402201648
• ISBN 13: 9781402201646
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 343