Your Story Needs Good Bones
I still remember the day, way back when I was a high-school English teacher, when a trio of former students – now high school seniors – accosted me before first period, begging me to read drafts of their college essays. I was thrilled they wanted my feedback and knew I was in for a treat. The three students had taken AP Language & Composition with me as juniors and were incredible writers. They’d earned As! They’d earned 5s on the AP test! And yet, as I absorbed their words in front of me, I couldn’t help but feel that they had utterly failed on this particular writing assignment.
The tools and techniques implemented were all wrong, and yet, I felt complete recognition at their approach. It was largely what I had taught them. My students knew the good bones of an English essay; they could recite them. Précis, thesis statement, supporting examples anchored by seamlessly blended quotes, properly cited, and a conclusion where you restate your premise. And those were many of the elements incorporated as they wrote their college essays. And it didn’t work. At all.
I thought back through the writing assignments I’d given as a 10th- and 11th-grade English teacher. Essays on themes and symbolism within The Catcher in the Rye and The Count of Monte Cristo, on Fitzgerald’s use of color in Gatsby, rhetorical analysis of Mark Antony’s funeral speech in Caesar and selection of detail within In Cold Blood.
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, I can tell you that never once did my students receive guidance on how to write intelligently about themselves. And now, as they embarked on their college essays, an assignment where the stakes couldn’t be higher, the last piece of personal writing most students had crafted was “What I Did Over Summer Break” in sixth grade. Ruh-roh.
It made me realize that students need a blueprint for how to build a compelling story. They need to know what makes for good bones in a college essay. Because the good bones are the non-negotiables. A college essay with good bones amplifies voice. It illuminates identity. It employs inventive structure. It teems with imagery and emotion. And it reveals and reflects a student’s character and substance.
I’ve always loved this quote from Stephen King, who is one of my favorite writers. In his book On Writing, King writes: “At its most basic we are only discussing a learned skill, but do we not agree that sometimes the most basic skills can create things far beyond our expectations? We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and style… but as we move along, you’d do well to remember that we are also talking about magic.”
And there is magic to be found in this kind of personal writing. Beyond the toolbox and techniques, you’re putting a piece of your life on the page. Something true. Something authentic. Telling a story you know by heart and making it come alive to a reader who will never meet you. Giving dimension to your reader’s understanding of who you are, beyond the bullet points of your application.
It’s time to start building.