Writing Application College Essay

Applying to college is always every young man’s dream - ceteris paribus the young man has the ability to think straight and set goals in life. To get to college, especially the college of choice requires a special input from the student-to-be. There are number of ways in which the youth can interact with the college before he is formally accepted as a student in the institution, and as a matter of fact he needs to give his all in all those encounters. He could interact with the college administrators through an interview, curriculum vitae or an application essay among other avenues. As much as the CV and interview are equally important, the place of insistence should actually be the application essay.

            This is because this is the place where the student can really say who he is and show the college administrators why he needs to be in the institution and why it will be the biggest error in history if he is not admitted there because of what the college would miss. Of course the words used should be different, but the fact remains that the student needs to make his presence felt in the 700 or so words he will be given to write in. While writing the essay, care should be taken that the essay isn’t converted into a list of achievements. As much as naming a few doesn’t break a bone, it is wrong to list all of them. It makes the student appear creepy and proud in a way.

            The essay should also reveal your personality and how sensitive you are to your community. College administrators love this because it shows that you are an all rounded individual. A touch of humor amidst all the seriousness employed in your essay is also not a bad idea as it casts you as a likeable person. Finally, your essay needs to be free from the common and indeed basic errors of punctuation and spelling. This is also paramount as it reveals that you really mean what you say and that you took your time to write the essay-which should be the case anyway.

Structure of an essay

          An essay has a simple structure that can be followed easily. Any essay consists of an introduction, body and conclusion. Each of these contents of the structure carries their own function.

•             Introduction

            This is a very important part of the essay. It lures the reader into reading on to the rest of the content. This part therefore requires being interesting and witty. Here one should explain the topic of discussion. Complex vocabularies in the topic should also be explained. It is in this part that the reader is directed on what you will be writing about. This is by pointing out the topic or area that the essay will be addressing. A thesis statement can also feature in the introduction.

•             Body

            The body is made of paragraphs. The number of paragraphs is determined by the length of the essay. Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence. The rest of the paragraph is meant to support the topic sentence. This is by explaining the evidence from research done on the topic sentence. The sentences however require to be connected. This is done by linking words such as: in light of this, hence, therefore.

•              Conclusion

            The conclusion is the parting shot of the essay. The conclusion should not be very long. However, it requires having a summary of the issues. If there was a question that required an answer in the topic, it should be answered at this point. A general conclusion of your argument can also appear in the conclusion.

The art of argumentative essays

          These are essay types that give information about a certain subject or areas of study. Their main purpose is to present information that is both sided, that is, to provide the pros and cons of a particular subject. It makes the reader to side with the favored side of the writer.  Argumentative essay concentrates on winning the reader to their side of story. It lets a person write about something with primary objective of making the reader change his or her mind about something when it comes to choosing the topics of argumentative essay, it’s not easy since the topic should always be narrowed down.

            They should not be long and they should point straight to the point. The topic itself should contain some element of arguments in it, to make it easy for the person going to write it down. On the other case, the topic chosen should provide a chance such that it can be well supported, following a specific or outlined organization style. Argumentative essay usually call for extensive and wide research which must be followed according to the set rules and regulations. When writing these essays, each paragraph must be limited to one idea and it should be discussed in lengthy.

            The writer must provide information which is well structured and most of all accurate.  Argumentative essay cannot be applied to any topic since as discussed earlier the topics need to be very specific and have some elements of argument. The art of argumentative essay must clearly show the defined structures of an argumentative essay.

Writing a scholarship essay

For any student seeking to write a scholarship easy, the task could never be exhausting. Many people dread writing these kinds f essays due to the fact that they are tough especially when compared with the one written for college admission. It is common for a college student to be required to write at least one essay for scholarship application. It is however important to know that despite the fact that it may be a difficult task, giving up just yet is not the most ideal thing to do. You must have been involved in other essay writing contests and if you have delivered in the past, be sure that you will be able to do it in this as well. You must have written a college application essay and if you were able to succeed in that, you will also do it here.

One of the things that should motivate you when faced with the scholarship essay is the fact that you will be paid for it. This is contrary to what happened when you were writing a college application essay and therefore you should go for it. The scholarship committees look at the essays as a way of understanding the minds of the applicants and if you want their approval, then you must be able to express yourself well. The scholarship essays should take the pattern of the college essays but be original, honest, well written and be used to describe something important about you.

The essays should also be charming to the readers and arouse some care in them for the writer. You should utilize all the strategies that you have learnt over the years when writing other essays. Scholarship essays are good in that they afford you the option of writing on your favorite topic although some of them might require that you write on particular topics. Some of the organizations you are applying for the scholarship from could ask you to write an essay on a topic that is related with their work. You should therefore be prepared with enough information that demonstrates you knowledge in that very field.

The fact that the essays are shorter than the college essays should be of comfort to you. it is also good to know that they do not require a number of weeks for you to write and this could make them easy to write. It is good to make sure that you are focused when writing a scholarship essay. Remember it must be a winning essay.

Art of Evaluating an Art: Writing Literary Essay

Literature is tagged as creative writing of well recognized artistic value. The art of crafting literary pieces is quite complex and doing a critique on such well-esteemed academic discipline is equally intricate as well - as creating literary essay.

Discussing a work of art like literary works entail giving due credit. Assessment of artworks in creative writing only calls for an equivalent hard-earned status. Therefore, here are the vital elements on accomplishing a quality literary essay – the art of evaluating a work of art.

· The meaning and construction of a piece of literature is explored in a literary essay. This task is quite more complicated than mere reviewing, though the two are similarly evaluative. In a review the overall effect and the validity of a written work is discussed, while a literary essay pays more attention to specifics. It focuses on elements such as structure, character, theme, style, tone, and subtext.

· A literary essay is a personal interpretation, based only on reading the piece. It can also be a mixture of your opinions and references of other criticisms.

· The essay must have an interesting title that has something to do with the writer’s position.

· The language in writing literary essays must be rich. There must be no slang and contractions. Show vocabulary variety and make the literary essay interesting to read.

· Keep the tone straightforward and the explanations concise. Write directly and clearly, but "simple" does not mean "simplistic."

· Use academic formal language. Slang is unacceptable: 'kind of', 'gonna', 'cool', and the likes. Do not use contractions: I'd, I'll, etc. They are acceptable in an oral presentation, but not in formal writings.

· Don't retell the story. Plot is of limited value in crafting a literary essay. Instead, express an opinion. Don't be afraid to take the risk of having a personal interpretation. There's never one correct view - in literary study there is certainly none.

· Do not quote too much. Quote appropriately. The idea is to demonstrate that the argument has substance to quote used.

· In presenting personal views, always try to anticipate objections. One of the best ways to argue a position is to present the opposing argument’s weak logic.

· Organize paragraphs according to the development of the argument, not according to the chronological order of the literary piece. Use transitions to show how logically connected each argument is to one another.

· Use present tense. It shows that the literary work and the issues it raises are still alive. The passive voice is used in essays dealing with scientific discipline such as history, sociology, and political science, but not in a literary essay.

• Literary essay is not meant as a venue for preaching your personal views. Do not ever try to convert the readers. Avoid clichés and sentimentality.

· Avoid empty statements that really explain nothing. Do not begin the essay with lines like, "William Shakespeare was born in the 16th century". This is common knowledge and is not worth saying.

· Avoid phony statements like, "I absolutely adore Shakespeare". It serves the essay with nothing.

• Be wary of plagiarism. Any artwork is considered as a unique intellectual property of its creator, therefore, the art of evaluating an art also calls for uniqueness and originality.

Creating a work of art like a literary piece certainly requires sophisticated skills, passion and tons of hard work. Thus, by principle, it is just proper for its critique like literary essay, to undergo the same process, investing equal amount of skills and effort - an art for an art.

Structuring Compare and Contrast Essay

Compare and contrast essay is quite intricate to write unlike other types of essays. Why? The writer has to efficiently present the details in a way that readers can clearly determine the similarities and differences of the two subjects. In this regard, there are several ways to write this compare and contrast essay.

Apparently, the most important thing to consider in this type of essay is structure. There are many wonderful compare and contrast essays that fall victim to the woes of bad structure - making ingenuity futile.

The rules on how to write a general essay is almost the same with the structure of a compare/contrast essay. To date, the following two formats are most likely the more applicable structures for such complex essay type:

• Introduction. Generally it is a lead into the thesis statement.
  
• Subject 1 discussion. Covers only the first subject of the comparison and contrast. Does not mention subject 2 in this first portion.
  
• Subject 2 discussion. Does not discuss Subject 1 in this section. This portion of the paper is dedicated to presenting Subject 2 in great detail.
  
• Subjects 1 and 2 discussion. This is the comprehensive analysis of both subjects in several paragraphs.
  
• Conclusion. The conclusion is the generalization of the thesis.

And…

• Introduction. Most likely a leading statement.
  
• Comparisons of Subjects 1 and 2. This section tackles only all the similarities of the two topics. There must be at least three comparisons in which example from both topics of comparisons is given.
  
• Contrasts of Subjects 1 and 2. This section function like the preceding part only that it does only contrasting points of the two topics.

• Conclusion. Evidently this part does the wrapping up everything in the paper.

To efficiently write a compare and contrast essay its structure is crucial – it is because any confusion of the points of similarities or differences of the subjects will make the entire piece illogical.

Definition Essay: How to Define Effectively

Definition essay is a logical attempt of defining or explaining what a term means. While some words have definite, concrete meanings, others have abstract and subjective connotation. But what definition really works?

Choosing a definition is the key step in writing a good definition essay. It is an imperative that you fully understand the term to be defined. Whether t is something concrete or abstract, you need not to use mere dictionary meaning – personal and unique definition.

It is also important to limit your term before starting to define it. For example, the term love is too broad to discuss. You must trim it down to specific like "platonic love" or "first love."

Here are some ways to effectively define a term:

• Define by what the word does not mean. Ironically, stating the opposite qualities of the term is a good way to build its true meaning. The “what it is not” distinction works because it clarifies the definition and helps readers to understand it better.

• Define by the term’s function. Explaining what the term does or how something works is a good take off for a definition essay.

• Define by analysis. Comparing and contrasting the term to other terms of its kind is another technique in defining. Sorting what different special characteristics that make the term stand out is a good definition method.

Having a cohesive and clear-cut definition can only be achieved if you know what writing technique is best suitable. As it requires a personal perspective of the writer, definition essay is a great piece to panel out creativity.