1. AP Literature and Composition
“It’s a Did you miss me? Monday!”
October 22, 2012
Mr. Houghteling

2. AGENDA Review the Thursday-Friday texts.
College Sample Essays~#3 and #4.
Creating Leads / Pair-Share.
Revising for impact.

3. The Week Monday: Leads and college essays.
Tuesday: College Application Essay.
Wednesday: College Application Essay and Storytime.
Thursday: Literary Criticisms.
Friday: Playing with Literary Criticisms / “The Rose of the World.”

4. Sample College Essay ~ “My Mother’s Influence”
What about the essay didn’t work for you? Why?
What do you think worked in the essay? Why?

5. Sample College Essay ~ “Culinary Creation”
What about the essay didn’t work for you? Why?
What do you think worked in the essay? Why?

6. Interesting Fact / Startling Statement
Types of Leads
Leads
Quotation
Short narrative / anecdote
Interesting Fact / Startling Statement
Opinion
Question
“In medias res”

7. Pair/Share
Review the two different leads you created last week. Share with your partner.
Partner’s questions:
1. Do you want to keep reading? Why or why not?
2. What worked in this lead?
3. What suggestions for improvement can you provide?

8. Pair/Share—Revise for Impact
Now get your lead back from your partner. What can you change to make your lead more powerful?
Sentence revisions.
Count the number of words in each sentence. Are they all pretty close?
Look at the sentence structure of each sentence. Do all of your sentences start out the same way?
What kind of details do you need to add?

9. Tips for writing an effective essay:
First of all, you need to keep in mind that colleges want you as a student and as a person. Because they need to know a bit about you, you must demonstrate your voice throughout your application essay. In other words, your essay should not read like a laundry list or encyclopedia. Rather, it should be MEMORABLE. You reader should be able to picture you behind the words. How to accomplish this?

10. How to be memorable:
Specifics. Don’t simply talk about how you like to read. Talk about curling into a ball on your grandmother’s porch swing and delving into Breath Eyes Memory only to get up four hours later in the dark and covered in mosquito bites.
-Proper nouns
-Tell stories/memories that are unique to you
Write about something that you actually care about…as much as possible. You may not get to pick your essay topic, but you have full control over what happens in it.

11. Now what do I do? Revise and develop your lead.
Begin drafting your college application essay.