How to Write a Personal Essay for College

Every college would like to know the person you are before they accept you as a student. Academic is something they can track through your score cards, but knowing your background, culture they can very well determine whether you would fit in their academic structure and can also devise a plan of improvement for your career. Hence personal essays come in to picture where in they look for the personal traits which the students mention in the essays. As all fingers in our hand are different and have a different use in the same way each and every person is unique in his /her way. It is not necessary that every student will have special talents or tragedies to speak about. If we focus on all small experiences we have had in life that can make each of us unique if we can articulate them in a proper way. Mostly colleges are looking at how you visualize your experience and how you speak about it. Having said. that let us use below mentioned tips to make our life easy while writing these essays.

•    Open with an anecdote: Since numerous applications are received by admission officers, they won’t have much time to go through the details of the essays. To make your essay effective start the essay with a moment which has made a long lasting effect on you. This basically enables in placing a hook for the officer to go into the details as short stories are quite influential. Try to relate the event on your personality and how it has changed you.

•    Put yourself in school’s position: At the end of the day everyone wants to be successful and want to get associated with successful persons. Show your inclination and hunger to learn and develop yourself to be successful.

•    Stop trying too hard: Don’t put much effort to impress the officers. Be very straight forward and precise. Need not use any flowery sentence and be aware of self. The essays should be short, simple and interesting by smartly mentioning key points.

•  Ditch the dictionary: Don’t try to show off your vocabulary with numerous words from the dictionary. The essay should be as simple as if someone is talking in person to you. The essay should work as a marketing document for you.

•   Write what is important to you and not to them: Begin your essay keeping in mind if you are given 5 mins of time to speak them in person how would you put your words and keep the listener engaged. The officers are in want of sincerity and look at how logically you are placing your words.

•   Be natural and not fugitive: It is not necessary that everyone has gone through hardship. If you have not, then there is no point in creating an imaginary story since you do not have experience. College is mostly looking at how you collate your thoughts and visualize the consequences of such events. Creating an imaginary story would tend to be like pretending someone you are not.

•  Follow the instructions: Every college has a unique format and we should respect that while writing the personal essays. We should answer to what a college asks for and not send a generic answer.

•    Use the space to tell what your application can’t: Administrative officers are quite busy and hence won’t have time to go through every detailed essay and connect the dots. Just imagine you are speaking to an officer in person and he asks you what else I should know about you? Your essay should depict that piece of information as well but should be within the context.

What is the Difference Between a Dependent Clause and an Independent Clause

A clause is a useful component of writing. It is a group of words that encompasses a subject and a verb. When it is combined with a phrase or other parts of speech, it conveys a meaning. Usually, it acts as a sentence wherein a subject indicates the reader what the sentence is all about and a verb tells what the subject is doing. A clause is broadly categorized into two types one is dependent clause and another is an independent clause. Let us understand the differences between a dependent clause and an independent clause.

Dependent Clause

Dependent clause is also known as subordinate clause that does not expresses a complete thought or idea and cannot stand alone in a sentence. It always needs an independent clause to complete a sentence. The subordinate clause is dependent due to due to the presence of many dependent words such as since, although, even though, while, in order to, because, etc. In addition to this, it also dependent due to some conjunction including but, yet, or, and, nor, etc.

For example:

•    Although I don’t remember his name, I am sure the boy was in my school.

•    Because I partied the whole night, I forgot to do my homework

•    Since I don’t have enough money, I cannot buy a gift for her.

•    Before the ice-cream melts, you must have it.

•    Whenever you come, you will be welcome.

In the above sentences, each underlined sentence is a dependent clause which neither expresses a complete thought not does it stands alone. It depends on the main clause to convey a meaning. A subordinate clause or dependent clause is further categorized into noun phrase, adverb phrase and adjective phrase.

Independent Clause

Independent clause is also known as the main clause. An independent clause expresses a complete thought or idea. It can stand alone in a sentence as it contains a subject or a verb to complete a sentence.

For example:

•    She wants to visit Disneyland.

•    The chefs are busy preparing food for the party.

•    I like singing and dancing.

•    She is wearing a nice dress.

•    John reads books at night.

In the above sentences, complete thoughts were expressed. For instance, in the last sentence, ‘John’ is the subject and ‘read’ is a verb, which make it a meaningful sentence. Hence, the sentence is considered as an independent clause.

Singular and Plural Indefinite Pronouns Examples in Sentences

Indefinite pronouns are the ones which do not have any specific meaning or better to say that these are not specific to replace any particular noun. These pronouns never refer back to object, person or subject. It can be either plural or singular, but must tally in number with the verb. Sometimes the pronoun can be both singular as well as plural depending on the usage in the sentence.

Singular Pronoun

A singular pronoun uses verbs and personal pronoun which are singular in nature. Some of the commonly used singular pronouns are another, anybody, anything, everybody, no one, somebody, something, someone, etc.  One easy way to remember such pronouns are words ending with one, thing, and the body are singular in nature. Some examples of singular pronouns are as follows:

•    Everybody is present here.

•    Anyone can understand what is happening here.

•    Everyone was happy seeing the happy ending of the movie.

•    Somebody left his notepad in the library.

If you see the above sentences you would see that they sound like referring to a number of people and hence should be plural but actually it should be interpreted as we are referring to every individual person and hence we are not using plural form. Some examples of incorrect usage of singular pronouns are as follows:

•    Everybody are present. (It is incorrect).

•    Somebody left their notepads in the library. (It is incorrect)

Plural Pronoun

A plural pronoun uses verbs which are plural in nature. Words like them, their, they are plural in nature and require a plural pronoun. Some of the commonly used plural pronouns are many, few, both, several, all, etc. Some examples of plural pronouns are mentioned below:

•    Several files are filled with quotation errors.

•    Both of them are going to a movie tonight.

•    Few of the samples are being considered to be taken for second round of testing.

•    All of them are guilty for not following the rules.

Pronouns both as Singular as well as Plural

These are the tricky ones which can behave both ways depending on the noun they are replacing. The rule of thumb here is prepositional phrases follows the pronoun and the pronoun must tally with the object in prepositional phrases in terms of number. Some of the commonly used pronouns are most, either, none, some, etc. Few examples for such dual usages are as follows:

•    Most of the questions are out of syllabus. ----Plural usage

•    Most often he is quite. ----Singular usage

•    All is well. ----Singular usage

•    All of them failed to get good grades in the exam. ----Plural usage.

Well here you can learn more about Indefinite Pronouns.

How to Identify the Theme of a Poem

Most of the literature works be it a poem, stories are built upon a specific objective to provide an information or message to the audience. These messages may be either universal truth or may be related to cultural observations, human behavior, etc. Pretty often the message which we refer here as “theme” that the writer wants to convey is visible explicitly and at other times the message is conveyed implicitly. Our job becomes a challenge to identify the theme if it is implicit. To identify the theme in such cases let us follow the below steps:

•    The first and foremost step is to analyze by reading carefully and making observations, which can be agreed upon by others. These observations are third person accounts in nature which speaks of what is being done by whom in the poem. Also, this gives an idea of where and when he is doing the action. You will find some repetitive words being used pretty often in the poem, which might symbolize that writer, is trying to express something by putting stress on those repetitive words.

•    The next thing is to connect all the pieces together and it will definitely give a clear picture of what is being said or the theme of the poem. Since we have the subject, we can decipher the actions taken by subject under some circumstances. Yes to some extent we might have to be imaginary or logically visualize the story being depicted to connect the dots and finally arrive at the theme of the poem.

•    One more key to successfully identify the theme is to read the poem repeatedly, slowly, repeatedly as each reading will give an extra dimension to your imagination on the context. Remember that a poem may not always have a single theme. They are mostly used to share a feeling or experience or an idea which can be multidimensional too.

Tips for Writing Satire and Give Some Examples

A satire is a piece of writing that is used humorously to make fun of either an individual or a society. Through satire, a writer exposes the fault or the stupidity of a person or a society. It is a technique used by the writer to criticize the corruption, dishonesty or foolishness of a particular society or an individual. By criticizing the society or an individual, an author strives to improve their shortcomings or foible. In a satire, fictional characters are used to indicate the real people who are responsible for some kind of corruption.

A writer shows the silliness or corruption in people, organization, politics or society by using sarcasm or irony. Through satirical writing, an author not only point out the foolishness of a specific group of people, but also bring social or political changes. Satire in writing can be achieved by using sarcasm, exaggeration or irony. Let us see how you can write a good satire with the help of useful tips.

•    When writing a satire, it is ideal to choose a known person or someone who is a big personality or celebrity. Write general things like their behavior, habits, the way they dress or the comment they made on something or someone.

•    You can also write about the politicians who make fake promises or make blunders in their speeches.

•    You can also choose some unusual or bizarre facts, but make sure that you do a thorough research so as to validate your points.

•    You can also write religious satire that mainly point out different religious beliefs.

•    You can also choose a topic of a real life situation and showcase the faults and foible.

Examples:

•    The political cartoons in newspapers and magazines are examples of satire.

•    The movie, like The Great Dictator (1940) and the moves of Austin Powers are also examples of satire.

•    ‘The Rape of the Lock’ is an example of poetic satire.

•    ‘Weekend update from’ Saturday night live is also a satire.

•    In English literature, Jonathan Swift’s ‘Gulliver Travels’ is one of the finest satirical works.   

Conjunction – Solve Multiple Choice Questions or Quiz or Test

Choose the most suitable answer that identifies the conjunction in the sentence.

Q 1. Emma fell asleep, _______Jack went home.

a) And
b) So
c) Then
d) But

Answer - So

Q 2.  Please bring some snacks _______ sweets.

a) Or
b) For
c) And
d) So

Answer - And

Q 3.  I did not want to go to the movie _______I had already seen it.

a) But
b) For
c) So
d) Because

Answer – Because

Q 4. James wants to play basketball, ________he can not throw the ball properly.

a) But
b) So
c) And
d) Or

Answer - But

Q 5. Would you rather go for movie _______to the party?

a) But
b) Or
c) And
d) For

Answer – Or

Q 6. Keep your slice of pizza covered ________the flies will contaminate it.

a) Until
b) Though
c) Because
d) Or

Answer- Or

Q 7. The college authority rejected the application ________they did not think that the candidate deserves to get admission.

a) Though
b) Because
c) Or
d) But

Answer - Because

Q 8. Linda wants both a diamond ring ______a bracelet for her birthday.

a) Or
b) And
c) But
d) Because

Answer – And

Q 9. I would go to bed now _______my assignment is not done.

a) Because
b) Or
c) Until
d) But

Answer - But

Q 10. She is tired, ______she is working.

a) So
b) Or
c) And
d) Yet

Answer – Yet

Direct and Indirect Speech - Multiple Choice Questions/Quiz or Test

Choose the most suitable answer that identifies the direct or indirect speech in the sentence.

Q 1. Shopkeeper, “Are you looking for designer clothes?”

a) The shopkeeper told if I am looking for designer clothes.
b) The shopkeeper asked if I was looking for designer clothes.
c) The shopkeeper said if I was looking for designer clothes.

Answer- The shopkeeper asked if I was looking for designer clothes.

Q 2. Merry said, “I may need some money.”

a) Merry said that she needs some money.
b) Merry told that she may need some money.
c) Merry said that she might need some money.

Answer c- Merry said that she might need some money.

Q 3. Sherry, “I play tennis every day.”

a) Sherry said she played tennis every day.
b) Sherry told that she play tennis every day.
c) Sherry said that she play tennis every day.

Answer a- Sherry said she played tennis every day.

Q 4. The teacher said to students, “Do not make a noise.”

a) The teacher told them not to make a noise.
b) The teacher asked them not to make a noise.
c) The teacher told them that do not make a noise.

Answer b- The teacher asked them not to make a noise.

Q 5. Tom, “Will you come to my bachelor party on Sunday?”

a) Tom told me that if I will come to his bachelor party on Sunday.
b) Tom asked me whether I will come to his bachelor party on Sunday.
c) Tom asked me if I would come to his bachelor party on Sunday.

Answer c - Tom asked me if I would come to his bachelor party on Sunday.

Q 6. The boss ordered the Erik to complete his work on time.

a) The boss ordered, Erik, complete your work on time.
b) The boss ordered, “Erik, complete your work on time!”
c) The boss ordered, Erik complete your work on time!

Answer b- The boss ordered, “Erik, complete your work on time!”

Q 7. The driver said he was going to turn left at the traffic signal.

a) The driver, “I am going to turn left at the traffic signal.”
b) The driver, I will turn left at the traffic signal.
c) The driver, “I would turn left at the traffic signal.”

Answer a- The driver, “I am going to turn left at the traffic signal.”

Q 8. I said that I should certainly take care of all events.

a) I said, “I must certainly take care of all events.”
b) I said, “I shall certainly take care of all events.”
c) I said, “I should certainly take care of all events.”

Answer b- I said, “I shall certainly take care of all events.”

Q 9. I suggested to my husband that we should go to some hill station.

a) I said to my husband, “if we would go to some hill station.”
b) I said to my husband, “we should plan to go to some hill station.”
c) I said to my husband “Let us go to some hill station.”

Answer c - I said to my husband “Let us go to some hill station.”

Q 10. Sharon asked Samantha if she would help her in her work.

a) Sharon said to Samantha, “Will you help me in my work?”
b) Sharon said to Samantha, “Are you going to help me in my work?”
c) Sharon said to Samantha, “Would you help me in my work”?

Answer a - Sharon said to Samantha, “Will you help me in my work?”