Brainstorming Effectively for Personal Essays
by Sarah M.
As you begin to think about your college essays, you probably already know that you need to start by brainstorming. You can check other posts for specific prompts that can get that process going for you. This one will help you start to wrangle all of those big ideas, as you narrow them down and look for the best topic.
Brainstorming kicks up a lot of exciting potential, but as with any revision process, it’s important give yourself enough time to step away from your initial ideas, and come back with more analytical eyes to begin narrowing them down. As you eliminate some ideas and elaborate on others, as yourself these questions:
- Is this topic specific enough to cover effectively in 650 words? Big concepts like cultural identity, family trauma, etc. might seem compelling, but without focus they can easily turn into vague and messy essays.
- Is there a strong narrative? You need to have a story that will keep you on track and engross your readers.
- Are you showing learning and/or growth? This can be done in many different ways, but your essay does need to show some kind of change or development in they way you think or act.
Once you have narrowed your options down to 4 or 5 promising topics, you should spend some time developing each of them the see how they might turn out as an essay. You can do this by making an outline, or a list of details you would include. Make sure you keep notes of what the narrative arc would be, and what the lesson you learned is.
When you have these detailed notes for a number of topics, it begins to be easier to see which essays would be easier or more rewarding to write. Alternatively, some students also find that once they have outlined a few different options, they see new ways to combine some of those topics into an even stronger essay.
And one final note on this part of the process: while input from family, friends, or mentors is invaluable as you write and revise your essay, I would advise you to keep to yourself during this earlier phase of brainstorming.
Your essay ultimately needs to reflect your individual voice, and taking too much feedback from others on what they think you should write about can make that difficult.