Today in class, we compared two college essays and ran a simulation in which the two candidates were competing for one spot in a post-secondary program. The class had to decide which candidate was stronger based on their essays. The essays are available here:
Tradition - James
Moxie - Charles
The class divided into groups based on which essay they felt was stronger and then had to convince the undecided group that their choice was the better group. The undecided group served as the college admissions board.
The discussion highlighted the different qualities exhibited in each essay. The "Moxie" group felt that Charles' showed his passion and intelligence through his use of description and word choice. The "Tradition" group felt that James showed his personality and values by talking about family and what his life was like.
In the end, I admitted to both essays being my college essays from high school (I really liked Moxie and The Beatles a lot in high school. They're both still great now.). I used this point to stress how a different essay can highlight different features of a person's personality and for everyone to be aware and think about how they want to portray themselves in their essays.
Everyone then had the rest of the period to work on their resume or college essay.
Homework:
Come in with a first draft of your resume or essay for Wednesday.
Common Application prompts are available here.
Resume worksheets are available on pages 3 - 6 of the Hamilton Resume Guide with detailed directions for helping you build your resume.
No comments:
Post a Comment