#Examples of rough draft outlines how to#

Once you’ve built an outline, you can dive in with drafting. With outlines like those, a first draft will be way easier (and take way less time and re-writing). Promoting women in underrepresented fields Kode with Klossy → community, social justice Model G20 Econ Summit, group collaboration Threaded Twine, women’s rights, breaking cycles Various activism as motivation/reminder to act vs just internalizeĬatapult → entrepreneurship, social justice, awareness, meaningful work Lol ur not Harry Styles → equality, activism, confidence We <3 data-preserve-html-node='true' Design → art, design, experimentationĮx: spent weekend designing websites, graphics for my companiesĬommon Threads → authenticity, open-mindednessīrother, interactions, thinking rationally Need to feel free-not just for them, but for me too Took on several leadership roles in clubs Won the honor of being the first student in my school to pass the AP Physics 1 exam

#Examples of rough draft outlines how to#

Learned how to fix a bike, swim, socialize We kept to ourselves when dealing with financial and medical issuesĪt times I was discouraged from meeting new people My brother and I took care of one another My brother and I shared the mental strain Narrative Outline (developed from the Feelings and Needs exercise) To see what I mean by a “good” outline, check out these outlines for the “What Had to Be Done” and “Laptop Stickers” essays: Luckily, the brainstorming exercises you’ve done set you up to build a good outline well.įor a Narrative, the different columns of your Feelings and Needs Exercise will become your outline.įor a Montage, the Five Things Exercise can quickly become a good outline, setting up the values you’ll demonstrate through the different experiences linked by your thread. Virtually every outstanding essay I’ve seen started as a strong outline. Where do you think they fall on the spectra above? Outlining

So look back at the topics you’ve thought of so far through the brainstorming exercises. To clarify, you can still write a great montage with a very common topic, or a narrative that offers so-so insights. (Insight is something that you’ll develop in an essay through the writing process, rather than something you’ll generally know ahead of time for a topic, but it’s useful to understand that some topics are probably easier to pull insights from than others.) “Insight” is the answer to the question “so what.” A great insight is likely to surprise the reader a bit, while a so-so insight likely won’t. While you can possibly write a strong essay about a weaker challenge, it’s really hard to do so. “Difficult or compelling challenges” can be put on a spectrum with things like getting a bad grade or not making a sports team on the weaker end and things like escaping war or living homeless for three years on the stronger side. It’s not that you can’t write about these things, but it’s a lot harder to stand out. “Uncommon”-every year, thousands of students write about mission trips, sports, or music. I might be able to connect mountain climbing to family, history, literature, science, social justice, environmentalism, growth, insight … and someone else might not connect it to much of anything.

“Elastic” will vary from person to person. These aren’t binary-rather, each exists on a spectrum. I believe that a Narrative essay is more likely to stand out if it contains: Uncommon (i.e., something other students probably aren’t writing about) Elastic (i.e., something you can connect to variety of examples, moments, or values) I believe a Montage Essay (i.e., an essay NOT about challenges) is more likely to stand out if the topic or theme of the essay is: With that in mind, how do you pick? What makes a good topic? Ultimately, you won’t know if a topic works until you try it.

In fact, it’s often a great thing-I’ve seen plenty of students spend time exploring one approach, then find another that allowed them to write a stronger personal statement. It’s time to pick something and start writing! Before we talk about how, a word to the wise: Your topic may change.