Freshman Application Essays, Illinois Undergraduate Admissions

Freshman Application Essays, Illinois Undergraduate Admissions It has additional sections to add more information, such as an extended background or an approach/methods section. Narrative essays are often the closest thing to pieces of journalism. If you master the narrative essay, then you are likely well on your way to being a successful journalist. Most of the advice in this handout pertains to argumentative or exploratory academic essays. Be aware, however, that different genres have their own special expectations about beginnings and endings. Here are some tips on how you might cut down your essay. It is not your stories that get you into college, but how they have affected your character and your thinking. You should strive to portray yourself in the best possible light and keep your essay focused on answering the prompt. It is also important to be aware of the complexity of your topic. The introduction states what’s at stake, and the body presents the evidence. In the case of an argumentative essay, the evidence might be research. If your essay is significantly longer than the suggested word count, read through it and highlight everything that is most importantâ€"this includes important points of introspection and supporting evidence. If you choose to use this approach, remember that it might become necessary to remove information that you had initially deemed important. Use a brief narrative or anecdote that exemplifies your reason for choosing the topic. In an assignment that encourages personal reflection, you may draw on your own experiences; in a research essay, the narrative may illustrate a common real-world scenario. Some academic genres may not even require an introduction or conclusion. An annotated bibliography, for example, typically provides neither. A book review may begin with a summary of the book and conclude with an overall assessment of it. A policy briefing usually includes an introduction but may conclude with a series of recommendations. In your conclusion, you wrap everything up in a neat package. Restate your thesis in a clear way without repeating it word for word. Leave your reader with a takeaway or something to think about. Here’s the conclusion of the Skyline College essay sample. Check your assignment carefully for any directions about what to include in your introduction or conclusion. If your essay deals with a contemporary problem, warn readers of the possible consequences of not attending to the problem. For most essays, one well-developed paragraph is sufficient for a conclusion. In some cases, a two-or-three paragraph conclusion may be appropriate. Pick topics for which you have enough room to elaborate. Do not cite three or four pieces of supporting evidence in an elaborate thesis if you are only allowed 500 words. If you only have a few paragraphs to write your essay, you will likely only have room for one main point of supporting evidence. Keep your thesis short and limit your supporting points, since you always need to set aside plenty of room in your essay for introspection. This master template can be used for short argumentative essays, long argumentative essays, complicated argumentative essays, and straightforward ones. As with introductions, the length of the conclusion should reflect the length of the essay. A good last sentence leaves your reader with something to think about, a concept in some way illuminated by what you’ve written in the paper. Use semi-colons, em dashes, or compound sentences if necessary. For example, do you have any sentences that start with, “It is” or “It seems that”? These are extraneous words that can be taken out without altering the sentence’s meaning.