College Essay Reflection
This project was all about learning to write a well-done college admissions essay that would get you accepted later on. Personally it helped me realize what exactly colleges are looking for in an essay. Before this unit I attempted to write my essay in an over formalized, yet vague and undetailed voice. I wrote in a manner that didn’t sound like me and didn’t’ create a strong emotional connection with the reader. In my second draft for example, I wrote
The first of these was almost immediately dislodged as I scanned the sea of waiters and spotted the signs, OxTrad, OxPrep, and CamPrep, but these weren’t for me, I was in the CamTrad Program; a summer school of sorts, for 15 to 17 year olds who want to learn like college students at Cambridge.
This section didn’t add anything to my essay, other than some unnecessary, rather dull context. Thanks to the overwhelming amount of feedback I received, saying thing like, “… bring the experience itself more alive for a reader” I was eventually able to create more powerful, vivid imagery.
“Right hand, green,” announced Jai, our Canadian. It was my turn; green was the farthest color from me. I reached, slipped, and toppled our entire precarious pile. The were a few silent seconds, and then we all burst into laughter, and my shy, unsure, awkward self shattered.
As you can likely guess, changes like this did not come easily. In fact my process, more often than not, simply involved throwing out my last draft and writing a new one. Then I would get more feedback and the process would begin anew. Several generations passed this way, before I finally had work that I was not only satisfied with, but also proud of. The final version is posted below.
The first of these was almost immediately dislodged as I scanned the sea of waiters and spotted the signs, OxTrad, OxPrep, and CamPrep, but these weren’t for me, I was in the CamTrad Program; a summer school of sorts, for 15 to 17 year olds who want to learn like college students at Cambridge.
This section didn’t add anything to my essay, other than some unnecessary, rather dull context. Thanks to the overwhelming amount of feedback I received, saying thing like, “… bring the experience itself more alive for a reader” I was eventually able to create more powerful, vivid imagery.
“Right hand, green,” announced Jai, our Canadian. It was my turn; green was the farthest color from me. I reached, slipped, and toppled our entire precarious pile. The were a few silent seconds, and then we all burst into laughter, and my shy, unsure, awkward self shattered.
As you can likely guess, changes like this did not come easily. In fact my process, more often than not, simply involved throwing out my last draft and writing a new one. Then I would get more feedback and the process would begin anew. Several generations passed this way, before I finally had work that I was not only satisfied with, but also proud of. The final version is posted below.