how to write a college essay about a hobby

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Essay on My Hobby

• Updated on  
• Mar 16, 2023

Having a meaningful hobby is an integral part of human life. Taking out a few moments in your busy life to pursue your hobby which genuinely satisfies you will make your life more stress-free. There might be many instances in life where people would like to know more about your hobby. You can refer to this blog on such occasions where you need to explain your hobby in detail in the form of essays. Essay writing is an integral part of the English subject. Mastering the skill of essay writing is not easy but can be perfected over time through practice. This blog explores what an essay on my hobby is, how to write it, valuable tips and sample essays on my hobby!

This Blog Includes:

What is an essay on my hobby, how to write an essay on my hobby, sample essay in 100 words, sample essay in 200 words, sample essay in 500 words, tips for writing an essay on my hobby .

An essay on ‘my hobby’ gives the admission committee insight into your life and you as a person. It shows them how your interests and hobbies have a role in your life and how much of a creative and intellectual person you are, apart from your academic excellence. It also gives a clear view of your skills and values. So it is important that you curate an essay that helps to sway the admission committee in your favour and make you stand out from the rest of the candidates. 

Also Read: Essay on Human Rights

Start by choosing which hobbies you are going to talk about in the essay. You can choose to list several different hobbies and you can only focus on one. The key is to be true and not make up your hobbies. Your hobbies are a description of your personality. In your essay, you can start by stating what your hobby is followed by how your love for that hobby originated, what inspired you to take up that hobby and how it helps you emotionally. Describe how it helped you develop new skills or helped in certain life situations and helped you become a better person. You can also describe the impact it had on somebody else, like suppose you love nature, so you planted trees which in turn helped the environment or how you like to do social work and helped a homeless shelter. This way, through the essay, a person can understand your values, your vision and your character. 

Also Read: Essay on Disaster Management

A hobby is an activity that one loves to do in free time with passion and dedication. A hobby is a recreation that brings about personal pleasure and amusement. It is an interesting pursuit which we adopt as an occupation for our free time. It enables a  person to find some soothing work that can relax the mind and soul. I have a variety of different hobbies. As an active sociable individual, I enjoy staying fit and going to the gym. I also like to keep my commercial awareness up to date and enjoy reading the Financial Times. I enjoy meeting new people, and I am also part of a fundraising committee for a charity called the St Matthew’s Children.

Also Read: Essay on Pollution

Check out this 200-word sample essay on my hobby.

A hobby is work which a person does with much satisfaction and amusement. It is a kind of recreation, a shadow from the scorching beam of the sun and also getting fruit from it. I have been interested in gardening since my childhood. I like to see the green velvety grass, different colours of flowers and beautiful plants. So, I have selected a piece of land in my house and planted different kinds of flowers. I have planted a red rose, yellow and black rose plants and have arranged them one after another. The flowers of -Night Queen”, “Jasmine” and “King of the day” have filled the atmosphere with attractive fragrance. In the evening my family spend their time in the garden. I have also planted Guava and Neem trees, which give shade from the scorching beam and also get fruit from it. I have also reserved a piece of land for growing vegetables and getting different seasonal vegetables. Though gardening is hard work and expensive, the hard labour makes my health sound and we get fresh vegetables and beautiful flowers.

Also Read: Essay on Child Labour

Here is a sample essay on my hobby that students can refer to.

Routine work makes us monotonous. To break it we often look for interesting and exciting things to do. Hobbies are the best way to divert attention side by side with work. We need entertainment from time to time. At such times a good hobby is very useful. Hobbies provide recreation. They entertain us and at the same time are valuable in the sense that they develop a personality.

My hobby is singing. People often resort to gardening, reading, stamp collecting, bird watching, etc. However, I love to listen to music and also to sing. I have a large collection of tapes and I listen to all kinds of music. My collection ranges from classical music to Rock and from Indian music to the Western one. My hobby is to listen to these songs carefully and then to learn them. I sit with a paper and a pen and write down the lyrics of the songs that I hear. Then I hum along and soon I know the tunes too.

I switch the tape recorder off and then I pretend to be the singer myself. I sing the song exactly the way it was sung by the playback singer. I succeed at times and sometimes fail. Once I feel that I have begun to sing perfectly I tape my own voice. When I listen to the recording I listen objectively and try to locate my faults in singing. This helps me to improve on my singing and I find that also helps me to use my talent to my advantage.

Whenever I go to a party, my friends persuade me to sing. Once I begin, the party livens up, people join in and the place is filled with the sound of music. I feel proud of myself and my friends also praise me because they feel that I become the life of the party. I play the guitar and sing when we go on a picnic or when I have a free period in school.

My hobby makes me happy and also brings joy to all my relatives and friends. It is necessary that everybody must have some hobby. It educates man, gives him pleasure, and helps him to utilize his free time fruitfully. If a person has no hobby, his spare time will turn him into a useless, irritated and restless person. “An idle mind is a devil’s workshop”. It is, therefore, essential to remain busy even during leisure hours. Hobbies always come to one’s help.

Also Read: Essay on Women Empowerment

Here are some tips you should keep in mind while writing an essay on my hobby:

Lastly, we hope this blog has helped you in structuring a terrific essay on your hobby. In case you have other queries regarding study abroad options and college applications, our experts at Leverage Edu are here to help you through the entire process.

Sonal is a creative, enthusiastic writer and editor who has worked extensively for the Study Abroad domain. She splits her time between shooting fun insta reels and learning new tools for content marketing. If she is missing from her desk, you can find her with a group of people cracking silly jokes or petting neighbourhood dogs.

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Essays About Hobbies: Top 5 Examples and 9 Prompts

If you are writing essays about hobbies, check out our guide with helpful essay examples and exciting writing prompts!

Nurturing our hobbies can unleash our most creative selves, allowing us to be productive and filled with a satisfying sense of personal achievement. Devoting some time to our hobbies is the best escape from the anxieties and burnout in our academic or professional lives. It can easily brighten a dreary day or a lazy mood. 

However, with our daily grind, many of us fail to have enough time for our daily hobbies. Many instead look forward to weekends when they can afford to while away their hours, be engrossed in what they love doing the most, and leave the world behind. 

Read below our round-up of essay examples and prompts about hobbies to stimulate your motivation to write.

5 Essay Examples About Hobbies

1. people share the hobbies that changed their relationship with work: ‘it has truly been mind blowing’ by faima barker , 2. the modern trap of turning hobbies into hustles by molly conway, 3. is watching tv a hobby an argument settled once and for all by hobbyask, 4. the big impact of a small hobby by john donohue, 5. google’s sergey brin is totally obsessed with high-adrenaline exercise by madeline stone, 9 writing prompts on essays about hobbies, 1. your favorite hobbies, 2. how to make time for your hobbies, 2. most affordable hobbies, 3. why busy people need a hobby, 4. how hobbies cultivate health and wellness, 5. new hobbies to try out, 6. helping children choose  hobbies, 7. sharing similar hobbies with friends or family  , 8. how hobbies build self-esteem, 9. being bullied for your hobbies .

“Hobbies are subjective – one person’s enjoyment might be another person’s idea of boredom – but no matter what brings someone happiness, hobbies and interests outside of work are the ultimate acts of resistance against capitalism.”

Three professionals from different parts of the world share how they have discovered new hobbies during the pandemic. These new finds have allowed productive and mental health breaks from the monotony and burnout of work, changing their lives for the better. 

“What if we allowed ourselves to devote our time and attention to something just because it makes us happy? Or, better yet, because it enables us to truly recharge instead of carving our time into smaller and smaller pieces for someone else’s benefit?”

A woman at a wedding is genuinely proud of her achievement of sewing in pockets on her dress. But that’s only until she realizes she hasn’t made a dime. As hobbies-turned-hustles steadily rise, it offers people a potential doorway to quit their jobs. However, it also dampens how others feel about their hobbies when they don’t commercialize them.

“…The nay-sayers regularly cite television as not being a true hobby because it doesn’t require any creative input or a sense of progress; essentially, you sit back and let the TV do its magic while you enjoy without any thought.”

With obesity and inactivity associated with watching TV, some people refuse to classify the activity as a hobby. They argue that watching TV is not even a productive pursuit. However, as hobbies are defined as things that make us feel relaxed and happy, they can still count as a hobby and could even be mind-challenging as other hobbies if we choose the right content. 

“Drawing had helped me survive another very dark period of my life, earlier. Could it now be helping me to stay healthy?”

A former news editor finds a safe space in drawing again – this time with more regularity after losing a job. Trapped in a dark period, Donohue shares his story of how drawing helps relax his mind, citing several studies to support the mental health benefits one can reap from art activities and hobbies.

“He spent so much time on his various physical activities that his father once asked him if he had chosen any advanced courses of study. ‘Yes, advanced swimming,’ was Brin’s famous response.”

The essay features Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin and puts the spotlight on his love for sports. Gathering observations from Brin’s colleagues and even his trapeze coach, the article inspires people to maintain sports and find new ones to be their hobbies even amidst their busy lives. 

In this essay, talk about how you discovered this hobby. Did you choose it on your own, or is it something your parents encouraged you to do? Next, recollect the happy thoughts you have when doing your hobbies. Then, look at how this positive energy spills over to the other aspects of your life and your outlook on your ambitions. Finally, write about the important life lessons you learned from taking up your hobbies. 

Pursuing your hobbies might seem nearly impossible when you have a loaded schedule. However, even the most organized of us can find challenges in squeezing in some me-time with hobbies. So, try to challenge your readers to strictly give up a few hours a week to commit to what they love doing. Then, encourage them to engage in their hobbies with friends and family who share similar interests to make the most out of their free time.

There are several hobbies out there that don’t cost you much but could still be as fun. It would depend mainly on a person’s preference, mindset, and budget. So, list some low-cost hobbies and creative ideas on how people can spend less while getting the best experience out of a hobby. 

Hobbies are the first thing that goes out of the window in the schedule plan of the busiest people. But working too hard for a long duration can create a monotonous life. Workers are left questioning their sense of purpose when this happens and may fall into depression. For your essay, convince your busy readers to spare some time and turn their attention to passion and away from profit. Talk about the more excellent value that can be reaped from the fulfillment of hobbies. 

Research studies have shown that hobbies help us achieve clarity, relaxation, and a recharged mind and body. So, gather a few recent studies enumerating the physiological and mental health benefits of consistently engaging in a hobby. Then, help your readers take the small steps to add their hobbies into their daily or weekly schedule.

Are there passion projects or activities you’ve meant to do but abandoned long ago? It may be a hobby that sparked your interest years ago that you’re reconsidering trying out. Write about what factors first drew you to this hobby and how you intend to try it out. Then, provide your ultimate criteria on how you would know if this hobby suits you well. Finally, encourage people to overcome their fears of attempting something new. 

Encouraging kids to take up their hobbies can help them break away from their long screen time. But, more importantly, hobbies enable children to be productive and hone their mastery of a certain craft early. For this prompt, write down recommendations from child behavior experts on how parents can effectively direct their children’s energy to more worthwhile things such as nurturing a hobby. 

Having common interests can strengthen the bond of friendship and family. Write about hobbies you and your best friend or family members do together. Talk about how often you gather to enjoy your hobbies. Then, reminisce on the most memorable memories you’ve had while doing what you love to do.

Taking part in a hobby gives us the impression and confidence that we can be masters of our craft. Unfortunately, it’s an achievement we often deny in our professional or academic circles, leaving us pressured to push ourselves to our limits. For this prompt, research further on the scientific connection between engaging in hobbies and advancing your self-esteem. 

Some of us have eccentric hobbies that get the attention of bullies. Sadly, because of bullying, many tend to give up these hobbies to find something more “socially acceptable.” Write about how people can focus on doing things that spark joy in them. You might also want to check our guide on essays about bullying to add suggestions on how to stand up against a bully. 

If you’re interested in learning more to improve your writing, check out our essay writing tips ! You can also check our general resource of essay writing topics .

Yna Lim is a communications specialist currently focused on policy advocacy. In her eight years of writing, she has been exposed to a variety of topics, including cryptocurrency, web hosting, agriculture, marketing, intellectual property, data privacy and international trade. A former journalist in one of the top business papers in the Philippines, Yna is currently pursuing her master's degree in economics and business.

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71 Hobby Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Need to write a hobby essay? Looking for a catchy topic? Hobby essay titles of all kinds are collected in this article!

✍️ Thesis Statement about Hobbies

🏆 best hobby topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 most interesting hobby essay topics, 👍 hobby topic ideas for research papers, ❓ hobby related questions.

In this article, we’ve collected 45 hobby topic ideas for essays and research papers. They are suitable for college as well as high school students. You will also find here plenty of samples to help kickstart your writing.

When writing a hobby essay, you need to pay particular attention to your thesis statement. A good thesis should include all the main points of your essay. To make this task easier for you, we’ve prepared some examples of thesis statements about hobbies. Have a look:

• Dancing is an excellent hobby for college students because it helps to relieve stress and has numerous health benefits.
• Drawing is beneficial for children because it helps them develop their creativity and fine motor skills.
• Traveling as a hobby allows people to broaden their horizons and learn about other cultures.
• Singing as a Hobby and Way of Self-Expression I need to have a source of relaxation and nonchalance during my studies, and singing is great for letting me do my things without any tension.
• Writings About Hobby – Home Brewing Beer Commercially available beer is expensive to purchase as a result of various taxes and the need of profits by the beer makers.
• Power of Hobby vs. Necessity of Commitment in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity The ideas of “top ten” and the “top five” are not usual for describing the relations between a man and a woman, still, they prove that the character has not traditional approaches, and his standpoints […]
• Skateboarding Not Just A Hobby A Lifestyle
• Young Lady Battle Of Boxing As An Awesome American Hobby
• Is Your Hobby Helping Or Hindering Your Family Life
• Video Games : A Becoming A Lifelong Hobby
• An Analysis of Sports Memorabilia as a True Hobby
• Turning Your Hobby Into An eBay Business
• Woodworking For Fun And Profit Is A Great Hobby
• How Selecting a Best Hobby For You Is Going To Change Your Life
• Travelling Is a Good Hobby That Everyone Should Cultivate
• Exploring The Hobby Of Photography
• Violent Video Games: Children’s Dangerous Hobby
• The Importance Of The Collectible Hobby Industry
• Hobby Farms and British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Reserve
• An Analysis of the Baseball Sport as a Hobby
• Is Your eBay Activity A Business Or A Hobby
• William Golding ‘s Thinking As A Hobby
• Is Your Online Business A Hobby Or A Real Business
• Walking Sticks A Money Making Hobby
• The Political Background Of Hobby
• My Hobby of Volunteering at Care Centers
• Making Candles A Fun Hobby Or Craft
• Radio Controlled Cars A Fun Hobby For All Ages
• Hobby: Nutrition and Black Bean Curd
• The Importance Of Dancing As A Hobby
• Turn Your Scrapbooking Hobby Into A Profitable Business
• Benefits of Pursuing a Hobby
• An Analysis of the Words Knowledge and Intelligence in William Golding’s Article Thinking as a Hobby
• An Analysis of Important Steps in Order to Be Successful in the World of RCA Hobby
• Why You Should Take Up A Physical Hobby
• Thinking as a Hobby Written by William Golding
• The Coin Collecting Hobby Industry
• Coin Collecting When Hobby Turns Business
• Photography Is Just A Hobby Or A Business
• Distinguishing a Business from a Hobby
• Starting A Hobby In Art Collectibles
• World Building: A Fun and Creative Hobby
• Squash From Hobby To Performance
• Identifying Talented People – Mental and Physical Proof of Talent, Predisposition to a Hobby
• The Reimbursement Limitation Of Hobby Lobby
• Travelling As A Common Hobby
• The Importance of Pursuing a Hobby in Your Life
• The Hobby Of Stamp Collecting
• An Analysis of the Hobby of Fish Keeping and the Methods for the Fish Preservation
• How Does Hobby Help Kids Avoid Dangerous Situations?
• What Is the Oldest Hobby in the World?
• Do Hobbies Change With Age?
• What Hobbies Do Royalty Have?
• What Are the Best Hobbies for Cognitive Function and Stress Release?
• Is Coin Collecting a Profitable Hobby?
• What Hobbies Are Good for Depression?
• Do Hobbies Help You Live Longer?
• What Is the Hardest Hobby in the World?
• Is Watching TV a Hobby?
• What Is the Most Valuable Hobby?
• Why Is Coin Collecting a Good Hobby?
• How Can Hobbies Change Your Life?
• Why Are Hobbies and Interests Important for Development?
• What Is the Best Hobby to Develop?
• How Do Hobbies Benefit Family?
• What Hobbies Do People Spend the Most On?
• How Can Hobbies Improve Self-Confidence?
• Is Coin Collecting a Dying Hobby?
• What Hobby Is Good for Mental Health?
• How Can Hobbies Reduce Stress?
• What Was the Hobby of the First King?
• What Hobbies Are Good for Socializing?
• Can Hobbies Improve Your Personal Skills?
• What Is the Importance of Hobbies in Education?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, February 29). 71 Hobby Essay Topic Ideas & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/hobby-essay-examples/

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, how do i write about an unusual hobby in my college essay.

Hey there! I'm a junior and I have a unique hobby that I think could make for an interesting college essay. However, I'm not sure how to write about it in a way that will be engaging and showcase my personality. Any tips or advice? Thanks in advance!

Hi! It's great to hear that you have a unique hobby you'd like to showcase in your college essay. I've helped my own child through the college application process, and I can share a few tips on how to write about your unusual hobby in a way that will be engaging and help admissions officers get to know you better. First, start with a strong opening that grabs the reader's attention. You could begin with an interesting anecdote or moment from your experience with this hobby. Next, show (don't tell) the reader how your hobby has shaped you as a person. Use descriptive language and vivid details to help the reader understand the impact it has had on your life. Be sure to connect your hobby to other aspects of your life, such as your values, goals, or relationships with others. This will help demonstrate how your unique interest is an integral part of who you are. Lastly, be genuine and let your personality shine through. Admissions officers want to get to know the real you, so don't be afraid to show your passion and enthusiasm for your hobby. Best of luck with your essay, and I hope this advice helps!

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Hobbies Essay: 80 Topics, 2 Examples, & My Hobby Essay Outline

Do you need to write a perfect leisure time essay?

It is an exciting topic – you can write about the things you are genuinely interested in! Try to think about what makes you feel inspired and share it with your readers. We will show you how to prepare a worthy paper in this article. You will find a hobbies essay writing guide, some topics on hobbies, and essay samples in the end.

• 🗂️ Hobby Essay Writing Guide

🧙 80 Hobby Essay Topics

✅ my hobby essay outline, 📔 hobby essay examples, 🗂️ hobby essay: 3 writing rules.

Here we will give some advice and discuss common mistakes in a “My hobbies” essay.

Follow these rules to prepare your paper wisely.

Essay on Hobbies Rule#1 Choose the Topic

First of all, you need to ensure that the hobby essay title you chose is appropriate to your paper’s length. If it is a short 100-word or 150-word essay, you can pick a simple topic. The longer the paper, the more complex issue you need. It also depends on your level of studies: high school and college paper topics have different requirements.

Your paper might also require some scientific research. In this case, look for a topic on which you can find enough information. Don’t be afraid to change or adjust the focus if you can’t find sufficient materials.

Use our amazing free essay topic generator to get the best topic!

If your instructor gave a list of topics, choose the one that interests you the most. You can also make a shortlist before you pick the most suitable title.

Essay on Hobbies Rule#2 Plan before Writing

Create a list of the essential points of your hobbies essay. Planning is vital as every paper needs a structure. Otherwise, you just might end up worshiping your hobby. This is the number one mistake.

Your outline should consist of three main parts:

• Introduction. You need to state your topic and describe what the paper is about.
• Body. Develop your arguments or narrative and provide evidence if necessary.
• Conclusion. Summarize the information you provided in the previous paragraphs.

Find rare aspects of your hobby. They can include equipment, locations, your achievements, and inspiration, etc.

If your hobby is rather popular, share a unique story connected with it.

Essay on Hobbies Rule#3 Filter What You Say

The first thing you should remember: be as objective as possible. No matter how much you love your hobbies, you better stick to the facts. All the information you provide should be unbiased and reliable.

How can you do it?

• Make references. Statistics, facts, and all other data will support your statements.
• Pay attention to vocabulary. You can use jargon and specific terminology as long as it has explanations. Avoid emotional words such as “very,” “terrible,” “awesome.”
• Don’t use reductions. As for academic writing, it is better to choose full forms.
• Show opposing points of view. To stay objective, indicate that your ideas have counterarguments.
• Check English grammar and spelling . Literacy is a must-have for any academic paper.

You can discuss one of these essay topics in your paper:

• What is the hobby you dream of taking up?
• Are active or passive hobbies better for children to develop properly ?
• Woodstock: An important event for those who have music as their hobby .
• How much time do you devote to your hobbies and interests?
• Reading as a family hobby .
• Should a hobby be affordable or require extra spending?
• Hobbies in ancient Rome: The importance of games and baths .
• Who or what inspired you to take up a new hobby?
• What equipment do you need for your hobby?
• Art as a hobby in the UK: Why it is worth supporting .
• Is it essential for a person to have a hobby?
• Is there a childhood hobby that you gave up?
• Sociology of music: What music means in our life .
• How many hobbies can a person have?
• What is your favorite hobby that you genuinely enjoy?
• Did your parents force you to choose your leisure time activities?
• What hobbies should you include in your resume?
• Folk music as a hobby .
• What is the right age to take up drawing?
• Gambling as a controversial hobby .
• Is it possible for a person not to have any hobbies?
• Sports as a hobby: Fan habits and behaviors on a game day .
• What is the most important lesson your hobby has taught you?
• Japanese manga and anime: A popular hobby worldwide .
• Which hobbies can you take up with a low budget?
• Rock music as a hobby .
• What hobby is the most popular in the United States ?
• How can you define the word “hobby”?
• Game of Thrones: A proof of why watching TV can be a legitimate hobby .
• Can singing be your hobby if you are not talented ?
• When can you say that activity became your hobby?
• Music as a hobby: Its influence on the mind .
• Who has the most exciting hobby in your family ?
• Why do people choose extreme or dangerous hobbies?
• What are the benefits of reading books?
• How to help a kid to pick their hobby?
• Yoga as a stress-reducing hobby .
• What should you do if you are no longer interested in your hobby?
• Is it essential to achieve something in your hobby?
• Music technology: Effects on professional and amateur musicians .
• Can your hobby become a profession ?
• How can you define that a hobby is not suitable for you?
• Graffiti as a hobby and an art form .
• How to choose your hobby if you are interested in too many things?
• Is gardening a hobby or a duty?
• Teenage gaming: Balancing between an innocent hobby and addiction .
• What free time activities are the most common among high school students ?
• What is your favorite family free time activity ?
• Video games: Are they an appropriate hobby for children ?
• Why do people lose interest in their hobbies over time?
• What are the differences between sports as a profession and as a hobby?
• What are the benefits of team sports such as basketball?
• What hobbies have you already tried?
• Do you prefer participating in your hobbies alone or with other people?
• Is gaming an appropriate hobby for the elderly ?
• What hobbies, in your opinion, are the most expensive?
• Violent video games: A hobby causing behavior problems .
• Did you enjoy your hobby when you first tried it?
• Music, media, and culture: Influence on behavior .
• How can a hobby be helpful in your career ?
• Video games as a hobby producing cognitive benefits .
• Is volunteering an unpaid job or a hobby?
• Music as a hobby: Personality traits and music preferences .
• Have your hobbies ever interfered with your studies ?
• Toys and games as important activities for children’s gender socialization .
• What hobbies are harmful to human health ?
• Online games: Are they a suitable hobby for children or adults ?
• Is taking up a new hobby stressful for you?
• The importance of music as a hobby .
• How much money do you spend on your hobby?
• Video games: A hobby with controversial effects .
• Do you want to devote more time to your hobby?
• Hip hop music as a hobby .
• Have you ever inspired anyone to take up your hobby?
• Music as a popular hoppy among Americans .
• How do your hobbies help you in life?
• Heavy metal music as a hobby: Gender differences .
• Who is your role model in your hobby?
• Leisure satisfaction in school teachers in Taiwan .
• Does sharing a hobby make people better friends ?

Writing an essay about your hobby is so exciting! If you don’t know where to start or how to organize your ideas, consider the following outline we’ve prepared to guide you.

And here are some short hobby essay examples for you. Read them to find inspiration. Pay attention to the structure and use them as a reference to your paper.

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Free Time Activities Essay

Each person needs to change their activities. If you have a sedentary job or study a lot, it is great to do some sports. If you move too much, you can enjoy reading a book in a quiet place. People need free time activities to make their lifestyle more enjoyable, healthy and get to know themselves better. First of all, having a hobby creates new experiences for you. Any kind of free time activity develops new skills and teaches you something new. It is excellent to know that you do something for yourself just for pleasure and new emotions. You can also find new friends, visit new places, and participate in events just because you have a hobby. For example, you like running. You can do it alone or join a local community. There are also plenty of amateur competitions that take place in different locations. Hobbies are beneficial for both your mental and physical health. They help you to keep your life in balance. Lacking movement in your daily life means you can compensate for it with sports. If you work from home and don’t communicate with people, you can sign up for group classes. Also, hobbies that require effort make your character more vigorous and more resistant to difficulties. When you spend your free time the way you like it, you become more self-aware. Knowing yourself means that you discover your strengths and weaknesses and understand your preferences better. You know what you are capable of now and what you need to learn to do. It is great to have a hobby to participate in different activities and enrich your life experience with new skills, places, and people. Hobbies also keep you healthy. Free-time activities are crucial for understanding your self-worth, motivations, and strong and weak spots.

My Favorite Hobby Essay

As for a high school student, my hobby might seem untypical. I design custom clothes for my family and peers. I am a seventeen-year-old boy who knows how to sew an evening dress for my mother or to create a tailored suit for any event. I chose this hobby as I was always interested in fashion, I am good at drawing and sketching, and my progress motivates me. It was always curious looking at people on the street when I was a kid. I noticed patterns, silhouettes, and various combinations. I knew some were good, some didn’t suit people, and some were just outdated. That was the moment when I started to notice the difference between fashion and style. Later, I watched fashion shows and educational YouTube videos. It is my dream to own a fashion brand, so I also paid attention to the business part of the process. Sketching clothes is the first step to their creation. I am a good drawer, so there is no problem showing all of my design ideas on paper. You just need a lot of practice. I needed to hone my skills to make proportions and colors seem as natural as possible. I also try to memorize how people look and draw them when I have an opportunity. I own more than twenty sketchbooks full of ideas and inspiration. The more ideas I generate, the easier it becomes. When I see my old sketches or pieces of clothing that I created, I can notice how much I’ve improved. Hard work and knowledge can make your goals achievable. If I don’t know something, I just search for it on the Internet and try it. Maybe you will need to try more than once, but eventually, I can see the result I want. Fashion is one of my greatest passions. That is why I never hesitate to spend some extra money or effort to create something new. I never regretted choosing fashion over any other hobbies because I always knew I was doing what was suitable for me. I know I developed my taste, drawing skills, and persistence because of this hobby. I hope one day it becomes a profession. My dream is to use all my skills and knowledge to create something people will like to wear.

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Hobbies and Interests Essay Writing Strategy: Things To Focus On

EssayEdge > Blog > Hobbies and Interests Essay Writing Strategy: Things To Focus On

Writing an essay about your interests is a super exciting thing. This topic is very wide open. You could choose to write about an extracurricular activity, job, hobby, or just about anything that involves a high level of interest and dedication. Most of our suggestions for  Accomplishments  essays also apply here, especially refraining from repeating information found elsewhere in your application and not including a laundry list of academic, extracurricular, and work successes.

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How to Write a Stand-Out College Essay

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Pascale Bradley in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

What’s Covered:

Introduction to college admission essays, make your college admission essays stand out, choose a compelling topic.

College admission essays comprise approximately 20% to 25% of the evaluation criteria for college applications. This is especially true when applying to top-tier institutions with large pools of applicants who are equally competitive with respect to their academic performance, standardized test scores, and extracurricular involvement. Most schools require applicants to submit a Common Application essay and their own school-specific supplemental short responses and essays. However, they also require applicants to respond to different types and quantities of topics, and you need to confirm which essays are required for each school. 

Essays are the most significant personal component of the application process. They serve an integral role in humanizing you and helping colleges understand who you are, how you came to be, what you value, and how you respond to different challenges and situations. This information is critical because it helps admissions officers determine what you can contribute to their respective school, which is important because you need to demonstrate why a college should want you to attend and not just why you want to go to that college. 

Essays will range from 100 to 700 words in length. Short responses may range between one or two words to several sentences. You may also have the opportunity to submit a multi-page document or a portfolio of your work for a particular program or for admission in general.

When it comes to writing college admission essays, most applicants feel pressured to write about something that others will perceive as exceptionally interesting and impressive, such as a national award or a niche hobby. Applicants may feel unsure and insecure about not being talented, accomplished, or interesting enough, and the events and experiences in their daily life may feel too mundane or clichéd to write about. These pressures and insecurities stem from applicants internalizing the incessant messaging that they need to be exceptional and unique in order to distinguish themselves from other applicants and be attractive to schools. 

Most applicants have not accomplished anything of regional, national, or international significance. Even for the few who have such accomplishments, the accolades in and of themselves are not sufficient to craft a compelling essay. 

What actually makes a compelling essay is not what you choose to write about but how you write about whichever topic you choose. The essay will stand out because of your voice, your perspective, and your way of experiencing the world. You will not be penalized for what you have not experienced or achieved, as admissions officers understand that not everyone has access to the same set of opportunities and that geographic location, socioeconomic status, family connections, and many other factors constrain and determine what you are able to do in high school. 

Once you divorce yourself from the misconception that your essay needs to be about something dramatic, life-altering, or incredibly exciting, you can start to home in on the content of your life that is worth writing about. Moments from and aspects of your everyday life—a book that was particularly meaningful to you, a relationship that you cherish, a memory of time spent with loved ones, a time when you were humiliated—are the seeds of great essays because they are the vehicles by which you can reveal something significant about who you are and how you think.

Your essay can be about anything you want, so long as it is appropriate for a general audience, satisfies the prompt to which you are responding, and shows the admissions officers something important about you that they could not find anywhere else in your application. Topics and content to avoid include any statements that could be construed as racist, sexist, classist, homophobic, xenophobic, or otherwise prejudiced against any particular group of people. You should also avoid the use of unsupported facts, obscene language, illicit activities, violence, or graphic subjects. 

If you are considering writing about something that could be considered controversial, you need to recognize and prepare for the reality that your reader may completely disagree with you and may finish reading your essay doubting your character. Although there is a slight chance that you could write a really strong essay about one of these topics, you run a great risk that is unnecessary and will likely not prove worthwhile. 

For more information about how to write strong college admission essays, review our comprehensive articles on “ How to Write the Common Application Essays ” and “ 19 Stellar Common App Essay Examples ” to get inspired.

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• How to Write a College Essay

College admissions experts offer tips on selecting a topic as well as writing and editing the essay.

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Students can go online to review essay requirements for the colleges they want to apply to, such as word limits and essay topics. Many students may start with the Common App, an application platform accepted by more than 1,000 schools.

For college applicants, the essay is the place to showcase their writing skills and let their unique voice shine through.

"The essays are important in part because this is a student's chance to really speak directly to the admissions office," says Adam Sapp, assistant vice president and director of admissions at Pomona College in California.

Prospective college students want their essay, sometimes called a personal statement, to make a good impression and boost their chances of being accepted, but they have only several hundred words to make that happen.

This can feel like a lot of pressure.

"I think this is the part of the application process that students are sometimes most challenged by," says Niki Barron, associate dean of admission at Hamilton College in New York, "because they're looking at a blank piece of paper and they don't know where to get started."

That pressure may be amplified as many colleges have gone test optional in recent years, meaning that ACT and SAT scores will be considered if submitted but are not required. Other schools have gone test-blind and don't consider such scores at all. In the absence of test scores, some admissions experts have suggested that more attention will be paid to other parts of an application, such as the essay.

But just as each applicant is unique, so are college admissions policies and priorities.

"Being test optional hasn't changed how we use essays in our selection process, and I wouldn't say that the essay serves as a substitute for standardized test scores," Barron wrote in an email. "A student's academic preparation for our classroom experience is always front and center in our application review process."

On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled against college admissions policies that consider an applicant's race. The ruling, though, does not prohibit students from writing essays on how their race has affected them, which experts say could significantly affect how students approach this portion of their applications.

Essay-writing tips offered by experts emphasize the importance of being concise, coherent, congenial, unique, honest and accurate. An applicant should also flex some intellectual muscle and include vivid details or anecdotes.

From brainstorming essay topics to editing the final draft, here's what students need to know about crafting a strong college application essay.

Getting Started on the College Essay

How long should a college essay be, how to pick a college essay topic, writing the college essay, how the affirmative action ruling could change college essays, editing and submitting the college essay.

A good time for students to begin working on their essays is the summer before senior year, experts say, when homework and extracurricular activities aren't taking up time and mental energy.

Starting early will also give students plenty of time to work through multiple drafts of an essay before college application deadlines, which can be as early as November for students applying for early decision or early action .

Students can go online to review essay requirements for the colleges they want to apply to, such as word limits and essay topics. Many students may start with the Common App , an application platform accepted by more than 1,000 schools. Students can submit that application to multiple schools.

Another option is the Coalition Application, an application platform accepted by more than 130 schools. Students applying through this application choose from one of six essay prompts to complete and include with their application.

In addition to the main essay, some colleges ask applicants to submit one or more additional writing samples. Students are often asked to explain why they are interested in a particular school or academic field in these supplemental essays , which tend to be shorter than the main essay.

Students should budget more time for the writing process if the schools they're applying to ask for supplemental essays.

"Most selective colleges will ask for more than one piece of writing. Don't spend all your time working on one long essay and then forget to devote energy to other parts of the application," Sapp says.

Though the Common App notes that "there are no strict word limits" for its main essay, it suggests a cap of about 650 words. The Coalition Application website says its essays should be between 500 and 650 words.

"While we won't, as a rule, stop reading after 650 words, we cannot promise that an overly wordy essay will hold our attention for as long as you'd hoped it would," the Common App website states.

The word count is much shorter for institution-specific supplemental essays, which are typically around 250 words.

The first and sometimes most daunting step in the essay writing process is figuring out what to write about.

There are usually several essay prompts to choose from on a college application. They tend to be broad, open-ended questions, giving students the freedom to write about a wide array of topics, Barron says.

The essay isn't a complete autobiography, notes Mimi Doe, co-founder of Top Tier Admissions, a Massachusetts-based advising company. "It's overwhelming to think of putting your whole life in one essay," she says.

Rather, experts say students should narrow their focus and write about a specific experience, hobby or quirk that reveals something personal, like how they think, what they value or what their strengths are. Students can also write about something that illustrates an aspect of their background. These are the types of essays that typically stand out to admissions officers, experts say. Even an essay on a common topic can be compelling if done right.

Students don't have to discuss a major achievement in their essay – a common misconception. Admissions officers who spoke with U.S. News cited memorable essays that focused on more ordinary topics, including fly-fishing, a student's commute to and from school and a family's dining room table.

What's most important, experts say, is that a college essay is thoughtful and tells a story that offers insight into who a student is as a person.

"Think of the college essay as a meaningful glimpse of who you are beyond your other application materials," Pierre Huguet, CEO and founder of admissions consulting firm H&C Education, wrote in an email. "After reading your essay, the reader won't fully know you – at least not entirely. Your objective is to evoke the reader's curiosity and make them eager to get to know you."

If students are having trouble brainstorming potential topics, they can ask friends or family members for help, says Stephanie Klein Wassink, founder of Winning Applications and AdmissionsCheckup, Connecticut-based college admissions advising companies. Klein Wassink says students can ask peers or family members questions such as, "What are the things you think I do well?" Or, "What are my quirks?"

The essay should tell college admissions officers something they don't already know, experts say.

Some experts encourage students to outline their essay before jumping into the actual writing, though of course everyone's writing process differs.

The first draft of an essay doesn't need to be perfect. "Just do a brain dump," Doe says. "Don't edit yourself, just lay it all out on the page."

If students are having a hard time getting started, they should focus on their opening sentence, Doe suggests. She says an essay's opening sentence, or hook, should grab the reader's attention.

Doe offered an example of a strong hook from the essay of a student she worked with:

"I first got into politics the day the cafeteria outlawed creamed corn."

"I want to know about this kid," she says. "I’m interested."

The key to a good college essay is striking a balance between being creative and not overdoing it, Huguet says. He advises students to keep it simple.

"The college essay is not a fiction writing contest," Huguet says. "Admissions committees are not evaluating you on your potential as the next writer of the Great American Novel."

He adds that students should write in the voice they use to discuss meaningful topics with someone they trust. It's also wise to avoid hyperbole, as that can lose the readers' trust, as well as extraneous adverbs and adjectives, Huguet says.

"Thinking small, when done right, means paying close attention to the little things in your life that give it meaning in unique ways," he says. "It means, on the one hand, that you don’t have to come up with a plan for world peace, but it also means thinking small enough to identify details in your life that belong only to you."

The Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action has left some students feeling in limbo with how to approach their essays. Some are unsure whether to include racial identifiers while others feel pressure to exclude it, says Christopher Rim, CEO and founder of Command Education, an admissions consulting company.

"For instance, some of our Asian students have been concerned that referencing their culture or race in their essay could negatively impact them (even moreso than before)," Rim wrote in an email. He noted that many students he works with had already begun crafting their essays before the ruling came. "Some of our other students have felt pressure to disclose their race or share a story of discrimination or struggle because they expect those stories to be received better by admissions officers."

Some of the uneasiness stems from what feels like a contradictory message from the court, Rim says. In his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., said the ruling shouldn't be construed "as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise." But he added that colleges may consider race only if it's tied to an applicant’s individual experiences or qualities, such as demonstrating courage against discrimination.

Personal essays shouldn't serve as a way for universities to ask students about their race as a means to admit them on such basis, Roberts added.

Rim says he expects there to be a lot of confusion from parents and students as they navigate that line when writing their essay. He says his guidance will vary with each student depending on their specific situation.

"For a student from an immigrant family, sharing their racial and cultural background may be integral to understanding their identity and values and therefore should be included in the essay," he says. "On the other hand, a student who has never meaningfully considered ways in which their race has shaped their life experience and worldview should not push themselves to do so in their essay simply because they believe it will better their chances."

While admissions officers try to learn about students via the essay, they are also gauging writing skills, so students want to make sure they submit top-notch work.

"The best writing is rewriting," Sapp says. "You should never be giving me your first draft."

When reviewing a first essay draft, students should make sure their writing is showing, not telling, Huguet says. This means students should show their readers examples that prove they embody certain traits or beliefs, as opposed to just stating that they do. Doing so is like explaining a joke to someone who's already laughed at it, he says.

"Let’s say, for example, that the whole point of a certain applicant’s essay is to let admissions officers know that she thinks outside the box. If she feels the need to end her essay with a sentence like, 'And so, this anecdote shows that I think outside the box,' she’s either underestimating the power of her story (or the ability of her reader to understand it), or she hasn’t done a good enough job in telling it yet," Huguet says. "Let your readers come to their own conclusions. If your story is effective, they’ll come to the conclusions you want them to."

After editing their essay, students should seek outside editing help, experts recommend. While there are individuals and companies that offer paid essay help – from editing services to essay-writing boot camps – students and families may not be able to afford the associated fees. Some providers may offer scholarships or other financial aid for their services.

The availability and level of feedback from free essay advising services vary. Some college prep companies offer brief consultations at no charge. Free essay workshops may also be available through local high schools, public libraries or community organizations. Khan Academy, a free online education platform, also offers a series of videos and other content to guide students through the essay writing process.

Colleges themselves may also have resources, Barron notes, pointing to pages on Hamilton's website that offer writing tips as well as examples of successful admissions essays. Likewise, Hamilton also holds virtual panel discussions on writing admissions essays.

Students have other options when it comes to essay help. They can ask peers, teachers, school counselors and family members for help polishing an essay. Huguet says it's typically wise to prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to seeking feedback on essays. Too many perspectives can become counterproductive, he says.

"While it can be valuable to have different perspectives, it's best to seek out individuals who are experts in the writing process," he says. "Instructors or professors can be helpful, particularly if they possess subject expertise and can provide guidance on refining arguments, structure and overall coherence."

Proofreaders should not change the tone of the essay. "Don't let anyone edit out your voice," Doe cautions.

And while proofreading is fair game, having someone else write your essay is not.

When an essay is ready to go, students will generally submit it online along with the rest of their application. On the Common App, for example, students copy and paste their essay into a text box.

Sapp says even though students often stress about the essay in particular, it's not the only thing college admissions officers look at. "The essay is the window, but the application is the house," he says. "So let's not forget that an application is built of many pieces."

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How to Write an Essay About My Favorite Hobby

Hobbies are activities that people love to do in their free time. However, having a hobby is a great thing, but writing an essay on your favorite hobbies can become challenging. That is why we have come up with some great ways to write an essay on my hobby.

How to Start an Essay About My Favorite Hobby

Tips concerning writing an essay about my favorite hobby, how to get the best essay about my favorite hobby, how to write body paragraphs, how to write a conclusion for an essay about my favorite hobby, catchy titles for an essay about favorite hobby, short example of a college essay about my favorite hobby.

What is hobby essay? A question that is significantly important to understand to initiate your essay. Many of the students mistake starting right away with their essays, which they regret later. It is highly suggested that you do not take this kind of approach. If you need to ace your essay about essay hobbies, you need to follow all the procedures step by step. For instance:

Outline Writing

Crafting an outline is of sheer importance, especially when you are writing an essay about my hobby. The reason your outline is significant because it is like a map to your essay. Wherever you get off track while writing, the outline helps you track you back to the point you started to mess up. That is why an outline must be drafted first always.

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To construct your outline, you need to first do some research by reading. If you have an in-depth understanding of the topic, then you may skip this step.

However, if you do not, be sure that you do a quick research before writing an outline. This will help you find your angle.

The next step is writing down your objective. Your objective is what you want the reader to understand after the end of the essay. This part is crucial and thus should not be written quickly without giving it a thought.

The last step in your outline of my hobby essay is to organize all your points to revise them thoroughly and eliminate unnecessary things to keep it concise. Here’s an example of an outline for my hobby essay:

Introduction

• Describing the Hobby
• Benefits of My Hobby
• First Benefit
• Second Benefit
• Third Benefit

Several things need to be considered before writing my hobby essay introduction. You need to make sure that you do not use any plagiarized content in your intro, as the first impression is the last. Your first paragraph should not consist of any punctuation errors or grammatical mistakes. Your starting should be eye-catchy to the extent that the reader keeps himself hooked to your essay on my favorite hobby.

Organizing your my hobby paragraph is highly important as it creates a solid first glance impression, which you need to maintain throughout your writing. An average of my hobby essay writing consists of three paragraphs: introduction, body, and conclusion. There are several ways to write your body paragraphs correctly. For instance, first, you need to keep in mind the required length of each paragraph. If the word length is already assigned to you in the given question, you need to be extremely careful about exceeding the limit. However, if it isn’t, you must make sure that your introduction must be lengthier than the conclusion and shorter than the main body.

The next step is to make sure that your word transition is smooth. There should be no loose ends in your sentences. It would be best if you also were very careful in ensuring that your following sentence should always link up to the previous one. This way, your flow will be smooth, and the reader will enjoy reading about your my hobbies essay.

The ending of your essay should be as great as the starting or even more. This is because a reasonable conclusion will decide the remarks of your essay, and that is why you should ensure that your ending is solid. You can do this by following a few simple steps. First, you need to read your whole essay once again and recall all the points you have mentioned here. Then you have to summarize all the points and write about the objective of your essay in your conclusion. Remember, the greater the clarity in your ending, the more chances you ace the paper.

Essay Revision

Revising your essay before turning it to your teachers would be a smart move. While revising your work, make sure that you do not commit any silly mistakes, for instance, grammatical errors, punctuation problems, and typos. Leaving these kinds of mistakes on your paper would send a wrong impression towards your professors, leading you to lose marks. So, make sure that your work is free of ommissions before submitting and you are good to go.

Essay Proofreading

If you want your work to have a professional look, do thorough proofreading after finishing your paper. However, performing the proofreading part yourself can make you bias in editing. To avoid this situation, ask your friend or teachers to proofread your work. This way, your work will be flawless and ready to be submitted.

Make Citations

Most of the students prefer to skip on citing their essays as it is tricky to do citations. However, citing your essay is highly essential as it provides authenticity for your work. It is challenging, of course, but skipping it can result in you losing marks. That is why it is highly suggested that you always perform citations on your college essays.

There are several topics to write an essay on your favorite hobby, but if you are looking for catchy topics, below is written an eye-catchy hobby list:

• Listening to songs
• Book reading
• Craze of Basketball
• Archery madness
• Swimming to infinity and beyond
• Computer coding
• Mountain climbing
• Diving to the depths
• Paragliding
• Late night walks
• Perplexing puzzles
• Computer gaming

Just like everyone has a thing, listening to music was mine. The first time I listened to music was when I was about six years old. It was back when I lived in a suburban area on a farm with my family. My dad always used to put on motivational song tracks in the early morning as he wanted to gather all his motivation for work. As I was a night person, I would not say I liked that I had to wake up early morning every day by listening to some music I did not even like. However, as time passed, this music grew on me, and I realized that I was much like my dad.

As I grew old, I became a true fan of the world of music. Every day in the early morning, I would put on a motivational song track to start my day. I would listen to it the whole day, even while working on the farm, and no one dared to crank the volume down as they knew about my anger.

Unluckily for my sibling and me, not a lot emerged from the training. It was not simply my siblings and me; music runs in the entire family. I remember distinctively on Sunday evenings; we used to do karaoke meetings where everybody performed by singing a song, including our folks. We had these music tracks recorded and afterward shipped off to our neighbors for their reviews. The one who came first in our family would get a prize, purchased from our savings. We saved money weekly purely for the competition. We were the noisy neighbors nearby, yet that did not prevent me from securing a large portion of the prizes. At last, we grew out of the karaoke sessions, and now, I generally do the listening rather than singing.

Music gives me the required asylum whenever I feel like my head is aching, and I need to block out everything around me. The beneficial thing about music is that there is music for each event and feeling. At whatever point I feel discouraged, I tune in to mournful melodies. They direct me and stay with me during those problematic minutes. At whatever point I am glad, I put on my party record melodies that I dance to for quite a long time to intensify the positive sentiment. The excellence of music is that it very well may be joined with different side interests. For example, I love perusing a decent book, as pleasant symphony music plays behind the scenes.

Another beneficial thing about music is that it is universal. You do not need to comprehend what the artist is saying, for you appreciate it. Assuming it causes you to feel better, it merits tuning in to it. I am generally receptive to music. I have a broad assortment of music that rises above numerous types everywhere on the globe. It would not come as a shock in this manner to track down a few African tunes in my iPod or smartphone that I truly rock with and have no clue about the thing they are discussing. Be that as it may, I vibe more with Country and Rock music.

Writing an essay on your hobby is quite an exciting task. However, sometimes it gets pretty tricky to manage such an essay. That is why several students prefer buying professionally written essays online.

Buy Pre-written Essay Examples On The Topic

If you think that writing an essay would be difficult for you, you can always buy already written essays online from websites like EssayZoo. This way, you'll end up with an excellent essay in no time.

Use EduJungles To Write Your Essay From A Scratch

EduJungles is a reputable US based essay writing company that provides its customers with several facilities. However, the best benefit they provide you with is completing your essay in less time. So, if you are ever under a deadline, you can always ask Edu Jungles: "Please write my essay in 1 hour ".

Writing about your hobbies is one of the top exciting essay tasks that every student at least once encounters in their college life. So, if such a situation ever occurs, make sure that you give a read to the tips mentioned above. Hopefully, it helps you in completing your work.

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My hobby essay | How to write an amazing one!

Your hobbies could be distinct and can often direct the course of your life. while communicating about your hobby could be different, writing about it in an essay will require a separate set of steps. check out the blog to know more about how to write a ‘my hobby essay ’, table of contents, tips to write a ‘my hobby essay’, how to write a ‘my hobby essay’, an example of ‘my hobby’ essay in 300 words, what we have to say.

Hobbies help you dive deeper into your world of passion. 

We are required to engage in hobbies to live an enriching life. Not only do hobbies allow us to escape the worries of the real world for a limited time, but they also help us use our intellect for something that interests us. 

Check out the key elements for writing an amazing ‘My hobby essay’

• Prepare a strong outline for the essay to ensure that it is well written with no gaps in the framework.
• Don’t write about hobbies that you do not have in real life. Maintain your authenticity, as that will help you produce a meaty essay.
• Instead of continuously talking about how your hobby makes you feel, you can give examples of how your hobbies were integrated into your job or how your expertise or interest in something unexpectedly proved beneficial.
• By proofreading your essay , you can remove redundancy, and mistakes from it. 

Begin by deciding which interests you will discuss in your essay. You have the option of listing multiple distinct interests or focusing on just one. The idea is to stay true to yourself. Do not make up interests for the blog to feel authentic. 

Your activities are a reflection of who you are. Start your essay by saying what your passion is, then explain how you became interested in it, what encouraged you to pursue it, and how it benefits you emotionally. Describe how it aided you in learning new skills , assisting you in various life circumstances, and assisting you in being a better person.

You can also mention the influence it had on someone else, such as if you enjoy nature and planted trees to benefit the environment, or if you enjoy doing social work and volunteering at a homeless shelter. This will help the reader ‌learn about your beliefs, vision, and character by reading your essay.

An enriching hobby is something that everyone should have to make their lives free from monotony. Everyone needs a hobby because it keeps them occupied and gives them time to dwell on other things besides work. 

It serves as a peaceful escape from the rat race. I recall that when I was three years old; I preferred to spend my free time in my garden. Spending my mornings in the garden with my father was something that I looked forward to. My father used to laugh at me when he saw me watering plants when I was a kid. But now my dad is so proud of me that I try to safeguard plants and recognize their contribution to the environment.

Hobbies are things we must engage in daily. We can get away from the stresses of everyday life. It provides us with great joy and tranquillity of mind, body, and soul. It stimulates our creativity and motivates us to make positive changes in our lives and often leads to a positive impact on the community. Creating a positive impact on the community can be possible as a result of our collective efforts. 

Hobbies also aid in the discovery of our talents and abilities, which may eventually lead you to discover your life’s calling.

Gardening is my favorite hobby, and I enjoy planting new plants and watering them every morning. The sight of flowers blooming and plants growing appeals to me. Not only does this give me happiness, but it also gives me a feeling of being involved in contributing to a healthier planet, regardless of how small the scale is. 

This hobby further aids my fitness, health, strength, and rejuvenation. Watering plants and gardening regularly is a great way for me to begin my days in a positive light.

• Every person on our planet is different, and so are their interests.
• People work, think, communicate , interpret, and act in a variety of ways. All of these things are ways for us to express ourselves. 
• Life is intended to be lived passionately and with a clear vision of making it as enriching as possible. 
• What people like doing, or their interests, define them greatly. And that makes it important for us to have a hobby of some sort, as it can often help to direct our lives on the right path. 
• It keeps our ideas fresh, allows us to relieve tension, and increases our drive to achieve our goals. You may also make a profession out of your interest. It depends on what you enjoy doing and how much passion it inspires in you.

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Q1. What is the root of the word hobby?

Answer – The word hobby is derived from the word hobbyhorse, which means favorite pastime.

Q2. What is the world’s oldest hobby?

Answer – The hobby of collecting coins, known as numismatics, is the world’s oldest hobby.

Q3. What are some of the healthy hobbies you should try?

Answer – Here are some of the healthy hobbies you should try – 

• Learning to cook healthy meals
• Going for a long walk
• Practicing meditation daily

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Between school, homework, extracurricular activities, and preparing college applications, your schedule is packed. What are your go-to activities when you want to give your brain a night off?  From yoga to comic books, video games to baking, there is something for everyone. And no matter what your interest, the way you approach it can even help you prepare for—and get into—your dream college.

Colleges are looking for applicants who will be valuable contributors to their campus communities. Learn how hobbies can make your college and scholarship applications stand out.

1. Build key skills

Though you might view your hobby as an escape from your studies, pursuit of a personal interest and pursuit of a good grade often reinforce complementary skills. Whether you're wading into a new online community or teaching yourself to draw cartoons, you're processing new information and applying it to unfamiliar situations. Success with a hobby can boost self confidence and can help you with your poise, presentation skills, and even leadership abilities.

2. Relieve stress

Everyone needs a break when they are studying. Hobbies can provide the perfect option to decompress—and do something productive. With a course load full of math and science classes, something creative or physical like photography or gymnastics can be just the outlet you need.

3. Demonstrate important character traits

Getting good grades requires focus, concentration, and grit. So does pursuing an extracurricular interest or craft. Mastering a challenging new skill can offer an incredible sense of satisfaction and help flex your “stick-to-it” muscles.

4. Enhance your high school resume

College admissions officers aren’t just looking for the smartest students; they look for well-rounded ones, too. A well-documented history of your hobbies can help provide that additional dimension to your resume that demonstrates you are a multi-layered candidate.

Read More: How to Write a High School Resume for Your College Application

5. Serve as subject matter for college essays

Looking for something interesting to talk about in your application essay ? What interests you outside of the classroom can provide fantastic fodder that will set you apart from other applicants.

Choose an aspect of your hobby that can be used to illustrate something interesting about your personality. Maybe learning to knit made you more patient and focused. Or maybe it inspired compassion and spurred you to create a community service project knitting hats for newborns at your local hospital.

Explain how you got into the niche and what you find fascinating about it. Do you have a unique hobby like creating Lego dioramas? Perhaps your school didn’t have a Robotics Club, so you parlayed your hobby into a leadership opportunity by starting one.

6. Offer an avenue for earning money

Is it still a hobby if you earn money? Maybe not technically. But from making jewelry to sell on Etsy to dog walking for their neighbors, many teens have found a way to monetize something they love. Not only does it produce cash for college, it teaches you important business skills like marketing, accounting, and customer service.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that when it comes to applying to colleges, your personal brand matters. The majority of applicants who apply to selective colleges fulfill the academic requirements, so it’s important to showcase yourself in other ways.

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How to Write About Your Hobbies and Interests

Last Updated: March 15, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 978,414 times.

The interests and hobbies section of a resume or college application provides a good opportunity to showcase your personality. A well-executed one can even compensate for a lack in experience or education. Although you might think that all resumes are alike, you should always gear your document toward the specific audience who will be reading it, taking into consideration what they want from you as an applicant. This article will discuss how to write about your hobbies and interests for the two audiences for a resume: a college admissions committee and a potential employer.

Writing Help

Writing for a College Admissions Committee

• College admissions committees are far more interested in your grades, work experience, skills and awards than they are in your hobbies and interests.
• As such, the hobbies and interests section of your resume should be presented toward the end of your resume. End with it, don’t lead with it.
• Prioritize individual activities as well. You can either list your activities chronologically, as you probably did in the “Work Experience” section, or from most to least impressive.
• Always remember that resumes are “top-down” documents, meaning you should lead with what you most want the reader to know about you. [2] X Research source

• Do not simply list all of your activities with commas. This suggests that you have nothing to say about what you did other than the fact that you did it. Break each activity into its own bullet point.
• Decide whether you will write in full sentences or short phrases. A resume should not be overly long — ideally, it should fit onto a single page. If you find that your resume has too much length, use phrases rather than full sentences.
• For example: “Tennis: state champions, 2013, 2014; co-captained varsity team, 2012-14; member of varsity team, 2010-14.
• If your resume is not long enough and you need to develop length, you can write that same information out in full sentences: “Tennis: As a member of the varsity team from 2010 to 2014, I helped my team win the state championship in both 2013 and 2014. As co-captain from 2012 to 2014, I provided leadership both on and off the court, leading team workouts during the off-season and keeping teammates accountable to one another.”

• The activities section of your resume is the place to demonstrate that you don’t have a one-track mind. You have a variety of interests that can be developed over your four years in college.
• If possible, present an array of activities that demonstrate an engaged, curious mind: athletics, volunteerism, academic teams, interest in both the humanities (speech team) and STEM areas (Mathletes), etc.
• The more well-rounded you seem, the more appealing you will be to a committee that is trying to assess how you will develop over the next four years.

• Demonstrate a high level of interest in at least one of your activities. If you were a team captain, elected official or an otherwise engaged member of a group, you need to highlight that as well as possible.
• Describe the leadership qualities you may have developed through this activity: “As Key Club president, I chaired weekly meetings, delegated club responsibilities into committees, expanded our presence by recruited peers into volunteerism and oversaw member training before sending volunteers out into the community.”
• Explain what peripheral qualities you developed: “Over my four years in the Key Club, I developed an abiding dedication to underserved populations in local communities.”

• Use the active voice throughout every document you submit in the application process. [6] X Research source The passive voice suggests that you passively received skills or qualities from your life experiences, whereas the active voice demonstrates your engagement: you earned those skills.
• Note the difference between “Being on the football team taught me the importance of being a team player” and “I strengthened the team’s resolve and success by stressing to individual players the importance of group cohesion to the achievement of our goals.” Take credit wherever possible, even if you weren’t in leadership positions.
• Even if you don’t think you got a lot out of an activity, think about what skills and qualities you could have developed. For example —you might have been an awful cheerleader, but you can still say “I devoted myself to grueling practices daily throughout the season and developed an effective time-management system, through which I balanced schoolwork and cheering while dedicating myself fully to both.”
• Even if you’re not going to make the collegiate cheer squad, you’ve still demonstrated that you can manage your time — something you learned from cheerleading.

Writing for a Potential Employer

• Research the corporate culture of the company you’re applying to. Some companies encourage employees to bring their interests into the creative workplace, for example, Google explicitly cultivates an “open culture” workplace where hobbies are welcomed. A hobbies section would be very appropriate for an application in the tech industry with a company like Google.
• However, if you’re applying for a position at an accounting firm, the corporate culture may not be as welcoming of your hobbies. Leave them off that resume.

• Choose interests that not only mean a lot to you, but also demonstrate the kind of person you are.
• For example, “reading” is a fairly generic activity that doesn’t reveal that much about you. However, running marathons suggests that you possess a high level of dedication and that you can overcome obstacles.
• "Listening to music" doesn't tell your employee anything about you, but "I have practiced classical piano for 17 years," tells them a lot.
• "Volunteering," tells the employer something about you, but it's not as detailed as it could be. Say, instead, that you've volunteered weekly at the same soup kitchen for 3 years, or that you bring your expertise from your state champion high school football team to bear when volunteering as a coach for community football league.
• Generally, hobbies that show leadership skills, personal initiative, dedication, or drive are good boosters for your resume.

Community Q&A

• Be careful about listing hobbies and interests indicative of thrill-seeking and risk-taking behaviors, as these qualities may work against you with certain employers. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Avoid sounding overly committed to your hobbies and interests, as this could indicate to potential employers that your personal interests may come before your career. For example, "I play chess every chance I get, as it is my goal to travel the country as a full-time competitor," could be geared for resume writing by rewording it as, "I enjoy the chess club because it stimulates my creative problem-solving skills and opens my mind to new ways of thinking outside the box." Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ Dobrin, Sidney I., Christopher J. Keller, and Christian R. Weisser. Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. Columbus, Ohio: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
• ↑ https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/findajob/resources/write-good-resume
• ↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/listing-hobbies-and-interests-on-your-resume-with-examples
• ↑ https://ccrscenter.org/sites/default/files/AskCCRS_Well-Rounded_Education.pdf
• ↑ https://www.cfnc.org/news/college-essay-prompts/
• ↑ https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/CCS_activevoice.html
• ↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/interview-question-hobbies-and-interests

About This Article

To write about your hobbies and interests for college admissions, frame them as something you dedicate your time towards rather than just something you have fun with. For example, on your college application, list them under the title “Extracurricular Activities” since this is more professional than “Hobbies” or “Interests” Choose to list the hobbies you’ve spent the most time on to show your dedication, whether that’s the tennis team, girl scouts, or piano. When you write about your hobbies, use an active voice and describe how you contributed to it. For example, you could write “I strengthened the team’s resolve and success by stressing to individual players the importance of group cohesion to the achievement of our goals. Alternatively, you could say, “I devoted myself to grueling practices daily throughout the season and developed effective time-management by balancing schoolwork and cheering.” To learn how to write about your hobbies and interests on a resume, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, getting college essay help: important do's and don’ts.

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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Essay on My Hobby for Students and Children

500+ words essay on my hobby.

Hobbies play a very important role in our lives. They occupy our minds when we are free and also make us happy. Hobbies are our escape from the real world that makes us forget our worries. Moreover, they make our lives interesting and enjoyable. If we look at it, all our hobbies are very useful for us. They teach us a lot of things about different stuff. They also help in expanding our knowledge.

Benefits of Having a Hobby

In today’s fast and competitive world, we often get time for ourselves. Over time, our schedule gets very dull and monotonous. That is why we need to indulge in something in between to keep our minds fresh and active. What’s better than a hobby for this? One of the main benefits of having a hobby is that it is a major stress-buster. You actually enjoy doing it and it satisfies your soul.

In other words, without a hobby, your life becomes an unhealthy cycle lacking any excitement or spark. Hobbies offer you a great opportunity to take a break and forget the worries of your life. They allow you to explore yourself and realize your potential in different areas.

Moreover, hobbies can also be a source of extra income. For instance, if you like painting, you can actually sell your art to make some extra money. Likewise, if you have a knack for dancing, you may teach dance classes to people on your holidays. This way your hobby a benefit you both spiritually and financially as well.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

My Favourite Hobby

If I were to pick one favourite hobby of mine out of the many I have, I will definitely pick gardening. I developed a taste for dancing when I was very young. The way my feet moved to the rhythm of the music convinced my parents that I was a born dancer. Dancing is very uplifting as well as economical.

I have always had a love for music and dance. However, I never realized the utter joy they bring to humans. Dancing gives us a lot of exercises. It teaches us to move our body rhythmically and feel the beat of every song. This kind of physical exercise is extremely delightful and enjoyable.

Moreover, dance also taught me how to stay strong and push my limits. I have had many injuries while dancing, too many bruises and cuts but that didn’t stop me from pursuing it further. In fact, it pushes me to do my best and realize my potential more than ever.

I have enrolled in dancing classes because I wish to make my hobby my career. I feel we all should do things which we enjoy doing. Everyone is running after money and in this race, they give up their likings and preferences. I have learned from this race and decided to not take part in it. I wish to take the road less traveled by and take on challenges most people don’t dare to.

In short, my hobby of dancing makes me feel alive and well. It is the only thing I look forward the most to. Thus, I hope to achieve my dream of being a professional dancer and making way for people who wish to make careers out of their hobbies.

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How To Start A College Essay About Yourself

The Silicon Review 17 April, 2024

Writing a college essay about yourself can be an intimidating task. It's your one chance to make an impression on the admissions officers and convince them that you're the right fit for their school. But where do you even begin? Don't worry, we've got you covered. Beginning a college essay about yourself involves capturing your unique voice and experiences in a compelling introduction that hooks the reader's attention, and having someone at Academized to write my essay ensures expert guidance and support to kickstart your narrative with confidence and clarity. In this post, we'll guide you through the process of starting a college essay about yourself, from brainstorming ideas to creating an introduction.

Brainstorming Topics

The first step in starting a college essay about yourself is to brainstorm potential topics. This is where you'll want to think about what makes you unique and what experiences have shaped who you are today. Here are some prompts to get you started:

• A significant challenge you've faced and how you overcame it
• A personal accomplishment you're proud of
• A life-changing event or experience
• Your cultural background and how it has influenced you
• A person who has had a significant impact on your life
• A passion or interest that drives you

As you brainstorm, think about the stories and experiences that best showcase your personality, values, and goals. Remember, the essay is an opportunity to give the admissions officers a glimpse into who you are beyond just your grades and test scores.

Choosing a Compelling Topic

Once you've brainstormed a list of potential topics, it's time to narrow it down to the one that you think will make for the most compelling essay. Here are some things to consider when choosing your topic:

• Significance: Choose a topic that has had a significant impact on your life or has helped shape who you are today.
• Uniqueness: While it's okay to write about a common experience, try to find a unique angle or perspective that sets your essay apart.
• Personal growth: Look for a topic that showcases how you've grown or learned from the experience.
• Passion: Choose a topic that you're passionate about, as this will make your essay more engaging and authentic.

Writing a Strong Introduction

Writing a college essay about yourself requires an engaging opening that showcases your personality and sets the tone for your narrative, and referencing insightful resources like https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/best-essay-writing-services-top-5-paper-websites-mary-walton can provide valuable inspiration and guidance to help you create a memorable introduction with confidence.

With your topic selected, it's time to start writing your essay. The introduction is arguably the most important part, as it sets the tone for the rest of the piece and hooks the reader's attention. Here are some tips for writing a strong introduction:

The Personal Anecdote

One effective way to start your essay is with a personal anecdote or story that relates to your chosen topic. This can be a powerful way to draw the reader in and set the scene for the rest of your essay. For example, if you're writing about a significant challenge you've faced, you could start with a vivid description of the moment when you first realized the challenge ahead of you.

The Thought-provoking Question

Another option is to start with a thought-provoking question that relates to your topic. This can pique the reader's curiosity and get them thinking about the issue or experience you'll be exploring in your essay. For example, if you're writing about a passion or interest that drives you, you could start with a question like, "What is it that makes us passionate about certain things in life?"

The Surprising Statement

You could also grab the reader's attention with a surprising statement or statistic that relates to your topic. This can be a great way to challenge the reader's assumptions and set up the rest of your essay as an exploration of that surprising idea. For example, if you're writing about your cultural background, you could start with a statement like, "While many people assume that culture is something that's passed down from generation to generation, my experience has shown me that it's something that's constantly evolving."

Finding Your Voice

No matter which approach you choose for your introduction, it's important to find your voice and write in a way that feels authentic and true to who you are. Don't try to sound like someone you're not, or use language that feels unnatural or forced. The admissions officers want to get to know the real you, so let your personality shine through in your writing.

Developing the Body

With a strong introduction in place, it's time to move on to the body of your essay. This is where you'll expand on the topic you've chosen and provide the details and examples that support your main idea or argument. Here are some tips for developing a strong body:

Use Vivid Details

To make your essay more engaging and memorable, be sure to use vivid details and descriptions. This could include sensory details (sights, sounds, smells, etc.), dialogue, or specific examples that help illustrate your points.

Show, Don't Tell

Rather than simply telling the reader what happened or what you learned, show them through your writing. Use concrete examples and anecdotes to bring your experiences to life and demonstrate the lessons or insights you've gained.

Structure and Flow

Pay attention to the structure and flow of your essay. Use transitions to smoothly move from one idea to the next, and consider using subheadings or other organizational techniques to help guide the reader through your essay.

Personal Growth and Reflection

Throughout the body of your essay, be sure to emphasize how the experience or topic you're writing about has impacted you personally. Share your thoughts, feelings, and insights, and reflect on how the experience has shaped who you are today or influenced your goals and aspirations for the future.

As you wrap up your essay, it's important to bring your ideas together in a strong conclusion. This is your chance to leave a lasting impression on the reader and reinforce the main themes or lessons you've explored throughout your essay.

Summarize Key Points

In your conclusion, you'll want to briefly summarize the key points or experiences you've discussed in the body of your essay. This helps to reinforce the main ideas and ensures that the reader walks away with a clear understanding of your central message or argument.

Final Thoughts and Insights

Use the conclusion as an opportunity to share any final thoughts or insights you've gained from the experience or topic you've written about. This could include lessons learned, personal growth, or how the experience has influenced your goals or perspectives.

Call to Action

Finally, consider including a call to action or a statement that encourages the reader to think more deeply about the topic or theme you've explored. This could be a question for them to ponder or a challenge to approach a similar situation or experience with a new perspective.

Revising and Editing

Once you've drafted your college essay, it's important to take the time to revise and edit your work. This will help ensure that your essay is polished, well-organized, and free of errors.

Read it Out Loud

One helpful technique is to read your essay out loud. This can help you catch awkward phrasing, run-on sentences, or other issues that you might have missed when reading silently.

Get Feedback

It can also be valuable to have someone else read your essay and provide feedback. This could be a friend, family member, teacher, or even a writing tutor. They may be able to offer fresh perspective and insights that can help you improve your essay.

Check for Clarity and Focus

As you revise, make sure that your essay has a clear focus and that each paragraph and idea contributes to your overall message or argument. Remove any unnecessary or tangential information that doesn't directly support your main point.

Polish Your Writing

Finally, take the time to polish your writing and ensure that your essay is free of grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. These small details can make a big difference in how your essay is perceived by the admissions officers.

Writing a college essay about yourself can be a challenging but rewarding experience. By following the tips and strategies outlined in this post, you'll be well on your way to creating a compelling and authentic essay that showcases who you are and what you have to offer. Remember to take your time, focus on finding your unique voice, and don't be afraid to share your personal experiences and insights. With dedication and effort, you can create an essay that will make a lasting impression on the admissions officers and help you stand out in the competitive college application process.

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The Importance of Having a Hobby Essay Example

Before the pandemic, I was struggling to diversify my interest and hobbies due to my demand working and studying schedules.  It was difficult for me to explore my hobbies and interests in a way that kept my mind stimulated. During the pandemic, however, I could find time to explore different interests while maintaining a balanced work schedule.

Once I got comfortable with my work, I could set my time aside to discover things that can keep me active and happy.  In the past six months, I took some Writing, Advertising, Digital Marketing classes and all, of which I had never taken to explore before the pandemic.  I am certainly glad that I did all of that because I needed to have more in my life besides working every day to keep me more occupied and continue to build up more skills and interests.

It is sad to see a lot of us have let goes of our interests and hobbies to meet the demands of our daily life activities.  We only live on earth once, so we should make the most out of it by living a happy life and do the things that we enjoy doing.  The best things can happen when you can live your hobby because it can give you with a sense of joy and pleasure as well as self-satisfaction.

I think the reason some people struggle to find a hobby or interest is that they do not know where to look or do not have enough information, or they might need more like-minded people to motivate them to explore.   My advice is to take the time to think and recognize your past interests, like childhood interests or hobbies. You can diversify your interests and take pride in what you can find yourself capable of learning certain skills, or hobbies such as playing an instrument or learning a new language in your spare time.

Spending time to do an activity that you enjoy that is not attached to your work or commitments can certainly increase your level of happiness and satisfaction in your life.  Doing this is for your benefit and not for the benefit of others.

With all the stress that our world is going through this moment like the pandemic, without having any interest or hobby, your life can become boring and demanding, and you can end up living an unhealthy life cycle.  Finding a hobby can certainly add some excitements and sparks that can increase your life satisfaction and can also improve your mental well being.

Exploring hobbies and interests should have no age limitations and restrictions if you are comfortable with them.  Everyone should have at least one hobby whether it is playing sports, watching movies, cooking, singing, writing, or reading.  You need to figure out what you like to do in your spare time and what you are good at so that you can do them for leisure.  

Do not ignore the benefits of taking time, to discover your new hobbies and interests because it can help us to disconnect and decrease the stress and anxiety level, especially during pandemic times.

The pandemic has given some people the opportunity to take on some new hobbies and interests and enhance their talents.

When you have diversified new hobbies, it can help you to learn some new skills which can increase your creativity, help you to relax, and to explore different sides of your personality.  Having more interesting hobbies can help you to become a more interesting and well-rounded person.  Having diversity in your hobbies can help you to expand your social life by making more new friends, improve the quality of your life, gain a different life perspective, build up your self-confidence and self-esteem as well as sharping your brain.

Diversifying new hobbies can be extremely rewarding and enriching to our lives.  We need to find hobbies that interest us because we can experience joy and pleasure in the process of exploring different options of hobbies.

Having multiple hobbies has proven to have many benefits to us and can change us for the better.  The following is some benefits of diversifying your hobbies and interests:

1. Hobbies can help us to distress

Having several hobbies can provide us with an opportunity to enrich our lives because they can allow us to distress.  Having hobbies can help us to improve our mental and physical health, as well as lowering our risk of having depression and critical illness.  Hobbies can increase a person’s sense of identity, self-worth and reduce self-doubt.  When you are adding a new hobby, it can be a good outlet to release stress because it allows you to take your mind off the demands of your work and life commitments.  Doing hobbies that you enjoy can restore your mind and help you to handle future life challenges in a better way.

2. Hobbies can help us to expand our social life

Having different hobbies can allow us to socialize and make new friends that can be a great benefit for our overall well-being.  We can build a connection with people who share similar interests and enjoy the same things as us.  Hanging out with like-minded people who have the same passion is a great way to expand your social life and can even help you transform your hobby into a career.  

3. Hobbies can make you an interesting person

When you have multiple interests and hobbies, it can make you a more interesting person because you would have more stories, experiences, and skills to share with people.  You can come across people who are interested in your hobbies and provide you with the opportunity to be a teacher and teach them what you have learned.

4.  Hobbies can help you to increase your self-confidence

When you have become more skilled and good at something, it would make you feel good and can increase your self-confidence.  Even though it can take time to develop your hobby, but the process can be extremely rewarding because you can be able to tell others about your skills and talents.  With the exposure to so many options of activities available nowadays, you should be able to diversify your hobbies and interests.  If your hobbies can provide you with a sense of purpose, then you can become more confident about challenging yourself to a new hobby and learning something new.

5.  Hobbies can increase your creativity

Some hobbies that can inspire us to be more creative, and this can be beneficial to people who can not be creative in their work.  When we can engage in a creative hobby, we can train our brains to be more creative in our lives.  Having creative hobbies can help us to experience new things and perspectives in our lives.  Having a new hobby can give you more exposure to diversity, new opinions as well as new views in life.

6.  Hobbies can help you to explore yourself and discover your talents

By exploring and diversifying our hobbies, we can discover our interests and what we are passionate about, and there is nothing that can stop us from becoming the best once we have put our mind to achieve them. Trying out new hobbies would allow you to learn more about yourself as well as discover some of your hidden talents.

7.  Hobbies allow you to take a break

Do you feel that all you do every day is getting up and going to work, coming home, sleeping, and going back to work the next day?  The benefit of having hobbies can help you to break the daily boring routine and add some excitements to your days as well as giving you a sense of living purpose. 

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Essay on My Hobby Singing

Students are often asked to write an essay on My Hobby Singing in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on My Hobby Singing

Introduction.

Singing is my hobby, a passion that gives me joy and peace. It is a way to express my feelings and emotions.

Why I Love Singing

Singing allows me to connect with my inner self. It helps me relax, forget my worries and immerse in a world of melody.

Learning and Improving

I take singing lessons to improve. Practice is essential, and I dedicate time every day to hone my skills.

Singing is more than just a hobby for me. It’s a part of who I am, a medium to express myself.

250 Words Essay on My Hobby Singing

Singing, a universal form of expression, has been my hobby since childhood. The symphony of rhythm, melody, and lyrics not only provides me with joy but also serves as a medium to express my emotions.

Why Singing?

My fascination with singing is rooted in its ability to evoke a wide range of emotions. It’s a hobby that transcends the typical boundaries of language and culture, enabling me to connect with individuals from diverse backgrounds. Moreover, singing offers a therapeutic outlet for stress, making it an effective self-care activity.

The Journey

My singing journey began in my early childhood, with lullabies and nursery rhymes. Over time, I started exploring various genres, from classical to pop, each providing a unique experience. My hobby eventually turned into a passion, leading me to participate in numerous singing competitions and performances.

Learning and Growth

Singing requires continuous learning and practice. I’ve learned to control my breathing, modulate my voice, and understand musical notations. It has also helped me develop patience and perseverance, as mastering a song requires time and dedication.

Impact on Life

Singing has enriched my life in numerous ways. It has enhanced my creativity, improved my confidence, and provided me with a sense of accomplishment. Most importantly, it has taught me the essence of expressing oneself, making me more empathetic and understanding.

In conclusion, singing as a hobby has been a transformative journey for me. It is a beautiful blend of art and emotion, providing a platform to express and connect. It’s not just a hobby, but a way of life for me, shaping my personality and worldview.

500 Words Essay on My Hobby Singing

Singing, an art form that transcends cultural, linguistic, and geographical boundaries, has been my hobby since I was a child. It is more than just a pastime; it’s a way of expressing my emotions, a medium to connect with the world, and a tool for self-improvement. As a college student, singing has become an integral part of my life, helping me navigate through academic stress, fostering creativity, and enhancing my emotional intelligence.

Unleashing Creativity

Singing is a creative outlet that allows me to experiment with different genres, styles, and techniques. From classical opera to modern pop, each genre has its unique charm and intricacies. Exploring these diverse styles has broadened my musical knowledge and honed my creative skills. It’s a constant learning process that requires an open mind and a willingness to step out of my comfort zone.

Emotional Catharsis

Music has a profound impact on our emotions. Singing, in particular, can be a powerful form of emotional release. When I am overwhelmed with academic pressure or personal issues, I often turn to singing. It helps me articulate my feelings that words sometimes fail to convey. Whether I’m singing a melancholic ballad or an upbeat track, it provides an emotional catharsis, bringing a sense of peace and tranquility.

Building Confidence and Communication Skills

Singing also plays a significant role in building my confidence and communication skills. Performing in front of an audience, whether in a college event or a small gathering, requires courage and self-assurance. Over time, these experiences have helped me overcome stage fright and improved my public speaking skills. Furthermore, understanding the lyrics and conveying the song’s emotion effectively has also enhanced my language proficiency and emotional intelligence.

Community and Cultural Exchange

Being a singer has allowed me to be part of various musical communities, both online and offline. These platforms offer opportunities to collaborate with other musicians, learn from their experiences, and appreciate diverse musical traditions. Singing songs in different languages has also given me insights into various cultures, promoting a sense of unity and mutual respect.

Health Benefits

Beyond the psychological benefits, singing also offers physical health benefits. It improves lung function, posture, and even boosts the immune system. The deep breathing involved in singing acts as a form of meditation, reducing stress levels and promoting overall well-being.

In essence, my hobby of singing is a multifaceted activity that brings joy, fosters creativity, and promotes personal growth. As I continue my journey through college, I am certain that singing will remain a constant companion, providing solace in times of stress, acting as a creative outlet, and serving as a bridge to diverse cultures and communities. In the grand symphony of life, singing is my chosen melody, a melody that resonates with my identity, aspirations, and the rhythm of my journey.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on My Hobby Painting
• Essay on My Hobby Gardening
• Essay on My Hobby Reading Books

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

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How to Check Word Count for Your Essays in Word [For Students]

Many academic programs require you to write essays, and it's crucial to perform well because essays play a significant role in your overall assessment. Whether applying to college or completing assignments in your courses, writing strong essays is essential. You'll need to craft compelling essays throughout your academic journey, from admission essays that make you stand out to course assignments that contribute to your grades. These essays often come with a word limit that you must meet. In this article, we will guide you on how to check the word count in Word for students.

How many Words do you need in an Essay?

Throughout your academic journey, you'll be expected to write essays that vary greatly in length and complexity. From high school assignments requiring a concise 300-word response to graduate school theses that may reach 5,000 words or more, you'll find yourself adapting to a range of word limits and formats.

Here's an overview of typical word count ranges for various academic essays:

High School Essay : 300–1,000 words

College Admission Essay : 200–650 words

Undergraduate College Essay : 1,500–5,000 words

Graduate School Admission Essay : 500–1,000 words

Graduate School Essay/Thesis : 2,500–6,000 words

While these word count ranges provide a general guideline, it's essential to remember that the content's quality is more important than the quantity. Essays that meet or exceed the word limit may still fall short if they lack clarity, coherence, or depth. Conversely, a shorter essay that's well-organized and thoughtfully written can make a stronger impression.

When considering essay length, keep these factors in mind:

Purpose and Scope : Short essays usually focus on a specific topic, while longer essays require more comprehensive analysis and discussion. Determine the purpose of your essay to guide its length.

Intended Audience : Consider who will be reading your essay. Some readers may prefer detailed exploration, while others may only need a brief summary.

Format and Guidelines : Academic essays often come with specific guidelines for length. For instance, high school English essays may be around 400–600 words, while undergraduate essays in the social sciences and humanities often range from 2,500 to 3,000 words.

While the number of words can indicate an essay's scope, it's crucial to focus on structure, relevance, and engagement. Essays that are well-crafted, with a clear thesis, supporting evidence, and thoughtful analysis, are more likely to earn higher marks, regardless of the word count.

How to Check Word Count in Word for Students Writing Essay Assignments

Working on a thesis or research paper is already a challenging and intellectually demanding task, especially with specific rules and regulations regarding word counts for different academic styles. Some academic styles require you to report the number of words including or excluding certain parts of your work. Students often struggle with figuring out how to calculate word count, whether to include the abstract or combine footnotes. However, there's no need to stress over this, as Microsoft Word offers a feature to assist with this. It may be a bit tricky, but it's available. Let's take a look at a few examples.

How to Check the Word Count in Word Excluding the Abstract of the Paper:

Now, let's say your professor asks you to remove the in-text citations from your document, which are also included in the original word count. In such a case, manually going through each citation and removing them from the word count can be time-consuming. However, with some wildcards and the replace tool in Microsoft Word, this task can be done quickly.

Step 1 : Open the research paper in Microsoft Word.

Step 2 : To access the Replace feature, go to the Home tab and click on "Replace" to open the Find and Replace dialog. Alternatively, use the "CTRL + H" shortcut key.

Step 3 : In the Find and Replace dialog, click on "More > >" to view more options available.

Step 4 : In the Search options section, check the "Use wildcards" option.

Step 5 : Now, go back to the "Find what" field and enter the following:  \(*\)

Step 6 : Leave the "Replace with" field blank and then click on the "Replace All" button.

Step 7 : Microsoft Word will notify you about the number of replacements that were made. Click on "OK".

Step 8 : Once completed, exit the Find and Replace dialog box by clicking on "Close".

Step 9 : Now, you can view the word count either at the bottom left in the Status Bar or visit the Reference tab and click on "Word Count" to get a more comprehensive view of the word count of your document.

How to Check Word Count in Word Including Footnotes,Endnotes and Text Boxes in a Paper:

To ensure the inclusion of footnotes, endnotes, and text boxes in the word count, follow these steps:

Step 1 : Open your essay in Microsoft Word and navigate to the "Review" tab.

Step 2 : Click on the "Word Count" button in the reference ribbon menu.

Step 3 : The Word Count dialog box will appear, displaying all the statistics of your essay.

Step 4 : Check the "Include textboxes, footnotes, and endnotes" checkbox to ensure that the word counter considers textboxes, footnotes, and endnotes as well.

If you need to perform a simple word count for a selection, use your mouse to highlight the text you want to count, and you'll see the word count of the selected text at the bottom left in the Status Bar.

How to Check Word Count in Word Using Shortcuts

Need to quickly check your word count in Word ? There's a handy shortcut! Simply press Ctrl + Shift + G on your keyboard, and a window will pop up displaying your document's word count, character count.

As a student, it's essential to pay attention to word count, not just to ensure you meet the minimum requirement but also because some professors penalize you for exceeding it. Thanks to advanced writing tools, keeping track of word count has become quite easy. Simply glancing at the status bar gives me a glimpse of the word count, but if I ever need more detailed statistics, using a keyboard shortcut provides quick access to the word count. Then, simply press the "ESC" key to exit and continue writing. Having a word counter in your writing software provides great convenience.

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Tips to Write Essays within the Word Limit

Reducing an essay's word count while maintaining its impact can be challenging, especially when we consider that humans now officially have the attention span of a goldfish. According to a Microsoft study, we lose concentration after eight seconds—shorter than the nine-second attention span of a goldfish. Given this, communication must adapt to capture the reader's attention quickly. If you need to shorten your essay to meet a specific word limit, here are some practical techniques to help:

Start with AI Assistance

WPS AI : This AI tool can be your first step in writing or rewriting content to meet word count limits. If your essay is too long, WPS AI can suggest rewording or condensing, allowing you to maintain clarity and coherence while reducing the overall length.

Tips for Cutting Words

Reword Sentences: Look for long-winded sentences and find ways to reword them more succinctly. For example, "This means methods of communication must adapt in order for us to capture our audience’s attention" can be shortened to "Communication methods must adapt to capture our audience’s attention."

Remove Redundancy : Identify repetitive information or phrases and remove them. If you're saying the same thing in different ways, consolidate.

Eliminate Extraneous Words : Words like "very," "extremely," "actually," and others can often be removed without changing the meaning of a sentence. Similarly, phrases like "in order to" can be shortened to "to."

Focus on Active Voice : Active voice generally requires fewer words and is more direct. Rewrite passive voice sentences to make them more concise and impactful.

Use Abbreviations : In many cases, abbreviations can help reduce word count without sacrificing clarity. Common examples include "MD" for "Managing Director," "e.g." for "for example," and "SEO" for "Search Engine Optimization."

Check for Unnecessary Spacing and Hyphenation : Sometimes, words can be shortened by eliminating extra spaces or using hyphenation. For instance, "year on year" can be hyphenated to "year-on-year," reducing word count without losing meaning.

Edit Ruthlessly : Read through your essay with a critical eye. Cut out anything that doesn't add value to your argument or that deviates from the main topic. Be willing to remove content, even if you like it, if it doesn't serve the essay's purpose.

Reducing word count while maintaining content quality requires a combination of techniques. From rewording sentences to removing redundancy, many strategies can help you meet word limits without sacrificing the essay's impact. Remember that the goal is not just to meet the word count but to create an engaging, clear, and effective piece of writing. Whether using AI tools like WPS AI or manually editing your content, the key is to be concise, focused, and clear.

Write a Better Essay with WPS Office

WPS Office is a goldmine for writers and students, offering a comprehensive solution to meet all your academic writing needs. Equipped with a robust suite of tools, it provides everything from a writer's toolkit to a PDF editor, along with AI-powered features like an integrated AI writing assistant and AI proofreader. Moreover, WPS Office is seamlessly compatible with Microsoft Word, so you won't encounter any issues if you prefer working with Word documents.

Price : WPS Office is ideal for students because it's available at no cost. You get professional-grade office software without having to pay a premium.

Compatibility : It works across various devices, including computers, tablets, and smartphones. You can easily connect and switch between platforms without losing functionality.

Features : WPS Office provides a wide range of templates, including resumes, which are especially useful for students preparing for internships or job interviews after graduation.

User-Friendly Interface: The intuitive interface allows you to manage multiple files with ease. With split-screen capabilities, you can work on different documents side-by-side without any hassle.

WPS AI : This integrated AI tool is invaluable when you need help with your academic papers. Whether you're over the word limit or need to add more content, WPS AI can help you reword, summarize, or expand your text to meet the requirements.

WPS Office combines a user-friendly interface with powerful features, making it an ideal choice for students and writers. The software's compatibility with Microsoft Word ensures that you can collaborate with others or submit assignments in popular formats without any issues. Additionally, the inclusion of WPS AI means you have a handy assistant for enhancing your writing, adjusting word count, and proofreading your work.

With WPS Office, you'll have the tools you need to create, edit, and share academic content with ease. From simple essays to complex reports, this software package provides a reliable and efficient solution for all your academic writing tasks. And with a wealth of additional features, like resume templates and split-screen capabilities, it's more than just a word processor—it's a comprehensive platform designed with students and writers in mind.

Use Word, Excel, and PPT for FREE, No Ads.

Edit PDF files with the powerful PDF toolkit.

Microsoft-like interface. Easy to learn. 100% Compatibility.

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FAQs about word count in word for students

1. can word count be automatically updated in word.

Yes, you can automatically update the word count in Word. To do this:

Step 1 : Position your cursor where you'd like the word count displayed, such as in the Header or Footer.

Step 2 : Click on the Insert tab.

Step 3 : Click the "Quick Parts" icon. You can find the Quick Parts icon towards the right-hand end of the toolbar.

Step 4 : From the drop-down menu, choose Field.

Step 5 : In the Field window that opens, scroll down the list in the left-hand pane and select NumWords.

Step 6 : Click OK. It adds a field to your document that shows the word count automatically.

2. How many pages is 1000 words?

The number of pages for 1000 words varies depending on factors like font size, type, line spacing, and margins. Typically, a page with standard formatting (12-point font, double-spaced, 1-inch margins) holds around 250-300 words.

3. Does Word have a Word Count limit?

Word imposes a limit on the number of words that can be typed in a single document, determined by the operating system's file size restriction. For instance, the file size limit for a .docx file, Word's default format, is 2 gigabytes (GB). The actual word count depends on factors like font size, style, margins, and spacing. Typically, a single-spaced document with a 12-point font and standard margins accommodates around 500-600 words per page. Consequently, a 2 GB file size can store approximately 4-5 million pages of text in a text-only document.

Word Count Management Made Easy with WPS Office

As much as staying within the word count in Word for students is crucial, but it's common to either overshoot or fall short of the required limit. To help students stay on track, having tools that visibly display word count can be invaluable. WPS Office offers this functionality, with a clear and upgraded word count indicator, ensuring you always know where you stand. Also, WPS AI helps adjust your text to meet the desired word limit, offering suggestions to expand or condense your content as needed. Download WPS Office for an efficient way to manage word counts and keep your essays within the required boundaries.

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Subscriber only, sponsored content | best essay writing services: review and comparison of top-rated websites.

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I’ve had some experience with SpeedyPaper, a well-known online essay writing service. They’re pretty good at what they do, focusing on quick turnarounds and maintaining quality. Their services are broad, covering everything from essay writing and proofreading to solving complex problems and even crafting dissertations.

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But if you need a reliable service without over-the-top pricing, SpeedyPaper might just do the trick. They seem to manage well by hiring competent and experienced writers in regions where the cost of living is lower, benefiting everyone involved.

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Unlike other sites on this list, EssayPro allows you to choose the best essay writer yourself by browsing through dozens of writers’ profiles;

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Free essay originality report available.

Finding an online essay writer for your task can be a time-consuming process.

I recently used EssayPro, an essay writing service that really stands out because of its commitment to quality and originality in everything from college essays to academic research. It’s a great help for students who need support with writing, rewriting, editing, or proofreading their assignments.

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I’ve used ExpertWriting for various academic assignments, and I’ve found it to be a reliable service. This platform offers a variety of academic writing services, including essay writing, research papers, term papers, and coursework, as well as editing and proofreading to improve your essays.

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ExpertWriting is known for being affordable, which is great for students on a budget. They are often recommended on platforms like Reddit as a cost-effective option without compromising on quality. They also offer discounts for bulk orders, which can help save even more.

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Pricing on ExpertWriting is reasonable. For a less urgent two-week deadline, you’ll pay around $11 per page, which can increase depending on the urgency, academic level, and length of your paper. This is pretty standard across most professional writing services.

Lastly, they don’t just handle essays. You can get help with almost any type of academic writing, including research proposals, creative writing assignments, cover letters, and literature reviews. It’s a versatile platform that can meet various academic needs.

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Finding a writer during crunch season might be time-consuming.

GradeMiners is more expensive than most essay writing sites in the industry.

I’ve been using GradeMiners for a while now, and I have to say, they offer a solid service at a fair price. A high school essay runs about $16 per page, and a college paper is $18 per page. They offer a wide array of professional academic writing services beyond just essays; you can get help with everything from presentations and book reviews to lab reports and dissertations.

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Exceptional customer service.

No sample essays available;

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Expensive extras.

I recently tried out EssayTerritory, a new but promising college paper writing service. It was easy to find an essay writer that matched my specific needs, and the platform has a roster of over 800 active paper writers. They’ve already completed more than 1300 orders, which is impressive for a newcomer.

What stands out most about EssayTerritory is their 98% satisfaction rate. It seems they really know how to please their customers, as about 85% of users return for more academic papers. They offer a plagiarism-free guarantee like many top essay writing services, and they’ll give you a full refund if they miss your deadline or if your work contains plagiarism.

You can order various assignments from them—essays, research papers, case studies, term papers, dissertations, and even help with presentations or speeches if that’s what you need. They also provide proofreading and editing services.

Privacy and confidentiality are top priorities for them. They ensure that every “write my essay” request is kept anonymous and your personal details are secure. They have robust measures in place to prevent any data leaks. This level of security gave me a lot of confidence in using their essay writer service.

FAQs About Best Paper Writing Services

Should i trust essay writing service reviews.

Trusting essay writing service reviews can be tricky. Unfortunately, some companies that offer a custom essay writing service also operate fake review sites to maintain a positive online reputation. This means you need to be cautious about where you look for reviews.

For more reliable information, it’s better to use independent review platforms like SiteJabber and Reviews.io. These sites are generally more trustworthy because they’re not directly affiliated with any essay writing services.

However, even with these platforms, it’s wise to approach reviews with a critical eye. Some dedicated essay writing review sites might have biases or hidden motives, so take their recommendations with skepticism and always cross-reference multiple sources if possible.

How long does it take to have my essay written for me?

Essay writers generally focus on producing high-quality work, and the time it takes to write an essay largely depends on its length. For a standard 275-word essay, the average turnaround is about 3 hours. Most essay writing services strive to meet these deadlines consistently.

If you’re in a rush and your deadline is just a few hours away, you can opt for a premium service. This usually involves having several top-rated writers collaborate to deliver your essay in about half the standard time.

It’s worth noting that the best college paper writing services might experience delays during peak times when demand is high. Typically, they recommend giving writers at least six hours to complete an essay. If you’re willing to pay extra, your order can be prioritized to ensure a faster delivery.

For more complex assignments like thesis papers or extensive research projects, the process can take up to five days. Writers often submit a partial draft by the second day for client feedback, allowing any revisions to be included in the final submission by day five.

Will my essay be written by a professional essay writer?

Picking a reliable essay writing website is crucial for ensuring the safety, confidentiality, and quality of the service.

When hiring writers, most companies put them through a rigorous vetting process. They typically require that writers have native or near-native proficiency in the language they’ll be writing in, along with a relevant degree from an accredited university.

Once hired, these writers undergo further training on the platform to polish their linguistic and formatting skills. They only start working on actual assignments once their writing meets the company’s professional standards.

The best writing services take extra steps to maintain high-quality standards. For example, every piece of work is checked by a moderator before it goes to the client. Writers are also provided with ongoing opportunities to enhance their skills within the company’s supportive environment.

The person who is labeled as a premium paper writer often has more experience and higher qualifications, like a Ph.D., and at least two years of writing experience. While their services cost a bit more, the quality they deliver usually makes the investment worthwhile.

Is using a paper writing service confidential and safe?

The internet is a vast resource where people often share their knowledge, which is a huge help, especially for college students working on their homework. It’s also completely legal and secure to purchase essays and custom papers online if you need them. However, it’s crucial to choose a reputable provider to avoid issues like plagiarism or low-quality work, which could waste your time, money, and effort.

I’ve found that doing your homework on these services is essential. Make sure to look at the company’s refund policy in case you’re not satisfied with their work, and confirm that they’ll keep your school’s name confidential. It’s also a good idea to check reviews of their past work to see if it’s well-written and structurally sound.

From my experience, as long as you do this research beforehand, buying essays online can be a safe option that keeps your details private. Just be vigilant to avoid scams.

What if I’m not satisfied with my paper?

Most top-rated essay writing companies strive to deliver excellent quality, because they want their customers to come back. They have skilled writers who are well-versed in various academic tasks, including essays, lab reports, and research papers. They work hard to produce top-quality work.

If there are any issues with the finished product, these services usually offer free revisions until you’re satisfied with the quality. Client satisfaction is a high priority for these companies, driven by stiff market competition. The goal is to deliver a flawless paper that helps you achieve a high grade.

What are the main drawbacks of using essay writing services?

For many students, using essay writing services is considered a luxury, primarily because the reputable ones that offer great reviews, unlimited revisions, and maintain confidentiality tend to be more expensive. Opting for cheap essay writing services often means risking quality and reliability, especially when it comes to meeting deadlines.

Plagiarism is another serious issue. Both intentional and unintentional plagiarism can occur, particularly with services that don’t carefully vet their writers. Sometimes, clients don’t discover the plagiarism until it’s too late to rewrite the paper and meet their deadline.

Moreover, if an essay writing company lacks a quality control team, the work submitted by writers might be subpar, filled with typos and grammatical errors. Some writers might also resist feedback, making it hard to get the necessary revisions to ensure the essay meets your standards.

Who will write my work and what determines the price?

Your assignment will be handled by writers with diverse backgrounds. Some are full-time professionals dedicated solely to writing, while others are former academics who’ve embraced the flexibility of working from home. There are also those who write as a side job.

Regarding pricing, we’ve discussed the main factors in our article: the length of the assignment, its complexity, and the deadline. Another element influencing cost is the location of the company. Businesses based in regions like Eastern Europe, North Africa, and Central Asia often have lower rates because the cost of living is lower there, making the dollar stretch further.

Comparison of the Top Paper Writing Services

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Best Essay Services: Conclusion

Working with a professional essay writing service is important not only for the quality of the work you’ll receive but also for the security of your personal details. Many students turn to these services when they’re pressed for time and need to complete their academic tasks—there’s nothing wrong with this approach.

Today, numerous legitimate essay writing services uphold high standards of academic integrity and deliver plagiarism-free papers. These paper writing websites are generally affordable for most students, although there are some exceptions.

Before placing an order, it’s important to do your homework. Check the company’s reviews, find out if it offers a refund policy, and look into its track record on past projects. A reliable service will prioritize your confidentiality, which is a vital consideration.

The news and editorial staff of the Santa Cruz Sentinel had no role in this post’s preparation. This is a paid advertisement and does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, its employees, or subsidiaries.

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So Your High School Doesn’t Offer APs—Are AP Exams Still Important For College Admissions?

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Advanced Placement courses are offered at thousands of high schools across the U.S.— approximately 35% of public high school graduates in the Class of 2023 took at least one AP exam, and approximately 2.8 million students sat for AP exams in 2023. However, a large number of schools do not offer AP courses. In many cases, this is due to a lack of resources—though strides have been made to increase access to AP courses in underprivileged schools, a gap in access persists along racial and socioeconomic lines. In other cases, schools are ditching the AP curriculum as a result of their educational philosophy. In 2018, elite private schools in the D.C. area such as Sidwell Friends and Georgetown Prep announced their intention to phase out AP classes, citing their desire for a more independent curriculum and a growing frustration with the AP’s orientation toward testing rather than other metrics for success.

Despite these drawbacks, AP courses and exams remain highly regarded by many colleges and universities, as they offer insight into students’ academic acumen and potential to complete college coursework successfully. As a result, many students without access to AP courses are left wondering whether they should still register, study and sit for AP exams.

First and foremost, students should know that colleges and universities evaluate their applications in the context of their school and the opportunities available to them. This means that if students did not have AP classes available to them at their schools, admissions officers will not expect to see AP courses or AP exam scores included in their applications. As such, these students’ applications will not be disadvantaged in any way by not including AP exams.

That being said, there are some scenarios in which a student may still wish to take an AP exam despite not having taken an AP course. These are the top three reasons that students might consider sitting for one or more AP exams:

1. To Earn College Credit

One of the main reasons students take AP exams is to earn college credit. Many colleges and universities grant credit for high AP exam scores (typically for 4s or 5s). By earning credit through AP exams, you may be able to fulfill prerequisites, skip introductory courses, or accelerate your progress toward graduation once you enroll in college. However, this is not the case at every school. In order to determine whether the time and effort you will put into studying and taking an AP exam will be justified, you should research whether the schools you are considering applying to give college credit for high AP exam scores. You can often find this information on admissions or departmental websites, or by contacting admissions representatives at each respective school. You can also check the College Board website to see if the schools on your list accept AP credits, but note that these policies change frequently, so you should still follow up with the schools for verification. If a handful of the schools on your list do accept high scores for credit, it may be a strategic choice to sit for one or more exam.

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Patriots select north carolina quarterback drake maye with no 3 pick in nfl draft, ‘baby reindeer’ star says real martha searches need to stop, 2. to use exam scores in lieu of the sat or act.

As Ivy League and other top schools reinstate their standardized testing requirements, some schools have announced their intention to allow students to submit test scores from AP examinations in place of ACT or SAT scores. Dartmouth allows students applying from schools outside of the U.S. to satisfy their testing requirement by submitting three AP exam scores. Meanwhile, Yale’s new test-flexible policy also allows students applying domestically to submit AP and IB scores in lieu of other standardized tests. If you are applying internationally or if you have reason to believe that you will achieve a stronger score on AP exams than on the SAT or ACT, you can consider sitting for the exams. Note that not all schools have such flexible testing policies, so you will likely still need to sit for the SAT or the ACT.

3. To Demonstrate Your Academic Abilities

It is important to remember that while they are not the only way to demonstrate their academic capabilities, AP exams are an unbiased and quantifiable way to assess students’ preparedness for college coursework. Students who struggled academically earlier in their high school years or who want to highlight their skills in a specific discipline may benefit from the inclusion of AP scores in their applicant profiles.

Finally, while students who do not have access to AP classes should consider their options and make a strategic decision about taking exams on the basis of their applicant profiles and academic goals, students who have taken AP courses absolutely should take AP exams. Failing to sit for the exams will not only foreclose the possibility of earning college credit, but it will also reflect poorly on your application and raise questions with admissions committees.

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The Case for Miniatures

Tiny art deserves more attention.

Updated at 9:00 a.m. ET on April 26, 2024

Empires and nation-states are remembered for their monuments, but they also leave behind plenty of miniatures. Inside the Egyptian pyramids, within the chamber where the pharaoh’s mummy rests, stand collections of little statues—wooden figurines of mummified servants, clay hippos painted turquoise—to remind the ruler how the world once looked. Academics have complained that miniatures suffer from scholarly neglect. After carrying out the first comprehensive survey of more than 500 miniatures found in excavations along the Nile in 2011, the Italian archeologist Grazia Di Pietro felt compelled to remark in an essay that these were more than “simple toys.”

A miniature is a replica of something bigger, a distortion of scale that makes it wonderful in a way the merely small is not. Miniatures are not the same as models, which are didactic (an anatomical model of the heart to educate students, for example) or utilitarian (a model showing the plan for a skyscraper yet to be built). Miniatures imitate life but have no clear practical purpose. They can be harder to make than their full-size counterparts. But they are portable, like the tiny mannequins the French government commissioned from fashion houses when World War II ended and Parisians couldn’t afford human-size haute couture. The mannequins toured Europe, splendidly dressed ambassadors carrying the message that the French had skill, if not much fabric.

Miniatures seek detail rather than abstraction. They are competitive. Some strive to be ever smaller, like the diminutive books that surged in popularity during the Industrial Revolution, after the printing press had rendered mass production easier. The essayist Susan Stewart writes about this in her book On Longing : Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection . Maybe, she suggests, the guilds of printers and binders missed the challenges of craftsmanship. (Centuries before the printing press, Arab and Persian calligraphers figured out how to make Qurans smaller than their thumbs.) Other miniatures strive to be ever more perfect—consider the locket portraits once sold in England, each with its own magnifying glass.

Watch: Forget tiny houses–try miniature sculptures

“I think a lot about record books, like the Guinness Book of World Records ,” Joan Kee, an art historian at the University of Michigan, told me. “There’s always the smallest and the biggest: two extremes of human achievements.” Monuments and miniatures both inspire awe, but the awe each inspires is of a different kind. The pyramids stand as testaments to the glory of great powers, pooled resources, and concerted human effort. They’re formidable. The Egyptian figurines conjure images of a single artisan’s obsession, squinting eyes, and precise fingers. They’re precious.

Here’s an irony of time and size: Monuments, in their grandness, seem destined to last forever—but the unobtrusive miniature is often what survives the passage of centuries and the onslaughts of natural disasters. Today, museums are full of miniatures, though many institutions don’t seem to know what to do with them. Jack Davy, a British curator, coined the term miniature dissonance to criticize the practice of exhibiting them all together with little context, like souvenirs on a table. Museum collections are a kind of miniature themselves—a whole world made to fit inside a building. One way to tell the history of museums is that they evolved from the rooms in which noble families once displayed trinkets from their trips of conquest—dried butterflies, incense lamps, taxidermic birds, Chinese porcelains. The rooms were called cabinets of curiosities, or wunderkammer in German—“wonder rooms.” The word cabinet then came to mean the piece of furniture that might contain such wonders; the word became its own miniature.

In the 1930s, Narcissa Thorne was a Chicago housewife and socialite, married to a scion of the Montgomery Ward department-store fortune. She mocked her ladylike education: “Knowing how to put on my hat straight was supposed to be enough.” Since childhood, she had relished traveling and collecting small objects, and liked to say that her miniatures were not a hobby but a mania. In 1933, hundreds of thousands of people lined up at the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition to see not some futuristic technology but an exhibit of 30 miniature rooms, imagined, commissioned, and furnished by Thorne. There was a Tudor hall, a Victorian drawing room, a Versailles-esque boudoir with a gilded bathtub. Some of the rooms had windows, through which the scenography of an outside landscape was visible and the light of a miniature sun seeped in. The audience found the realism uncanny, Kay Wells, an art historian at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, told me. Some were so shocked by the view of all that intimate domesticity, they felt like voyeurs. Quite a few compared the rooms to peep shows.

Miniatures are often said to be all about control: creating tiny utopias by shrinking what is big and intimidating. “You can control your dollhouse,” Leslie Edelman, the owner of the only dedicated dollhouse store left in New York City, told me, as he showed me a miniature fruit basket so exquisite that the bananas inside of it could actually be peeled. “I mean, the outside world these days is insane!” In Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood , the character who collects miniatures is a frail mother who falls into depression after the birth of her child. Poor woman , I thought when I read the book, making this little world for herself because she can’t handle the real one.

Read: Dollhouses weren’t invented for play

Narcissa Thorne, too, wanted to assert control—over the stubborn passage of time and what she saw as the ugliness of modern fads. Art Deco mixed influences from too many places in a pastiche she didn’t fancy. Instead, she liked the “period rooms” that were being added to museums in Detroit, New York, and Chicago to display the prettier interior design of bygone eras. She donated and volunteered at major institutions, but none big enough to accommodate a collection as comprehensive as she would have wished. By making her own compact period rooms, she could display the chronology of European domesticity at a manageable scale.

But miniatures can do more than provide an illusion of control. And perhaps, despite her intentions, Thorne’s rooms did something of the opposite. Great miniatures create the fantasy that they are part of a world that will never fully reveal itself to the viewer. This is the same fantasy, as Stewart observed in On Longing , that animates The Nutcracker , Pinocchio , and other fairy tales in which toys come alive. A reporter at the Chicago Tribune wrote that looking into the rooms made you feel like a Lilliputian in Gulliver’s Travels .

The Thorne rooms exert a power that preserved historic villas and museum period rooms cannot replicate. If a space can be inhabited, then the people inhabiting it can’t escape the presence of EXIT signs, plexiglass barriers, and one another. You always know you’re trapped in the present. You can’t walk into a miniature room, yet it feels somehow much more immersive. Thorne chose not to populate her rooms with tiny people. Ellenor Alcorn, the curator of Applied Arts of Europe at the Art Institute of Chicago, which holds the biggest collection of Thorne rooms, calls that a “really wise” decision. “The absence of figures means that we, as the visitor, become the human element in the room, and bring them to life,” she told me.

The Thorne rooms at the Art Institute remain something of a rarity: miniatures taken very, very seriously by a major American museum. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City, is home to the world’s biggest collection of American portrait miniatures—including a locket memento of George Washington and “Beauty Revealed,” a miniaturist’s self-portrait, which shows only her breasts—but only about 3 percent, are on display at the moment. (A spokesperson for the museum told me these paintings are rotated every few months because they’re sensitive to the light.)

American miniature enthusiasts are used to thinking of their fascination as a quirk. Elle Shushan, who collects and sells 19th-century miniature portraits like those at the Met, told me her circle is “niche but passionate.” Carolyn LeGeyt, a Connecticut retiree who made dollhouses for all the girls in her family—10 nieces and two granddaughters—when they turned 9, told me that her favorite week of the year is when she goes to a summer school run by the International Guild of Miniature Artisans at Maine Maritime Academy. For that one week, she doesn’t need to explain her “love for small things.” (That’s also where she learned to paint and then sand down her dollhouses’ door knobs so that they look worn by use.)

It doesn’t help their reputation for quirkiness that, as a group, American miniaturists are drawn to old-fashioned things. Most American dollhouses are Victorian. The miniature railroad at the Brandywine Museum, near Philadelphia, emerged out of nostalgia for disappearing old trains. This needn’t be the case. In Germany, Miniatur Wunderland replicates Hamburg’s warehouse district. Niklas Weissleder, a young man who works for the museum, told me that curators are getting anxious because many of the city’s cars are now electric, and the tiny cars have not yet been updated to reflect this change.

Not all American miniatures are quaint idylls. Frances Glessner Lee, a contemporary of Narcissa Thorne, created detailed room boxes too, but hers were murder scenes, with blood stains and decomposing bodies. Glessner Lee liked to read Sherlock Holmes stories, donated money to fund the school of legal medicine at Harvard, and hoped the budding detectives there would use the rooms as puzzles to crack in 90-minute sessions. For her contributions, Glessner Lee earned the title of “godmother of forensic science” and became America’s first female police captain.

A few years ago, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, in Washington, D.C., displayed Glessner Lee’s rooms in “Murder Is Her Hobby,” a three-month exhibition. Nora Atkinson, the show’s curator, told me that it had been a tough sell for her bosses: They were “skeptical that anybody would be interested in sort of dollhouses , as they put it.” She felt there was a sense that the miniature rooms were just a feminine hobby, and not particularly “innovative.” In fact, the exhibition was so popular that the museum extended its hours. (A spokesperson for the Smithsonian American Art Museum told me that the exhibition was part of a series “showcasing women artists” and “challenging the marginalization of creative disciplines traditionally considered feminine.”)

Is there a country in the world where miniatures are more than a strange little pastime? I’m talking about a place that could serve as a site of pilgrimage for miniature-lovers, or a first destination in the event that a team of scholars finally sets out to write the Unified Theory of Miniatures as an Important Category of Artistic Expression.

There are probably quite a few candidates, but I’d submit Japan, where a long tradition honors the fascination with all objects mijika (“close to the body”) or te ni ireru (“that fit in the hand”).

Ayako Yoshimura, now a librarian at University of Chicago, told me that she doesn’t understand why collecting miniatures is seen as a bit weird in America; it was quite normal in Japan when she was growing up. When she moved to the United States for college, she brought along the miniatures from her childhood and has since kept a drawer for them in every place she has lived. She has all the makings of a miniature Japanese garden, with a fence and an ornamental water basin, but she rarely shows them to anyone.

Scholars I interviewed about the popularity of miniatures in Japan suggested that it might have to do with Japan itself being so small and dense, or with the nation’s tradition of decorative crafts. Yoshimura thinks her fellow Japanese have a “philosophy of concealment”; they are people who like owning little treasures to enjoy in private.

From the January/February 2017 issue: Big in Japan–tiny food

In the 1980s, the Korean professor and politician O-Young Lee wrote The Compact Culture , a best-selling book arguing that Japan’s love for small things, such as haiku and netsuke—tiny ivory sculptures concealed inside a kimono’s folds—led to its innovations in small-but-powerful industrial products such as the mighty microchip, and is by extension key to the nation’s economic success. Sushi, one of Japan’s most famous exports, is arguably a miniature—all the ingredients of a big plate, in a single bite.

Japan is also the master of what I believe to be the canonical miniature: bonsai trees, which are microcosms of nature outside nature. Originally from China, the practice of making miniature landscapes was supposed to teach students how to manipulate the elements. Individual pieces were called silent poems. When the art form spread to Japan, it conserved the meaning of an environment subdued. “A tree that is left growing in its natural state is a crude thing,” reads Utsubo monogatari , a 10th-century story. “It is only when it is kept close to human beings who fashion it with loving care that its shape and style acquire the ability to move one.”

There’s something cruel about a desire for control that necessitates trapping a tree with wires, for decades, to stunt its growth and sculpt its shape. Keiichi Fujikawa, a second-generation bonsai artist from Osaka, told me he strives to hide or remove the wires before the trees are exhibited, but that without them the bonsai is not “aesthetically viable.” The wires are the price of beauty. Crucial to the Buddhist belief system, Yukio Lippit, a professor of Japanese art at Harvard, told me, is the idea of “nestedness,” of universes contained infinitely within universes. Miniature trees can remind their beholders of a cosmology in which every small thing holds an entire world.

When I first saw them, in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, I understood that bonsais are not small trees but enormous ones—all of the complexity is there, simply at a reduced scale. I struggled to define why this effect is so beautiful, but I met an academic who came close: “Bonsais show the respect the artist has for you as a viewer,” Robert Huey, a professor of Japanese literature at University of Hawaii, told me. The bonsai artist knows that a miniature that simplifies would be an impostor, and bonsais are the opposite of impostors: not just miniature trees but real ones. They take decades to grow; they have leaves that blossom and fall with the seasons, and trunks that get sick and age. Like the trees that grow in the forest, they are fully alive.

Hoping to keep Spanish vibrant, Hartford organization announces high school essay contest

The Connecticut Institute for Community Development (CICD) — Puerto Rican Hartford Parade is hosting a Spanish-writing contest for all greater Hartford area high school students.

Ivonne Olmo, a board member of the CICD Puerto Rican Hartford Parade, emphasized the emotional significance of the contest. She said language is a vital aspect of Latino and Puerto Rican identity.

“When you know who you are, nobody can tell you who you are,” Olmo said. “So it's very important that children get connected with the roots, with their history. I know that we live in the United States we should know English, but always is important to know Spanish.”

The Spanish language is a key aspect in maintaining the cultural heritage of many communities, particularly those with Hispanic and Latino roots, organizers said.

Connecticut’s second largest community is Hispanic, comprising 18% of residents in the state. Spanish is a global language spoken by millions and research has shown that bilinguals can have improved memory, multitasking skills and problem-solving abilities.

“Being a bilingual person gives you a key to a lot of success so for us, it's important to promote the learning and the practice of Spanish,” Olmo said.

The essay contest is for ninth to 12th grade students in the greater Hartford area. The essay requires participants to explore the relationship between identity and language in a three-page essay written in Spanish. Submissions are due by April 30. The top two entries will be awarded scholarship prizes.

Samuel Vega, president of the CICD Puerto Rican Parade in Hartford, emphasized the importance of preserving Puerto Rican culture in Connecticut and promoting educational opportunities for young Latinos.

“You don't have to be Puerto Rican to qualify for the scholarship, it's for everyone, as long as you write the essay in Spanish you will qualify for this scholarship,” Vega said. “But you should always recognize where you came from, or your grandparents came from.”

Learning and using Spanish allows people to communicate with a diverse range of people, fostering connections and understanding across cultures, Olmo said.

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