Name: ______English 12
Date: ______Period 1 & 7
Essays are Storytelling
When you write a college essay, an application for a scholarship or fellowship, a letter of inquiry for a job interview, you’re being asked to tell a story about yourself. Often, human resources administrators and head headhunters simply say to a candidate, “Tell me something about yourself.” This isn’t a gotcha; it’s a golden opportunity to share something about yourself that can mean the difference between acceptance or rejection. Everyone has a story to tell. Writing teachers always say, “Write what you know” or “Write who you know.” There’s nothing simpler than telling others about yourself. That’s precisely what the common core application essay prompts ask you to do.
Here arethe 2015-2016 Common Application Essay Prompts:
1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
2. The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
4. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
The advantage of these prompts is they allow you to take a journalistic approach:
Who
What
Where
When
How
Why
1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
What is your interest?
Why did you get interested?
When did this happen?
Where were you when inspiration struck and where do you practice this interest?
Who has encouraged and mentored you; who do you model yourself after?
How have you pursued this and how will you continue?
This is the what makes you you prompt. What is it about you that makes you unique?
2. The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
What did you fail at doing?
Why did you fail?
When did this happen?
Where did the failure take place?
Who helped, encouraged, and mentored you?
How did you attempt to overcome your failure?
Break down the prompt into four parts
- The lessons we take from failure can be fundatmental to later success. How has the failure fit into the big picture of your personal growth and later accomplishments?
- Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. This is the exposition par to fyour essay – the description of the story – “recount” is the easy part.
- How did it affect you? This is the second most important part of your essay. You failed, so how did you respond? What emotions did you feel? Did you want to give up or were you motivated? Were you surprised or angry? Did you blame others?
- What did you learn from the experience? This is the heart of your essay. The best students are the ones able to assess their failures, learn from them, and move on.
3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
What belief or idea did you challenge?
Who was championing this belief; who were you opposing?
Where did this take place?
When were you faced with this conflict?
How did you go about opposing this belief or idea?
Why did you feel strongly about this challenge?
Be careful; focusing on a belief or idea makes this question very broad. Keep in mind that this essay reveals something about you. So the belief can be your own. It can be political or ethical, theoretical or scientific, a persona conviction or entrecned way of doing thing.
This essay should reveal something you’re passionate about, one that allows you to present some of you interests and passions.
4. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
A problem may be large or small. It can be a design challenge, personal problem, ethical dilemma, health problem, challenge in your school, or global problem.
5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
The challenge with this prompt is that it suggests that we all cross a clear line with childhood on one side and adulthood on the other. The idea that a single event can make us adults is pretty simplistic. Very few adults can point to a single moment of epiphany when, all of a sudden, they became adults.
For this prompt, think in terms of an accomplishment or an event.