Note to Students on the RD College Essay

1. Be sure to include the prompt when giving me any college essay writing piece.

2. Use MLA in your heading for work turned in.

3. Consider opening in media res, like Homer (though an epic may not follow).

4. Keep the active tense. Vary your sentences (do five sentences open with "I" or "My"? Change it). Be specific, avoid general statements about yourself and others.

5. Look for the arc of negative to positive or positive to negative to positive. The futher the poles, the faster they arc, the stronger the feeling.

6. Colleges are more interested in you than people you'd rather talk about.