Category Archives: dramatic writing

Keep a Journal

I recently ran an essay workshop for an audience of mostly rising Sophomores.  The college essay-writing experience seemed somewhat far-off for this crowd, but they were an eager bunch.  One of the students asked what she could do to prepare for her personal statement now. While I admire advanced preparation, I think that it would be excessive to start drafting your personal statement during your Sophomore or even during your Junior year.  You could, however, keep a journal, a practice which will have far-reaching benefits, including helping you craft an outstanding personal statement.


Journal writing of any sort provides you an opportunity to catalog and reflect on your thoughts and experiences.  When you write in a journal, you both recollect and process your experiences: you create  a record to jog your memory for later and you provide yourself the opportunity to process your experiences in a way that moves from thoughts that take place in your head to ideas that you can revisit on paper.  Journals provide you a private outlet for your experiences and your thoughts.  Your journal can become the place where you work out your tragedies and triumphs, note what you find remarkable and imagine the possible.  Keeping a journal provides you the opportunity to become honest and frank with yourself about your life.  Journal writing also helps promote the habit of writing and reflection.  These habits not only provide you with good life skills, they will come in handy as you move through college and beyond.


You can write about anything: little anecdotes from your day, things taking place in your family or community that affect you, exchanges with friends, things that you feel strongly about, little details about the places or activities in your life.  Then you can reflect on those activities, people, places or events.   You name it, it can all prove interesting fodder for your journal and for your essay later on.  Whether it’s dramatic or mundane, if it moves you in the least, consider writing about it and meditating on it for a while.


So if you’re wondering what you can do to prepare for your admission essay, keep a journal. Do it now; do it for the rest of your life, if you like it.   Your admission essay will ask you to both share and reflect upon your experiences and developing those habits early on in your journal will help you when the time comes to write statement.

Happy writing!

-Dr. Kirschner

Small details can create a hook to your essay

Your admission essay demands that you paint a vivid picture in short order.  Sometimes you can do this by working through small details, which you put into a wider context.  At it’s best, you will offer enough context so that your reader can read between the lines about you.   I’ll illustrate.


I’m currently working on an essay that’s about coming to terms with the frailty of life and the preciousness of kid’s creations.  But the essay doesn’t come out and say it.  Instead, it illustrates these points by way of details.  The story involves a paper crane, which my daughter left behind when she visited me in the hospital after I experienced a life-threatening illness.  My then 8-year old, Ella, had been making so many paper cranes in the previous months, that they literally littered my house in her creative wake.  Yet, this lone, paper crane left me to tears as I sat alone in my recovery room.  I will draw upon the details of the crane, where I found it, and the scene of me sitting in the hospital room, alone, to contrast with the lively, rambunctious visit with my family earlier that evening.  I do not plan to spell out the themes, yet if I craft the essay well, the reader will be able to infer the points of the essay.


In crafting your personal statement, you draw a fine line between the artistic and the explanatory.  Sometimes, it’s perfectly acceptable to talk about what’s at stake in your story.  Other times call for a light touch.

Happy Writing!

-Dr. Kirschner

Happy writing!

-Dr. Donna  Kirschner