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College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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How to Write a Personal Essay for Your College Application

What does it take to land in the “accept” (instead of “reject”) pile?

How can you write an essay that helps advance you in the eyes of the admissions officers and makes a real impression? Here are some tips to get you started.

• Start early.  Do not leave it until the last minute. Give yourself time when you don’t have other homework or extracurriculars hanging over your head to work on the essay.
• Keep the focus narrow.  Your essay does not have to cover a massive, earth-shattering event. Some people in their teens haven’t experienced a major life event. Some people have. Either way, it’s okay.
• Be yourself.  Whether writing about a painful experience or a more simple experience, use the narrative to be vulnerable and honest about who you are. Use words you would normally use. Trust your voice and the fact that your story is interesting enough in that no one else has lived it.
• Be creative.  “Show, don’t tell,” and that applies here — to an extent. The best essays typically do both. You can help your reader see and feel what you are describing by using some figurative language throughout your piece.
• Make a point. As you finish your final body paragraphs ask yourself “So what?” This will help you hone in on how to end your essay in a way that elevates it into a story about an insight or discovery you made about yourself, rather than just being about an experience you had.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

We’ve all heard about the dreaded “college essay,” the bane of every high school senior’s existence. This daunting element of the college application is something that can create angst for even the most accomplished students.

• AA Amy Allen is a writer, educator, and lifelong learner. Her freelance writing business,  All of the Write Words , focuses on providing high school students with one-on-one feedback to guide them through the college application process and with crafting a thoughtful personal essay. A dedicated poet, Amy’s work has also been published in several journals including  Pine Row Press ,  Months to Years,  and  Atlanta Review .

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15 Tips for Writing a College Essay About Yourself

What’s covered:.

• What is the Purpose of the College Essay?
• How to Stand Out Without Showing Off
• 15 Tips for Writing an Essay About Yourself
• Where to Get Free Feedback on Your Essay

Most students who apply to top-tier colleges have exceptional grades, standardized test scores, and extracurricular activities. How do admissions officers decide which applicants to choose among all these stellar students? One way is on the strength of their college essay .

This personal statement, along with other qualitative factors like teacher recommendations, helps the admissions committee see who you really are—the person behind the transcript. So, it’s obviously important to write a great one.

What Is the Purpose of the College Essay? 

Your college essay helps you stand out in a pool of qualified candidates. If effective, it will also show the admissions committee more of your personality and allow them to get a sense of how you’ll fit in with and contribute to the student body and institution. Additionally, it will show the school that you can express yourself persuasively and clearly in writing, which is an important part of most careers, no matter where you end up. 

Typically, students must submit a personal statement (usually the Common App essay ) along with school-specific supplements. Some students are surprised to learn that essays typically count for around 25% of your entire application at the top 250 schools. That’s an enormous chunk, especially considering that, unlike your transcript and extracurriculars, it isn’t an assessment of your entire high school career.  

The purpose of the college essay is to paint a complete picture of yourself, showing admissions committees the person behind the grades and test scores. A strong college essay shows your unique experiences, personality, perspective, interests, and values—ultimately, what makes you unique. After all, people attend college, not their grades or test scores. The college essay also provides students with a considerable amount of agency in their application, empowering them to share their own stories.

How to Stand Out Without Showing Off 

It’s important to strike a balance between exploring your achievements and demonstrating humility. Your aim should be to focus on the meaning behind the experience and how it changed your outlook, not the accomplishment itself. 

Confidence without cockiness is the key here. Don’t simply catalog your achievements, there are other areas on your application to share them. Rather, mention your achievements when they’re critical to the story you’re telling. It’s helpful to think of achievements as compliments, not highlights, of your college essay.  

Take this essay excerpt , for example:

My parents’ separation allowed me the space to explore my own strengths and interests as each of them became individually busier. As early as middle school, I was riding the light rail train by myself, reading maps to get myself home, and applying to special academic programs without urging from my parents. Even as I took more initiatives on my own, my parents both continued to see me as somewhat immature. All of that changed three years ago, when I applied and was accepted to the SNYI-L summer exchange program in Morocco. I would be studying Arabic and learning my way around the city of Marrakesh. Although I think my parents were a little surprised when I told them my news, the addition of a fully-funded scholarship convinced them to let me go. 

Instead of saying “ I received this scholarship and participated in this prestigious program, ” the author tells a story, demonstrating their growth and initiative through specific actions (riding the train alone, applying academic programs on her own, etc.)—effectively showing rather than telling.

15 Tips for Writing an Essay About Yourself 

1. start early .

Leave yourself plenty of time to write your college essay—it’s stressful enough to compose a compelling essay without putting yourself under a deadline. Starting early on your essay also leaves you time to edit and refine your work, have others read your work (for example, your parents or a teacher), and carefully proofread.

2. Choose a topic that’s meaningful to you 

The foundation of a great essay is selecting a topic that has real meaning for you. If you’re passionate about the subject, the reader will feel it. Alternatively, choosing a topic you think the admissions committee is looking for, but isn’t all that important to you, won’t make for a compelling essay; it will be obvious that you’re not very invested in it.

3. Show your personality 

One of the main points of your college essay is to convey your personality. Admissions officers will see your transcript and read about the awards you’ve won, but the essay will help them get to know you as a person. Make sure your personality is evident in each part—if you are a jokester, incorporate some humor. Your friends should be able to pick your essay from an anonymous pile, read it, and recognize it as yours. In that same vein, someone who doesn’t know you at all should feel like they understand your personality after reading your essay. 

4. Write in your own voice 

In order to bring authenticity to your essay, you’ll need to write in your own voice. Don’t be overly formal (but don’t be too casual, either). Remember: you want the reader to get to know the real you, not a version of you that comes across as overly stiff or stilted. You should feel free to use contractions, incorporate dialogue, and employ vocabulary that comes naturally to you. 

5. Use specific examples 

Real, concrete stories and examples will help your essay come to life. They’ll add color to your narrative and make it more compelling for the reader. The goal, after all, is to engage your audience—the admissions committee. 

For example, instead of stating that you care about animals, you should tell us a story about how you took care of an injured stray cat. 

Consider this side-by-side comparison:

Example 1: I care deeply about animals and even once rescued a stray cat. The cat had an injured leg, and I helped nurse it back to health.

Example 2: I lost many nights of sleep trying to nurse the stray cat back to health. Its leg infection was extremely painful, and it meowed in distress up until the wee hours of the morning. I didn’t mind it though; what mattered was that the cat regained its strength. So, I stayed awake to administer its medicine and soothe it with loving ear rubs.

The second example helps us visualize this situation and is more illustrative of the writer’s personality. Because she stayed awake to care for the cat, we can infer that she is a compassionate person who cares about animals. We don’t get the same depth with the first example. 

6. Don’t be afraid to show off… 

You should always put your best foot forward—the whole point of your essay is to market yourself to colleges. This isn’t the time to be shy about your accomplishments, skills, or qualities. 

7. …While also maintaining humility 

But don’t brag. Demonstrate humility when discussing your achievements. In the example above, for instance, the author discusses her accomplishments while noting that her parents thought of her as immature. This is a great way to show humility while still highlighting that she was able to prove her parents wrong.

8. Be vulnerable 

Vulnerability goes hand in hand with humility and authenticity. Don’t shy away from exploring how your experience affected you and the feelings you experienced. This, too, will help your story come to life. 

Here’s an excerpt from a Common App essay that demonstrates vulnerability and allows us to connect with the writer:  

“You ruined my life!” After months of quiet anger, my brother finally confronted me. To my shame, I had been appallingly ignorant of his pain. 

Despite being twins, Max and I are profoundly different. Having intellectual interests from a young age that, well, interested very few of my peers, I often felt out of step in comparison with my highly-social brother. Everything appeared to come effortlessly for Max and, while we share an extremely tight bond, his frequent time away with friends left me feeling more and more alone as we grew older.

In this essay, the writer isn’t afraid to share his insecurities and feelings with us. He states that he had been “ appallingly ignorant ” of his brother’s pain, that he “ often felt out of step ” compared to his brother, and that he had felt “ more and more alone ” over time. These are all emotions that you may not necessarily share with someone you just met, but it’s exactly this vulnerability that makes the essay more raw and relatable. 

9. Don’t lie or hyperbolize 

This essay is about the authentic you. Lying or hyperbolizing to make yourself sound better will not only make your essay—and entire application—less genuine, but it will also weaken it. More than likely, it will be obvious that you’re exaggerating. Plus, if colleges later find out that you haven’t been truthful in any part of your application, it’s grounds for revoking your acceptance or even expulsion if you’ve already matriculated. 

10. Avoid cliches 

How the COVID-19 pandemic changed your life. A sports victory as a metaphor for your journey. How a pet death altered your entire outlook. Admissions officers have seen more essays on these topics than they can possibly count. Unless you have a truly unique angle, then it’s in your best interest to avoid them. Learn which topics are cliche and how to fix them . 

11. Proofread 

This is a critical step. Even a small error can break your essay, however amazing it is otherwise. Make sure you read it over carefully, and get another set of eyes (or two or three other sets of eyes), just in case.

12. Abstain from using AI

There are a handful of good reasons to avoid using artificial intelligence (AI) to write your college essay. Most importantly, it’s dishonest and likely to be not very good; AI-generated essays are generally formulaic, generic, and boring—everything you’re trying to avoid being.   The purpose of the college essay is to share what makes you unique and highlight your personal experiences and perspectives, something that AI can’t capture.

13. Use parents as advisors, not editors

The voice of an adult is different from that of a high schooler and admissions committees are experts at spotting the writing of parents. Parents can play a valuable role in creating your college essay—advising, proofreading, and providing encouragement during those stressful moments. However, they should not write or edit your college essay with their words.

14. Have a hook

Admissions committees have a lot of essays to read and getting their attention is essential for standing out among a crowded field of applicants. A great hook captures your reader’s imagination and encourages them to keep reading your essay. Start strong, first impressions are everything!

15. Give them something to remember

The ending of your college essay is just as important as the beginning. Give your reader something to remember by composing an engaging and punchy paragraph or line—called a kicker in journalism—that ties everything you’ve written above together.

Where to Get Free Feedback on Your College Essay 

Before you send off your application, make sure you get feedback from a trusted source on your essay. CollegeVine’s free peer essay review will give you the support you need to ensure you’ve effectively presented your personality and accomplishments. Our expert essay review pairs you with an advisor to help you refine your writing, submit your best work, and boost your chances of getting into your dream school. Find the right advisor for you and get started on honing a winning essay.

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How to Write an Essay About Yourself

Gabriel Jimenez-Ekman is a content editor and writer at Scholarships360. He has managed communications and written content for a diverse array of organizations, including a farmer’s market, a concert venue, a student farm, an environmental NGO, and a PR agency. Gabriel graduated from Kenyon College with a degree in sociology.

Learn about our editorial policies

Bill Jack has over a decade of experience in college admissions and financial aid. Since 2008, he has worked at Colby College, Wesleyan University, University of Maine at Farmington, and Bates College.

Writing an essay about yourself is no easy feat — although you may know yourself better than anyone, it can be tough to get the perspective needed to write about yourself in essay form. Despite its challenges, writing essays about yourself is one of the most crucial skills in the college application process, and we have some key tricks to make it easier. Keep on reading to learn about some of our best techniques to write about yourself naturally!

• Outline your experiences

Ask friends and family for input

• Don’t be too humble…
• Let your personality shine!

Try journaling

Read more: How to start a scholarship essay (with examples)

Outline your impactful experiences

Before you dig into prompts, try writing out a bullet-point list of meaningful experiences you’ve had. Underneath each bullet point, reflect on what they might demonstrate. Here’s an example:

• Working as part of a team
• Learning to balance school and work responsibilities
• Honing communication skills
• Developing writing skills
• Fostering a passion for my school community
• Learning to meet deadlines and balance responsibilities
• Learning to balance school and volunteer responsibilities
• Gaining an attention to detail

This is a little different than a typical resume — rather than focusing on your specific duties, try to focus on how the experience shaped your character. If you notice a lot of overlap between the experiences, that’s perfect! You can point out these recurring themes to make for an effective essay with a strong overarching point. Making lists like this early on in your writing stage can be helpful, and you may find yourself coming back to consult the list for many future essays.

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When writing about yourself, it is important to reflect on your strengths, and who is better to do that than a supportive team of family and friends?

Consulting family and friends is a great way to learn about strengths that you might not even know you had. Your friends choose to hang out with you for a reason, and they often notice your good qualities that you take for granted. Having your friends point these out can be useful for an essay, as well as a general pick-me-up!

And if you’re looking for a perfect anecdote to answer a prompt like “How have you demonstrated a commitment to your community ,” who better to remember your past acts of kindness than your parents? 

Also recommended: Top essay & writing scholarships

Is it okay to ask friends and family to read my essay and offer feedback?

Some students may be wondering, is it okay to ask for additional help from friends and family? And the short answer is: absolutely. Additional essay reviewers can offer valuable feedback as you write your essay. With this said, students should make sure that they are maintaining their own voice in the essay. Outside reviewers should not be rewriting the essay or having a heavy hand in changing the written voice.

Don’t miss:  How to respond to the Common App essay prompts

Don’t be too humble

There is a time and a place for humility. But don’t worry if you feel like your essay is verging on the braggadocios. These essays are an opportunity to showcase your best qualities, and you should not be worried about putting your best foot forward and telling the reader all the reasons why they should be impressed by you.

What makes these essays effective is that they both include your relevant experiences and demonstrate why they are so significant. You may feel as though you are making mountains out of molehills, but it’s important to emphasize the importance of your experiences. This is the main objective of writing about yourself.

Also recommended: How to write a 500 word essay

Let your personality come through

Most essays written about yourself will be written in first-person. This provides a perfect opportunity to add some flair to your writing. While your first priority is to include impactful examples and communicate your points effectively, it is also important to leave a lasting impression on the reader.

If you see an opportunity to show off your sense of humor or use a more personal tone, don’t be afraid to do it. As long as your remarks are appropriate, on-topic, and not too frequent, they can help put you ahead of the pack.

Recommended:  How does an admissions officer read your application and essays?

A great trick for becoming comfortable writing essays about yourself is to try keeping a journal. Journaling helps eliminate the pressure of writing an essay while helping you become comfortable writing about yourself in an informal setting. Spending 10 or 15 minutes every night writing about your day, or answering some informal prompts can help you to get more in touch with yourself and jog your memory about past events that could be useful for an essay. 

Don’t miss:  Scholarships360’s free scholarship search tool

Next steps for students

Now you’ve learned about the goals and techniques for writing an essay about yourself. Your next step should be to focus on making your writing effective and efficient. Make sure that your conclusion ties everything together impactfully . And once you’ve finished your draft, ask family members, friends, or college counselors to read over it and provide suggestions. Good luck, writers!

Related:  Overview of common scholarship essay prompts

Frequently asked questions about how to write an essay about yourself

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Posted on Apr 18, 2022

How to Write a Self-Help Book (That Actually Helps People)

✍️ This post was written by Kleopatra Olympiou, a writer from Cyprus and holder of an MA in Creative Writing from Durham University.

You’ve overcome an obstacle or problem and learned some important life lessons — now you want to write a self-help book and share your experience and wisdom with other people. You’re ready to give them the tools they need to grow and improve their lives. 

This post walks you through the whole process, sharing some tips from expert self-help editors on the Reedsy marketplace. Here’s how you can write your own self-help book:

1. Identify a specific problem your book will remedy

2. make your readers believe you can help them, 3. don’t forget that you’re telling a story , 4. give your readers specific actions they can take, 5. pick an appealing and informative title (and subtitle), 6. always cite your sources, 7. give readers something extra at the end.

To some extent, nonfiction books (with the important exception of memoirs and creative nonfiction) are about identifying a problem and offering a solution. This could mean practical, step-by-step advice or a deeper, more nuanced understanding of an existing situation that changes the reader’s perception. Self-help books are no different: your job as a writer is to zero in on a particular problem, and provide your reader a way to deal with it.

Accept that you need to limit your scope

Many self-help writers begin with a very general idea, like overcoming mental illness or becoming a happier person. Broad, abstract topics like this are great as a first instinct, but you’ll need to refine the scope of your book for the sake of your readers, your sanity, and your commercial potential. 

Abstract concepts are hard to comprehensively address in a helpful way that provides concrete insights and advice. They’re also notoriously difficult to sell to a traditional self-help publisher , who will be looking for something new and unique with a defined target audience. As of March 2022, there are over 70,000 titles in the Self-Help category on Amazon — so writing a generic book about “finding happiness” won’t quite cut it. 

Distill your idea

A good way to focus the scope of your book is to fill in the blanks of this imaginary pledge to your reader:

If you are ____ and your problem is ____, I can help you by ____.

This pledge helps you identify your audience, the problem they’re facing, and its solution. We’ll use ParentShift: Ten Universal Truths That Will Change the Way You Raise Your Kids by Wendy Thomas Russell, Linda Hatfield, and Ty Hatfield as a vehicle to explore all three. 

Understanding your target audience is crucial when writing any type of nonfiction. Not only will it help you market your book , but it will also be the driving force that shapes your book and helps you write it well . After all, how can you help someone if you don’t know who they are and what they need?

So ask yourself who will gain the most from the material in your book. The answer should be as specific as possible. Let’s look at  ParentShift: Ten Universal Truths That Will Change the Way You Raise Your Kids . 

And don’t just stop there, think about location, cultural context, and occupation: parents who work full-time might especially need fast solutions — with triple shifts, play dates and a mountain of housework to stay on top of, ten universal truths might be as much as they can handle. The more detail you have on your demographic, the easier it will be to target them. 

After you’ve located your target audience, figure out the precise aspects of their problem (or “pain point”) and identify the many shapes they might take. ParentShift , for example, immediately sets up a problem: you’re struggling with raising your children, you know it, and common parenting methods aren’t working for you.

When you’ve identified your central problem, make it visible in the title, subtitle, or blurb, so that your audience can tell that this book is for them right away. 

How does a book on terrible teens and toddlers solve the problem of mediocre parenting? Well, as ParentShift ’s blurb notes, it “challenges some of our most popular disciplinary tools and replaces them with more than a dozen ‘toolkits’ designed to help parents solve virtually any household without sabotaging their long term goals.” In other words, this book helps you analyze your problem in new ways, and shows you alternative courses of action. 

Presumably, this is the kind of insight that made you want to write a book in the first place, so we’ll assume you have a good understanding of your own ideas here — but just in case the thoughts are getting jumbled in your mind, try talking out your ideas with a friend to make sure they’re easy to understand and you’re able to communicate them clearly. Then put pen to paper, and repeat the process!

The success of a self-help book hinges entirely on your credibility and authority as a writer. After all, you wouldn’t wander down the street asking random people to help you improve your life, would you? That’s why you’ll often see beloved media personalities publish self-help books: they have an inbuilt audience of people who already trust them.

But how can you create trust with prospective readers if you’re not Russell Brand or Oprah Winfrey ? Two ways to do this involve sharing facts about yourself — the third, and sometimes forgotten one, has to do with style and structure.

Qualifications tell readers others can vouch for your knowledge

One way in which authors can show that they’re authoritative sources is by noting any relevant qualifications. For example, Brené Brown regularly cites her work as a researcher and psychology professor when examining the kinds of people who struggle to be vulnerable in her book Daring Greatly . But university degrees aren’t the only qualification that matters — take Matthieu Ricard, for example, whose book The Art of Meditation is infinitely more appealing because of the fact that its writer is a Buddhist monk, and so someone the reader trusts to know meditation well.

Personal experiences say “I’ve been there”

By opening up and sharing stories from your personal past, you show readers you’re speaking from real, first-hand experience — not just theorizing from a distance. For example, Louise Hay’s self-help classic, The Power Is Within You , followed her many years of work with HIV/AIDS patients and her own experience of cervical cancer, and focuses on how positive thought patterns can help lead to improved wellbeing. Were Hay not speaking from experience, skeptical readers might struggle to see why they should read her book — but by letting millions of readers walk a mile in her shoes, she gave them a reason to listen to what she had to say.

Persuasive style and structure matter the most

While it’s important that readers can see that you are worthy of their trust, resist the urge to turn your book into a LinkedIn page of your Expert Qualifications. 

Elaine O’Neill , a former Hay House Commissioning Editor, points out that self-help writers often miss a trick in getting readers to believe in them by neglecting style and structure: 

"One mistake that I find new self-help authors make more often than anything else is forgetting their reader. They believe they have to include everything they've learned into their manuscript, without thinking about what the reader needs to learn, and how to feed it to them bit by bit. Authors can show their authority by really knowing their reader inside out and speaking to them directly, by sharing their own recovery from the same issue. 

“You want the reader to feel seen by you, and once they do, they'll trust your expertise because you've been there — and you can see they are too.”

Didacticism never works

Fiction readers are notoriously intolerant of didactic narratives — self-help books are a slightly different story, because the writer is, by default, in the position of a teacher. That said, no one likes to be spoken down to, and a superior tone will not help you assert your expertise. You aren’t running for president of the Nobel committee — you just want a reader to like you enough to listen, so make an effort to communicate your knowledge in a style of language that speaks to them.

📚 Still not sure how to present yourself? Head to our list of the 50 Best Self-Help Books of All Time and check out how each of these authors presents themselves as an authority figure.

Self-help books rarely follow a single, overarching narrative arc . Typically, they’re guided not by a narrative but by an argument or thesis — with chapters structured around stories that help illustrate the points made. 

Structure intuitively for a great reading experience

How do you make sure your book is readable, compact, and flows logically from chapter to chapter? By committing to a detailed outline before you even start to write. In traditional publishing, you will almost always first draft a book proposal which will serve as an excellent plan. But even if you’re self-publishing , making a plan is well worth your time to ensure that every chapter is necessary and contributes value.

As with novels, good beginnings can make or break a self-help book. Your introduction should tell readers a little about you and why you’re writing a book. It should also give them a quick, at-a-glance summary of what will follow. Chapter 1 is where you’ll start getting to the meat of things, sketching out the complexities of the central problem. After that, it’s up to you how the rest of the book will be structured.

If this is a point you’re really struggling with, focus on getting all your thoughts out instead, and make a note of questions or concerns to bring up with your editor later. Speaking of editors, you can request quotes from some of the best self-help editors in the industry for free, right here on Reedsy:

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Learn how Reedsy can help you craft a beautiful book.

Solidify through anecdotes and emotional storytelling

Ideally, you should structure each chapter of your self-help book around a specific point or insight — and the best way to illustrate each point is through a story or anecdote, whether it’s personal, hypothetical, or entirely fictional. Stories have the great effect of eliciting an emotional response or more active interest by involving a character that readers can empathize with or watch with curiosity. 

Need an example? Think of the way Christianity’s teachings are shared through the parables Jesus taught lessons with: the story of the good Samaritan is infinitely more memorable than “be kind.”

Storytelling also creates interest and suspense , keeping readers invested — take a look at Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People , the first chapter of which starts as follows: 

“On May 7, 1931, the most sensational manhunt New York City had ever known had come to its climax. After weeks of search, ‘Two Gun’ Crowley—the killer, the gunman who didn’t smoke or drink—was at bay, trapped in his sweetheart’s apartment on West End Avenue.”

Only tell stories that add to your message

Self-help editor Danielle Goodman emphasizes the need to only tell stories worth telling: “When it comes to self-help books, proof of concept is absolutely necessary. That’s why story-telling can be so powerful. It lifts your advice from the page and places it in the real world of real people, like yourself and your readers. 

“The main question to ask yourself when telling pieces of your story is: Is what I’m writing in service of my message? In other words, how does this story underscore what you want the reader to feel, understand, and act on? 

“Once you know the answer, be explicit in connecting the dots for the reader. Tell them exactly why you included this story and what you want them to get out of it. And if you can’t quite figure out why this story is important to your message, leave it out for now.” 

The self-help genre is often more abstract than, say, how-to guides or even memoir, so your book may run the risk of being too woolly in its advice.  And if you’ve ever tried to get travel directions from someone who sorta kinda knows the way to the library, you’ll know how frustrating vagueness can be.

Self-help editor Kate Victory Hannisian says that “one indicator that you haven’t made your self-help advice completely clear is a comment from editors or beta-readers like this: ‘Great, but how does someone actually DO that?’

“Sometimes the solution is to see if you can break that advice into bite-sized, actionable steps. Other times, adding specific examples and vivid anecdotes with a few well-chosen details can help make your advice real and relatable for your target reader, and thus more useful to them. Depending on the type of self-help book you’re writing, these examples may come from your own experience or other sources, but the key is knowing that it’s important to show, don’t tell — even in nonfiction writing.”

Free course: How to Master the ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ Rule

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To make sure your actionable points aren’t lost in the storytelling, you can offer a recap at the end of each chapter. Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein’s A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century re-iterates each of its chapters perfectly, summarizing the main takeaways in bullet points — but you can go a step further and offer a checklist of actions to take or questions the reader can ask themselves to diagnose their own needs.

Self-help titles are generally pretty formulaic, and nearly always include a subtitle:

 [Attention-Grabbing Phrase]:[Description of the Book] 

You can see this formula in action with self-help titles like:

• The 4-Hour Work Week : Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich
• The Self-Love Habit : Transform fear and self-doubt into serenity, peace and power
• The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook : A Proven Way to Accept Yourself, Build Inner Strength, and Thrive

So what do you need to bear in mind when you title your own book ? Let’s do a super-quick linguistic analysis of this genre’s common title elements. 🧠

a) Direct address

Many self-help titles address the reader directly with the second person pronoun ‘you’. As with fiction written in second person point of view , directly addressing your reader has an immediate and personal effect, especially if the title catches a reader’s eye on a store shelf or online. Here are a few examples:

• You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero
• Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven
• Declutter Your Mind by S.J. Scott ⁠and Barrie Davenport
• Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez

b) Imperatives

Authoritative statements are attention-grabbing in the same way that second person is: by being immediate. Titles that use imperatives put this most powerful of grammatical moods to use in order to command the reader’s attention. Can’t think of any? Here’s a few:

• Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark ⁠
• Stick with Exercise for a Lifetime by Robert Hopper 
• Find Your Artistic Voice by Lisa Congdon
• Keep Going by Austin Kleon

c) An inspirational tone

• Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach
• The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz
• Street Smart Disciplines of Successful People by Mark Mullins and John Kuhn

d) Search-optimized subtitle

When self-help covers feature these inspirational titles, they often need a subtitle to contextualize the contents of the book. These relatively prosaic second titles give a more informative description of what readers can expect. 

🚨Watch your capitals! Head over to our post covering established title capitalization rules to make sure your title is correct.

That much is obvious — what fewer people realize is that titles are often search-optimized, meaning that they are written to contain some important keywords or terms related to the topic being discussed. This helps the book be found by readers searching for those terms on Amazon. Take a look at the titles below, and notice the keywords in their subtitles — bolded for your convenience:

• The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle
• Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
• Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention — And How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
• Tired as F*ck: Burnout at the Hands of Diet , Self-Help , and Hustle Culture by Caroline Dooner 

Confused? It’s got to do with the way Amazon’s algorithms work, as Reedsy co-founder Ricardo Fayet explains in his free book How to Market a Book . 

“If your book is ‘indexed’ for a keyword, that means it will turn up as a result when a customer enters that term into the Amazon search bar. For example, more than nine thousand e-books are indexed on the Kindle Store for “herbal remedies.” [...] The closer the match between your title, or a part of your title, and the search keyword, the higher your book will rank.”

Looking for more marketing insights? You can download Ricardo’s book for free below:

It’s unlikely that you’re the first person to ever write about your topic, or even give advice about your topic. That’s okay — different people can give different, and still useful, advice on the same issues, so don’t feel like your idea is “taken.”

The important thing is to acknowledge those who have informed your research, clearly giving them credit for ideas they have contributed. By all means add to these or expand them, but, as many a disgruntled undergraduate can attest, you should never present them as your own: that’s intellectual property theft at worst  — and at best, very uncool.

Instead, be gracious: cite your sources, describe their positions if they differ from yours, and situate yourself as one of the many voices in this dialogue. Take Cal Newport as your example — his introduction of previous contributions on the subject of technology being distracting is a masterclass in sketching out an existing discussion and clarifying your place in it:

“[This idea] is not new. [Nicholas Carr’s] The Shallows was just the first in a series of recent books to examine the Internet’s effect on our brains and work habits. These subsequent titles include William Powers’s Hamlet’s BlackBerry , John Freeman’s The Tyranny of E-mail , and Alex Soojung-Kin Pang’s The Distraction Addiction —all of which agree, more or less, that network tools are distracting us from work that requires unbroken concentration, while simultaneously degrading our capacity to remain focused. Given this existing body of evidence, I will not spend more time in this book trying to establish this point.”   — Cal Newport, 'Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World '

Consider this a bonus step, particularly useful to those writers who hope to make a living from their writing careers . Supposing a reader has finished your book, you know that you have an interest in common with them — so there may be more they can learn from you.

If you’re active on social media, teach a video course, or offer further resources on similar topics freely available on your platform, mention this in your book. Even if you have none of these things at the moment, you can offer a simple and free resource that complements your book, like a printable checklist the reader can download for easy reference. The idea is that you’ll point the reader to your website , and offer them a “ reader magnet ,” in other words allow them to download something in exchange for them signing up to your mailing list… which you’ll need to set up if you don’t already have one!

Why bother with all this? Because, as Reedsy’s Ricardo Fayet asserts in his free Reedsy Learning course on mailing lists, “your author mailing list is the one main tool you’ll use to build a long-lasting relationship with your readers, turning them into repeat buyers and unconditional fans. Every sale you make while your mailing list is not in place is basically a lost opportunity.”

Free course: Author Mailing Lists

Acquire more readers, sell more books, and make more money with the only indispensable tool in the book marketer's arsenal. Get started now.

When written with care, self-help books can boost their writer’s career, turn seriously profitable , and actually help people improve their lives. It’s a win-win if ever there was one, so take the time to polish yours and you won’t regret it. Good luck!

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Essays About Self: 5 Essay Examples and 7 Creative Essay Prompts

Essays about self require brainstorming and ample time to reflect on who you are. See our top picks and prompts to use in your essay writing.

“Tell me about yourself.” It’s a familiar question we are asked in social situations, job interviews, or on the first day of class. It’s also a customary essay writing topic in schools to prepare students for future career interviews, cover letters, and, most importantly, to assist individuals in assessing their personalities. 

Self refers to qualities of one’s identity or character. It’s a broad topic, but many find it confusing. Before your get started on this topic, learn how to write personal essays to make this challenging topic easier to tackle.

5 Essay Examples

1. essay on defining self by anonymous on wowessays.com, 2. long essay on about myself by prasanna, 3. self discovery: my journey to understanding myself and the world around by anonymous on samplius.com, 4. how my future self is my hero by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 5. essay on self-respect by bunty rane, 7 writing prompts on essays about self, 1. who am i, 2. a look at my personality, 3. my life: a self-reflection, 4. my best and worst qualities, 5. reasons to write about myself, 6. overcoming challenges and mistakes, 7. the importance of self-awareness.

“Google provided a definition of self as a “person’s essential being that distinguishes them from others, esp. considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action.” (Google.com, 2013) This may be as simple as this, but the word “self” is far more complicated than the things that make an individual different from other people.”

The author defines self as the physical and psychological way of perceiving and evaluating ourselves, which has two aspects. First is the development of an existential self which includes awareness of being different from others. Meanwhile, the second aspect is when someone realizes their categorical self or that they have the same physical characteristics as others. 

The essay includes three aspects of self-definition. One is sell-image, or how a person views himself. Two is self-esteem, which dramatically affects how a person values ​​and carries himself. And three is the ideal self, where people compare their self-image with their ideal characteristics, often leading to a new definition of themselves.

“Each person finds their mission differently and has a different journey. Thus, when I write about myself, I write about my journey and what makes the person I am because of the trip. I try to be myself, be passionate about my dreams and hobbies, live honestly, and work hard to achieve all that I want to make.”

Prassana divides her essay into sections: hobbies, dreams, aspirations, and things she wants to learn. Her hobbies are baking and reading books that help her relax. She’s lucky to have parents who let her choose her career where she’ll be happy and stable, which is being a traveler. Prasanna finds learning fun, so she wants to continue learning simple things like cooking specific cuisine, scuba, and sky diving.

“High school has taught me about myself, and that is the most important lesson I could have learned. This metamorphosis has taken me from what I used to be to what I am now.”

In this essay, the writer shows the importance of self-discovery to become a better version of yourself. During their high school days, the author was a typically shy and somewhat childish person who was afraid to speak. So they hid in their room, where they felt safe. But as days pass and they grow older, the writer learns to be strong and stabilize their emotions. Soon, they left their cocoon, managed to express their feelings, and believed in themselves.

Because of self-discovery, the author realized they have their thoughts, ideas, morals, likes, and dislikes. They are no longer afraid of mistakes and have learned to enjoy life. The writer also believes that to succeed, and everyone must trust themselves and not give up on reaching their dreams.

“Bold, passionate, humble these are how I envision my hero to be and these are the three people I want to work on, moving forward as I strive to become the self I want to be in the future.”

The essay shows how a simple award speech by Matthew McConaughey moves the writer’s mind and ultimately creates their hero. They come up with three main qualities they want their future self to have. The first is to be someone who is not afraid to take advantage of any opportunities. Next is to stop being content with just being alive and continue searching for their purpose and genuine passion. Last, they strive to be humble and grateful to every person who contributes to their success.

“People with self-respect have the courage of accepting their mistakes. They exhibit certain toughness, a kind of moral courage, and they display character. Without self-respect, one becomes an unwilling audience of one’s failing both real and imaginary.”

Self-respect is a form of self-love. For Rane, it’s a habit of the mind that will never fail anyone. It’s a ritual that makes a person remember who they are. It reminds us to live without needing anyone else’s approval and walk alone toward our goals. Meanwhile, people with no self-respect hate those who have it. As a result, they become weak and lose their identity.

People can describe who you are in many ways, but the only person who truly knows you is yourself. Use this prompt to introduce yourself to the readers. Share personal and exciting details such as your name’s origin, quirky family routines, and your most memorable moments. It doesn’t have to be too personal. You only need to focus on information that distinguishes you from everyone else.

Personality is a person’s unique way of thinking, feeling, and behavior. You can apply this prompt to describe your personality as a student or working adult. Write about how you develop your skills, make friends, do everyday tasks, and many more. Differentiate “self” and “personality” in your introduction to help readers understand your essay content better.

Connect with your inner self and conduct a self-reflection. This practice helps us grow and improve. In writing this prompt, you will need time to reflect on your life to identify and explain your qualities and values. 

For instance, talk about the things you are grateful for, words that best describe you according to the people around you, and areas of yourself that you’d like to improve. Then, discuss how these things affect your life.

Every individual is a work in progress. Although you consider yourself a good person, there are still parts of you that you want to improve. Discuss these shortcomings with your readers. Expound on why people like and dislike these traits. Include how you plan to change your bad characteristics. You can add instances demonstrating your good and bad qualities to make your piece more relatable.

Writing about yourself is a great way to use your creativity in exploring and examining your identity. But, unfortunately, it’s also a great medium to release emotional distress and work through these feelings. So, for this prompt, delve into the benefits of writing about oneself. Then, persuade your readers to start writing about themselves and give tips to help them get started.

For help with this topic, read our guide explaining what is persuasive writing ?

If you want to connect emotionally with your readers, this prompt is the best to use for your essay. Identify and discuss difficult life experiences and explain how these challenging times helped you learn and grow as a person. 

Tip : You can use this prompt even if you haven’t faced any life-changing challenges. The problem you may have encountered can be as simple as finding it hard to wake up early.

Some benefits of self-awareness include being a better decision-maker and effective communicator. Define and explain self-awareness. Then, examine how self-awareness influences our lives. You can also include different types of self-awareness and their benefits to a person.

If you want to try these techniques, check out our round-up of the best journals !

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, how do i write a good essay about myself.

I'm struggling with writing my college essay. How can I write a compelling and genuine essay about myself without it sounding boring or braggy? Any tips would really help!

First, I understand that writing a personal essay can be challenging, but with a little guidance and practice, you can create a compelling piece. Here are some steps to help you write a strong essay:

1. Choose a unique angle: Instead of providing a broad overview of your life, focus on a specific experience, interest, or aspect of your personality that has shaped who you are. This will make your essay more focused and memorable.

2. Show, don't tell: Instead of simply stating your qualities, provide concrete examples of how you've demonstrated those characteristics. Use vivid details, anecdotes, and sensory language to bring your story to life.

3. Be authentic: Be genuine in your writing and don't try to present yourself as someone you're not. Admissions officers want to get to know the real you, so let your personality shine through.

4. Reflect on your experiences: Point out the lessons you've learned and how those experiences have influenced your growth and decision-making. This will show maturity and self-awareness, which are traits that colleges value.

5. Avoid clichés: Steer clear of overused phrases, ideas, or experiences. Make sure your essay stands out by giving it a fresh and original perspective.

6. Edit and revise: Once you have a draft of your essay, review it for clarity, grammar, punctuation, and flow. Make sure that each paragraph supports the central theme of your essay and that your writing is concise and engaging.

7. Get feedback: Share your essay with teachers, family members, or friends to gain different perspectives. Incorporate their feedback to help refine your essay and ensure it's an accurate representation of yourself.

For example, if you have a passion for community service, you might write about a specific volunteer experience that had a significant impact on you. Talk about the challenges you faced, the people you helped, and the lessons you learned. Make sure to incorporate personal stories and reflections to give your essay depth and substance.

Remember, a good college essay showcases your personality, values, and growth. By following these steps, you can create a compelling and genuine essay that will leave a lasting impression on admissions officers. Good luck!

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

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Home / Book Writing / How to Write a Self-Help Book: The Complete Process

How to Write a Self-Help Book: The Complete Process

Life can be pretty hard. Almost as hard as writing a book. (Okay, maybe life is way harder than writing a book.) And since life is hard, it's normal for us humans to seek out the help of others. This is why the self-help genre has such a massive audience. 

In fact, self-help is kind of a misnomer. Because when we seek out a book to help improve our lives in some way, we're actually seeking the author's help. And this is perhaps the most important thing to remember as we dive into this article on how to write a self-help book. 

• Who should write a self-help book.
• What to do before you start writing.
• Steps for outlining and writing the book. 

Table of contents

• Should You Write a Self-Help Book?
• Narrow Your Focus to a Specific Problem
• Define Your Audience
• Choose a Title and Subtitle
• Step 2: Choose Your Publishing Path
• Spend Time Getting the Outline Right
• Research and Research Some More
• Write it Like a Long Essay
• Include Personal Anecdotes 
• Impart Your Style
• Include Actionable Advice 
• Self-Help Books to Read for Inspiration
• Writing a Self-Help Book: Wrapping Up

There's only one thing to ask yourself to determine if you should write a self-help book: Can you help other people with a specific problem that you have experience overcoming?

If the answer is no, then you may want to re-think writing this type of book. If it's yes, then this article is for you!

Many people think that they need to be an expert with a degree in psychology or some other field to write a self-help book. And while expertise certainty does help by lending you credibility, it's often not as important as personal experience. 

Formatting Has Never Been Easier

Write and format professional books with ease.  Never before has creating formatted books been easier.

We tend to learn by doing, and doing requires hard work, struggle, and perseverance. So if you've overcome a problem that many other people face (which is most problems), then you may have a unique perspective that could help readers improve their lives. 

But that's where the work of writing one of these nonfiction books begins. And before you start putting words on your screen, it's important to develop your idea. That way, when you start writing, no words will be wasted. 

Step 1: Develop Your Idea

The idea-development stage is incredibly important. This is where you really nail down your book's central thesis—the problem you're going to solve for readers. Because with so much competition out there, you need an angle that is both unique and attractive to readers, but that also fits into your experience and/or expertise. 

It can be tempting to cast as wide a net as possible with your nonfiction book. After all, you want your book to be able to help as many people as possible. 

Unfortunately, the wide net strategy backfires more often than not. This is because people want specifics in their self-help books. They'll purchase books that speak specifically to them. So if the subject matter is too broad or vague, they're likely to pass them up for something a little more specific. 

Everyone wants to be happy, but happiness means different things to different people. A book about being happier will be too vague. On the other hand, a book about learning to be happier for mothers in their thirties will speak to a specific audience by aligning your practical advice with their problem(s).

So when you're developing your idea, dive down as deep as possible. Find a niche audience that will benefit highly from your book, as opposed to a wide audience that will find your advice too generic to apply to them. 

Narrowing your book idea also has the added benefit of helping to define your audience. This can help you develop a picture of your ideal reader. And when the time comes, you can write the entire book as if you're talking to that one ideal reader. 

This is among the best practices for writing a self-help book. Instead of focusing on a huge group of disparate people, you can write to one person, which will allow you to write in a way that will resonate with your readers. 

Part of defining your audience is getting clear on the specific problem you're going to help your reader fix—and how you're going to help them do it. Once you have your problem, solution, and audience in mind, then it's time to think about your title and subtitle. 

You could arguably choose a title and a subtitle during any step in the writing process. But I find it's better to do it near the beginning. Because your title and subtitle will do so much to help readers find you among the thousands of other self-help books. 

Nonfiction book titles should directly relate to the problem you're trying to solve for the reader. Take the book Joy At Work: Organizing Your Professional Life by Marie Kondo. Both the title and subtitle speak to her ideal reader. If you're not finding joy at work, or you're struggling to get where you want to be, then the book will likely speak to you. And if you were searching on Amazon for phrases like “Professional self-help books” or “work self-help books,” then it would be more likely to come up because the words “professional” and “work” are both in the title/subtitle. 

This is exactly what you want from your title. 

One great resource for researching nonfiction book titles is Publisher Rocket. It can also give you a good idea if the self-help niche you hope to write in is overly competitive or not. It does this by pulling data from Amazon on four distinct categories:

• Keywords – Brings you information on phrases and words Amazon customers use to search.
• Competition – Analyzes the competition for a given keyword or phrase by looking at the bestseller rank for the top books that show up (among other data points). 
• Category – Presents useful data on specific Amazon categories to determine how easy or difficult the category would be to break into.
• Amazon Ads Keywords – Quickly finds relevant keywords and phrases you can use for advertising with Amazon ads 

You can also get this same information by spending some time researching on Amazon, but Publisher Rocket is much faster and more efficient. To learn more about how to do this, check out my article here . 

If you do nothing else, look at the top ten bestselling self-help books in your specific niche. Note their titles and subtitles, and let them inspire yours.  

Note: If choosing a title and subtitle at this point in the process seems like too much, move on with the next steps. Just keep it in mind as you do, and come back to it after you’ve written your outline.  

Deciding whether you want to self-publish is a big step. Your other choice is to seek out a book deal with a traditional publisher. And given how the traditional publishing system works with self-help books, you may want to shop around your idea first to see if there are any takers. 

Like many other nonfiction topics, self-help is a genre where you don't necessarily have to have an entire book written to get a book deal with a traditional publisher. In the self-help genre, you can shop around a book proposal instead of an entire manuscript . 

And writing a book proposal takes significantly less time than writing an entire book. For many aspiring authors who dream of landing a deal with a big publisher, this is an attractive prospect. The problem is, it can take years of shopping your proposal around before you learn whether a literary agent or publisher is interested in your book.  

If you don't want to wait years or simply want the freedom and control of self-publishing, then you can start the writing process. And it all begins with a thorough outline.  

Step 3: Outline Your Book

Before you can get to writing, you'll need to spend some time outlining your book. When it comes to self-help books, outlining is an essential part of the book-writing process. 

Every section needs to be pertinent to the thesis of your book—the problem you're helping the reader solve. While you should certainly share personal anecdotes, you're not writing a memoir. So writing an outline can keep you on track by making sure every chapter and section provides value to the reader by helping them understand how to overcome their problem.  

Most of these books start with an introduction, where you introduce yourself, discuss your credentials and pertinent life experience, and generally tell the reader why they should listen to you. This is also where you can prepare the reader for the structure of the book by explaining the layout and emphasizing how you aim to help them solve their problem. 

Doing an outline for a self-help book can almost be like writing a first draft. While every author tends to outline differently, you'll want to be as detailed as possible. Most of these books are somewhere around 50,000 words . Keep this in mind as you outline your chapters (you don't want them too long or too short).

While you're outlining your book, you'll want to do extensive research to support your solution. Personal experience counts for a lot, but it's important that what you're saying is grounded in reality with studies, research, other people's firsthand experience, and data. 

Not every self-help subject will lend itself to this, but many of them can and should be supported with research. This is yet another way to gain credibility in the reader's eyes.

Telling a reader that standing on their head for an hour a day will contribute to their personal development could stretch credulity. It may have worked for you, but most readers will want to see some evidence before they get a sore neck from taking your advice.  

Step 4: Write It!

After all that, it's time to write the book ! Depending on how much detail you put in your outline, this step could be just a matter of filling sections in and making adjustments. Or it could involve getting the meat of the book down. Either way, it's the fun part!

The basic structure of a self-help book is similar to that of a college or high school essay. You want to start (after the introduction) with the problem in the first chapter. In the second chapter, you'll give an overview and some real-life stories on how you're going to help solve that problem. 

After that, you can dive into the step-by-step guide to solving the problem before wrapping everything up once again at the end of the book. 

You really can't go wrong with this format no matter what self-help topic you're tackling. 

Humans naturally gravitate toward stories. We see our lives as stories, and it's how we make sense of the world. This is why sharing personal experiences and anecdotes in your self-help book is such a powerful thing. 

Not only is this a way to further demonstrate your credibility, but it's also a way to get the reader to glean valuable insight from your book. Stories help us internalize lessons. And that's just what you want your reader to do as they read your book. 

Additionally, personal anecdotes help you keep the writing personal, like you’re trying to help a good friend. Whether it be financial struggles, mental health issues, or some other problem directly related to the subject of your book, readers will identify with you. This can not only help them, but it can also help you when they spread the word about your work!

As the writer, it's up to you to make your book stand out not just in terms of its unique angle on a problem, but also in its style. And by that, I mean your style. 

Just as in writing fiction, the author's voice really does a lot to make the writing engaging. Of course, the specific style of your book will depend not only on your writing style but also on the angle you're taking with the whole book's presentation . 

Take The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson. The title of this bestselling self-help book gives you a pretty good idea of what you're going to get inside. Mark Manson's comedic voice and irreverent tone make it both a pleasure to read and an entertaining look at how we've perhaps been thinking about self-help wrong all these years. 

While your book may not be so extreme as to have a curse word in the title, you certainly don't want the writing to be dry and impersonal. Be yourself and impart your style to the book . You can bet that people will respond to it. 

Giving the readers actionable advice in the form of exercises or steps that can help them is essential to an effective self-help book.

People don't want to just hear your success story (although that's part of it). They also want to hear what exact steps you recommend they take so they can get to where you are. 

Many authors do this by including a section at the end of each chapter with a recap of the points covered in the chapter, followed by steps of practical guidance that the reader can follow. 

After all, one of the main complaints self-help books get is that they’re not specific enough in their advice. 

As with any other genre, you need to know what works well in the self-help genre. The following are excellent examples of self-help books done right:

• How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
• You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth by Jen Sincero
• Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao by Dr. Wayne Dyer
• The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle
• Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life by Marie Kondo

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Being a self-help author is wildly rewarding. Helping people is one of the fundamental joys of life. And making a career out of helping people is something many dream of. Luckily, there's never been an easier time to do it. 

Whether you want to go through traditional channels or self-publish, you'll have to make sure you have a great book that solves a specific problem for people. And to do this, it takes time, research, writing skill, and marketing savvy . The best part is, these are all things you can learn. 

Whether you're a life coach looking to expand your reach or someone with a unique life experience you want to share, I hope this article has provided you with a self-help template for your book-writing process! 

Dave Chesson

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

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Essay Papers Writing Online

Strategies for crafting a comprehensive self-evaluation essay that highlights your strengths and areas for growth.

Self-evaluation essays are a great way to reflect on your progress, achievements, and areas for improvement. Whether you are writing an essay for school, work, or personal development, it’s important to be honest and thoughtful in your self-assessment. Here are some tips to help you write a compelling self-evaluation essay.

First , start by reflecting on your goals and objectives. What were you trying to accomplish during the time period you are evaluating? Consider both short-term and long-term goals, and assess how well you have met them. Be specific and provide examples to support your evaluation.

Secondly , consider your strengths and weaknesses. What are your key strengths and how have they contributed to your success? On the other hand, what are your areas for improvement and how can you work on them? It’s important to be objective and open to feedback in this part of the essay.

Tips for Crafting a Self Evaluation Essay

When writing a self evaluation essay, it’s important to be honest and reflective. Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling self evaluation essay:

• Reflect on your achievements and challenges: Take the time to reflect on your accomplishments and the areas where you faced challenges. Be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses.
• Provide concrete examples: Support your self evaluation with specific examples that showcase your skills and abilities. This will help the reader understand your strengths and areas for growth.
• Set goals for improvement: Based on your self assessment, set realistic goals for improvement. This will show that you are committed to personal and professional growth.
• Solicit feedback: Consider asking for feedback from mentors, colleagues, or supervisors to gain a different perspective on your performance. This can help you identify blind spots and areas for improvement.
• Stay focused and organized: When writing your self evaluation, stay focused on the main points you want to convey. Organize your thoughts in a clear and logical manner to make it easier for the reader to follow your argument.
• Edit and revise: Take the time to edit and revise your self evaluation essay to ensure clarity and coherence. Proofread carefully to catch any errors in grammar, punctuation, or spelling.

Understand the Assignment Requirements

Before you start writing your self evaluation essay, it’s crucial to thoroughly read and understand the assignment requirements. Pay close attention to the guidelines provided by your instructor or the prompt given to you. Make sure you understand what specific aspects of your performance or experience you need to address in your essay.

Tip: If you have any questions about the assignment requirements, don’t hesitate to seek clarification from your instructor or discuss it with your classmates. Understanding what is expected of you will help you focus your writing and ensure that you meet the criteria set for the assignment.

Reflect on Your Achievements

When writing a self evaluation essay, it’s important to take a moment to reflect on your achievements. Consider the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the evaluation period and assess how well you have met or exceeded them. Think about your accomplishments, both big and small, and how they have contributed to your personal and professional growth.

Highlight specific examples of projects you completed successfully, skills you developed, or challenges you overcame. Discuss any positive feedback you received from supervisors or colleagues, as well as any recognition or awards you may have garnered. Reflecting on your achievements allows you to showcase your strengths and demonstrate the value you bring to your work.

Identify Areas for Improvement

When writing a self evaluation essay, it’s essential to honestly identify areas where you can improve. This is a crucial step in personal growth and development. Reflect on your strengths and weaknesses to pinpoint specific areas that you would like to work on.

• Skills: Are there any skills that you would like to develop further? Whether it’s communication, critical thinking, or technical skills, identifying areas for improvement can help you set goals for growth.
• Performance: Reflect on your performance in different aspects of your life, such as work, school, or personal relationships. Are there any areas where you feel you could have done better?
• Attitude: Your attitude plays a significant role in how you approach challenges and interact with others. Consider if there are any negative attitudes or habits that you would like to change.

By identifying areas for improvement, you can create a roadmap for personal development and set actionable goals to help you progress. Remember, self-improvement is a continuous journey, and identifying areas for improvement is the first step towards becoming the best version of yourself.

Provide Concrete Examples

One of the most important aspects of writing a self evaluation essay is to provide concrete examples to support your statements. Instead of making vague claims about your strengths and weaknesses, use specific instances where you demonstrated certain skills or faced challenges. For example, instead of saying “I am a good team player,” provide an example of a project where you collaborated effectively with your team members to achieve a common goal.

Using concrete examples not only makes your self evaluation more credible, but also helps the reader understand your strengths and areas for improvement better. Make sure to include relevant details and outcomes of each example to paint a clear picture of your capabilities.

Show Your Growth Over Time

One key aspect of writing a self evaluation essay is to show your growth over time. Reflect on how you have evolved personally, academically, and professionally since the beginning of the evaluation period. Highlight the challenges you faced and the steps you took to overcome them. Discuss the lessons you learned and how they have contributed to your growth and development.

Use specific examples and anecdotes to illustrate your progress. Include both successes and setbacks to provide a complete picture of your journey. Be honest and transparent about your strengths and weaknesses, and demonstrate how you have worked to improve in areas that needed development. Showing your growth over time will showcase your self-awareness and commitment to continuous improvement.

Seek Feedback from Others

One of the most valuable sources of information for your self-evaluation essay is feedback from others. This can include peers, colleagues, supervisors, and mentors. Ask them to provide honest and constructive feedback on your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.

Receiving feedback from others can give you a different perspective on your performance and help you identify blind spots that you may not have noticed. It can also help you understand how others perceive your work and interactions, which can be valuable in shaping your self-assessment.

When seeking feedback, be open and receptive to criticism. Remember that the goal is to learn and grow, so take feedback as an opportunity for improvement rather than as a personal attack. Consider incorporating the feedback you receive into your self-evaluation essay to present a well-rounded and reflective assessment of yourself.

Edit and Revise Your Essay

Once you have written your self evaluation essay, it is crucial to edit and revise it before submitting. Editing and revising help to ensure that your essay is clear, coherent, and error-free. Here are some tips for editing and revising your essay:

1. Review for Clarity: Read through your essay to see if your ideas are communicated clearly and effectively. Make sure each paragraph flows logically into the next and that your points are well-supported.

2. Check for Grammar and Spelling Errors: Proofread your essay for any grammar or spelling mistakes. Use spell check tools and consider asking someone else to review your essay for errors.

3. Ensure Consistent Tone and Voice: Make sure that the tone and voice of your essay are consistent throughout. Avoid sudden shifts in tone that may confuse the reader.

4. Cut Unnecessary Information: Remove any information that is not relevant to your self evaluation or does not add value to your essay. Keep your writing concise and focused.

5. Seek Feedback: Ask a friend, family member, or teacher to read your essay and provide feedback. Fresh eyes can catch mistakes or inconsistencies that you may have missed.

By taking the time to edit and revise your self evaluation essay, you can ensure that it presents your thoughts and accomplishments in the best possible light.

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The One Method That Changes Your—and All Students’—Writing

Science-based writing methods can achieve dramatic results..

Posted May 14, 2024 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

• Why Education Is Important
• Find a Child Therapist
• A systematic writing framework offers a method for dramatically improving the teaching of writing.
• This method received only limited uptake, despite high-profile research publications and textbooks.
• A focus on writing style might have limited the method's impacts.

I remember spending hours commenting painstakingly on my students’ papers when I was a graduate student teaching in the Expository Writing Program at New York University. My students loved our classes, and they filled my sections and gave me terrific course evaluations. Yet I could see that their writing failed to change significantly over the course of the semester. I ended up feeling as if I should refund their money, haunted by the blunt instruments we had to teach writing.

As I’ve learned from directing five writing programs at three different universities, methods matter. When I reviewed comments on papers from instructors who taught in my programs, I discovered that the quantity and quality of comments on students’ papers made only a slight impact on writing outcomes. For instance, one notoriously lazy instructor took several weeks to return assignments and only used spelling and grammar checkers to automate comments. But his conscientious colleague made dozens of sharp observations about students’ arguments, paragraphs, and sentences. However, Mr. Conscientious’ students improved perhaps only 10% over Mr. Minimalist’s students. Even then, the differences stemmed from basic guidelines Mr. Conscientious insisted his students write to, which included providing context sentences at the outset of their essay introductions.

Educators have also poured resources into teaching writing, with increasing numbers of hours dedicated to teaching writing across primary, secondary, and higher education . Yet studies continue to find writing skills inadequate . In higher education, most universities require at least a year of writing-intensive courses, with many universities also requiring writing across the curriculum or writing in the disciplines to help preserve students’ writing skills. However, writing outcomes have remained mostly unchanged .

While pursuing my doctorate, I dedicated my research to figuring out how writing worked. As a graduate student also teaching part-time, I was an early convert to process writing. I also taught those ancient principles of logos, ethos, and pathos, as well as grammar and punctuation. Nevertheless, these frameworks only created a canvas for students’ writing. What was missing: how writers should handle words, sentence structure, and relationships between sentences.

Yet researchers published the beginnings of a science-based writing method over 30 years ago. George Gopen, Gregory Colomb, and Joseph Williams created a framework for identifying how to maximize the clarity, coherence, and continuity of writing. In particular, Gopen and Swan (1990) created a methodology for making scientific writing readable . This work should have been a revelation to anyone teaching in or directing a writing program. But, weirdly, comparatively few writing programs or faculty embraced this work, despite Williams, Colomb, and Gopen publishing both research and textbooks outlining the method and process.

Peculiarly, this framework—represented by Williams’ Style series of textbooks and Gopen’s reader expectation approach—failed to become standard in writing courses, likely because of two limitations. First, both Gopen and Williams hewed to a relativistic stance on writing methods, noting that rule-flouting often creates a memorable style. This stance created a raft of often-contradictory principles for writing. For example, Williams demonstrated that beginning sentences with There is or There are openings hijacked the clarity of sentences, then argued writers should use There is or There are to shunt important content into sentence emphasis positions, where readers recall content best. Second, these researchers failed to tie this writing framework to the wealth of data in psycholinguistics, cognitive neuroscience , or cognitive psychology on how our reading brains process written English. For instance, textbooks written by these three principal researchers avoid any mention of why emphasis positions exist at the ends of sentences and paragraphs—despite the concept clearly originating in the recency effect. This limitation may stem from the humanities’ long-held antipathy to the idea that writing is a product, rather than a process. Or even that science-based methods can help teachers and programs measure the effectiveness of writing, one reason why university First-Year Writing programs have failed to improve students’ writing in any measurable way.

Nevertheless, when you teach students how our reading brains work, you create a powerful method for rapidly improving their writing—in any course that requires writing and at all levels of education. Students can grasp how writing works as a system and assess the costs and benefits of decisions writers face, even as they choose their first words. This method also works powerfully to help students immediately understand how, for instance, paragraph heads leverage priming effects to shape readers’ understanding of paragraph content.

Using this method, I and my colleagues have helped students use a single writing assignment to secure hundreds of jobs, win millions in grant funding, and advance through the ranks in academia. However, we’ve also used the same method without modifications in elementary and secondary classrooms to bolster students’ writing by as much as three grade levels in a single year.

Perhaps the time has arrived for this well-kept secret to revolutionizing student writing outcomes to begin making inroads into more writing classrooms.

Gopen, G. D. and J. A. Swan (1990). "The Science of Scientific Writing." American Scientist 78(6): 550-558.

Gopen, George. The Sense of Structure: Writing from the Reader’s Perspective . Pearson, 2004.

Gopen, George. Expectations: Teaching Writing from the Reader’s Perspective . Pearson, 2004.

Williams, Joseph. Style: Toward Clarity and Grace . University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Williams, Joseph. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace . Harper Collins, 1994.

Williams, Joseph. Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace . Longman, 2002.

Jane Yellowlees Douglas, Ph.D. , is a consultant on writing and organizations. She is also the author, with Maria B. Grant, MD, of The Biomedical Writer: What You Need to Succeed in Academic Medicine .

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No Exaggeration, These 11 Self-Help Books Will Change Your Life

By Mia Barzilay Freund

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It can be hard to find a compelling self-help book. They can be patronizing or preachy, and can even add to our worries. Still, the best self-help books share certain features: thoughtful reflections paired with gentle guidance, personal insights merged with broader knowledge. Of course, humor doesn’t hurt—but neither does seriousness of purpose.

Ultimately, the best self-help book is the book that helps you. You’re likely to find that title in this selection of 11 self-development genre stand-outs. Whether you want to feed your creative practice, improve your love life, or heal your lower back , you won’t go it alone with these authors as your guides.

The Body Keeps Score by Bessel van der Kolk

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

A leading expert in trauma studies, van der Kolk offers a life-changing look into how the brain and body respond to painful experiences. His research deals with a range of widely occurring traumas, from alcoholism to sexual violence to domestic abuse. With attention to the brain’s ability to be shaped and reshaped, his analysis allows readers to understand the ways trauma lingers—and our capacity to heal from it.

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Gilbert takes readers by the hand and guides them toward a more compassionate, cooperative relationship with the creative spirit. Her suggestions range from the practical to the philosophical—exploring everything from dressing up to attract inspiration to understanding creative labor as both playful and serious. Her reflections are wise and reasonable, whimsical without being trite. She shares meaningful insights from her own creative practice and gets candid about pressing ahead in the face of work-halting fear.

Healing Back Pain by John Sarno

Healing Back Pain

In his suite of books (including Mind Over Back Pain and The Mindbody Prescription ), Sarno argues that common afflictions like lower back, neck, and shoulder pain are not caused by physical irregularities but by repressed emotions. He pulls compelling examples from his extensive medical career, including numerous patients who were able to resume pain-free lives after identifying the real debilitating culprits: anger about family obligations, perfectionistic standards, or even stress about an upcoming vacation.

All About Love by bell hooks

All About Love

Love is often represented as an ineffable force defying coherent definition. But in this vital volume, first published in 1999, hooks insists that developing a vocabulary for love is crucial to separating it from more unequal forms of relation. The first in her “Love Song to the Nation” trilogy, All About Love takes an incisive look into the heart of our culture, treating love as a subject to be understood and harnessed toward healing ends.

“Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-Reliance & Other Essays

Emerson’s famous essay appears alongside his other important works in this 2009 edition . A definitive piece of Transcendentalist moral philosophy, it adopts the premise that men (remember, this is 1841) must turn inward and trust themselves instead of society or institutions to find a way to be. Laid out in a series of lucid reflections, the essay urges people to find inner alignment in order to achieve principled, peaceful lives.

Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Wherever You Go There You Are

Anxieties, responsibilities, technology—countless things compete for our attention in any given moment. An influential figure in the meditation space, Kabat-Zinn provides this guide to reclaiming the present and dropping into our minds and bodies. He treats mindfulness as a quality to infuse throughout our daily lives, creating a state of attunement through compassion and inquisitiveness.

Navigate Your Stars by Jesmyn Ward

Navigate Your Stars

Adapted from a speech she delivered at Tulane University’s 2018 Commencement, this short illustrated book blends Ward’s personal story with a broader message of persistence. She describes the limited opportunities available to her mother and grandmother as poor Black women living in the South. As a young person, Ward charted her own course to Stanford University, only later realizing how factors of intergenerational poverty and trauma narrowed what was possible for those before her. Still, her elite education did not guarantee her future. Instead, Ward shares how adapting to one’s circumstances and making a series of choices creates a way forward.With its beautiful illustrations, the book makes a perfect gift for recent graduates and lifelong learners alike.

Grit by Angela Duckworth

Drawing on her career as a psychologist, Duckworth uses science and experience to explain why grit—a blend of perseverance and passion—determines success more than talent or luck. She takes readers into her research with a series of fascinating case studies: teachers working in challenging schools, cadets starting out at West Point, and young people competing in the National Spelling Bee Finals. She arrives at some encouraging conclusions: grit can be learned and channeled towards achieving one’s greatest goals.

Celebrating Life: Finding Happiness in Unexpected Places by Jonathan Sacks

Celebrating Life: Finding Happiness in Unexpected Places

Britain’s long-serving Chief Rabbi, Sacks was an esteemed commentator and religious leader. Celebrating Life is one of several books he wrote on topics of self-discovery and society. In it, he details his journey to finding happiness after the death of his father. He frames happiness as a particular mode of experiencing reality, a practice rather than a possession. Wise and honest, his uplifting philosophy is intended “for people of all faiths and none.”

The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm

The Art of Loving

In this important work by the German social psychologist, Fromm asserts that love is an art that can be learned rather than a chance condition into which one “falls.” He challenges several cultural assumptions about love; for instance, that the problem of love is about making oneself lovable rather than mastering the art of love itself. Bold and clearly expressed, his reflections are as relevant today as they were nearly 70 years ago when the book was first published.

The Imagination Muscle by Albert Read

The Imagination Muscle

This book from Albert Read—former managing director of Condé Nast Britain—delves into the world of imagination, arguing its universal significance beyond creativity. He advocates for cultivating imagination in daily life, offering practical advice from observation techniques to ways of navigating modern complexities. Through historical anecdotes, modern innovations, and more, Read emphasizes imagination as one of humanity’s paramount assets.

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Essay on Self Help is the Best Help for Students

We are Sharing an Essay on Essay on Self Help is the Best Help in English for students and children. In this article, we have tried our best to provide a short Essay on Self Help is the Best Help for Classes 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 in 100, 150, 300, 500 words.

Essay on Self Help in 150 words

God helps those who know how to help themselves. One cannot have success in life if he depends on others’ help. He must try hard and work hard to attain his goal. If he does not have confidence in his own ability, others cannot help him attain success in life. If only one is sincere in his labour and determined to attain his goal, he can earn success in life. So the key to success is in our own hands, not in the dependence on others. If we read the stories of success in our world, We can see how the most successful men have helped themselves. They are all self-made men, never depending on others, But that does not mean that they have worked alone in this world and that they have refused to take others’ help. They have accepted help from others but relied on themselves.

Essay on Self Help is the Best Help in 300 words

`Self-help is the best help’ is a popular proverb. This is not only a proverb but also the outcome of human experience. There are two types of help. One is self-help and the other one is the help rendered by others.

The idea of self-help was conceived by man in the very early stages of civilization. The primitive man depended on his own help for securing food and meeting his various needs. Man learned by experience that when he does something on his own he can do it better than when it is done by somebody else for him. As long as a person does his work on his own he is his own master. He derives satisfaction from having done something by his own efforts. When work is done for him by others this satisfaction will not be there. In the beginning, the man depended upon his self-help. But with the progress of civilization, a man began to live on other’s labour. This transformed the innocent primitive man into a cunning civilized man. Man became lazy and corrupt. In course of time, he even tried to enslave others for his selfish ends. Thus came into existence the cruel practice of slavery. Today, though slavery has been abolished we can find a large number of people who depend on others’ labour.

Self-help develops self-reliance and self-dependence. One feels confident of his capacity. He knows what to do and how to do things. He is not a parasite on others. The example set by Japan in this regard is worth mentioning. Japan is a country that is wedded to this principle and used it as a means of her progress. The result is that Japan became an advanced nation. So self-help is the root of all progress.

But this must not make us selfish and narrow-minded. When a man thinks of himself he must also think of others. Man is a social animal. He needs the help of others. He cannot produce each and everything needed by him by his self-efforts. Therefore while a person tries to be as self-reliant as possible he should not be blind to the needs of other people.

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