Moving on from first draft to revisions can be hard, but you've got this!
Your draft is a victory no matter what this quiz reveals!
INSTRUCTIONS: Honestly answer the following questions to help assess what you already have at the start of your revision adventure.
I care about the topic and enjoyed writing about it.
Enthusiasm is contagious! If you were engaged in writing about a topic you genuinely care about, there's a strong chance that the reader will care about it too.
If not, we can explore why? Maybe a different approach to the same topic would excite you more.
I had lots to say on this topic and no trouble coming up with details to share.
If your answer was a resounding yes, outstanding!
If not, don't give up on your essay just yet. Your topic may be fine, but if you ran out of ideas while writing, you may have started with a topic that was too broad.
The solution? Narrow it down as you revise. (The Magical Shrinking Topic Trick from Draft in a Week will come in handy!)
This essay reveals more about me than my activities, grades, and accomplishments.
If you wrote from your heart, the reader will see that you are so much more than your grades or activities list (we all are!).
If draft 1 mostly repeats your activities or accomplishments, in draft 2 you can re-think your examples to share more new, personal information.
After reading this essay, my future college major (or clubs I want to join) would probably make sense to the reader.
College admission evaluators are reading your whole application (usually all at once). They’ll already know your grades, activities, and potential college major (don’t stress if you’re not sure—you’re in the majority!)
Will your essay fit into but also add to the “holistic” picture of you that’s forming in the reader’s mind? If not, we'll work on it!
Other people might appear in this essay, but the spotlight is on me.
Some students have trouble talking about themselves. They have an easier time sharing a story about an influential person in their life. Does that describe you?
If so, I'm so glad you're here because this adventure will help you become more comfortable. A good place to start is to make sure most of your sentences in draft 2 begin with the letter “I”.
Someone who knows me could easily recognize that I wrote this essay.
Does the voice in this essay sound like you, the way you naturally talk and think?
If not, and you thought you were supposed to write a formal essay like the ones you write for school, no worries. Entering draft 2, you can start to substitute words you'd actually use in conversation for stiffer language, so your essay sounds more personal (which is the assignment!).
I was curious about exploring this topic on a deeper level and I still am!
A good essay begins with an engaging story. A great essay takes a deep dive beneath the surface story into reflection about the topic. This rarely happens in the first draft! We'll do some pondering as you travel through your revisions.
This essay shows how I’ve grown, learned, or changed.
Your ability to learn from your past experiences and apply those lessons to your present life shows evaluators that you will make the most of your college experience.
If you spent more of your essay space explaining a challenge or obstacle you faced than how you grew from it, the bones of your essay might be there already, but the proportions might be off. We've got an exercise for fixing that coming up!
If I were a stranger meeting myself for the first time through this essay, I think I’d like me!
If the voice in this essay represents the way you really are, then I’m sure any reader would like you (and want to fight for you in admissions committee)!
If you tried to write what you thought would impress colleges, it may come across in a way that’s just not you—totally fixable as you move through your drafts and start saying what you want to say (instead of what you thought colleges wanted to hear)!
I was open and honest when I wrote my first draft even when it meant showing vulnerability.
You don't have to reveal your deepest darkest secrets in your essay, but you don't have to pretend like you've got everything figured out either.
No one on this green earth is perfect, including admission evaluators, who will relate to you best (and recommend you for admission) when you’re being genuine. You have entered a judgement-free world where you can practice opening up and expressing your authentic self. Let's get started!
All good (always)!
No shame (ever)!
If you answered “yes” to most of the questions, you’re off to a great start, and if “not so much,” we’ve still got this covered in the adventure ahead.
Let’s start with what’s working about draft 1. The 2 most important indicators that your essay could shape up into a game-changer for you: 1. Only you could have written it and 2. You were excited while writing it and still are. That’s it! Booting your Inner Troll out of your headspace and writing from your heart makes for a compelling essay that could be a game-changer for you after we spruce it up with revisions, editing, and proofreading.
Don’t despair if elements in your draft are not working (yet)—nobody writes a perfect first draft! Your essay may benefit from narrowing down your topic, infusing more specific one-of-a-kind details, or loosening up the language until it sounds more like you. We’ll cover all of this in the adventure to come, though—just being real here—if you’re not at all happy with your first draft, completing Draft in a Week can help infuse it with the umph it deserves before you move along to revisions.
Our goal is that by the end of the week, your essay will say what you want to say and support your cause (college admission). Onward, so we can make that happen!
Rev your forklift and courage because we’re off to the construction zone…
If you leave now you can pick up where you left another time
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