Beyond "Show, Don't Tell": Strategic Disclosure in College Admissions Essay Writing

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  In Roundtable Session: Writing Across Educational Contexts (Table 5)

Abstract

This study aims to identify key themes that emerge in the experience of US college applicants as they write personal statements for admission to higher education institutions. Data collected through twenty student interviews and eight months of participant observation at a small public charter school in Cambridge, Massachusetts reveal students' compositional choices as they brainstorm, write, and revise college application essays. By analyzing textual changes between early and final drafts of students' 650-word Common Application essay, and tying them to students' accounts of their writing process, this paper offers key connections between the multistage practice of crafting institutionally-sanctioned self-narratives and students' negotiations with perceived social norms surrounding the presentation of merit, adversity, and race in their applications.

Author

• Jennifer Ha, Harvard University