Roadmap:
Step 1. Brainstorming
The first step in writing your college essay is choosing a topic. An interesting topic makes your essay fascinating! So take your time for this. Start with a brainstorming session. Sit in a quiet place and let your thoughts wander. Write or draw everything that comes up; Go with the flow of your thoughts and write down each central idea on a separate Post-It. Focusing on a specific topic will come later! Let it flow… and take note.
>>> Top Tip!
Work with a mind map : a very effective thinking tool that allows you to visualize information from your brain. Research from the Johns Hopkins School of Education shows that students who apply the mind map score on average results that are 12% higher than those of students who do not. How does the mind map work? Take a separate sheet of paper for each main idea for your essay. Stick each Post-It with a central idea in the center of a sheet of paper. Around it, draw or write words, ideas, or items (secondary thoughts) that relate to your central idea. They form the ‘branches’ to the ’trunk’ of your main idea. Smaller ideas or items can be attached to the branches as ’twigs’. This way you quickly get an overview. The mind map is a fantastic tool for every student, but especially valuable for students with dyslexia or autism!
Step 2. Choose your topic (and define it)
Choose the sheet of paper with the topic that really appeals to you and about which you have a clear opinion. The more fervently you can write about it, the more powerful your college essay will be! This also applies to the definition of your college essay: if you define your topic well, the story of your essay becomes less general and you can delve deeper into your topic. Demarcation also ensures that your essay does not become too long. However, you want to avoid defining things too sharply: you want there to be enough to say about your subject.
Step 3. Preliminary research
Read carefully first. Gather information about your topic from multiple sources, with diverse perspectives, so that you get a sense of the different positions and arguments. Search online for information. Visit the library. Talk to someone who knows a lot about the subject. This way you can soon start writing well-founded. Don’t forget to carefully note all your sources so you can reference them in your essay!
Step 4. Develop a statement
The topic has been chosen. Nice! But you still have to come up with the core of your college essay: a thesis. A thesis is one sentence with an opinion about the topic of your essay. This sentence is the most important one you will write in your entire essay… and perhaps the most difficult! Your statement must be formulated (very) clearly and specifically. There is no room for vague or uncertain here! You have a good statement if it reflects your opinion and you can substantiate it with sufficient arguments.
>>> Top Tip!
How do you arrive at a good statement? Formulating a statement is not really difficult, if you use a little skill. First ask yourself a question about your topic. For example, you have chosen insects as a source of nutrition as the topic for your college essay. Now ask yourself a question about this. The answer to this question can form your statement! For example: why is it valuable to do more research into insects as a large-scale food source? Because this is a sustainable food source! This is your position. You can now formulate your statement as follows:
Insects must be used on a large scale as a source of nutrition; this will contribute to a more sustainable world.
