“Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.” – Willa Cather
The NY Times’ The Choice blog recently released its June College Checklist for Juniors, and can you guess what was on the list? That’s right folks! It’s officially essay time! The post suggests that June is the perfect time to begin the college essay, as the summer frees students from the added pressure of everyday […]
Rifling through your memory to identify important events and enertaining anecdotes from the past seventeen years of your life can be a daunting task. Where do you begin? How could you possibly be expected to remember everything that ever happened to you? It is often much harder to try and conjure these memories out of […]
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Q: Would it be bad to start with a two-sentence paragraph? All the rest of my paragraphs are normal length. A: When it comes to the college admissions essay, capturing the attention of an admissions officer can be difficult, and an opening paragraph that challenges traditional writing conventions can be an effective way to stand […]
One of our student Facebook friends asked us a great question this week, and as we began to respond, we realized the answer would be helpful to many of our essay-writing disciples. Thus begins our new CEA series, “Students Ask” in which we will call for questions each week and expound upon the ones we […]
Recently, New York Times columnist Ron Leiber asked students to submit college admissions essays related to “money, class, working and the economy,” and was rewarded with 66 entries to comb through alongside Harry Bauld, the author of On Writing The College Application Essay. Together, the two men selected four essays they found both compelling and […]
“The scariest moment is always just before you start.” -Stephen King
Even when we talk about how it starts, our students are sedentary. You’re going to sit down and write that essay. An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal suggests that we should all be doing our work standing up, or at the very least, sitting up straight. The advisors at CEA should take some lessons […]
We thought so.
