Prewriting to Think About Problems

Problems are everywhere in life. You can start to think about problems by considering any aspect of life, from food to families to fun, and think about the problems that can come up in those areas. Start by consulting the Basics of Life List. This list contains all of the essentials of life—general subject areas. Pick one or two subjects that interest you. Then list problems that relate to that subject. You can click on any of these subject areas to find more resources related to it.

One student selected the subject "Personality" to write about and created a cluster to explore pain points with personality. Afterward, the student chose to write about his own struggles with anxiety, depression, and seasonal affective disorder, and the solutions he has found to help him manage his mood states.

Editing to Fix Sentence Shifts

For the most part, you should stick to a specific tense (past or present) and a specific person (first or third) in your essay. Unnecessary shifts can be distracting or even confusing:

Revising to Target the Prompt

First, you need to make sure you have answered the prompt. A brilliant essay that talks about rock climbing will not score well when the prompt asked for a definition of leadership. You can use your PAST analysis of the prompt to check your response. Turn each answer into a question, and use them to analyze your response.

• Purpose: Why am I writing? (Do I introduce myself and tell how I will enrich life on campus?)
• Audience: Who will read my writing? (Do I address admissions officers, providing the information they need to know about me?)
• Subject: What am I writing about? (Do I focus on a particular life experience, talent, commitment, or interest I have?)
• Type: What form should my writing take? (Do I compose my answer as an essay?)

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?

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?

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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: