WHS examples of draft College Essays are now featured at the top of Mr. Bratnober's ClassJump page. There are two Three-Traits essays and one Life-Changing Experience essay. All three scanned essays include notes on prose style as well as comments on content.
If you haven't already done so, please consult the blog links to the Star-Tribune, the New York Times, and other sources with respect to the personal essay for college admission.
Second drafts of the College Essay will be due for peer editing on Thursday, May 30 (*in triplicate). The deadline for final submittal is Friday, May 31.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
The College Essay
Voila! The assignment sheet is now posted on ClassJump -- it's one of the the first three or four items under Course Downloads.
This is almost unavoidably a helpful assignment. Writing now should leave you with solid material to work with next fall. Alternatively, it might help you to vent some of your worst stuff -- to exorcize your demons (and/or baloney) in Room 201, clearing your mental landscape sufficiently that you could write something beautiful in the summer.
Last of all, what you write today should push your prose style no matter where you stand on the spectrum of excellence in writing, for style is the main attention-getter in hooking the interest of the university admissions reader.
THE PARTICULARS: Type and double-space, including your first draft. Roughly 750 words -- which is to say 1.5 to 2 pages. 12-point font, with one-inch margins. First draft: Monday, May 20, at class time.
In the days ahead I will scan and post successful Woodbury essays from the past. You might also scan recent articles on the College Essay -- see publications such as the New York Times and others. Also, it's fairly easy to find companies that publish successful student essays, with commentary from college admissions officers.
This is almost unavoidably a helpful assignment. Writing now should leave you with solid material to work with next fall. Alternatively, it might help you to vent some of your worst stuff -- to exorcize your demons (and/or baloney) in Room 201, clearing your mental landscape sufficiently that you could write something beautiful in the summer.
Last of all, what you write today should push your prose style no matter where you stand on the spectrum of excellence in writing, for style is the main attention-getter in hooking the interest of the university admissions reader.
THE PARTICULARS: Type and double-space, including your first draft. Roughly 750 words -- which is to say 1.5 to 2 pages. 12-point font, with one-inch margins. First draft: Monday, May 20, at class time.
In the days ahead I will scan and post successful Woodbury essays from the past. You might also scan recent articles on the College Essay -- see publications such as the New York Times and others. Also, it's fairly easy to find companies that publish successful student essays, with commentary from college admissions officers.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
Please remember that we will discuss and dissect -- some may even dispute -- Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address in class on Thursday, May 2.
With that in mind, you'd do well to read this short address twice more -- once to yourself with a pencil in hand, and a second time out loud, sampling the ebb and swell of Lincoln's auditory rhetoric.
Also, you'll do much better as we work on rhetorical strategy Thursday if you can identify at least three of Lincoln's strategies in this speech. It's fine if you can use formal names (metaphor, e.g.); however, the most important thing is not the name!! -- Oh no, it's describing strategies accurately, explaining how they advance Lincoln's purpose as he accepts the American presidency for the second time, in March 1865.
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
With that in mind, you'd do well to read this short address twice more -- once to yourself with a pencil in hand, and a second time out loud, sampling the ebb and swell of Lincoln's auditory rhetoric.
Also, you'll do much better as we work on rhetorical strategy Thursday if you can identify at least three of Lincoln's strategies in this speech. It's fine if you can use formal names (metaphor, e.g.); however, the most important thing is not the name!! -- Oh no, it's describing strategies accurately, explaining how they advance Lincoln's purpose as he accepts the American presidency for the second time, in March 1865.
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
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