Typically, an essay has five paragraphs: an introduction, a conclusion, and three body paragraphs. However, there is no set rule about the number of paragraphs in an essay.
The number of paragraphs can vary depending on the type and scope of your essay. An expository or argumentative essay may require more body paragraphs to include all the necessary information, whereas a narrative essay may need fewer.
To enhance the coherence and readability of your essay, it’s important to follow certain rules regarding the structure. Take a look:
1. Arrange your information from the most simple to the most complex bits. You can start the body paragraph off with a general statement and then move on to specifics.
2. Provide the necessary background information at the beginning of your essay to give the reader the context behind your thesis statement.
3. Select topic statements that provide value, more information, or evidence for your thesis statement.
There are also various essay structures , such as the compare and contrast structure, chronological structure, problem method solution structure, and signposting structure that you can follow to create an organized and impactful essay.
An impactful, well-structured essay comes down to three important parts: the introduction, body, and conclusion.
1. The introduction sets the stage for your essay and is typically a paragraph long. It should grab the reader’s attention and give them a clear idea of what your essay will be about.
2. The body is where you dive deeper into your topic and present your arguments and evidence. It usually consists of two paragraphs, but this can vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing.
3. The conclusion brings your essay to a close and is typically one paragraph long. It should summarize the main points of the essay and leave the reader with something to think about.
The length of your paragraphs can vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing. So, make sure you take the time to plan out your essay structure so each section flows smoothly into the next.
When it comes to writing an essay, the introduction is a critical component that sets the tone for the entire piece. A well-crafted introduction not only grabs the reader’s attention but also provides them with a clear understanding of what the essay is all about. An essay editor can help you achieve this, but it’s best to know the brief yourself!
Let’s take a look at how to write an attractive and informative introductory paragraph.
1. Construct an attractive hook
To grab the reader’s attention, an opening statement or hook is crucial. This can be achieved by incorporating a surprising statistic, a shocking fact, or an interesting anecdote into the beginning of your piece.
For example, if you’re writing an essay about water conservation you can begin your essay with, “Clean drinking water, a fundamental human need, remains out of reach for more than one billion people worldwide. It deprives them of a basic human right and jeopardizes their health and wellbeing.”
2. Provide sufficient context or background information
An effective introduction should begin with a brief description or background of your topic. This will help provide context and set the stage for your discussion.
For example, if you’re writing an essay about climate change, you start by describing the current state of the planet and the impact that human activity is having on it.
3. Construct a well-rounded and comprehensive thesis statement
A good introduction should also include the main message or thesis statement of your essay. This is the central argument that you’ll be making throughout the piece. It should be clear, concise, and ideally placed toward the end of the introduction.
By including these elements in your introduction, you’ll be setting yourself up for success in the rest of your essay.
Let’s take a look at an example.
The Wright Brothers’ invention of the airplane in 1903 revolutionized the way humans travel and explore the world. Prior to this invention, transportation relied on trains, boats, and cars, which limited the distance and speed of travel. However, the airplane made air travel a reality, allowing people to reach far-off destinations in mere hours. This breakthrough paved the way for modern-day air travel, transforming the world into a smaller, more connected place. In this essay, we will explore the impact of the Wright Brothers’ invention on modern-day travel, including the growth of the aviation industry, increased accessibility of air travel to the general public, and the economic and cultural benefits of air travel.
You can persuade your readers and make your thesis statement compelling by providing evidence, examples, and logical reasoning. To write a fool-proof and authoritative essay, you need to provide multiple well-structured, substantial arguments.
Let’s take a look at how this can be done:
1. Write a topic sentence for each paragraph
The beginning of each of your body paragraphs should contain the main arguments that you’d like to address. They should provide ground for your thesis statement and make it well-rounded. You can arrange these arguments in several formats depending on the type of essay you’re writing.
2. Provide the supporting information
The next point of your body paragraph should provide supporting information to back up your main argument. Depending on the type of essay, you can elaborate on your main argument with the help of relevant statistics, key information, examples, or even personal anecdotes.
3. Analyze the supporting information
After providing relevant details and supporting information, it is important to analyze it and link it back to your main argument.
End one body paragraph with a smooth transition to the next. There are many ways in which this can be done, but the most common way is to give a gist of your main argument along with the supporting information with transitory words such as “however” “in addition to” “therefore”.
Here’s an example of a body paragraph.
The Wright Brothers’ invention of the airplane revolutionized air travel. They achieved the first-ever successful powered flight with the Wright Flyer in 1903, after years of conducting experiments and studying flight principles. Despite their first flight lasting only 12 seconds, it was a significant milestone that paved the way for modern aviation. The Wright Brothers’ success can be attributed to their systematic approach to problem-solving, which included numerous experiments with gliders, the development of a wind tunnel to test their designs, and meticulous analysis and recording of their results. Their dedication and ingenuity forever changed the way we travel, making modern aviation possible.
A powerful concluding statement separates a good essay from a brilliant one. To create a powerful conclusion, you need to start with a strong foundation.
Let’s take a look at how to construct an impactful concluding statement.
1. Restructure your thesis statement
To conclude your essay effectively, don’t just restate your thesis statement. Instead, use what you’ve learned throughout your essay and modify your thesis statement accordingly. This will help you create a conclusion that ties together all of the arguments you’ve presented.
2. Summarize the main points of your essay
The next point of your conclusion consists of a summary of the main arguments of your essay. It is crucial to effectively summarize the gist of your essay into one, well-structured paragraph.
3. Create a lasting impression with your concluding statement
Conclude your essay by including a key takeaway, or a powerful statement that creates a lasting impression on the reader. This can include the broader implications or consequences of your essay topic.
Here’s an example of a concluding paragraph.
The Wright Brothers’ invention of the airplane forever changed history by paving the way for modern aviation and countless aerospace advancements. Their persistence, innovation, and dedication to problem-solving led to the first successful powered flight in 1903, sparking a revolution in transportation that transformed the world. Today, air travel remains an integral part of our globalized society, highlighting the undeniable impact of the Wright Brothers’ contribution to human civilization.
Most essays are derived from the combination or variation of these four main types of essays . let’s take a closer look at these types.
1. Narrative essay
A narrative essay is a type of writing that involves telling a story, often based on personal experiences. It is a form of creative nonfiction that allows you to use storytelling techniques to convey a message or a theme.
2. Descriptive essay
A descriptive essay aims to provide an immersive experience for the reader by using sensory descriptors. Unlike a narrative essay, which tells a story, a descriptive essay has a narrower scope and focuses on one particular aspect of a story.
3. Argumentative essays
An argumentative essay is a type of essay that aims to persuade the reader to adopt a particular stance based on factual evidence and is one of the most common forms of college essays.
4. Expository essays
An expository essay is a common format used in school and college exams to assess your understanding of a specific topic. The purpose of an expository essay is to present and explore a topic thoroughly without taking any particular stance or expressing personal opinions.
While this article demonstrates what is an essay and describes its types, you may also have other doubts. As experts who provide essay editing and proofreading services , we’re here to help.
Our team has created a list of resources to clarify any doubts about writing essays. Keep reading to write engaging and well-organized essays!
What is the difference between an argumentative and an expository essay, what is the difference between a narrative and a descriptive essay, what is an essay format, what is the meaning of essay, what is the purpose of writing an essay.
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Well, beyond a jumble of words usually around 2,000 words or so - what is an essay, exactly? Whether you’re taking English, sociology, history, biology, art, or a speech class, it’s likely you’ll have to write an essay or two. So how is an essay different than a research paper or a review? Let’s find out!
The essay is a written piece that is designed to present an idea, propose an argument, express the emotion or initiate debate. It is a tool that is used to present writer’s ideas in a non-fictional way. Multiple applications of this type of writing go way beyond, providing political manifestos and art criticism as well as personal observations and reflections of the author.
An essay can be as short as 500 words, it can also be 5000 words or more. However, most essays fall somewhere around 1000 to 3000 words ; this word range provides the writer enough space to thoroughly develop an argument and work to convince the reader of the author’s perspective regarding a particular issue. The topics of essays are boundless: they can range from the best form of government to the benefits of eating peppermint leaves daily. As a professional provider of custom writing, our service has helped thousands of customers to turn in essays in various forms and disciplines.
Over the course of more than six centuries essays were used to question assumptions, argue trivial opinions and to initiate global discussions. Let’s have a closer look into historical progress and various applications of this literary phenomenon to find out exactly what it is.
Today’s modern word “essay” can trace its roots back to the French “essayer” which translates closely to mean “to attempt” . This is an apt name for this writing form because the essay’s ultimate purpose is to attempt to convince the audience of something. An essay’s topic can range broadly and include everything from the best of Shakespeare’s plays to the joys of April.
The essay comes in many shapes and sizes; it can focus on a personal experience or a purely academic exploration of a topic. Essays are classified as a subjective writing form because while they include expository elements, they can rely on personal narratives to support the writer’s viewpoint. The essay genre includes a diverse array of academic writings ranging from literary criticism to meditations on the natural world. Most typically, the essay exists as a shorter writing form; essays are rarely the length of a novel. However, several historic examples, such as John Locke’s seminal work “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” just shows that a well-organized essay can be as long as a novel.
The essay enjoys a long and renowned history in literature. They first began gaining in popularity in the early 16 th century, and their popularity has continued today both with original writers and ghost writers. Many readers prefer this short form in which the writer seems to speak directly to the reader, presenting a particular claim and working to defend it through a variety of means. Not sure if you’ve ever read a great essay? You wouldn’t believe how many pieces of literature are actually nothing less than essays, or evolved into more complex structures from the essay. Check out this list of literary favorites:
Pretty much as long as writers have had something to say, they’ve created essays to communicate their viewpoint on pretty much any topic you can think of!
Not only are students required to read a variety of essays during their academic education, but they will likely be required to write several different kinds of essays throughout their scholastic career. Don’t love to write? Then consider working with a ghost essay writer ! While all essays require an introduction, body paragraphs in support of the argumentative thesis statement, and a conclusion, academic essays can take several different formats in the way they approach a topic. Common essays required in high school, college, and post-graduate classes include:
This is the most common type of a formal essay. The type of paper that students are usually exposed to when they first hear about the concept of the essay itself. It follows easy outline structure – an opening introduction paragraph; three body paragraphs to expand the thesis; and conclusion to sum it up.
These essays are commonly assigned to explore a controversial issue. The goal is to identify the major positions on either side and work to support the side the writer agrees with while refuting the opposing side’s potential arguments.
This essay compares two items, such as two poems, and works to identify similarities and differences, discussing the strength and weaknesses of each. This essay can focus on more than just two items, however. The point of this essay is to reveal new connections the reader may not have considered previously.
This essay has a sole purpose – defining a term or a concept in as much detail as possible. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, not quite. The most important part of the process is picking up the word. Before zooming it up under the microscope, make sure to choose something roomy so you can define it under multiple angles. The definition essay outline will reflect those angles and scopes.
Perhaps the most fun to write, this essay focuses on describing its subject using all five of the senses. The writer aims to fully describe the topic; for example, a descriptive essay could aim to describe the ocean to someone who’s never seen it or the job of a teacher. Descriptive essays rely heavily on detail and the paragraphs can be organized by sense.
The purpose of this essay is to describe an idea, occasion or a concept with the help of clear and vocal examples. “Illustration” itself is handled in the body paragraphs section. Each of the statements, presented in the essay needs to be supported with several examples. Illustration essay helps the author to connect with his audience by breaking the barriers with real-life examples – clear and indisputable.
Being one the basic essay types, the informative essay is as easy as it sounds from a technical standpoint. High school is where students usually encounter with informative essay first time. The purpose of this paper is to describe an idea, concept or any other abstract subject with the help of proper research and a generous amount of storytelling.
This type of essay focuses on describing a certain event or experience, most often chronologically. It could be a historic event or an ordinary day or month in a regular person’s life. Narrative essay proclaims a free approach to writing it, therefore it does not always require conventional attributes, like the outline. The narrative itself typically unfolds through a personal lens, and is thus considered to be a subjective form of writing.
The purpose of the persuasive essay is to provide the audience with a 360-view on the concept idea or certain topic – to persuade the reader to adopt a certain viewpoint. The viewpoints can range widely from why visiting the dentist is important to why dogs make the best pets to why blue is the best color. Strong, persuasive language is a defining characteristic of this essay type.
Several other artistic mediums have adopted the essay as a means of communicating with their audience. In the visual arts, such as painting or sculpting, the rough sketches of the final product are sometimes deemed essays. Likewise, directors may opt to create a film essay which is similar to a documentary in that it offers a personal reflection on a relevant issue. Finally, photographers often create photographic essays in which they use a series of photographs to tell a story, similar to a narrative or a descriptive essay.
“What is an Essay?” is quite a polarizing question. On one hand, it can easily be answered in a couple of words. On the other, it is surely the most profound and self-established type of content there ever was. Going back through the history of the last five-six centuries helps us understand where did it come from and how it is being applied ever since.
If you must write an essay, follow these five important steps to works towards earning the “A” you want:
Generally speaking, when you must write any type of essay, start sooner rather than later! Don’t procrastinate – give yourself time to develop your perspective and work on crafting a unique and original approach to the topic. Remember: it’s always a good idea to have another set of eyes (or three) look over your essay before handing in the final draft to your teacher or professor. Don’t trust your fellow classmates? Consider hiring an editor or a ghostwriter to help out!
If you are still unsure on whether you can cope with your task – you are in the right place to get help. HandMadeWriting is the perfect answer to the question “Who can write my essay?”
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Writing a research paper on ethics is not an easy task, especially if you do not possess excellent writing skills and do not like to contemplate controversial questions. But an ethics course is obligatory in all higher education institutions, and students have to look for a way out and be creative. When you find an […]
Students obtaining degrees in fine art and art & design programs most commonly need to write a paper on art topics. However, this subject is becoming more popular in educational institutions for expanding students’ horizons. Thus, both groups of receivers of education: those who are into arts and those who only get acquainted with art […]
There are several types of essays, and only a narrative essay resembles a story. The traditional length of a narrative essay would be comparable only to a short story in length.
A narrative essay is, in essence, a short version of a personal story from a writer's experience. In some ways, a narrative essay and a short story can feel similar to one another. Both require a certain amount of imaginative narrative from the writer and use descriptive words to convey emotions, lay out the scene, and place the reader inside the events.
However, there are quite a few differences, which is why you won't find a narrative essay in a compilation book of short stories.
Like all other forms of essays, a narrative essay needs a clear outline of ideas that organize the writer's thoughts. Essays will always include an introduction, a body of writing, and a conclusion that sums up the writer's points or describe what the writer learned from the experience they write about.
Short stories need no such structure. While there is technically a beginning, a middle, and an end, the linear structure of a narrative essay is often not followed in a short story. Some jump around in time and play with the reader's imagination to determine the sequence of events and how one event affects or leads to another.
One of the most notable differences between a narrative essay and a short story is that a short story does not always have to be true. A story can be fiction or non-fiction, as both fit the definition of a short story. A narrative essay, on the other hand, is expected by the reader to be an actual experience from the writer's life.
The intent of an essay is always to inform, so readers have an expectation that they will learn something by reading an essay regardless of its form. When reading a narrative essay, a reader expects to learn more on the topic being discussed through first-hand knowledge due to the lived experience of the writer.
The intent of a story is to entertain. Some short stories are fables, which include a moral that teaches a lesson. However, even the best lessons in short stories will not come across or even be remembered if the story itself isn't engaging and entertaining.
What is an essay.
An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.
In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.
Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.
For a stronger conclusion paragraph, avoid including:
Your conclusion should leave the reader with a strong, decisive impression of your work.
Your essay’s conclusion should contain:
The conclusion may also reflect on the broader implications of your argument, showing how your ideas could applied to other contexts or debates.
The conclusion paragraph of an essay is usually shorter than the introduction . As a rule, it shouldn’t take up more than 10–15% of the text.
The “hook” is the first sentence of your essay introduction . It should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of why it’s interesting.
To write a good hook, avoid overly broad statements or long, dense sentences. Try to start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.
Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:
The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .
Let’s say you’re writing a five-paragraph essay about the environmental impacts of dietary choices. Here are three examples of topic sentences you could use for each of the three body paragraphs :
Each of these sentences expresses one main idea – by listing them in order, we can see the overall structure of the essay at a glance. Each paragraph will expand on the topic sentence with relevant detail, evidence, and arguments.
The topic sentence usually comes at the very start of the paragraph .
However, sometimes you might start with a transition sentence to summarize what was discussed in previous paragraphs, followed by the topic sentence that expresses the focus of the current paragraph.
Topic sentences help keep your writing focused and guide the reader through your argument.
In an essay or paper , each paragraph should focus on a single idea. By stating the main idea in the topic sentence, you clarify what the paragraph is about for both yourself and your reader.
A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.
The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:
Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.
The thesis statement should be placed at the end of your essay introduction .
Follow these four steps to come up with a thesis statement :
A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.
An essay isn’t just a loose collection of facts and ideas. Instead, it should be centered on an overarching argument (summarized in your thesis statement ) that every part of the essay relates to.
The way you structure your essay is crucial to presenting your argument coherently. A well-structured essay helps your reader follow the logic of your ideas and understand your overall point.
The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.
The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.
The vast majority of essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Almost all academic writing involves building up an argument, though other types of essay might be assigned in composition classes.
Essays can present arguments about all kinds of different topics. For example:
At high school and in composition classes at university, you’ll often be told to write a specific type of essay , but you might also just be given prompts.
Look for keywords in these prompts that suggest a certain approach: The word “explain” suggests you should write an expository essay , while the word “describe” implies a descriptive essay . An argumentative essay might be prompted with the word “assess” or “argue.”
In rhetorical analysis , a claim is something the author wants the audience to believe. A support is the evidence or appeal they use to convince the reader to believe the claim. A warrant is the (often implicit) assumption that links the support with the claim.
Logos appeals to the audience’s reason, building up logical arguments . Ethos appeals to the speaker’s status or authority, making the audience more likely to trust them. Pathos appeals to the emotions, trying to make the audience feel angry or sympathetic, for example.
Collectively, these three appeals are sometimes called the rhetorical triangle . They are central to rhetorical analysis , though a piece of rhetoric might not necessarily use all of them.
The term “text” in a rhetorical analysis essay refers to whatever object you’re analyzing. It’s frequently a piece of writing or a speech, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, you could also treat an advertisement or political cartoon as a text.
The goal of a rhetorical analysis is to explain the effect a piece of writing or oratory has on its audience, how successful it is, and the devices and appeals it uses to achieve its goals.
Unlike a standard argumentative essay , it’s less about taking a position on the arguments presented, and more about exploring how they are constructed.
You should try to follow your outline as you write your essay . However, if your ideas change or it becomes clear that your structure could be better, it’s okay to depart from your essay outline . Just make sure you know why you’re doing so.
If you have to hand in your essay outline , you may be given specific guidelines stating whether you have to use full sentences. If you’re not sure, ask your supervisor.
When writing an essay outline for yourself, the choice is yours. Some students find it helpful to write out their ideas in full sentences, while others prefer to summarize them in short phrases.
You will sometimes be asked to hand in an essay outline before you start writing your essay . Your supervisor wants to see that you have a clear idea of your structure so that writing will go smoothly.
Even when you do not have to hand it in, writing an essay outline is an important part of the writing process . It’s a good idea to write one (as informally as you like) to clarify your structure for yourself whenever you are working on an essay.
Comparisons in essays are generally structured in one of two ways:
It’s also possible to combine both methods, for example by writing a full paragraph on each of your topics and then a final paragraph contrasting the two according to a specific metric.
Your subjects might be very different or quite similar, but it’s important that there be meaningful grounds for comparison . You can probably describe many differences between a cat and a bicycle, but there isn’t really any connection between them to justify the comparison.
You’ll have to write a thesis statement explaining the central point you want to make in your essay , so be sure to know in advance what connects your subjects and makes them worth comparing.
Some essay prompts include the keywords “compare” and/or “contrast.” In these cases, an essay structured around comparing and contrasting is the appropriate response.
Comparing and contrasting is also a useful approach in all kinds of academic writing : You might compare different studies in a literature review , weigh up different arguments in an argumentative essay , or consider different theoretical approaches in a theoretical framework .
The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.
Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.
If you’re not given a specific prompt for your descriptive essay , think about places and objects you know well, that you can think of interesting ways to describe, or that have strong personal significance for you.
The best kind of object for a descriptive essay is one specific enough that you can describe its particular features in detail—don’t choose something too vague or general.
If you’re not given much guidance on what your narrative essay should be about, consider the context and scope of the assignment. What kind of story is relevant, interesting, and possible to tell within the word count?
The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to reflect on a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.
Don’t worry too much if your topic seems unoriginal. The point of a narrative essay is how you tell the story and the point you make with it, not the subject of the story itself.
Narrative essays are usually assigned as writing exercises at high school or in university composition classes. They may also form part of a university application.
When you are prompted to tell a story about your own life or experiences, a narrative essay is usually the right response.
The majority of the essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Unless otherwise specified, you can assume that the goal of any essay you’re asked to write is argumentative: To convince the reader of your position using evidence and reasoning.
In composition classes you might be given assignments that specifically test your ability to write an argumentative essay. Look out for prompts including instructions like “argue,” “assess,” or “discuss” to see if this is the goal.
At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).
Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.
The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .
An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.
An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.
An expository essay is a common assignment in high-school and university composition classes. It might be assigned as coursework, in class, or as part of an exam.
Sometimes you might not be told explicitly to write an expository essay. Look out for prompts containing keywords like “explain” and “define.” An expository essay is usually the right response to these prompts.
An expository essay is a broad form that varies in length according to the scope of the assignment.
Expository essays are often assigned as a writing exercise or as part of an exam, in which case a five-paragraph essay of around 800 words may be appropriate.
You’ll usually be given guidelines regarding length; if you’re not sure, ask.
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1. Keep it real. It’s normal to want to make a good impression on the school of your choice, but it’s also important to show who you really are. So just be yourself! Compelling stories might not be perfectly linear or have a happy ending, and that’s OK. It’s best to be authentic instead of telling schools what you think they want to hear.
2. Be reflective . Think about how you’ve changed during high school. How have you grown and improved? What makes you feel ready for college, and how do you hope to contribute to the campus community and society at large?
3. Look to the future. Consider your reasons for attending college. What do you hope to gain from your education? What about college excites you the most, and what would you like to do after you graduate? Answering these questions will not only give colleges insight into the kind of student you’ll be, but it will also give you the personal insight you’ll need to choose the school that’s right for you.
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Writing the college essay
How do you write a letter to a friend that shows you’re a good candidate for the University of Pennsylvania? What reading list will help the Columbia University admissions committee understand your interdisciplinary interests? How can you convey your desire to attend Yale by inventing a course description for a topic you’re interested in studying?
These are the challenges students must overcome when writing their supplemental essays . Supplemental essays are a critical component of college applications—like the personal statement, they provide students with the opportunity to showcase their authentic voice and perspective beyond the quantitative elements of their applications. However, unlike the personal essay, supplemental essays allow colleges to read students’ responses to targeted prompts and evaluate their candidacy for their specific institution. For this reason, supplemental essay prompts are often abstract, requiring students to get creative, read between the lines, and ditch the traditional essay-writing format when crafting their responses.
While many schools simply want to know “why do you want to attend our school?” others break the mold, inviting students to think outside of the box and answer prompts that are original, head-scratching, or downright weird. This year, the following five colleges pushed students to get creative—if you’re struggling to rise to the challenge, here are some tips for tackling their unique prompts:
University of Chicago
Prompt: We’re all familiar with green-eyed envy or feeling blue, but what about being “caught purple-handed”? Or “tickled orange”? Give an old color-infused expression a new hue and tell us what it represents. – Inspired by Ramsey Bottorff, Class of 2026
What Makes it Unique: No discussion of unique supplemental essay prompts would be complete without mentioning the University of Chicago, a school notorious for its puzzling and original prompts (perhaps the most well-known of these has been the recurring prompt “Find x”). This prompt challenges you to invent a new color-based expression, encouraging both linguistic creativity and a deep dive into the emotional or cultural connotations of color. It’s a prompt that allows you to play with language, think abstractly, and show off your ability to forge connections between concepts that aren’t typically linked—all qualities that likewise demonstrate your preparedness for UChicago’s unique academic environment.
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How to Answer it: While it may be easy to get distracted by the open-ended nature of the prompt, remember that both the substance and structure of your response should give some insight into your personality, perspective, and characteristics. With this in mind, begin by considering the emotions, experiences, or ideas that most resonate with you. Then, use your imagination to consider how a specific color could represent that feeling or concept. Remember that the prompt is ultimately an opportunity to showcase your creativity and original way of looking at the world, so your explanation does not need to be unnecessarily deep or complex—if you have a playful personality, convey your playfulness in your response; if you are known for your sarcasm, consider how you can weave in your biting wit; if you are an amateur poet, consider how you might take inspiration from poetry as you write, or offer a response in the form of a poem.
The goal is to take a familiar concept and turn it into something new and meaningful through a creative lens. Use this essay to showcase your ability to think inventively and to draw surprising connections between language and life.
Harvard University
Prompt: Top 3 things your roommates might like to know about you.
What Makes it Unique: This prompt is unique in both form and substance—first, you only have 150 words to write about all 3 things. Consider using a form other than a traditional essay or short answer response, such as a bullet list or short letter. Additionally, note that the things your roommate might like to learn about you do not necessarily overlap with the things you would traditionally share with an admissions committee. The aim of the prompt is to get to know your quirks and foibles—who are you as a person and a friend? What distinguishes you outside of academics and accolades?
How to Answer it: First and foremost, feel free to get creative with your response to this prompt. While you are producing a supplemental essay and thus a professional piece of writing, the prompt invites you to share more personal qualities, and you should aim to demonstrate your unique characteristics in your own voice. Consider things such as: How would your friends describe you? What funny stories do your parents and siblings share that encapsulate your personality? Or, consider what someone might want to know about living with you: do you snore? Do you have a collection of vintage posters? Are you particularly fastidious? While these may seem like trivial things to mention, the true creativity is in how you connect these qualities to deeper truths about yourself—perhaps your sleepwalking is consistent with your reputation for being the first to raise your hand in class or speak up about a cause you’re passionate about. Perhaps your living conditions are a metaphor for how your brain works—though it looks like a mess to everyone else, you have a place for everything and know exactly where to find it. Whatever qualities you choose, embrace the opportunity to think outside of the box and showcase something that admissions officers won’t learn about anywhere else on your application.
University of Pennsylvania
Prompt: Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked and would like to acknowledge.
What Makes it Unique: Breaking from the traditional essay format, this supplement invites you to write directly to a third party in the form of a 150-200 word long letter. The challenge in answering this distinct prompt is to remember that your letter should say as much about you, your unique qualities and what you value as it does about the recipient—all while not seeming overly boastful or contrived.
How to Answer it: As you select a recipient, consider the relationships that have been most formative in your high school experience—writing to someone who has played a large part in your story will allow the admissions committee some insight into your development and the meaningful relationships that guided you on your journey. Once you’ve identified the person, craft a thank-you note that is specific and heartfelt—unlike other essays, this prompt invites you to be sentimental and emotional, as long as doing so would authentically convey your feelings of gratitude. Describe the impact they’ve had on you, what you’ve learned from them, and how their influence has shaped your path. For example, if you’re thanking a teacher, don’t just say they helped you become a better student—explain how their encouragement gave you the confidence to pursue your passions. Keep the tone sincere and personal, avoid clichés and focus on the unique role this person has played in your life.
University of Notre Dame
Prompt: What compliment are you most proud of receiving, and why does it mean so much to you?
What Makes it Unique: This prompt is unique in that it invites students to share something about themselves by reflecting on someone else’s words in 50-100 words.
How to Answer it: The key to answering this prompt is to avoid focusing too much on the complement itself and instead focus on your response to receiving it and why it was so important to you. Note that this prompt is not an opportunity to brag about your achievements, but instead to showcase what truly matters to you. Select a compliment that truly speaks to who you are and what you value. It could be related to your character, work ethic, kindness, creativity, or any other quality that you hold in high regard. The compliment doesn’t have to be grand or come from someone with authority—it could be something small but significant that left a lasting impression on you, or it could have particular meaning for you because it came from someone you didn’t expect it to come from. Be brief in setting the stage and explaining the context of the compliment—what is most important is your reflection on its significance and how it shaped your understanding of yourself.
Stanford University
Prompt: List five things that are important to you.
What Makes it Unique: This prompt’s simplicity is what makes it so challenging. Stanford asks for a list, not an essay, which means you have very limited space (50 words) to convey something meaningful about yourself. Additionally, the prompt does not specify what these “things” must be—they could be a physical item, an idea, a concept, or even a pastime. Whatever you choose, these five items should add depth to your identity, values, and priorities.
How to Answer it: Start by brainstorming what matters most to you—these could be values, activities, people, places, or even abstract concepts. The key is to choose items or concepts that, when considered together, provide a comprehensive snapshot of who you are. For example, you might select something tangible and specific such as “an antique telescope gifted by my grandfather” alongside something conceptual such as “the willingness to admit when you’re wrong.” The beauty of this prompt is that it doesn’t require complex sentences or elaborate explanations—just a clear and honest reflection of what you hold dear. Be thoughtful in your selections, and use this prompt to showcase your creativity and core values.
While the supplemental essays should convey something meaningful about you, your values, and your unique qualifications for the university to which you are applying, the best essays are those that are playful, original, and unexpected. By starting early and taking the time to draft and revise their ideas, students can showcase their authentic personalities and distinguish themselves from other applicants through their supplemental essays.
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Midday on a Thursday this summer in New York, I walked up Broadway in SoHo, toward Sephora, hoping that I wouldn’t see something. I had been reading—in the Times , the Washington Post , the Guardian , The Atlantic —about the tweens of Generation Alpha, and how they have gone wild for expensive beauty products. Apparently, these highly online children were buying and using things that even I, an indulgent grown woman, find too splurgy to experiment with: forty-eight-dollar Sol de Janeiro body butters, sixty-nine-dollar Drunk Elephant polypeptide moisturizers, twenty-six-dollar Tarte lip glosses. Local correspondents—i.e., friends who visit Sephora more often than I do—also reported regular swarms of preteens. I asked one friend, who has twelve-year-old twin daughters, if the Sephora-tween phenomenon was overhyped, a creation of the press and TikTok. “Oh girl, it is one hundred percent real, and it blows my mind,” she wrote back.
Before my SoHo visit, I created a blank-slate TikTok account and selected “beauty” as my only interest. Then I scrolled. Within minutes, I’d been shown a video documenting a nine-year-old’s skin-care routine and a branded post featuring a child influencer with the caption “Night time skincare for 6 year olds.” Soon I was watching a pair of elementary-school-age girls applying Drunk Elephant products and the video of an angry kid with the caption “POV: You tell your 9 year old she can’t use retinol.” (Retinol can help with acne, but is primarily known as the gold-standard anti-aging ingredient.) I went to Sephora’s Web site and looked up some of the products that the store carries from Drunk Elephant, a “clean” skin-care brand that was acquired by Shiseido, five years ago, for eight hundred and forty-five million dollars. At the bottom of the product pages, there were user questions and reviews. Below a sixty-dollar eye cream, the first user-submitted question asked: “is this ok for an 11 year old?” Two questions down: “can I use this at 13 if I’m only using a very little bit?” Next question: “is this ok for a ten year old, my skin does get dry and my undereyes sometimes get super dry, any other recamandations are good too! : )))).”
But the Internet, I told myself, can provide evidence to confirm almost any hypothesis. If I just went to a Sephora, especially on a weekday at 11 a.m. , I would be reminded that people who buy expensive moisturizer are usually people who have jobs. As I walked up Broadway, I spotted, just ahead of me on the sidewalk, a preteen with braces, squealing at a college-age girl—an older sister, I assumed—that she was only going to buy one thing . The preteen walked in just before I did, picked up an eighty-dollar Vitamin C serum from the Drunk Elephant display, and skipped off as the college girl affably rolled her eyes. I approached a pair of employees and asked them if they saw a lot of tweens in the store. They let out simultaneous groans. “ Girl ,” one said. “They come in with their little lists, from TikTok, they know exactly what they want, and they laugh at you. Like, if you tell them they don’t need a serum, they will literally laugh.” Did their parents try to put the brakes on, I asked? “Oh, they’re by themselves,” the employee said. “They are unaccompanied. They have Apple Pay, and when they pull it up it’s Amex Platinum.”
I sampled a lip gloss halfheartedly and took a lap around the store. Most people here could vote, I observed with vague relief. But, as I opened the front doors back into the heat wave, a gaggle of new tweens happily buffeted me, vigorous ducks bustling past a rusted buoy in the sea.
Our Founding Fathers probably wore makeup at some point—in eighteenth-century America, upper-class men and women both did. Then, in the Victorian era, a broad moral skepticism about cosmetics took hold, an attitude that dominated until the early twentieth century, when putting on a face began to be seen as daringly cosmopolitan, and the makeup industry as we know it was born. By the end of the Second World War, makeup had become wholesome, even patriotic, albeit decidedly feminine. Cosmetics companies began marketing directly to teen-agers, and by the time I was in elementary school, in the nineties, a series of cheap drugstore brands—Bonne Bell, Wet n Wild, Jane, CoverGirl—offered a smooth, normalized ride from Dr Pepper-flavored lip balm, in third grade, to frosted blue eye shadow at the eighth-grade dance. As a kid, I read old novels—“ Gone with the Wind ,” “ Little Women ”—in which makeup was what girls tried on when they were flirting with adult wickedness. All of this was extremely exciting to me. My own mother barely wore makeup, and she didn’t hover over my free time, but, when I first started locking myself in the bathroom and caking on eye shadow from her gift-with-purchase Clinique palettes, the vague aura of taboo was an essential part of this activity’s appeal.
The nineties is also when Sephora, a French company, pioneered a new model of self-service in cosmetics shopping. Rather than buying products at a drugstore and trying them on at home, or testing higher-end wares under the supervision of department-store salesladies, one could, at Sephora, sample products freely. In other words, kids who would have attracted glares for mixing all the lip glosses at a Lancôme counter could go to a Sephora and play around in peace. Sephora opened its first U.S. store in 1998, in New York, and it came to Houston, where I grew up, not long after. I asked for a Sephora gift certificate that Christmas. My aunt, I recall, was mildly shocked: Sephora was right by the Victoria’s Secret in the mall, and the stores seemed aimed at the same audience (women, not eleven-year-olds) and at the same goal—making oneself alluring to men. But, really, I just wanted to shop at Sephora. I spent hours compiling a wish list, and ultimately winnowed it down to a single treasure, passing over the baby-blue Hard Candy nail polish and the Benefit Moon Beam highlighter and acquiring a disgusting pink frosted lip gloss from the brand Urban Decay.
Underneath this ecstasy of hypothetical and actual consumption was all the dire and prototypical gender stuff, obviously. I had wanted to be pretty since the moment I grasped that being so meant more easily procuring affection from my peers and approval from my superiors—something that’s as true in pre-K as it is in the workplace. By age eleven I understood, from reading magazines, that prettiness involved commitment in the form of ritual maintenance and consumer buy-in; glowing skin, I assumed, was attained exclusively through regular use of Bioré pore strips and Noxzema astringent face pads. Like most kids that age, I wanted to understand and participate in the future that I knew was ahead of me. I couldn’t drive, earn my own money, go to real parties, or have exciting love affairs like the ones in “Dirty Dancing” or “Grease.” But I could do face masks and put on blue mascara, and thus begin my education in the clusterfuck of pleasure, obligation, trap, and advantage which is contemporary girlhood.
Presumably, most Sephora tweens today are similarly getting a lip gloss or two on their birthdays, and not regularly strolling up to the SoHo flagship to purchase three hundred dollars’ worth of Drunk Elephant on Apple Pay. (I asked Sephora about the company’s strategic relationship to Gen Alpha as both a consumer demographic and a sometimes disruptive presence in stores; the company declined to comment.) But these tweens are also living within the context collapse and compulsive instrumentalizing of everyday life that defines the age of the smartphone. They are on the same social-media networks as adult makeup and skin-care influencers; they are watching and even making the same types of videos, many with the same items. My peers and I were ineptly smothering our faces in drugstore eye shadow. These kids are mimicking the camera-tuned luxury aesthetic of semi-professionals whose makeup tutorials they’ve seen on their phones.
One TikTok video stuck with me especially. It featured a twentysomething influencer wearing the same bubble-crown headband that I’d seen on basically every one of the hundreds of children and adults who I’d found, with a single flick of my finger, ministering to their face for an audience of strangers. The video was addressed to “10 year olds at Sephora.” “Like, skin care in general,” the influencer said, before rubbing an ice roller over her cheekbones. “Why are you guys so obsessed with it? Like, I’m obsessed with it, but that’s because I want my skin to be perfect. A ten-year-olds’ skin is already perfect. I’m literally jealous of your guys’ skin, and I feel like you don’t need all these skin-care products to make your skin look good because it already does look good.” Switching to a jade roller, she pointed out that kids don’t have wrinkles, or fine lines, or dark spots—why were they bothering? In the comments of the video, one viewer, presumably a child, explained her use of fancy products: “I get fro bday.” Another observed, “It is bc you guys bc you film your skin care and it seems cool.” This influencer, it’s worth noting, didn’t appear to have wrinkles, fine lines, or dark spots, either. I looked her up on FamousBirthdays.com. She’s twenty-six.
Five years ago, I spent a long time thinking about Instagram Face , the phenomenon of young and professionally beautiful women acquiring uncannily similar features through a set of injections and surgeries which replicated, on the canvas of algorithm-friendly faces, the beauty filters available on social-media platforms. At the time, I found this bleak phenomenon almost pleasant to contemplate; it felt interesting in the manner of a George Saunders story. The idea of a future in which it was simply assumed that adult women with disposable incomes would regularly inject neurotoxins and gel-like substances into their faces still gave off the shimmer of the novel and surreal.
This no longer feels novel. It’s not something that people even really talk about. What is there to say? Movie stars in their mid-thirties appear on red carpets with frozen foreheads, plumped lips, lifted brows. In many social strata, the regular, procedural alteration of one’s face has become more or less normalized once one is past the age of thirty—not just on the coasts but in cities and suburbs all across the country, and not just among women: the number of men getting Botox-type injectables from plastic surgeons doubled between 2020 and 2023, to more than half a million. The total number of Botox and filler procedures performed annually by plastic surgeons roughly doubled during that period, to nearly sixteen million. The actual number is certainly much higher: these figures come from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, which doesn’t tabulate the total number of procedures performed at medical spas. There are over eight thousand medical spas in the United States, more than the number of licensed plastic surgeons practicing in the country.
The Sephora tweens, for their part, seem to be borrowing some of the self-care language that was dominant in the adult beauty world two Presidential-election cycles ago. According to this line of thinking, taking care of your face is a way to luxuriate in personal pleasure and exert control over your life. But adults have largely moved on from all that; no one is fooling anyone by quoting Audre Lorde in blog posts about lip balm anymore. The earnest language of corporate-approved wellness disappeared from the mainstream somewhere around 2020, along with the figure of the girlboss (who often relied on that very language). The mood regarding beauty—and also culture, politics, and whatever it is we’re all doing—is raw, pragmatic, aggressive. The deference to brute material reality comes a lot faster these days.
Style and technology have reinforced this shift in convoluted loops. A few years ago, body-positive influencers began taking Ozempic , as fashion swung back toward the early-two-thousands aesthetic of lingerie tops and exposed hip bones. With only a faint sheen of irony, the aesthetic referenced a nadir of progressive values in pop culture, a time when tabloids published upskirt photos on their covers while Disney stars pledged their virginity until marriage. The return to that mood is undergirded by a broader, Internet-influenced reactionary conservatism: a post-2020 impatience with “woke” ideals, and the influence of proudly misogynistic online male communities—incels, pickup artists, men’s-rights activists, etc.—that have been gathering power since the early two-thousands. These red-pilled men argue that women “hit the wall” around or before our thirties, when we supposedly lose our only source of power, which is our looks. This idea has worked its way into the collective consciousness as a simple social fact. When Anne Hathaway went on a press tour in 2023, at age forty, she was aggressively celebrated for—this was a shock to people— not looking old . I recently saw a picture of thirty-one-year-old Miley Cyrus, on X, captioned, “She is the definition of ‘aged like fine wine’.”
During the past year, instead of sleeping, I often found myself scrolling Reddit in search of tips about how to get a baby to do so. Reddit’s algorithm then served up other forums that it deemed, with some accuracy, relevant to me. I ended up reading a lot of posts about skin care, often written by women my age who were afraid, in so many words, that they were hitting the wall. I saw an Instagram influencer in her early twenties getting Botox. A different influencer posted, “just turned 23 and decided to wait on getting any Botox so I’m forcing myself to stay consistent with my retinol.” An eighteen-year-old asked if they should get jawline Botox because their face was puffy. “i know there are some people whose face might change a bit in their early to mid twenties,” they wrote. “i’m not sure if that’s worth the wait and I should just get botox now.”
Botox and fillers are intended to make a person look younger. But, if they’re deployed by people in their twenties, or younger—in 2023, almost forty-four thousand people aged nineteen or under got Botox or filler from plastic surgeons—injectables often make people look older. In trying to halt the aging process, or maybe just mimic the look that is now associated with being rich and on camera, heavily injected twentysomethings bring on the future they were attempting to prevent. It is a dire ouroboros: yet even to observe it, as I’m doing now, reinforces the damage of the norms that have prompted it in the first place, by further scrutinizing these mostly female faces, and concluding that they have failed to carry out their purpose—to look pleasing and young. In this, the Sephora tweens and the twentysomethings getting Botox have something in common: they’re talked about as though they are aberrations, when, in fact, they’re a logical part of a damningly cohesive whole.
Not quite twenty years ago, Nora Ephron , at the age of sixty-five, published a book of essays titled “ I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman .” In one essay, she wonders why people write books claiming that it’s better to be older than to be younger, when, she insists, this is clearly not the case. At her age, she writes, your memory sucks, you can’t ride a bike very far, you’re irrelevant at work, and, if you’re having sex at all, it is not the sex of your dreams. “Plus, you can’t wear a bikini,” she adds. “Oh, how I regret not having worn a bikini for the entire year I was twenty-six. If anyone young is reading this, go, right this minute, put on a bikini, and don’t take it off until you’re thirty-four.”
I was in my early twenties when I read that book, and I took her advice to heart, dressing in the spirit of the bikini for as many occasions as I could. It occurred to me this spring, at age thirty-five, when I bought my first-ever sensible swimsuit, that I had unconsciously abided by Ephron’s deadline. Like seemingly half the women in Brooklyn, I happened to be reading Miranda July’s novel “ All Fours ” at the time, and had dog-eared this quote: “So much of what I had thought of as femininity was really just youth.” These days, children want to look like tweens, tweens want to look like teen-agers, teen-agers want to look like grown women, and grown women—dreaming of porelessness, wearing white socks and penny loafers and hair bows—evidently want to look like ten-year-old girls.
Beauty, or our idea of it, is always rooted in deep desires, capitulations, and pathologies. It makes certain things so obvious. How we spend the present trying to secure the future, and thus squander what’s in front of us. How we fail to appreciate what we may later understand as an experience of unbelievable plenty: unlined skin, spare time on Saturdays, an Earth with a climate that can grow coffee beans. And then, when we glimpse the actual future, we pretend it’s not actually coming, or that we can invent our way into a world where it never will. ♦
As he rose in politics, Robert Moses discovered that decisions about New York City’s future would not be based on democracy .
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Wendy Wasserstein on the baby who arrived too soon .
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Fiction by Jhumpa Lahiri: “ A Temporary Matter .”
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Opponents of same-sex marriage waged ideological warfare against the courts in 2010. this time, kim reynolds, lawmakers and justices are responsible for the ideological warfare..
In 2010, a group of evangelical political activists, furious over the Iowa Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling for same-sex marriage, plotted revenge. Led by Bob Vander Plaats of the The Family Leader, they formed the ironically named “Iowans for Freedom.”
Funded partly by out-of-state money, it campaigned against three of the Supreme Court justices who happened to be up for retention elections. And it succeeded in unseating three fine ones: Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and Justices Michael Streit and David Baker .
Fast forward to this year, when a reconstituted Iowa Supreme Court, a majority hand-picked by Iowa’s anti-abortion Gov. Kim Reynolds, turns back the clock 50 years with a 4-3 ruling effectively outlawing abortions after six weeks into a pregnancy. In doing so, the justices overturned their own court's precedent, deciding that abortion laws should not be assessed under the strict-scrutiny standard previously invoked .
And now, in response, some women are taking a cue from what Iowans for Freedom accomplished in 2010. They’re encouraging others to turn the page on the November ballot — literally — to the side where judicial retention votes are, and vote against Justice David May . He’s the only one who voted for the six-week ban who’s up this year.
So, how could anyone who opposed the 2010 campaign support the same tactic? Comparisons between the two efforts get complicated. Retention elections used to be mostly pro forma shows of support for sitting judges appointed on a nonpartisan basis, who were doing their jobs properly. In 2010, same-sex marriage opponents couldn’t accept that their religious-based agenda had lost in a court of law bound by the Iowa Constitution. So it used the elections to wage ideological warfare.
This time the ideological warfare has been waged by the governor, state lawmakers and the court’s new majority, by tampering with the once nonpartisan, constitutionally based process. Reynolds, an outspoken abortion opponent, called a special one-day session of the Legislature last summer to vote on the ban. Six weeks is before most women even know if they’re pregnant. Iowa’s Republican-led Legislature complied by passing it, though a nearly identical 2018 law had been permanently blocked . Reynolds had over the years appointed four new justices, including May, who could reliably be predicted to vote as they did.
More: Kim Reynolds picked this Legislature, and it steamrolled an extreme path for Iowa
The victims now will be untold numbers of pregnant women and girls, and children born to people ill-equipped to care for them.
“The ideological bias of this court does not reflect the will of most Iowans, and I’m not sure how far it follows the constitution,” said Des Moines’ Lea DeLong, the reproductive rights advocate who penned a letter making the case for opposing May’s retention. “My reading of the constitution is that it is intended to expand the rights and liberties of people.”
Her letter is being widely circulated by email. It points out that, as Reynolds’ appointee, May helped give Iowa “one of the most restrictive rulings in the nation against the rights of women.” It goes on to say, “It is an unfortunate development in our society that these kinds of actions against judges must happen, but I'm afraid we have had to learn some sad lessons from those who deny the rights of women. It is well known that most Iowans do not support these draconian restrictions on women's lives and decisions.”
That’s true: 61% of Iowans polled support abortion rights in all or most cases . Still, the governor saw fit to impose her personal beliefs over the will of the majority.
DeLong is co-founder with Charlotte Hubbell of a group of some 15 women known as Iowans for Reproductive Freedom (one word but light years away from the group that waged the 2010 ballot battle). Formed in November, 2022, it has placed billboards defending reproductive rights on display around Des Moines.
They carry such captions as:
Though individual members support the ballot idea and are circulating DeLong’s letter, the organization isn’t officially involved in the effort. DeLong herself doesn’t doubt May is a good person. And she’s mindful that Reynolds would likely replace him with another justice of the same ideological bent. But she wants this to be a wake-up call. “It sends a message,” she said. “Maybe it will encourage people to think very seriously about what this court is doing to women.”
Unlike Vander Plaats’ well financed and heavily publicized initiative, she says, “We’re not trying to organize a campaign. We will do what women have always done before: Spread information to our friends.”
More importantly, the goal this time is protecting rights, not undermining them.
“Much as I don’t like the fundamental concept of doing this,” DeLong said, “I think so many destructive lines have been crossed.”
And she’s right. They have been.
Rekha Basu is a longtime syndicated columnist, editorial writer, reporter and author of the book, “Finding Your Voice.” She retired in 2022 as a Des Moines Register columnist. Her column, “Rekha Shouts and Whispers,” is available at basurekha.substack.com .
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, choosing a progressive yet plain-spoken VP candidate from America’s heartland to help her win over rural, white voters.
“I’m pleased to share that I’ve made my decision: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will join our campaign as my running mate,” Harris said via text to supporters. “Tim is a battle-tested leader who has an incredible track record of getting things done for Minnesota families. I know that he will bring that same principled leadership to our campaign, and to the office of the vice president.”
We look at Walz, a 60-year-old U.S. Army National Guard veteran, and his military career over the years.
More: Tim Walz is Kamala Harris' VP pick: Minnesota governor named running mate: Live updates
Walz served in the military for 24 years, enlisting in the Nebraska National Guard at 17 in 1981 and then transferring to the Minnesota National Guard in 1996. He retired in 2005 to begin his successful run for the U.S. House, representing Minnesota as command sergeant major, among the highest ranks for enlisted soldiers. His battalion went on to deploy to Iraq shortly after Walz's retirement.
Walz specialized in heavy artillery and had proficiency ribbons in sharpshooting and hand grenades.
But during the 21 years that Walz spent working with large artillery pieces, he suffered hearing loss and tinnitus in both ears, Minnesota Public Radio reported. He was allowed to continue his service after undergoing surgery, which partially resolved his hearing loss.
During his service, Walz responded to natural disasters, including floods and tornadoes in Minnesota and Nebraska, and was deployed overseas for months at a time, according to MPR.
In 2003, he was sent to Italy, where he served with the European Security Force to support the war in Afghanistan. He was also stationed in Norway for joint training with other NATO militaries.
Walz told MPR that he reenlisted in the National Guard after the September 11 attacks but never saw active combat in his years in the military.
Stars and Stripes reported in 2020 that Walz credited his Army experience with helping him steer Minnesota through the COVID-19 pandemic as governor.
As governor of Minnesota, Walz is commander in chief of the 13,000-soldier Minnesota National Guard. “I’m certainly proud of my military service, but it’s one piece of me,” he told Minnesota Public Radio in 2018. “It doesn’t define me.”
Reuters and USA TODAY reporter Tom Vanden Brook contributed to this story.
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Interactive example of a narrative essay. An example of a short narrative essay, responding to the prompt "Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself," is shown below. Hover over different parts of the text to see how the structure works. Narrative essay example.
Both narrative essays and descriptive essays incorporate vivid figurative language to help readers visualize their subjects. However, in a descriptive essay, vividly describing the subject is the goal. In a narrative essay, the goal is to tell a story. In-depth descriptions may be part of the essay, but they need to support the narrative.
A narrative essay is more than just a story - it's a way to share a meaningful, engaging, and relatable experience with the reader. Includes: Sharing Personal Experience. Narrative essays are a great way for writers to share their personal experiences, feelings, thoughts, and reflections.
4. The time when you overcame a fear or obstacle and how it helped you grow as a person. 5. A moment of personal growth and reflection that helped you realize something important about yourself. Here are a few personal narrative essay topics. 1. The moment you realized what you wanted to do with your life. 2.
A narrative essay is a prose-written story that's focused on the commentary of a central theme. Narrative essays are generally written in the first-person POV, and are usually about a topic that's personal to the writer. Everything in these essays should take place in an established timeline, with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Narrative essays are generally written in the first-person POV, and are usually about a topic that's personal to the writer. Everything in a narrative essay should take place in an established timeline, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. In simplest terms, a narrative essay is a personal story. A narrative essay can be written in ...
Essayists should consider the same techniques that fiction writers use. Give ample consideration to your essay's setting, word choice,point of view, and dramatic structure. The narrative essay is, after all, a narrative, so tell your story how it deserves to be told. 3.
A narrative essay is a form of writing where the author recounts a personal experience or story. Unlike other types of essays, a narrative essay allows you to share a real-life event or sequence of events, often drawing from personal insights and emotions.
Not every form of essay writing involves meticulous research. One form in particular—the narrative essay—combines personal storytelling with academic argument. Narrative essay authors illustrate universal lessons in their unique experiences of the world. Below, you'll find some tips to guide in this style of narrative writing. <br> ## What Is a Narrative Essay? Narrative essays make an ...
1. Pick a meaningful story that has a conflict and a clear "moral.". If you're able to choose your own topic, pick a story that has meaning and that reveals how you became the person your are today. In other words, write a narrative with a clear "moral" that you can connect with your main points. 2.
A narrative essay is one of the most intimidating assignments you can be handed at any level of your education. Where you've previously written argumentative essays that make a point or analytic essays that dissect meaning, a narrative essay asks you to write what is effectively a story.. But unlike a simple work of creative fiction, your narrative essay must have a clear and concrete motif ...
Narrative Essay Meaning. A narrative is a story or account that is narrated, verbally or in writing; therefore, a narrative essay is an essay that tells a story about a personal experience and is ...
If written as a story, the essay should include all the parts of a story. This means that you must include an introduction, plot, characters, setting, climax, and conclusion. When would a narrative essay not be written as a story? A good example of this is when an instructor asks a student to write a book report. Obviously, this would not ...
A narrative essay tells a story. It's usually written in the first person with the purpose to tell a story, and it might include characters, conflicts, and dialogue. The purpose of narrative papers is to make a point or illustrate an idea, and they have a beginning, middle, and end.
Updated on August 4, 2021 Writing Tips. Narrative writing is, essentially, story writing. A narrative can be fiction or nonfiction, and it can also occupy the space between these as a semi-autobiographical story, historical fiction, or a dramatized retelling of actual events. As long as a piece tells a story through a narrative structure, it ...
A narrative is a story. The term can be used as a noun or an adjective. As a noun, narrative refers to the story being told. It is the account of events, experiences, and details. It also refers to the story-telling process. As an adjective, it describes the form or style of the story being told. The adjective use of the word narrative has its ...
An essay is a focused piece of writing designed to inform or persuade. There are many different types of essay, but they are often defined in four categories: argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive essays. Argumentative and expository essays are focused on conveying information and making clear points, while narrative and ...
To create a literacy narrative, you just need to find your story and use descriptive text to bring it to life. Learn how to write a literacy narrative through exploring original and famous examples. Breaking Down a Literacy Narrative. A literacy narrative is a personalized story of your relationship with language.
Unlike a narrative essay, which tells a story, a descriptive essay has a narrower scope and focuses on one particular aspect of a story. 3. Argumentative essays. An argumentative essay is a type of essay that aims to persuade the reader to adopt a particular stance based on factual evidence and is one of the most common forms of college essays. 4.
The essay is a written piece that is designed to present an idea, propose an argument, express the emotion or initiate debate. It is a tool that is used to present writer's ideas in a non-fictional way. Multiple applications of this type of writing go way beyond, providing political manifestos and art criticism as well as personal ...
Tell the Truth. One of the most notable differences between a narrative essay and a short story is that a short story does not always have to be true. A story can be fiction or non-fiction, as both fit the definition of a short story. A narrative essay, on the other hand, is expected by the reader to be an actual experience from the writer's life.
In conclusion, while essays and short stories share the common goal of conveying a message or exploring a theme, they differ significantly in terms of structure, length, narrative techniques, and the way they approach themes. Essays offer a more formal and structured approach, focusing on presenting arguments and analysis concisely.
An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates. In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills. Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative: you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence ...
Writing the personal essay for your college application can be tough, but we're here to help. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting started, but the sooner you begin, the more time and thought you can put into an essay that stands out. Check out some tips: 1. Keep it real.
For this reason, supplemental essay prompts are often abstract, requiring students to get creative, read between the lines, and ditch the traditional essay-writing format when crafting their ...
Not quite twenty years ago, Nora Ephron, at the age of sixty-five, published a book of essays titled "I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman." In one essay, she wonders ...
Rekha Basu is a longtime syndicated columnist, editorial writer, reporter and author of the book, "Finding Your Voice." She retired in 2022 as a Des Moines Register columnist. In 2010, a group ...
The Courthouse Essay Contest Ceremony is a ceremonial session of court, in which the individual school winners who are able to attend read their essays, and then the overall winner is announced ...
"A co-ordinated international response is essential to stop this outbreak and save lives," he said. Mpox is transmitted through close contact, such as sex, skin-to-skin contact and talking or ...
Democratic vp pick Tim Walz served for decades in the Army National Guard, serving in the U.S. and overseas.