Writing to Analyze the Prompt

Before you can write a college-entrance essay, you need to understand what the college wants you to write about and why. Carefully read and analyze the prompt by asking the PAST questions about it:

• Purpose: Why am I writing? (to introduce myself, telling how I will enrich life on campus)
• Audience: Who will read my writing? (admissions officers)
• Subject: What am I writing about? (a particular life experience, talent, commitment, or interest I have)
• Type: What form should my writing take? (an essay)

College-entrance prompt:

• Purpose: Why am I writing?
• Audience: Who will read my writing?
• Subject: What am I writing about?
• Type: What form should my writing take?

Reading a College-Entrance Essay

Before you try your hand at writing a college-entrance essay, you should review a sample writing prompt and the essay that one student wrote in response. Note how the student uses the PAST strategy to analyze the prompt and develop an on-target response.

Reading a Student Model

Read the following prompt and the student's PAST analysis.

Warm-Up for College-Entrance Writing

Heading from high school to an even higher education can be a daunting prospect. You'll go from being the oldest and most experienced student to the youngest and least experienced. You'll also need to find the right school to help you achieve your goals. Finding that school—and making sure that school finds you—is a process.

One key part of the process is the college application. You'll provide all kinds of information about yourself, including your high school transcripts, standardized test scores, letters of recommendation, and intended field of study. On most applications, you'll be asked to write one or more essays focusing on some aspect of your life or education and how it relates to your goals. Providing an on-target response begins with understanding the college-entrance prompt.

What Is a College-Entrance Prompt?

© Thoughtful Learning 2018

A college-entrance prompt is a brief set of instructions telling you what to write about on a college application. To analyze a prompt, you can use the PAST questions:

• Purpose: Why am I writing? (to explain, to define, to narrate, to show?)
• Audience: Who will read this? (admissions officers, fellow freshmen, college community?)
• Subject: What am I writing about? (leadership, community service, education, vision?)
• Type: What form should my writing take? (personal essay, biographical essay, reflection?)

In this unit, you'll learn to use the PAST mnemonic to analyze any college-entrance prompt or any other writing assignment you receive. First, though, you should warm up your thinking by reflecting on your goals after high school.

Thinking About the Past and Future

Before you start applying to schools, you should think about your past and future. A reflection chart can help you track how you are changing over time.

Editing for Subject-Verb Agreement

When you write using the literary present tense, you need to make sure that subjects and verbs agree in number (singular or plural). Note these other tips for ensuring subject-verb agreement.

A singular subject needs a singular verb, and a plural subject needs a plural verb.

Two or more subjects joined by and are always plural.

When two or more subjects are joined by or or nor, the verb should agree with the last subject.

Collective nouns treated as one thing are singular; those treated as a group of individuals are plural.

When words come between the subject and verb, make sure to match the true subject.

Revising to Use Literary Present Tense

Sometimes you might struggle with the tense of verbs in a literary analysis. Do you say, "Richard Adams lived in Whitchurch, England" or "Richard Adams lives in Whitchurch, England," (when he is deceased)? Do you say "Richard Adams combined anthropomorphic fiction with naturalism" or "Richard Adams combines anthropomorphic fiction with naturalism"? And if you are in present tense for your main text, how do you handle quotations in past tense?

When you write a literature review, you should use literary present tense. This style of writing treats the piece of literature as something new and fresh whenever it is read rather than being something stuck in the past. Follow these rules to write effectively in the literary present tense:

When speaking about the work and the events in it, use the present tense.

When referring to historical events in the author's life or in the world at the time, use the past tense.

Keep the tense of quotations even if they do not match the surrounding text.

Writing the Beginning Paragraph

Start your essay with a lead that gets readers' attention and orients them to the piece of literature you will analyze. After your lead sentence, you will develop a paragraph that ends with your thesis statement.

1. Name the work and author and summarize its importance.

Watership Down by Richard Adams is a story about rabbits, but it's also about refugees and vision quests and the making of great leaders.

2. Quote a review of the literature.

“Once snared, you'll be gripped uncompromisingly by a master teller of tales. And chances are you'll not recall nobler heroes than the rabbits seeking happiness on Watership Down.”
—The Atlanta Constitution

3. Provide an engaging fact.

Humans domesticated dogs tens of thousands of years ago, when we were still hunters and gatherers.

4. Ask an interesting question.

Have you ever seen a sleeping dog snuff and snort, legs scrabbling sideways on the floor, twitching in some dream of the hunt?

Writing the Middle Paragraphs

Prewriting to Select a Work

You may already know what story or novel you want to write about. If not, answering a set of questions can give you some options:

Reading a Literary Analysis

Before you begin your own literary analysis, you should read a paper created by another student. As you read, note how the writer describes the key events in the life of an important character and connects the events to larger themes. He also paraphrases and quotes from the novel. Click on the side notes to study these and other features.

Reading a Student Model

This reading analyzes the character arc of Hazel from Watership Down, showing how his decisions, actions, and sacrifices slowly transform him into a leader. The overall structure includes a beginning paragraph, multiple body paragraphs, and an ending paragraph. The writer uses source citations as well as historical context and discussions of theme to show the significance of Hazel's transformation in the novel.

Warm-Up for Analyzing Literature

You arrive at the lunch table only to discover that your friends are chattering excitedly about something that happened in class. You, of course, want "the full story": Who was involved? What happened? Where and when? Why did it happen? How?

Every story, whether told around the lunch table or written in a work of literature, contains those basic elements: