Brainstorm
Take the time to do the same kind of brainstorming that you did (or should have done) for your personal statement. Although the subject matter is somewhat more targeted since you’re responding to a specific question, the answer isn’t cut and dried. Most applicants find that they have more than one possible area or experience on which they could focus for the response to even a very narrowly-targeted question. For example, an older student writing a diversity statement might focus on life experience and perspective, or on a particular career background, or on fluctuations in his socio-economic status that have given him a broader perspective, or on some aspect of his upbringing which has nothing to do with the immediately obvious differences between him and his prospective classmates.
Such a student might choose one of these characteristics to focus on and develop, or might overview several points. As with the personal statement, though, making the best decision about which topic or format will be most compelling requires doing some writing.
Be Willing to Experiment
Once again, this process will call upon some of the same strategies and exercises that you used to write your personal statement. The brainstorming process undoubtedly yielded more than one possible focus or approach to this statement, and finding the most effective one means doing some writing and allowing yourself to discover what writes most naturally and makes the most compelling story or point once it’s down on paper. What sounds like a great idea may not work out so well in practice; conversely, a concept that seems a little flat in the abstract may come to life when you start to write. Knock the editor off your shoulder before you get started.
As with any other application essay, it’s important to remember that no one is going to see your early drafts unless you choose to share. You have nothing to lose by writing freely and finding out what emerges. Too often, applicants get caught up in second-guessing themselves long before they get anything of substance out on paper—sometimes long before they even start writing. The most common obstacle is trying to determine whether or not a particular bit of information or insight is “what they want to hear” before it’s ever been spun out into something that would allow for an educated answer to that question.
That’s far from the only hurdle, though. Many applicants treat every draft as if it were going to be graded, beginning again and again and never getting into the meat of the essay because they’re not satisfied with the introductory sentence or don’t know exactly what their hook is going to be. It may be that the hook isn’t clear until the whole story or response is down on paper; if you’re wait until you find it to move forward, you may be in a for a long, frustrating and unproductive session.
Just write. When you look at the results you can decide whether the content is appropriate, how best to introduce it, whether it needs to be cut down or expanded, etc., and make as many changes as you want before anyone else ever sees what you’ve written.
Pick and Polish
Once you’ve put some ideas down on paper and made some discoveries about what you have to say and how it sounds when you lay it out in print, choose your direction based on factors including:
-Which focus makes the most interesting, relevant statement;
-Which you can express best and seems most natural and sincere;
-How each fits with the rest of your application package—the ideal essay will fit the overall theme while still adding something new. Once you’ve chosen, it’s time to create the polished final essay.
-Aim for about one double-spaced page; it’s rare that an optional statement warrants more space, and it should never be longer than two double-spaced pages or your personal statement;
-Catch the reader early; you may be answering a question directly and so have slightly less flexibility in the way you lead off, but you still want to make it interesting. Never forget that not every admissions essay gets read through, so it’s important both to catch the reader’s attention up front and to get the information you really want conveyed in early; and
-Proofread carefully, and if possible ask someone else to; these essays may not be as critical as your personal statement but part of what you’re conveying with your optional essays is that you’ve made every effort possible to put together the best application package you could. Sloppy work, obviously, undermines that message.
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