26
01.12
10:01
While an outline is a great way to streamline writing your draft, its main purpose is really to help you find an ideal structure for the paper before you start begin writing. Unless you’ve been specifically instructed to organize the material a certain way, there are tons of options for organizing any paper — not all of them equal in their effectiveness at conveying the message.
20
12.11
6:21
While you probably write very few personal essays in school, you’ll get a chance to write more of them after you’re out of school. Traditional media feature them regularly (opinion columns, lifestyle features) and a lot of new media (i.e. the internet) literally drown in personal essays.
25
11.11
11:12
Transitions are immensely useful for underscoring the intellectual relationships between sentences and paragraphs, spelling it out to the readers, instead of allowing them to come up with their own connections (often incorrectly). That’s why using transitions is highly encouraged, as it makes navigating your essay less of a guessing game.
21
11.11
6:09
When you’re asked to write a personal essay, do you find yourself struggling about which types of materials are appropriate for inclusion? Here’s a clue: all of it.