My Essay Outline
Foundational Elements
Message: Qualities or values I’m focusing on (1-3):
Medium: Aspect(s) of selfhood I’m focusing on:
Medium: Major experiences/moments I’m focusing on:
Essay Outline
Note that the compartments below don’t represent PARAGRAPHS. They represent SECTIONS that alternate between:
Showing
"Zooming in” to immerse the reader in a scene with details that make it come alive
Telling
"Zooming out” to provide context for what is happening or explain the significance of an experience
A SECTION might be a sentence, a paragraph, or several paragraphs!
See this sample essay outline for help.
You can also check out some of these stories of self, highlighted to show that these authors, too, balance showing with telling:
Note that this is NOT a set formula--you might alternate more or less frequently between showing and telling. You might have more, or fewer, details associated with each moment. Add & delete boxes, moments, details--whatever. This is just somewhere to get started!
Show: Zoom in on a particular moment
Tell: Provide context for that moment.
Show: Flesh out the story with more moments, details & imagery.
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Moment:
- Detail:
- Detail:
-
Moment:
- Detail:
- Detail:
-
Moment:
- Detail:
- Detail:
Tell: Provide context or explain significance of experience(s).
Show: Flesh out the story with more moments, details & imagery.
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Moment:
- Detail:
- Detail:
Tell: Close by explaining significance of experience(s).
Optional: Show: End with an image
NOTE: Typically the college essay is somewhere between 500-750 words, or between 1 and 1 ½ single-spaced, typed pages. Don’t worry too much about length right now, though--you can whittle down or beef up your essay to fit the specific guidelines later.
What’s important right now is finding a story you want to tell and thinking about how to tell it well, with a balance of showing and telling, so that your reader comes away with an understanding of a) who you are and b) how you got that way.