Tips to Help You Write Your College Essay

1. Get Started by Brainstorming. Starting the essay can be the hardest part. Brainstorming about your personality traits and defining your strengths is a good place to begin.
2. Let Your First Draft Flow. After you've gathered your notes, create an outline to organize your essay and decide where you want examples to appear. Now you're ready to write your first draft. Don't worry about making it perfect. Just get your ideas flowing and your thoughts down on paper. You'll fix mistakes and improve the writing in later drafts.
3. Develop 3 Essay Parts
   • Introduction: One paragraph that introduces your essay.
   • Body: Several paragraphs explaining the main idea with examples.
   • Conclusion: One paragraph that summarizes and ends the essay.
4. Be Specific. Give your essay focus by figuring out how the question relates to your personal qualities and then taking a specific angel. Make sure everything you write supports that viewpoint.
5. Show Don’t Tell
   • Don’t simply state a fact to get an idea across, such as “I like to surround myself with people with a variety of backgrounds and interests.”
   • Do include specific details, examples, reasons and so on to develop your ideas. For the example above, describe a situation when you were surrounded by various types of people. What were you doing? Who did you talk with? What did you take away from the experience? Tell the story.
6. Be Honest. The essay question might ask you about your best quality, an experience that shaped you or the reason you want to attend a certain college. Don't be tempted to write what you think the admission officers want to hear; answer the question honestly.
7. Get Feedback. Show your draft to family, friends or teachers. Ask if it makes sense and sounds like you. Consider their feedback and make changes, but keep your voice. Ask teachers, mentors, family, friends, etc. for feedback on your essay. Reach out well in advance of any deadlines, and give them at least two weeks to give their feedback. After receiving feedback, revise, revise, revise! You should plan on going through many drafts. Remember, you don't have to take all the feedback you get — go with what you think will be most helpful.
8. Proofread and Make Corrections. Read your essay over carefully to check for typos and spelling and grammar errors. It's best to ask someone who hasn't seen it yet to look as well. They're likely to see mistakes you won't catch. Make final edits carefully. Your spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting should be flawless. It helps to read your essay out loud to catch mistakes you might otherwise skim over. Check to make sure that your edits and revisions haven't taken out your voice and personal writing style.