The College Essay
UNDERSTANDING YOUR READER’S
EXPECTATIONS
Prepared by Dr. Amy Berry Southwestern Minnesota State University 9/17/2011
•Understanding your readers’
expectations is the key to writing a
successful college essay
•Your instructors at the college level will
have different expectations from your
high school teachers
•This lesson will explain the differences
in your college readers’ expectations of
structure, persuasion as a major
purpose for writing, research, and
format in your essays
Summary
The College Essay differs from the High School Essay
Structure
• High School—Five Paragraph Essay
• College—Open, more complex and far more developed
structure and content are expected
Thesis, Support, Persuasion
• High School—Reporting information
• College-Thesis driven. Using information to make an argument
& persuade the reader to agree with your point of view
Depth of the thesis, depth of support, and concrete and
detailed supporting facts, information, and expert opinion
from collegiate level sources
Format and Documentation of Sources
• High School-Format determined by your instructor
• College—Format determined by subject field. Documentation o
Source material required
Structure
In high school you learned to write five-paragraph
essays, book reports, and other short forms of writing.
The five paragraph theme is a rigid (or closed)
structure.
It is designed to limit the topic and to give you the
maximum amount of control over the topic
The Structure of College Essays
In college, the five paragraph theme is too confining
and limiting for your purpose of persuading your
reader to accept your position on a topic, writing a
profile of a unique person, or writing a researched
essay.
College essay assignments are designed to be open—
that is, to give you the space to investigate new ideas
and to develop ideas in a deep and extended way.
College Essay Structure
College Essays are thesis-driven and deeply developed.
Readers expect more than the five-paragraph structure.
College essays are characterized by a reader frame
that orients the reader to the topic, provides
essential terms and definitions, and presents the thesis, which
is an assertion, often stated as an opinion or position on a
topic that has more than two “sides’ and can be debated. The reader
Frame also presents an essay roadmap—main points of the essay
Multiple body paragraphs develop the assertion using data,
expert opinion, logical arguments, and ethical arguments
The conclusion of the document adds to the sum of meaning of
the essay, often challenging the reader to think differently about
the topic. The conclusion also challenges the reader to agree with
the thesis, whether it is a thesis statement or is implied
College Essays Appeal to the Reader’s Sense
of Logic and Ethics
College essays are developed using logic and ethical arguments
Logical arguments are characterized by the orderly presentation
of facts and expert opinion in support of the essay thesis
Ethical arguments are assertions that appeal to the reader’s
sense of what is right or wrong supported by a foundation
of moral and legal theories, ideas, and opinions
and that develop the essay thesis. Examples and cases/case
briefs provide solid support
Using Information to Support Your Thesis
In high school, you very often report information.
In college, you are expected to use information to analyze
and support your position on a debatable topic, and to
persuade your reader that your position is correct
and acceptable.
Your goal is to convince your reader to agree
with your point of view.
Persuasion (Taking a Position on a Subject and
Convincing Your Reader to Agree with That
Position) is an Important Purpose for Writing in
College
In high school, you write essays to learn about something,
and then to demonstrate your knowledge by writing a short
informative essay explaining the idea or concept.
In college, you will be asked to take a position on a topic
and to use facts and ideas from source material to support
that position. The purpose of your essay is to persuade
your reader, usually your professor, to agree with your
point of view and your stance on a topic.
Research in College Writing
In high school, you may have written a research report.
You may have used your high school library and a general
Internet search to gather information. Then, you wrote a report
intended to inform your reader about the topic.
In college, research reports are almost always position-based
and supported by facts, expert opinions, and logic.
You gather information from a variety of credible, reviewed
college-level sources you find at the college library or college
library webpage access portal. These sources include academic
journal articles, books, and data collected into
specialized databases, and are intended to persuade
your reader to agree with your point of view
You are also expected to give credit to the author of your sources
Credibility of Source Material
Your sources must come from the university library. Your college professors
expect that you will use proven and reliable sources to support your thesis and main
supporting points and conclusions
University sources have been ‘vetted’—reviewed by experts and have been found to
be reliable
You want to borrow the credibility and power of expert sources to create and
maintain your own credibility as a university scholar
For example, in doing research on the Big Bang Theory, using source material
written by Stephen Hawking, for example, would give you instant credibility. We
call this approach to research, “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants” because
Hawking is THE expert in this field. He is a ‘giant’ whose vision is vast and wide
You also want to use source material that is powerfully written, to borrow the
rhetorical strength of the writer. This borrowing of rhetorical power is the only
purpose for using direct quotes in a researched position paper or research project
paper
Multiple Formats used in the College Essay
High school essays are often typed according to a style
provided by your teacher.
College essays, on the other hand, follow guidelines created by
academic organizations for specific academic fields of study.
You will be asked to format your essays using more than
one style.
For example, papers on language and literature follow a style
created by the Modern Language Association (MLA).
Papers in the social sciences and criminal justice follow
a style created by the American Psychological Association.
Giving Credit to Others for Their Research
Documenting sources gives credit to the author of your
sources.
In-text citations and the Works Cited page
gives you credibility as a writer because your readers
know that you have used quality source material to create
and support your ideas
You share your research materials with readers who can find
and use your work and that of your sources to create their
own essays and research projects
You gain your reader’s respect and gain credibility
(believability and power) by using articles and books
written by the best experts in the field
MLA Documentation Resources
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/pdf/
Hacker-MLAupdates.pdf
Documenting Sources: A Hacker
Handbooks Supplement
http://www.mla.org/handbook_faq
MLA Frequently Asked Questions
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resour
ce/557/15/
Purdue University OWL (online writing
lab)
http://uwp.duke.edu/wstudio/resources/
working_sources.html
Duke University Writing Studio