3.1 - PICKING A TOPIC, OUTLINING, & WRITING A FIRST DRAFT

Picking a Topic

It’s time to pick something and start writing! Before we talk about how, a word to the wise: Your topic may change. That’s okay. In fact, it’s often a great thing—I’ve seen plenty of students spend time exploring one approach, then find another that allowed them to write a stronger personal statement. Ultimately, you won’t know if a topic works until you try it.

With that in mind, how do you pick? What makes a good topic?

I believe a Montage Essay (i.e., an essay NOT about challenges) is more likely to stand out if the topic or theme of the essay is:

X. Elastic (i.e., something you can connect to variety of examples, moments, or values)

Y. Uncommon (i.e., something other students probably aren’t writing about)

I believe that a Narrative essay is more likely to stand out if it contains: 

X. Difficult or compelling challenges

Y. Insight

These aren’t binary—rather, each exists on a spectrum.

“Elastic” will vary from person to person. I might be able to connect mountain climbing to family, history, literature, science, social justice, environmentalism, growth, insight … and someone else might not connect it to much of anything. Maybe trees?

“Uncommon”—every year, thousands of students write about mission trips, sports, or music. It’s not that you can’t write about these things, but it’s a lot harder to stand out. 

“Difficult or compelling challenges” can be put on a spectrum with things like getting a bad grade or not making a sports team on the weaker end and things like escaping war or living homeless for three years on the stronger side. While you can possibly write a strong essay about a weaker challenge, it’s really hard to do so.

“Insight” is the answer to the question “so what.” A great insight is likely to surprise the reader a bit, while a so-so insight likely won’t. (Insight is something that you’ll develop in an essay through the writing process, rather than something you’ll generally know ahead of time for a topic, but it’s useful to understand that some topics are probably easier to pull insights from than others.)

To clarify, you can still write a great montage with a very common topic, or a narrative that offers so-so insights. But the degree of difficulty goes up. Probably way up.

So look back at the topics you’ve thought of so far through the brainstorming exercises. Where do you think they fall on the spectra above?

Outlining

Virtually every outstanding essay I’ve seen started as a strong outline. Luckily, the brainstorming exercises you’ve done set you up to build a good outline well.

For a Narrative, the different columns of your Feelings and Needs Exercise will become your outline.

For a Montage, the Five Things Exercise can quickly become a good outline, setting up the values you’ll demonstrate through the different experiences linked by your thread.

To see what I mean by a “good” outline, check out these outlines for the “What Had to Be Done” and “Laptop Stickers” essays:

Narrative Outline (developed from the Feelings and Needs exercise)

Challenges:

• Domestic abuse

• Alcoholic stepdad

• Little brother Fernando's birth

• Learning I was undocumented

Effects:

• My brother and I shared the mental strain

• Father was arrested

• Money was tight

• Mom worked two jobs

• My brother and I took care of one another

• We kept to ourselves when dealing with financial and medical issues

• I avoided going on certain school trips

• At times I was discouraged from meeting new people

• My grades started to slip

What I Did About It:

• Took care of my youngest brother

• Became my own teacher

• Learned how to fix a bike, swim, socialize

• Found a job to help pay bills

• Improved my grades

• Shattered a school swimming record

• Taught myself how to play instruments

• Won the honor of being the first student in my school to pass the AP Physics 1 exam

• Took on several leadership roles in clubs

• Tutored and counseled friends and peers

What I learned:

• Inspired to help others a lot more

• Realized there's a lot more I want to do

• Want to continue supporting my family

• Need to feel free—not just for them, but for me too

Montage Outline:

Thread — Laptop Stickers

• We <3 data-preserve-html-node="true" Design → art, design, experimentation

  • Ex: spent weekend designing websites, graphics for my companies

  • Developed my own style

• Common Threads → authenticity, open-mindedness

  • Ex: street artists, musicians in Austin

  • Creating not just consuming culture

• Poop emoji → family, goofy side

  • Brother, interactions, thinking rationally

• Lol ur not Harry Styles → equality, activism, confidence

  • Various activism as motivation/reminder to act vs just internalize

  • My growth with acting/speaking up

• Catapult → entrepreneurship, social justice, awareness, meaningful work

  • Threaded Twine, women’s rights, breaking cycles 

  • Discovered my career

• Thank God it's Monday → enjoyable work

  • Importance of experience/framing

  • Want work to always be this way

• The Team → collaboration

  • Model G20 Econ Summit, group collaboration

• Kode with Klossy → community, social justice

  • Promoting women in underrepresented fields

With outlines like those, a first draft will be way easier (and take way less time and re-writing).

Drafting

Once you’ve built an outline, you can dive in with drafting. In early drafts, don’t worry too much about word count or building a fancy opening—focus on content and structure. You’ll develop those other elements once you’ve got the latter two pretty solid.

Need to relax a bit to get calm and inspired first? Try the meditation exercise below.

Remember: you don’t have to get it perfect the first time. In fact, you won’t. You just have to begin.