Accepted! 50 successful college admission essays - Gen Tanabe, Tanabe Kelly 2008

Writing your masterpiece
The essay-writing workshop

In this chapter you will learn:

● Essential strategies for writing a great essay

● Why you must be the subject of your essay

● When the big game is a big mistake

● The 25 worst essay mistakes you must avoid

● How humor can kill your essay

Writing your masterpiece

Using the fi nest chocolate in the world does not guarantee a successful souffl e. This is because up until the time you serve it, the souffl e can catastrophically collapse upon itself. The same is true for your essay.

You can start with what seems like the best topic on your list, but once you start writing you may discover that your essay simply collapses.

The only way to see if you can bake—er, make—a successful essay is to actually write it. You will fi nd that some ideas that seemed promising do not translate well onto paper while others that were lower on your list end up making great essays.

Before you start writing, we would like to share with you some important strategies. While there is no limit to the number of ways to write a successful essay, all share common characteristics.

We also want to introduce you to the 25 Worst Essay Mistakes. While these mistakes can doom any essay, they continually appear on essays year after year. Creating a masterpiece means side-stepping these dangerous pitfalls.