Application Essays
“Who are you?”
“What is your purpose?”
“Uhhh…”
Most students find the college application essay one of the most challenging things they’ve ever written – and for good reason. Often we are so busy achieving that we do not take a moment to pause and consider what it’s all been about. The application essay to undergraduate school is often a student’s first attempt at entertaining such questions, and the grad school essay a chance to re-consider and refine one’s purpose. It is a unique and beautiful process of essentially creating a vision for one's life. It is a tender process through which we can guide students by brainstorming, finding guiding principles, pulling out the inner writer, structuring an award winning essay, and of course grammar checking and refining. It will become not a stress or a drag but a document he or she will be proud of for life. Many students read them years later to remember this time in their life and who they were becoming (and to keep them focused on their vision for their college experience). They refine the vision of themselves in the world and find their unique voice to express it.
College Interview
We also help students prepare for college interviews at the graduate and undergraduate levels by working on presentation skills, content, organization, etc.
Academic Essays
Writing is a personal passion of ours. We are both prolific writers ourselves of short stories, poems, plays, journals, and screenplays. One of our favorite topics is research papers – and it's a good thing because it's often our students' least favorite! The school research paper is usually taught in formulaic steps – which makes sense; synthesizing ideas is an advanced cognitive processing skill with which most students need help. However, it can become an unholy drag and take virtually all the would-be enthusiasm out of discovering personal vision and unique voice. Who doesn't randomly internet surf? We are doing research all the time. Research is the joy of discovery. Writing is the synthesis of ideas in a way that has never occurred before – all writing is inherently unique! It is one of only a few places, if not the only place – in all of academia – where the student is actually inventing something rather than spitting it back out. It's the one place to contribute to the dialogue and development of human knowledge – with one's own unique voice. Writing and speaking are creative powers to give our contribution to the world.
We help students organize their thoughts, get enthusiastic about research and learning the topic, and we give them the skills and confidence to find their writing voice. Most students who don't enjoy writing find difficulty with organizing or just searching for the right words. It is our belief that there is a connection from the brain to the hand – and that connection just needs to get unstuck.
Many of our writing students over the years have gone on to be not only competent with their course work or projects , but also enthusiastic contributors to cultural dialogue through their academic work or personal journals. Often it is the 'worst' writers who wind up becoming the best, as these are the students who see the world so preciously. In the case of students who have difficulty with language processing due to a disability, this is often even more true.
We believe writing is a fundamental human expression and a creative gift as well as a practical tool to negotiate the academic and business worlds. We eagerly look forward to working with students to refine their skills, uncover their blocks, and find and express their voice. We are adept at teaching students how to gather research, organize ideas, improve sentence structure and grammar – but our real passion is getting students to learn to enjoy the writing process as a creative and intellectual pursuit.
Other Writing
Our team can also help with creative writing, mission statements, grant proposals, art statements, editing and proofreading, resume cover letters, website text, and more.