Application Essays: A+ Guides to Writing, #12

By Alison Plus

You must write an application essay. This essay might accompany an application to college, graduate school, or professional school. Or it might be part of a job application or a request for a scholarship or other funding. Regardless of the nature of the application, all of these essays are united by a common purpose: you want something, and this essay is part of the formal request made to the person or organization with the power to give it to you.

Even though you might have seen other application essays, you still might not know how to compose yours. Maybe you have never written an essay like this before, so you are unsure about how it differs from other kinds of essays. Maybe you have written an essay like this in the past, but you were unhappy with the product or the result and you want to improve your chances this time. Maybe, no matter your skills and experiences, you are just looking for extra help so that this kind of essay will be easier to complete.

Few of us have been taught how to write this type of essay. Is it casual or academic? Is it supported with research? How much should you reveal about yourself? These and many more questions can make it tricky to even know where to begin. And it is very likely that you might not have anyone to help you with this. Because application essays are extra-curricular, even if you are a current student with access to writing instructors, your application essay will not be part of that syllabus. The writing expert teaching your class might not be available to instruct you in this type of writing in their time off.

This booklet can help you by showing you the complete process of writing an application essay for a scholarship, academic program, or employment opportunity. This practical, systematic method will start with a basic discussion of the purpose of application essays and end with a final proofreading. In between that first and last step, you will learn how to write each section of an application essay, piece by piece. These sectional breakdowns show you exactly what to include in different places within the essay. You will no longer need to guess what to write and where to write it. By using the breakdown, the various pieces of the document will work together to create a coherent and complete whole.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Four-Ply Publishing
• Release date: Feb 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386997108

Book preview

About the A+ Method

You have purchased this booklet because you are looking for help with a writing assignment. Good news! Help is here!

The A+ Method was developed through years spent working with student writers on a variety of writing assignments. Regardless of the specific assignment type (five-paragraph essay, persuasive essay, narrative essay, literature review, etc.), it soon became clear that students shared one strong concern. They wanted to know what to put where. They had ideas about their topics, and they knew what they wanted to say, but they didn’t know how to present those ideas in an organized manner so that the paper could flow well.

The A+ Method assists the students with overcoming that concern. Each type of assignment follows a unique writing pattern, and each A+ Method booklet presents that pattern in easy-to-follow steps. The pattern shows the writer what to put where. Along the way, each booklet also addresses other writing concerns typical to a specific assignment type. By focusing on assignment type rather than on writing essays in general, each specific booklet targets the pedagogical goals in a way that leads to a greater likelihood of student success.

Choose the booklet that corresponds to your assignment type, and then follow the steps in the booklet. Working the steps carefully the first time will not only lead to a finished paper, but to a better understanding of how to write a specific type of paper. Then, with subsequent similar assignments, use the booklet as a refresher to guarantee that you will hit the assignment targets each time.

Praise for A+ Writing Guides

Thank you for the guidance. I have made a breakthrough!

Awesome!

The method for turning a thesis statement into topic sentences was very useful and easy to apply.

I thought proofreading meant you should read the paper and hope you spot the mistakes. Now I have a better way to do that, using the layered technique.

I thought outlining was a waste of time and a headache. But the 'working outline' was actually very helpful and made me see that an outline isn't about roman numerals and indents.

I am currently writing the literature review chapter of my dissertation and this book has been and is very helpful during my writing.

This book saved my bacon. I had a week to write a lit review paper for my PhD program and until I read the sample I didn't even know what a literature review paper was. The author does a great job in breaking it down into an easy to follow method. Everything from how to organize your paper to how to compose the topic sentence, body and conclusions for each paragraph. I'm almost done reading the book and feel so much more confident that I can do this. Just wish there was an audio companion. Already told all my classmates about the book. Thanks Alison!

Wow! I have only read a few of the sections in this text and have already found it significantly more helpful than any other book I have purchased so far. I was really struggling with structuring my literature review, but this text offers great insight on organizing the material and flowing between paragraphs. Definitely worth the $3.99.

How to Use This Booklet

You must write an application essay. This essay might accompany an application to college, graduate school, or professional school. Or it might be part of a job application or a request for a scholarship or other funding. Regardless of the nature of the application, all of these essays are united by a common purpose: you want something, and this essay is part of the formal request made to the person or organization with the power to give it to you.

Even though you might have seen other application essays, you still might not know how to compose yours. Maybe you have never written an essay like this before, so you are unsure about how it differs from other kinds of essays. Maybe you have written an essay like this in the past, but you were unhappy with the product or the result and you want to improve your chances this time. Maybe, no matter your skills and experiences, you are just looking for extra help so that this kind of essay will be easier to complete.

Few of us have been taught how to write this type of essay. Is it casual or academic? Is it supported with research? How much should you reveal about yourself? These and many more questions can make it tricky to even know where to begin. And it is very likely that