Preparing to Write a Draft (est. time-on-task – 60 minutes)
1. Make a list of 6-8 experiences that you think demonstrate some of the character traits and academic skills that will make you a good college student. For each experience, recall and record two or three “small moments” that capture the essence of the experience. (Click on this link to learn more about “small moments.”) No need to write out the moments. Just write down a few cue words that will enable you to recall and retell the moment when we get back to class.
2. For each small moment, use the “9 Personality Traits…” article, the “8 skills for creating knowledge” diagram, and the “16 essential habits of mind” table to identify and record the character traits and academic skills that you think are exemplified in that moment. Likely, each small moment will exemplify multiple competencies and traits.
Possible Topic Probes
- What has been the hardest thing in my life?
- What has been difficult for me to accomplish?
- At what points have I felt inadequate and how did I deal with those feelings?
- If I had to quickly replay my life, which 2 or 3 moments would jump out ahead of all the others?
- What do I regard as my greatest victory?
- What in the world utterly fascinates me?
- Which of my relationships have I worked at the hardest?
- Have I ever made a discovery that thrilled me?
- What is something about you that people would be surprised to learn?
- Have I ever felt betrayed?
- What has held me back from realizing my ambitions?
- What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to me?
- Have I ever felt pure rage?
- What fills me with pride?
- When did my mind and body feel utterly out of sync?
- When did my mind and body feel in perfect harmony?
- What have I done that ‘they’ said couldn’t be done?
- What object or possession holds the most meaning for me?
- What is something embarrassing that has happened to you, or something embarrassing you have witnessed happening to another person?
- What is one way you have changed in the last five years?
- What experience has forced me to adapt in unexpected ways?
- What is something you think is amazing that others do not? What is something others find amazing that you “don’t get.”
- When I can’t sleep at night, what’s keeping me up?
- Have I ever held a grudge?
- A consequential lie that I told
- Have I ever taken a risk?
How to Write Idea-Generating Discovery Drafts (est. time-on-task – 60 minutes)
1. Choose two experiences/small moments to develop further. For each, spend 20 minutes writing freely (without expecting these words to appear in your final statement) about the experience. It’s best to let your mind flow without hesitation, fear, anxiety, or desire to see these words in your final statement. Just try to capture what happened. Here are some prompts to get you started:
- What happened? Who was there? What was your role in the experience?
- What was exciting/interesting/challenging/confusing/problematic about the experience?
- What were your feelings and thoughts as you went through this experience? How did they evolve with the situation?
- What were your actions/reactions to the situation? What do they say about you as a prospective health professions graduate student?
2. For each experience/small moment, spend 10 minutes writing freely to discover what your experience means to you by writing in response to these prompts:
- How did your experience prepare you for the challenges and opportunities of college?
- What would a trusted mentor or supporter say your experience reveals about you?
Next Steps (on your own, with the help of a trusted mentor or two)
- Now that you have a strong idea of what your experience means to you, develop both topics into essays.
I recommend NOT simply revising your Idea-Generating Discovery drafts. Those drafts were designed to help you understand your own experiences, not to express what your experiences mean in a vivid, compelling manner. Those drafts are not built for someone who doesn’t know you to read, understand, and see your perspective. It’s okay to mine those drafts for ideas or the occasional sentence or two. But you should now draft an essay that is meant to enable a reader who doesn’t know you to see the world through your eyes and lead them to the conclusion that you are a great candidate for admission.
Don’t worry about length. Write as many words as you need to really convey your experiences and what they mean to you. You can always cut later.
- Ask a trusted mentor for feedback on your essay. Explain to them the character traits and academic skills you’re trying to convey in the essay and ask them if those traits are skills are coming through effectively. Ask them to mark moments where things aren’t clear or there is potential for development and improvement. Ask them not to worry too much about grammar and punctuation until you have established the content and meaning of the essay.
Don’t ask more than one or two mentors for feedback. Too much feedback can make it harder to revise and reduce the authenticity of your essay. - Revise your essay with the goal of improving your reader’s experience of your essay. You want them to become absorbed in your story and to easily understand the characteristics and skills that make you an excellent candidate for admission.
- Repeat the feedback and revision loop (steps 2 and 3) until you are satisfied with the content of your essay.
- Cut your essay to the required length. Try not to cut whole paragraphs. Instead, look for more concise ways to express the same ideas. Cut out details or parts of the story that don’t help the reader see something clearly about you.
- Proofread and polish. Use the free version of Grammarly for help. Read your essay sentence-by-sentence starting from the end. Once you’ve done as much as you can, ask a trusted mentor for help. Make sure they know that you’re only looking for proofreading help at this time. They should reserve comment on the content unless they spot a red flag in it that would disqualify you from admission.
