1.6 - TWO APPROACHES TO STRUCTURING A COLLEGE ESSAY

TWO APPROACHES TO STRUCTURE

I think there are two basic structural approaches every student can use to write their college essays: Montage Structure and Narrative Structure. We’ll explore them in detail in a bit, but to figure out which approach you might want to take...

First, ask yourself two questions: 

1. Have you faced significant challenges?

2. Do you want to write about them?

To clarify: You can write a great essay whether you've been through challenges or not.

The question is: How?

The answer: Find the right structure. 

If you answered yes to both, Narrative Structure may work well for you.

If no to either, Montage Structure offers a great approach. 

You can think of Narrative Structure as classic Hollywood movie structure, focusing on a challenge that fundamentally changed your life.

Montage presents a series of experiences that are thematically linked, allowing you to present multiple sides of yourself that wouldn’t all fit into a single narrative arc.

I’d like to stress that neither structure is inherently better than the other. I’ve seen incredible essays using both structures. I say this because I don’t want you to  feel like you need to write about challenges to write an outstanding college essay. You don’t.

And please note that ”significance” is obviously on a spectrum. We’ll talk about this in greater detail soon, but keep in mind that the more significant the challenge, the easier it will be to write about it well. 

With that in mind, what follows are some strategies that have helped some of my students craft compelling essays.