The following is my answer to the Rice Supplement Prompt:
With the understanding that the choice of academic school you indicated is not binding, explain why you are applying to that particular school of study.
I'm interested in studying English, and here's my essay. I'm not really sure what they look for in a short answer, so any feedback is appreciated.
It started in second grade, and, like most good things, it came to me in the form of a hippo-head handout.
Underneath the bright paper eyes of my yellow hippo there were pages and pages filled with clumsy handwriting. It was a journal of sorts, our teacher had handed them out and instructed us to write in them everyday. Not about anything in particular, just to write. My work was clumsy, I didn't really understand the concept of a sentence (I thought you put one every ten words) and my commas were arbitrarily thrown into the mix, more errant pencil marks then true pacing or punctuation.
Despite this myriad of errors when I first received my hippo back I received the comment, "Benn, you have a very strong voice! You have real talent, you should come talk to me sometime!" This comment struck something in me, a loose spark caught fire, and I suddenly wanted to be a writer.
Since then I've grown to love writing, I've improved vastly, I now understand sentences and on occasion commas, I can use semi-colons fluently and am even capable of making conscious stylistic decisions in my fictional work. This is farther then I ever though I would be, and so short of where I want to go. Every time I write I reach the top of a hill, survey the area around me, and realize I still have mountains to climb.
And I love it.
Its something to work on, its a constant pursuit which characterizes and defines me. Despite moments of mad frustration, despite mountains of torn up pages, and the despair which accompanies a thousand deleted pages I won't stop writing. Because every precisely placed word, every flowing and powerful sentence, and every cohesive paragraph fills me with pride and joy. I want to master English because I'm a writer, its who I am, and even if I never publish anything that is never going to change.
With the understanding that the choice of academic school you indicated is not binding, explain why you are applying to that particular school of study.
I'm interested in studying English, and here's my essay. I'm not really sure what they look for in a short answer, so any feedback is appreciated.
It started in second grade, and, like most good things, it came to me in the form of a hippo-head handout.
Underneath the bright paper eyes of my yellow hippo there were pages and pages filled with clumsy handwriting. It was a journal of sorts, our teacher had handed them out and instructed us to write in them everyday. Not about anything in particular, just to write. My work was clumsy, I didn't really understand the concept of a sentence (I thought you put one every ten words) and my commas were arbitrarily thrown into the mix, more errant pencil marks then true pacing or punctuation.
Despite this myriad of errors when I first received my hippo back I received the comment, "Benn, you have a very strong voice! You have real talent, you should come talk to me sometime!" This comment struck something in me, a loose spark caught fire, and I suddenly wanted to be a writer.
Since then I've grown to love writing, I've improved vastly, I now understand sentences and on occasion commas, I can use semi-colons fluently and am even capable of making conscious stylistic decisions in my fictional work. This is farther then I ever though I would be, and so short of where I want to go. Every time I write I reach the top of a hill, survey the area around me, and realize I still have mountains to climb.
And I love it.
Its something to work on, its a constant pursuit which characterizes and defines me. Despite moments of mad frustration, despite mountains of torn up pages, and the despair which accompanies a thousand deleted pages I won't stop writing. Because every precisely placed word, every flowing and powerful sentence, and every cohesive paragraph fills me with pride and joy. I want to master English because I'm a writer, its who I am, and even if I never publish anything that is never going to change.