The hardest aspect of everything for many people is starting. And that makes sense. First of all, it raises the stakes by making whatever you’re doing a reality. Second, the quality of where you finish up can readily be influenced by where you start.
College essays have their distinct flavour. It’s difficult to know where to start an essay for college. Writing a real, interesting introduction might be challenging. However, you run the danger of getting buried in a sea of applications if you don’t have a compelling hook. In order to make it a little smoother and a little less stressful, we’ve put up some tips on how to start a college essay.
How To Write An Introduction For A College Essay
Here’s a strange truth that applies to most written work: just because something will appear at the start of the piece doesn’t imply you have to write it first. For instance, unless you have determined the following facts in this scenario, you cannot know what your impactful first line will be. You must first work out:
- Your desired narrative
- The argument you wish to make with that narrative
- Your essay will show your characteristics, your degree of maturity, and your history.
If you can plan out your essay in its entirety before deciding exactly how it should start, writing it will be considerably simpler.
This means that you must develop a general idea about which life event you will share and what you anticipate that life event to demonstrate to the reader about you and the kind of person that you are before you can craft your ideal first sentence, the way the short story experience of your life will play out on the page, and the perfect pivotal moment that transitions from your story to your insight.
How to Write Your College Essay’s First Section
This section should make up roughly half of a 500-word essay and should highlight a significant experience, a significant quality of a person, a turning point in one’s development, or a significant character feature.
Here are two excellent methods for turning your experience into a story after you’ve decided on your topic and decided on the experience you want to highlight in the introduction of your essay:
- Talking things out in a storytelling manner (while recording yourself): Visualise yourself at a campfire with some friends or on a lengthy trip next to someone you want to get to know. Tell that tale now. What is necessary for the story to make sense for someone who doesn’t know you? What specifics must you give for them to join you in the story? What prior knowledge is required for them to comprehend the significance or stakes of the story?
- If you want to get feedback from your friends, record yourself giving them your story and then have a conversation afterwards. What questions are they asking? What portions of your story didn’t make sense to them or flow logically?
You can later determine the tone in which you want to convey your narrative as you listen to the recorded version in an effort to acquire a sense of how to write it. Are you making jokes while you speak? Sad? You’re attempting to astonish, surprise, or shock your audience. You should compose your narrative in the manner in which you would most naturally tell it.
When you’ve completed it, write down the key takeaways from this storytelling exercise. What narrative will your essay tell? What statement will it make about your life, philosophy, or personality? How will you deliver the message? Draw a thorough outline so you can begin filling it in.
Ways to Start a College Essay:
Generally speaking, the first sentence of your essay should either be a mini cliffhanger that sets up a problem the reader would like to see resolved or an extremely lush scene setting that places your audience in a setting they can easily envision. The former raises anticipation and interest, but the latter inspires fantasy and forges a bond with the author. You accomplish your objective of higher reader engagement in both situations. Here are a few more specific ways.
- Show, don’t tell
A description using images that concentrates on a specific moment and doesn’t immediately provide many details is one option for a start. With this method, the language, actions, or details are allowed to speak for themselves. This allows you to make a few allusions to the author’s main beliefs—culture, ritual, and family—without giving away too much about the essay’s direction. This introduction, like all good ones, raises more questions than it actually answers. - The twist
This surprisingly leads the author after providing information that causes us to have certain assumptions about them in the beginning. This allows you to subvert the audience’s assumptions and shows a high level of self-awareness about the facets of your identity through this. Readers can’t help but be curious about the individual more after having our expectations crushed. - The philosophical question
You may pose a question that you know you won’t be able to answer in your essay. This provides you with the chance to demonstrate how your smart mind functions and keeps the reader interested while you research potential solutions. However, if you’re not careful, this opening could degenerate into an excessively grandiose ambiguous opening.
- A trailer or thesis
Include a few contextualising sentences (generally at the end of the first paragraph) that set the background for the essay and offer readers a preview of what will be discussed, but do not reveal the conclusion. Without giving anything away, this remark reassures the reader and provides them with a hint of what’s to come. - An Interesting Concept
Start with a thought that is out of the ordinary, contradictory, or that signals a shift in your way of thinking. This is frequently followed by background information outlining the concept’s origins and the reasons for the reader’s consideration. This introduction makes it clear to the reader that you are someone who is well read, is curious and has some knowledge. - The random personal fun fact
To get the reader’s attention, start with an odd fact about yourself. Then go on to explain its significance. By getting the reader to ponder, “Oh, that’s cool!” followed by raising the question, “Okay, where’s this going?”, you add an interesting arch to your essay.
Start Writing With Rostrum
We understand that it’s much easier said than done to write a compelling introduction. But hopefully, after reading some examples of engaging and intelligent introductions that were incorporated into our tips, you’ll be motivated to come up with some of your own. If you need assistance in writing your essays, Rostrum is here to help you from start to finish. To learn more, schedule a free call today.
