Who is stressing about writing a personal statement? Does the idea of submitting your personal essay to a college make you nervous?
Don't worry this class will help your develop the mindset, editing skills and writing knowledge to transform your essay into a competitive component of your university application.

Mastering the standard format of a personal essay is crucial for expressing a writer’s ideas effectively and correctly. But what is a personal essay? A personal essay is a person's introduction to a university, a competitive program or a scholarship board. It is what others read to better understand a person, and often times what helps a governing board decide if a student is a good fit for a school or program. Thus, it is important that students master the skill of good writing and good editing to enhance his/her chance of being accepted to his/her dream school, program, internship, etc. Or perhaps, a student dreams of a life as a professional writer sharing personal experiences in a blog or an opinion column.  Editing pieces properly and professionally will help writing jobs continue to flow in. 

I have edited personal essays that helped students gain acceptance to universities in the USA and Canada, such as Columbia University in NYC and California Lutheran University. Presently, I am working with senior students from a charter school in Los Angeles. For more than a decade, I have been teaching academic writing classes to university student; now I teach writing to students of all ages on OutSchool. In both cases, I have discovered a major problem with writing assignments is the fact students do not review their work before submitting it. Many students underestimate the importance of self-editing their assignments before turning them into teachers. By providing students with a specific guideline, a checklist and questions to use for editing, students will have a better understanding of writing with clarity and writing effectively in the academic and work setting. 

Pre-class Activity:
Students should write an essay in 60 minutes answering a personal question from the "My Life" worksheet or the Common App questions.  This should be typed on a computer. The essay should be posted to the class site prior to the live class meeting. In class, students will use the worksheet as material for self-editing.

Class:
1. Introduction to editing and self-editing. 
2. Discuss "10 Steps of Self-Editing Guide"
3. Group practice on personal essay written for admission to Columbia University ( Ivy League )
4. Independent practice of self-editing with the essay from the pre-class worksheet
5. Review of checklist and questions to ask during self-editing.