Learn The Genre 

 

The Common App personal statement has a haze of myths enveloping it. Writing this essay isn’t about spinning an outlandish tale in the hopes of appearing unique, or explaining an endless portfolio of accomplishments. Simply put, the best essays tell a strong story that feels human and mature—stories of challenges overcome, insights gained, and transformations attained.

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    Dig Deep

 

High school can feel like a flurry of experiences—sometimes it’s hard to remember just what happened. We guide students to reflect expansively and deeply on their first three years of high school so that all potential stories surface. 

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This phase may even involve assignments that prompt students to be resourceful: it helps to ask parents, friends, or teachers what stories about the student have stuck in their minds. Then we evaluate which narratives are ideal for the Common App and Supplemental essays.

 

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    Plan Well

 

Students love to skip the planning stage—why not just plunge into the actual writing so we can get the thing done? Well, planning well can help you get the thing done faster and more effectively; it helps avoid ruts and time-consuming re-writes. We guide students through best practices for brainstorming, choosing the best topic, organizing ideas, and outlining paragraphs.

 

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    Draft Pro

 

Drafting is a creative balance. Sometimes the writing process leads to new insights that necessitate alterations to the outline. We help students conceptualize drafting not as a mechanical conversion of the outline to the essay but as an organic process that expands their understanding of the entire project. This component covers:

• the problem of analysis (what is it? how do we do it best?)

• the purpose of examples

• paragraph structure

• the meaningful flow of paragraphs

• ideal approaches to introductions and conclusions

 

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    The Science of Sentences

 

If paragraphs are the limbs of your essay, sentences are the muscles. An essay with strongly crafted sentences can sway a reader toward your argument and make the reader feel well-guided. Here we cover grammar essentials, the vast menu of sentence varieties, rhetorically strategic sentence types, and the creative relation that sentence structure bears toward shaping tone, meaning, connotation, and emphasis.

 

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    Vocabulary, Diction, Style 

 

Wielding a strong vocabulary (and knowing how to deploy it effectively) can drastically improve a student’s writing. Our vocabulary component hones students’ skills in acquiring, remembering, and using vital words for their essays. 

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We show students how the lexicon they decide to use (diction) affects the style of their writing—and how that aspect of their craft can be harnessed toward a more vigorous final product.

 

 

   

    Revise, Revise

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All writing is revising. The first draft is a revision of the outline. The outline is even a revision of the brainstorm. Revision is not just tinkering with a draft or implementing your teacher’s comments. Revision is a creative act of reconstruction. 

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We introduce students to vivid examples of different phases along the revision process and guide them to rethink this often pesky task as an opportunity to invigorate their writing.