Write Your Way In - Crafting an Unforgettable College Admissions Essay

Aug 25, 2026

Crafting a compelling college admissions essay using practical writing craft and research-driven guidance. The content outlines how applicants can read like writers, develop a distinctive “I” through character thinking, choose topics with genuine aboutness, and strengthen structure and opening lines. It covers revision approaches, mechanics that improve clarity, and strategies for common pitfalls, including first-draft freedom and effective editing. The narrative frames these lessons through real application examples.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages135

Reading Time5 h 40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction: The Quest for the Special Secret Sauce

Part One

What You Need to Know Before You Start Writing

Part Two

Getting It Down on the Page and Then Cleaning It Up

Write Your Way In The Craft of Research Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, and William T. FitzGerald The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation Bryan A. Garner TheArt of Creative Research Philip Gerard From Dissertation to Book William Germano Getting It Published William Germano Storycraft Jack Hart A Poet’s Guide to Poetry Mary Kinzie How to Write a BA Thesis Charles Lipson The Subversive Copy Editor Carol Fisher Saller The Writer ’s Diet Helen Sword A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations Kate L. Turabian Student’s Guide to Writing College Papers Kate L. Turabian Write Your Way In Crafting an Unforgettable College Admissions Essay Rachel Toor The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2017 by Rachel Toor All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637. Published 2017. Printed in the United States of America 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN-13: 978-0-226-38375-0 (cloth) ISBN-13: 978-0-226-38389-7 (paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-226-38392-7 (e-book) DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226383927.001.0001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Toor, Rachel, author. Title: Write your way in : crafting an unforgettable college admissions essay / Rachel Toor. Other titles: Chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing. Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2017. Identifiers: LCCN 2016053327 | ISBN 9780226383750 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226383897 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226383927 (e-book) Subjects: LCSH: College applications—United States. | Universities and colleges—United States—Admission. | Creative writing. | Essay—Authorship. Classification: LCC LB2351.5 .T66 2017 | DDC 378.1/616—dc23 LC record available at [https://lccn.loc.gov/2016053327](https://lccn.loc.gov/2016053327) This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39 .48-1992 (Permanence of Paper) . Contents Introduction: The Quest for the Special Secret Sauce Part One What You Need to Know Before You Start Writing 1: Steal, Steal, Steal: Learning to Read like a Writer 2: Craft Your “I”: Thinking of Yourself as a Character 3: Sex, Drugs, and Palestinian Statehood: Finding a Topic AMANDA + JIM 4: Aboutness: An Essay Is Often About Something Other Than What It’s About ADAM FINDS HIS PIRATES 5: The Hole in the Donut: Saying the Hardest Thing 6: Tell Us About Your World in Two Hundred Words: The Short Answers EMMA’S SHORTIES Part Two Getting It Down on the Page and Then Cleaning It Up 7: Shitty First Drafts: The Importance of Allowing Yourself to Write Badly 8: Seeing Again: Revision Means Re-Vision 9: Don’t Try to Hook the Reader like a Trout: Opening Lines PEYTON’S ANKLE 10: Danger! Some Moves Not to Make 11: Semicolons Are like Loaded Guns: Mechanics Matter 12: My Little Bag of Writing Tricks: Some Tips Conclusion: Getting It Done Acknowledgments INTRODUCTION The Quest for the Special Secret Sauce When Daniel’s dad wrote to ask me to help his son with his college admissions essay, I wanted to say no. I had stopped doing that kind of work. Then I learned that Daniel, a first-generation Chinese American, attended the exam-entrance public boarding school where I had, years before, coached cross country for a season. Here’s a confession. I was a crappy coach. Even though I’d run fifty or sixty marathons and even longer races, I had never been on a team, had never run cross country, and had no idea how meets were scored. I got the job because the school was desperate; I interviewed in the m

FAQs

Why does the book stress revision and revision-based “re-vision”?

It treats revision as a chance to rethink what the essay is really saying, improving openings, clarity, and overall impact through iterative cleanup.

Aug 25, 2026

Uploaded by Evangeline