5 College Essay Topics You Should Never, Ever Write About

5 College Essay Topics You Should Never, Ever Write About Instead it had been reconciled to a life on the shelf, watching the world but not participating in it. The tone of each book seemed to have a distinctive resonance; they quickened different parts of my being. I was raised on Roald Dahl, J.D. Salinger, C.S. Lewis, John Steinbeck, and J.R.R Tolkien. They were approachable, easy enough for a child to follow, and yet monumentally more vast, multifaceted, and meaningful than they appeared to me at the time. Even so, from a young age, I could tell a good book from a bad one. It wasn’t until my teenage years, however, that I could tell you what made these books good, or express what they meant in terms of almost anything but plot. My reaction to literature was largely emotionalâ€"I could sense the tones and vaguely grasp the meanings of the novels. I could not, however, decode them in a way that allowed their import to live on, linguistically, within me. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. It changed my perceptions of myself and of the world around me. More pieces of the puzzle left by my forbearers, both Jewish and German, fall into place. Don't use the same words over and over in your essay. Most word processing software has a “thesaurus” function. If you find you're repeating the same words, use it. To set yourself apart using the same things other people use will require some creativity. Some colleges or programs will give you several questions or prompts to choose from, or even give you the option of responding to more than one prompt. Choose the question that you think you can answer the most effectively. My first introduction to The Book Thief came when I plucked it from the bookshelf in my dad’s officeâ€"with permission, for I felt no desire to fulfill the irony of stealing a book about thievery. Fingers fumbling over the smooth cover and crisp spine, I prepared myself for a new journey. It had a distinct new-book smell, fresh and crisp and full of promise. Inside the front cover was scribbled a name, illegible. The book, or so my dad told me, had been given to him as a gift from a patient, but he had never even opened it. Once you come back to it, it can be easier to see where it needs editing, what you can keep, and what just doesn't work. It's tempting to embellish or overstate what you've done when you're trying to make yourself stand apart from others. You should not do this in your essay under any circumstances. Don't say you've done something or been somewhere you haven't. This is the central part in which you need to explain each thesis, give examples and reflect on life experiences. At this point, each paragraph should focus on a particular idea and be organized appropriately. How to arrange a massive swirl of ideas on a paper to make it look appealing and easily digestible? Without it, even the most remarkable topics and perfect grammar will not save the day. In addition to excessive wordiness, check for unnecessary tangents. When you're drafting your essay, you may end up adding things you didn't originally plan on. Go through your essay and make sure these points serve the main purpose of your essay. After you've drafted your essay, walk away from it for a while. What makes all these hooks stand out is the element of curiosity that forces readers to wonder how the entire story unfolds. Templates are an excellent means of understanding what form to fill your essay with and visualizing how your ideas will be arranged on paper. Don't feel like you have to limit yourself to the five-paragraph intro, body, body, body, conclusion format. When it comes to telling your story and sharing how valuable your experience will be to a school, portray it in the format that will be the most attractive to the school. When you're thinking about possible themes for your essay, remember that many applicants will have participated in the same groups and organizations as you have.