college essay bootcamp
Writing Reflection
Over the past few years, I’ve grown with my critiquing skills. I used to really struggle with accepting suggestions from peers during critiques, because I thought my writing was better my way, and I’d ignore their advice. I’ve really worked on that, and now I’m very good at accepting suggestions from my peers while maintaining the meaning behind my words. Using peer suggestions, I cut out most of the repetitive parts of my essay, and was able to create better transitions between my ideas. I had a few paragraphs that did a really good job of showing vs. telling, but the following paragraphs were really weak at showing, so I was able to improve that. In one of my early drafts I finished my second to last paragraph with “I expect to find more funding, and I know I have the confidence and the skills to ask the community to fund dreams.” After a peer explained me why it didn’t sound good, and showed me that I had a good conclusion for that paragraph elsewhere in the essay, I revised the conclusion. Now my paragraph ends with “With funding to make this scholarship fund a reality, I can now begin the process of collecting applications and interviewing students. I want others to be able to have amazing internships, and I want to help them afford those dreams. This fund has made it possible for everyone to have an incredible experience and pursue their passions without limits.” That whole paragraph was challenging, not just the conclusion, because I had a specific idea I needed to convey that didn’t fit the flow of the rest of the essay, but was crucial. I received a lot of advice with this paragraph, and after solidifying the main details, the conclusion was much easier to write. I expanded on the idea of funding dreams, and made receiving funds its own thought. Because of these revisions this paragraph fits into the essay, and flows better.