How to Write a College Essay | With Examples

College essays are like the awkward first date of the academic world. They're nerve-wracking, sometimes awkward, and you're never quite sure what to say. But fear not! In this article, we'll give you all the tips and tricks you need to make a great college essay to impress your professors!

Every student has to write their first college essay at some point, whether they are ready or not. Writing a college essay is difficult even if you have a gift for language. Here is a plan of attack for finishing the job, as well as some case studies to help you get started.

Preparing to write your college essay

There's an old saying "Those who fail to plan, prepare to fail." Instead of wasting time and effort cleaning up a mess after it has already been made, why not just prevent creating it in the first place?

Verify your comprehension of the task at hand. There is no disgrace in asking your educator for clarification. Knowing what she's looking for is crucial to your achievement. Listed below are some suggested approaches to eliciting further explanation.

Do your research and sketch out a plan as you go. Combine the time spent researching and sketching into one easy process. Make a bulleted list of the points you want to address and add them to your info dump as you continue your investigation. Incorporate in-progress references and article links for easy access.

Try to put together your message. In other words, what will be the crux of your case? To argue effectively, you must first have something to argue about.

Make a template that is universally accepted. Now that you have a better grasp of your thesis statement or main point, you can begin structuring your data deluge. Eliminate any extraneous details and arrange them in the standard blueprint format.

Drafting your essay

After doing your homework (or just brainstorming, if your essay prerequisite is more personal) you'll be pumped and ready to start writing about all the fascinating information you've discovered. Put that enthusiasm towards composing a rough copy.

The parts of a college essay

• Introduction

It would be best if you summarized what the rest of your essay will cover in your introduction. Consider it a short road plan that consists of an attention-grabbing lead-in, a synopsis of the subject and ideas to be presented, and a statement of your thesis.

• Opening hook

Attract attention in the first line to keep the reader interested throughout the entire piece. 

For Example;

It's possible that some dads would frown upon their kids experimenting with toxic substances in the workshop.

Every time I purchase at Starbucks, I use a different identity.

• Summary of your topic, ideas, or argument

The first line of your paper should serve as an introduction to the topic and the points you plan to make. All of these should serve as a context for the thesis assertion you'll make after the introductory paragraph. After your introductory paragraph, you should express your argument.

As biotechnologies like gene therapy become more commonplace, the discussion surrounding players' use of PEDs becomes more nuanced. With these new performance-enhancing tools at our disposal, we'll have to decide whether we care more about seeing displays of physical brilliance earned through hard effort, or winning at any cost. Traditions of equitable play have been prized by sports fans and participants for generations.

• Thesis statement

A thesis statement from the aforementioned Skyline College sample is provided below. It announces the central argument that will be argued throughout the article.

Winning is the primary goal of any sports challenge, but how a player or squad achieves victory is just as important. By giving themselves an undue edge, athletes who use biotechnology should be disqualified from the competition.

• Body

What's at risk is outlined in the introduction, and supporting proof is provided in the body. A persuasive essay might use the study as its proof. In a more introspective piece of writing, the author might draw upon their own life experiences.

Create a coherent structure for the main body. Certain writings benefit from a sequential presentation of events, in which the story unfolds in the order in which they occurred. A common tactic in argumentative essays is to start with the least essential arguments and work up to the most crucial ones.

Be bold and make strong claims in your essay if you've done the research, but do make sure to credit your sources correctly. Put Grammarly's anti-plagiarism software to work for you to ensure that all of your sources are correctly cited. (Trust us, your educator will discover any instances of plagiarism if you don't!)

• Conclusion

It's all nice and tidy by the end of your conclusion. Restating your argument without using identical language will do. Try to leave your reader with a thought or a tidbit of information. 

Common Tips for Writing College Essay

Here, we have compiled the most vital advice on what makes a good essay suitable for a college application. Here are seven of our recommended practices for writing a college essay.

1. Think about how the individual reading your essay will feel as they're reading it

I realize that completing a college essay is nobody's notion of a fun time. However, you can only picture how the reader of your essay will feel if you find settling down to write it a burden and are exhausted by what you're saying. However, if you write about something you're passionate about and that makes you feel like you've gotten to know yourself, I'll be eager to read your application and feel like I've gotten to know you, too.

2. Write like a journalist

In other words, "Don't hide the ball!" The first few lines of an essay should hook the reader, give them an idea of what the essay will be about, and set the tone for the rest of the piece. Consider the process by which you choose to peruse a particular piece. You make a judgment based on the first few words you read. The same holds for scholastic papers. With a compelling lede (journalistic shorthand for "lead"), you can convince your reader to embrace your argument right away. If your introduction isn't strong, your viewer will automatically assume the worst and dismiss your work.

3. Do not plagiarize

The writing you submit should accurately reflect your skills. It should be personal and reveal something about you that others don't already know. It is a serious breach of scholastic ethics to plagiarise another student's work. Make sure you're using your terms whenever you put pen to paper to describe your encounters.

4. Show your emotions

You should never summarise or enumerate facts about yourself; instead, use instances and particular experiences to demonstrate what you want the reader to know about you. Your life has a narrative to tell, and that tale will be more interesting and memorable to the reader if you present it logically and vibrantly.

5. Always adhere to the word limit

The school's word limit is there for a reason, and if you go over it, it looks like you either didn't care about the regulations or didn't pay attention to them. Any way you slice it, you're going to hurt your application! Make sure you are within the allotted word limit by checking your work. If you have answered the question and successfully conveyed your experiences, then answering in fewer words than the limit is fine.

6. Proofread

As was previously stated, the applications committee can learn a lot about your writing abilities by reading your statement essay. Poor spelling, punctuation, and unclear syntax can detract from, if not destroy, an otherwise riveting personal story. Don't give your reader a reason to dismiss your essay because of careless typing or grammar mistakes. To ensure your essay is well-written and error-free, you should reread it several times before turning it in at each step

Get your work checked by another person as well. Check with a trusted reader to see if they agree that your essay makes logic, that your point is made clearly, and that you successfully responded to the prompt. Inquire as to how they perceive the essay's author. Get a second opinion from a qualified individual, such as an instructor, advisor, or professor.

3 Examples of College Essays

With Jenni.ai, a natural language processing system, you can get essay subject ideas from any dataset. If you need help writing essays on the best essay topics, Jenni.ai is a fantastic artificial intelligence instrument to try.

Narrative Essay

1. Burying Grandmas’ Body

They used a brown mixture of rocks, decayed creatures, and plants to cover the priceless wood coffin. Time for me to take the spade, but I couldn't bring myself to send her off without a formal farewell. To offend her with filth was not something I was willing to do. I couldn't believe that disease could take my grandma from me, so I held on to her as long as I could.

I was twelve years old when my parents broke the news to me that my grandma had been fighting liver cancer, and I was furious, mainly at myself. They had been trying to shield me, a young child of only six at the time, from the weighty and morbid subject of mortality. But when the end did come, I wasn't trying to grasp death; I was trying to figure out how I could have ignored my sick grandma in favour of playing with friends and watching television. Angry at my parents for lying to me and ashamed of my ignorance, I vowed to stop this kind of deception from ever happening to anyone else.

I was determined to break free of my illiteracy, and I knew that schooling was the only way to do so. I committed to myself that I would remember every fact and assimilate every detail from my cancer-related coursework and medical literature. I started to think about the future and how the knowledge I had gained in school could one day help me to silence the very thing that had silenced my grandma. In contrast, I was preoccupied not with education per se but with academic success. At first, I thought that if I could just get straight A's in school, she would forgive me for being such a terrible niece.

A walk along a path behind my home, however, helped me see things for what they were. Graduation requirements and academic performance eventually eclipsed all other considerations, including respect for my grandma. The tall blackened trees from the forest fire a few years ago, the faintly coloured stones embedded in the pavement, and the wispy white clouds floating in the sky all served to humble me as my shoes meekly pressed against the Earth. The only way I was going to be able to forgive myself was to expand my understanding of the world and my duties to my fellow humans.

My time spent as a volunteer at a facility dedicated to cancer care was formative in pointing me in the right direction. In my line of work, I often have conversations with patients who are stuck in the hospital and, more broadly, in a particular moment due to the effects of their illnesses. Ivana spends six hours, three times a week, in an environment that subtly but continuously reminds her of her breast cancer thanks to the IV stands, the blank walls, and the active nurses. Her visage is as pale and exhausted as mine was when she was young, but her kindness remains. It takes nothing more than a friendly greeting and a grin from me to bring a glimmer of hope back to her countenance. She told me about her two boys, her birthplace, and her needlework group on our first date, but she never once brought up her illness. Without moving a muscle, Ivana, my grandma, and I went for a stroll.

Although cancer may seem overwhelming, it only accounts for a small portion of a person's overall lifespan. When one's mental and physical faculties are compromised, it's simple to lose track of important details. My goal as an oncologist is to encourage my patients to step outside and appreciate the beauty of the world around them because there is more to living than fighting an illness. While I work to cure their illness, I hope to give my patients the social and psychological fortitude they need to push past this setback and carry on with their lives. In doing so, I can receive the shovel without burying my grandmother's legacy.

Personal Statement Essay

2. The Grandma’s Kimchi

On weekends, I regularly awoke to the pungent aroma of freshly ground pepper and garlic. Many times, I've stumbled into the kitchen to find my grandmother crouching over a large silver dish, mixing fresh cabbage lips with garlic, salt, and red pepper. I made kimchi, a delicious Asian delicacy, every weekend.

Kimchi, my grandmother's speciality, was always the star of the show at family meals. And just like my grandmother, the enticing aroma of garlic seemed to be a permanent fixture in our house. My grandma's intellect was ravaged by Alzheimer's disease, and not even her prized formula could save it.

Dementia steadily ate away at her memory until she was as memory-free as a freshly opened notepad. The strict routine of Saturday mornings ceased, and at dinner, the fake flavour of factory kimchi served in hoover packaging only served to highlight the lack of the family custom. When I was young, I would frequently glance at my grandmother and enquire, "Grandma, what is my name?" Yet, her blank face never changed as she reflected on it to me. Less than a year after her illness, she treated us all like strangers.

When I was a kid, my mum would occasionally bring home green cabbages and red pepper sauce. She emptied the cabbages into an antique silver dish and seasoned them liberally with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. My nostrils prickled at the reassuringly sour aroma. My grandmother, sitting on the sofa in the living room, rose gingerly and, seemingly drawn by the aroma, sat down next to the silver dish containing the spiced cabbages. Her visage hardened as her skeletal hands ripped the green lips. Her wrinkled hands may have lost their deftness, but her wrinkled visage still betrayed the rigour of an expert. There was a distinct odour of garlic in the air, and the sound of the silver dish clanging around the kitchen was heard for the first time in years.

Kimchi was on the menu for tea that night. The cabbages had been roughly chopped, and there was p t too much garlic. That said, I've never had kimchi that I liked better than this. My grandmother used to give me a portion and say, "Here, Dong Jin. Give it a shot, kid. This summer's visit with Grandma made that certainty seem fleeting. The rapid progression of her sickness was reflected in the state of her dishevelled hair and expressionless visage.

In spite of this, as I held her palms and stared into her eyes while smelling the odour of garlic lingered. Saturday's early memories have stayed with me. The red pepper flakes that Grandma sprinkled on the cabbages made them look like paintings. As I write, I'm trying to conjure up those feelings and sensations, like the tangy flavour of kimchi, in my mind's mouth.

A written work is more than the sum of its parts. Feelings are stirred up by it. They are inspiring, yes. It perfectly depicts the passing of time. yes. It perfectly depicts the passing of time. My grandmother always said, "Tigers leave furs when they pass, but people leave their names." She left behind the lingering aroma of garlic, which I now associate with her. These are the terms I choose to use.

Montage Essay

3. Breaking Into Cars

“I had never broken into a car before.

We were in Laredo, having just finished our first day at a Habitat for the Humanity work site. The Hotchkiss volunteers had already left, off to enjoy some Texas BBQ, leaving me behind with the college kids to clean up. Not until we were stranded did we realize we were locked out of the van.

Someone picked a coat hanger out of the dumpster, handed it to me, and took a few steps back.

"Can you do that thing with a coat hanger to unlock it?"

"Why me?" I thought.

More out of amusement than optimism, I gave it a try. I slid the hanger into the window's seal as I'd seen on crime shows, and spent a few minutes jiggling the apparatus around the inside of the frame. Suddenly, two things simultaneously clicked. One was the lock on the door. (I actually succeeded in springing it.) The other was the realization that I'd been in this type of situation before. I'd been born into this type of situation.

My upbringing has numbed me to unpredictability and chaos. With a family of seven, my home was loud, messy, and spottily supervised. My siblings arguing, the dog barking, and the phone ringing—all meant my house was functioning normally. My Dad, a retired Navy pilot, was away half the time. When he was home, he had a parenting style something like a drill sergeant. At the age of nine, I learned how to clear burning oil from the surface of the water. My Dad considered this a critical life skill”

In this essay, the authors explained that he has spent his entire existence getting ready for the future. A product of disorder and his father's parenting style, he is now equipped to make his way in a world beyond his control.

Successful personal works show the reader how the author has changed and matured as a result of their experiences. Mature, self-aware applicants are highly sought after by universities. Students with these traits are more likely to succeed in higher education because they are better able to deal with the freedom, adult obligations, and uncertainty that characterize the college experience.

Conclusion

In conclusion, writing a college essay can be a challenging but rewarding task. To create a successful essay, it's important to start early, choose a compelling topic, organize your thoughts, and edit your work carefully. Remember to stay true to your voice and experiences while also demonstrating your writing skills and academic potential. By following these guidelines, you can craft a thoughtful and impactful essay that showcases your unique perspective and sets you apart from other applicants.

Jenni.ai can quickly write an essay on any subject you like, such as writing an essay on the best essay topics and making it sound like it was written by a person. In many ways, that's the best option for you. The programme uses AI to compose a thesis on any given subject quickly. If you want some help composing an essay, we recommend that you give Jenni.ai a try.