Prewriting Worksheet
Prewriting Worksheet
Prewriting Worksheet
By: _________________________________________________
1. Your Personality – Imagine that you are revealing your innermost self to someone. What adjectives
would you use to describe yourself? What would you reveal about your dreams, passions, and aspirations?
What would you say about your values and viewpoints? Describe yourself below. Use extra paper, if
necessary.
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What five things do you want to accomplish most in your life? Why?
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2. Your Relationships - Talk to people who know you well, and ask them to describe you. Include your
parents, adult guardians, family members, friends, and teachers. Then, use the following chart to write
down what you learned. Use extra paper, if necessary.
List the five most exciting experiences of your life and what made them exciting:
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List the five most memorable places you have visited and explain why they were memorable.
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Section II – Make Connections
In Section I of this worksheet you recalled, collected, and wrote down information about yourself. You
may not realize it, but nearly everything you have done in your life has been determined by your
personality, your relationships, and your experiences; in other words, all the things you wrote about in
Section I. A great college essays reveals a student’s ability to make reasonable connections between the
various aspects of his or her life. Carefully review each of the lists that you made in Section I of this
worksheet. Then use the following charts to identify ways in which your personality, relationships, and
experiences have shaped your life. Finally, write a story about yourself, your beliefs and your relationships.
A: Successes
B: Failures
C: Great Experiences
D: Books
E: Life Lessons
F. A Story about Me
Now that you have identified ways in which your personality, relationships, and experiences have shaped
your life, it’s time to use that information to write about yourself. In the space that follows, write a short
story about an important event in your life. Use the “Making Connections” charts to help you focus on
experiences, people, and ideas that are related to that event. Use extra paper, if necessary.
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Section III – Getting Organized
By now you’ve got a pretty good idea about the people and experience that have shaped your life and
about how your beliefs and aspirations have contributed to your successes, and yes, your failures. Now
it’s time to start organizing that information. Many writers use outlines to put their information into a
clear and easy to follow format.
Earlier, you learned that there are three types of college essay questions: “You”, “Creative”, and “Why
Us”. Each type of essay requires a different type of outline. However, all three types of outlines should
lead to an essay that includes three basic elements:
• A closing to remember that ties the essay together and answers the
question: What lesson was learned?
You will learn more about these basic elements later. Use the following guides to help you write outlines
for the three types of college essays.
Essay prompt:
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A great “You” essay is built around a strong personal anecdote. An anecdote is an interesting and emotionally
compelling story about something that happened to you. An anecdote opens by setting the scene (for
example: a description of the place where most of the action described in the anecdote occurs).
I. Opening:
• Scene Setter:_________________________________________________________________
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The core of your essay will contain the anecdote’s key details. Your outline should include several
paragraphs containing these details. Remember to start each paragraph with a transition sentence
that helps readers move smoothly from one part of the essay to the next.
• Transition/Opening Sentence:___________________________________________.
• Detail 1:____________________________________________________.
• Detail 2:____________________________________________________.
• Detail 3:____________________________________________________.
• Transition/Opening Sentence:_________________________________.
• Detail 1:____________________________________________________.
• Detail 2:____________________________________________________.
• Detail 3:____________________________________________________.
• Transition/Opening Sentence:_________________________________.
• Detail 1:____________________________________________________.
• Detail 2:____________________________________________________.
• Detail 3:____________________________________________________.
Your closing paragraph should leave your readers satisfied, excited, and thoroughly interested in
getting to know you. A strong closing involves an action or realization that takes place in a specific
location. This closing scene ties together the essay’s key details. The essay should end with a
“kicker”: a clever, emotional, or thought-provoking sentence.
V. Closing paragraph:
• Closing
scene:______________________________________________________________________
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• Realization:________________________________________________________________
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• Kicker:___________________________________________________________________
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Essay prompt:
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A “Creative” essay reveals the students ideas, ambitions, values, and other aspects of his or her
personality. “Creative” essays allow students to show their ability to think imaginatively. They may require
a student to discuss a favorite book, describe a solution to a problem, or just write about whatever comes
to mind. Like the “You” essay, a great “Creative” essay may be built around an anecdote. However, in a
“Creative” essay, the emphasis is on ideas and not events
Start your outline with a scene setter or thesis that offers a solution to a problem described in the essay
prompt (for example, your response to the question: “If you could be any animal, what would you be
and why?”).
I. Opening:
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The core of your essay will contain an thorough explanation of the answers or ideas expressed in
your opening. Your outline should include several paragraphs containing these ideas and details that
support those ideas. Remember to start each paragraph with a transition sentence that helps
readers move smoothly from one part of the essay to the next.
• Transition/Idea Sentence:___________________________________________.
• Transition/Idea Sentence:_________________________________.
• Transition/Idea Sentence:_________________________________.
The closing paragraph of a “Creative” essay should bring together the essays key ideas into a single,
cogent argument supporting the introductory thesis. The essay should end with a “kicker”: a clever
or thought-provoking sentence that leaves little doubt about the strong intellect and deep creativity of
the student.
V. Closing paragraph:
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• Kicker:___________________________________________________________________
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Essay prompt:
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In a “Why Us” essay, a student explains why he or she chose a certain school or career. These essays
require that a student express a deep knowledge about the school or career and so the essay outline should
emphasize the expression of that knowledge. “A Why Us” essay must also make a compelling argument
for why a given school or career is the best choice for the student.
Start your outline by discussing why a particular school or career is attractive to you. You may use an
anecdote about the school or career or take a more direct approach in which you simply state three or
four reasons for your choice (example: Columbia University’s outstanding program in rational
metaphysics is a no-brainer for any student wishing to get leading edge training in high-level, logic-
based existential philosophy.)
I. Opening:
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The core of your essay should contain a thorough explanation of the ideas expressed in your
opening. It should include several paragraphs containing these ideas and details that support those
ideas. Remember to start each paragraph with a transition sentence that helps readers move
smoothly from one part of the essay to the next.
II. Core Paragraph
• Transition/Idea Sentence:___________________________________________.
• Transition/Idea Sentence:_________________________________.
• Transition/Idea Sentence:_________________________________.
The essay’s closing should make a strong final argument linking the student’s ideas about the school
or career with the student’s fitness for that school or career.
V. Closing paragraph:
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