642 Things to Write About

I'm a sucker for books about writing. I buy every one! A while ago, suffering from a bout of writer's block, I picked up 642 Things to Write About. It has writing exercises that can be used to get you started. Just today I flipped to a random page in the book and saw a few prompts that I thought might inspire a good college essay. 

1. A family (not your own) on the street where you grew up
2. The way you mistreated a friend
3. A letter to the editor

Speaking of letters to editors, if you have extra time on your hands, or a free thirty minutes every day, I strongly suggest reading the newspaper. (Blah blah, old advice Juli.) But do not just read the newspaper and the OpEd sections. Make sure to also check out the letters to the editors. Get multiple perspectives and then form your own. Don't skip the comments if you're reading online. It's one very good thing to learn to read the newspaper and digest analysis from well-respected writers. It's another even better thing to read the (oftentimes) well thought out reactions from readers who have strong feelings and opinions. Heck, it's even important to be exposed to the sometimes ignorant and antagonistic views of the public and be able to identify them as such.

And write your own letter to the editor. Participate in the conversation when you feel you can. Practice articulating your thoughts and involving yourself in the debate. Not just for college admissions and the essay, but for everything after. 

Landed in Shanghai

After a dramatic month of transition from New York to China, I am happy to announce that I have arrived safely and soundly in Shanghai. This past month has been a huge change for me, and I'll list the main events briefly here. Please bear with my update post. More on education (in China and otherwise) coming your way soon. 

* My New York life is packed up and I have moved to Shanghai, China. This is for personal and professional reasons, and I will be here for at least a handful of months. 

* I have signed with a great literary agent in NY to work on the book I've been writing, which is a coming of age memoir about, in short, Korean culture, KPop, education, and family. 

* Currently I am studying Chinese intensively.

* The work I do related to education consulting will proceed, as I work both remotely and in-person with clients. I have been meeting with education professionals in China and will continue to learn more about the education culture in this city and country before deciding what my next career step will look like.

* I've spent the past couple of weeks writing and traveling in Yunnan province, a great break after the crazy logistics of packing and moving away. 

Now back to the regularly scheduled program. :)

Do Asian students face too much academic pressure?

Thanks to my mom for forwarding me this article, and for not pressuring me too much as a kid. It's a fine line between pushing hard and pushing over the edge. I am not a parent, but I sympathize with the job - one of the toughest, and impossible to prepare for. 

CNN's Do Asian Students Face Too Much Academic Pressure

College Essays about $$$ Featured in the NYTimes

The NYTimes has rerun its application essay contest, Students and Money, and has published a few essays that they liked. 

Read them here.

I have to say, they are all great. But my favorite line was the ending of the fourth one, about her mother's hands. That sentence is really quite lovely, and a surprise, both in terms of meaning and rhythm.

Because that essay was one of my favorites, I'll do an analysis of the entire essay's structure below and see if we can reveal the skeleton, which you can try to use as an exercise when writing your own. :) Notice especially, how tight the essay is, and how well the theme of "hands" is integrated frequently throughout. 

Paragraph A: Introduction of Subject (Intro also serves as a small mirror of the larger essay's structure) 

1. Using synechdoche / figurative language to introduce the subject of the essay and also the subject's relationship/function to the writer.
2. Another sentence full of sensory language that serves to further add detail about the subject that is relevant to moving along the essay's topic (the fact that the mother works in a kitchen hints at her labor-intensive work).
3. A sentence that connects thematically to the paragraph (tears) but reveals the conflict/change to come.

Paragraph B: Introduction of Problem

1. Reason for problem
2. Restating problem in a different, also sensory way, using technique used in A1, via the theme of "hands" and the same figurative language technique.
3. Sensory detail, extension of problem via hands imagery.

Paragraph C: Effect of the Problem - Conflict

1. Effect of problem on writer (with a positive bent).
2. Effect of problem on writer (with a different, more negative bent).
3. Extension, with more detail - an example of why the writer was affected negatively.
4. Another example.
5. Larger view of the problem; rephrasing the problem as not a problem, viewing the situation with understanding and perspective.

Paragraph D: Restatement 

1. Summary of the effect of the problem - via theme of "hands."
2. Larger analysis of the problem in relation to society / America.

Paragraph E: Crisis & Resolution

1. Setting up the crisis with specifics of time/place. Introducing the problem.
2. Continuance of the action - building tension. Expanding action signals its significance.
3. Action, calling back to previous ideas (strong woman brought to weakness)
4. Action, hint at the cause of the crisis (phone), another reference to the theme (fist/hands).
5. Revelation of cause.
6. Reaction to understanding the cause.
7. Reaction to cause, marking growth and change both in time and in action. Appeals to emotions.
8. Effect of reaction. Appeals to emotions.
9. Summary of change that occurred.
10. Summary of growth that inspired the change. 
11. Thematic understanding based on the problem, crisis, & resolution, stated through the imagery of the theme, hands. 

My College Essays

I wrote two college essays. One was about singing in a high school rock band. One was about my mother’s influence on my life. I’ll give you a summary of both essays, and then explain why I chose to write about the two topics. Note, my essays didn’t really have titles - I just created them for this post.

1. Band of Brothers

I was in a funk rock band in high school. I was the singer and lyricist, and there were three others in the band with me - Nathan (bass), Geoff (guitar), and Jason (drums). The essay was thematically about the idea of “brotherhood.”

I thought this was pretty clever, since, well, I’m a girl. But the point that I was trying to get across through my essay was that the friendships that I made at school with my bandmates (who happened to be boys) taught me lessons about friendship, loyalty, teamwork - in a word, brotherhood. But through the group experience, I also learned a lot about myself, about music, and about my own tastes and goals.

2. The Decision that Changed My Life

I wrote another essay about the influence my mother has had on me. The essay centered on the story of her deciding to leave a pretty horrible marriage to raise my sister and me on her own. She made her decision in large part so that my sister and I might see her as a woman who respects herself and stands up for herself, and so that we might also become strong, independent women ourselves one day. The essay included some backstory on my parents’ relationship, some explanation of the trials she went through on her own, analysis of the impact of her action on my life, how I’ve tried to be like her in some ways, and how I’m still learning. My mother is one of the bravest, most independent, smart, and resourceful women I know, and her actions changed the course of my life.

Why did I write these two essays?

I wrote on these topics because they were moments in time when my life (because of my actions or choices, or the actions or choices of someone close to me) could have veered in another direction. I changed and grew so much because I formed a band with three friends. My life took a completely different path when my mother left Korea and her marriage to raise us on her own. 

There are moments like these in every person’s life. They can be big or small, dramatic or quiet. They may be experiences of intense joy and optimism, or they may be periods of immense doubt and challenge. If you were to try to come up with these moments for yourself, try to visualize your life as a straight line that begins at the point when you are born. It continues on in a straight and consistent way for some time, maybe months or years or decades, until something happens to you or your family or even your country. Maybe you fall down and hurt yourself; maybe your family moves; maybe you fall in love with a piece of music or a book. At that point, the line bends to a certain degree because you have changed, and it begins to take another path. It continues straight on that path for a while until the next life-defining change occurs. Your job is to identify these junctures, these moments of change. What happened, why, who was involved, and how did you grow as a result? 

In other words, find X: I would be totally different if X hadn't happened.

Obviously, this is just one way of brainstorming subjects for college essays. My essays were two experiences I wanted to write about when I was 18; only later did I try to analyze how I might have gotten to my ideas in general. For a college essay, you can write about anything - your favorite object, a joke you heard once, the way you decorate your room. The options are endless really. But if you’re stuck, trying to think about the “moments of your life” is one way to get started.