College Admissions Essay Structures - Continued

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Dramatic Appeal

Not all essays will have potential in this area, but if you have undergone dramatic experiences, then you should set up your essay to reflect that. The most effective way to accomplish this is to use the introduction to sketch some kind of problem or question, and then use each subsequent paragraph to engage with that problem until a resolution is gradually reached.

One successful applicant set up a harrowing—yet undefined—problem in the first paragraph. The reader later learns that the problem is that the applicant’s father is battling cancer. The issue of cancer and its effects on families and children is a topic that should be executed with care and is one that weighs heavily on the reader’s mind throughout the course of the essay.

The middle of the exposition is composed of the relation of how the writer was affected by his father’s illness (“My bad grades, in turn, lowered my confidence even further, for my dad had always stressed academics quite heavily--but after seeing my grades, I felt like I had failed my father.”). The success of the essay lies in this very fact that instead of simply relating his father’s painful battle with the disease, the writer personalizes the events for himself—how they affected him and how he has grown from them: “When I realized that by following his example I could surmount any obstacles, I made up my mind. I would face the world "brave and hard," and I would cast off the anxiety, which constrained my personality from growing.” Although this statement seems as if it would serve as a successful conclusion, the writer goes on to develop his theme further, providing precise examples on how he used this adversity to motivate himself to improve. The conclusion contains the most succinct thematic statement that serves to unify the entire piece: “His struggle with colon cancer became a model for my own struggle to improve myself.”