The purpose of this workshop series is to assist rising seniors and others in the early start of writing a quality college admissions essay. The series includes four 75-minute live web-based workshops, supplemented by custom YouTube instructional videos. After completing the series, participants will:
1. Become familiar with most recent Common Application essay prompts
2. Appreciate the importance of the college essay
3. Demonstrate an appreciation/understanding of the basic rules of grammar/usage
4. Apply the principles of rhetoric within their writing
5. Submit a first draft of their essay
6. Receive an edited/reviewed copy of their first draft
Workshop I
The goal of Workshop I is to engage students in a discussion about the importance and goal of the admissions essay. Further, this workshop shall review the essay topic choices for The Common Application. The workshop will emphasize the importance of “voice over topic” when deciding what to write about. The preliminary concepts of the writing process will be presented and discussed. Upon completion of the workshop participants will:
1. Recognize why the admissions essay is important
2. Distinguish The Common Application essay topics
3. Contemplate and choose an essay topic
4. Differentiate the major parts of an essay
5. Construct a preliminary outline of their essay
Workshop II
The goal of Workshop II is to engage students in a discussion about rhetorical writing and effective writing techniques. Basic rhetoric tenets including ethos, logos, and pathos will be discussed. Examples of effective writing will be presented. Individual essay topics will be discussed and narrowing of the topic scope will be emphasized. Upon completion of the workshop participants will:
1. Identify and use writing techniques that reflect ethos, logos, and pathos.
2. Articulate why their chosen topic is unique and adds value to their admissions packet
3. Recognize that their essay topic is sufficiently narrow in scope to be effective 650 words or
4. Be prepared to begin the drafting process
Workshop III
The goal of Workshop III is to review important tenets of grammar, usage, sentence/paragraph structure, etc. Also, the process of “drilling down” to the word limit will be discussed. Upon completion of the workshop participants will:
1. Write a first draft of their admissions essay
2. Detect errors in usage, sentence structure, etc.
3. Compare first draft to the initial outline
4. Submit first draft for third party review
Workshop IV
The goal of Workshop IV is to review excerpts (anonymously) of submitted drafts for the purpose of group/peer critique and application of concepts and principles discussed and practiced in all previous workshops. Following this peer critique and combined with comments from the third-party reviewer of the first draft, participants should be prepared to move to the second and perhaps near final draft of their admissions essay. Upon completion of the workshop participants will:
1. Analyze provided peer and third-party feedback
2. Determine changes/clarifications to be included in second draft
3. Write second draft
4. Submit second draft for third party review
