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With a great essay you become more to a college than your GPA, test scores, and transcript. Your essay just might be what makes an admissions committee say “yes.”
We’ll help you tell it in an authentic way.
For college application essays, your audience will be college admissions officers who want to know what makes you tick. The key, to quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, is to “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” Trust in your experiences and describe them in plainspoken words.
David Wolf will be the friendly writing tutor with whom you can relax. He will be your essay writing helper. With David you’ll do pre-writing exercises and talk informally. You’ll choose from among the essay prompts and begin drafting. Early on, flow and output are all. You refrain from editing until your words pile up on the page. David will highlight where your writing is most alive, and you’ll add further incidents and details to complete a draft.
“Revision,” which means “to see anew,” involves a series of intentional steps. A skilled English tutor, David will show you how to strengthen your narrative by improving setting, description, and how you render conflict. As your writing tutor, he’ll show you how to draw connections and subtly make the meaning of your essay come through. Together you and your private writing tutor will find a fitting ending that stays in the reader’s mind.
I want to be an honest man and a good writer.
James Baldwin
As you may already know, there are two online College Application services, the Common Application (or Common App) and the Coalition. As part of your application for each platform, you must prepare a personal essay. For the Common App essay, you choose your topic from among eight Common App essay prompts. For the Coalition essay, you choose your topic from among five Coalition essay prompts.
While many of the essay prompts from the Common App and the Coalition overlap, the maximum word count for each essay differs. The Common App allows a maximum word total of 650 words. The Coalition allows a maximum word total of 500-550 words. For a sense of what makes a good Common App essay, you should read real examples of successful ones, links to which are on the Resources page.
Once your Common App and Coalition essays are done, we can help you write the supplementary application essays required by individual colleges. The supplementary college essays are just as important as the Common App and Coalition essays. As writing tutors in Portland, we have great experience coaching students who have written successful application essays for colleges in the University of California system. As your private writing tutors, we’ll use the same generative writing approach for you to craft the supplementary essays.
The summer before senior year is the perfect time to write your college application essays. Sign up for one of our summer workshops online, taking place this June and July. Designed so that you complete the Common App and Coalition essays, the week long workshop guides you through the complete writing process, from pre-writing exercises to a thorough revision of the first draft. Interested in more information? Please provide your email address here. Or sign up below for a workshop led by David Wolf, the owner of Tutor Visions.
Contact us to learn more or arrange one on one coaching in Portland.
If you would like to schedule an appointment or begin a conversation, please contact us. We’ll respond quickly.
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Serving All of the Portland, Oregon Metropolitan Area including Raleigh Hills, Maplewood, Hillsdale, Multnomah Village, Dunthorpe, Riverwood, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Sellwood, Tigard, Beaverton, and Tualatin.
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