Unspoken standard? Inquiry about Common App Activity essay

Hi all

Most essays that I've seen for the activity prompt on the Common App ("Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences in the space below (150 words or fewer)") are written in anecdotal form where the author develops his activity through storytelling.

Is this a sort of unspoken standard? Because personally, I don't like that style for answering such a straightforward question.

However, the question might be furtively specific, asking the applicant to "briefly elaborate" a single extracurricular experience... Am I preaching to the choir or speaking nonsense here? I don't know.

I'd like to write about water polo because it is so important to me, but do I talk about it in a broad sense and the effects it has had on me, or do I limit myself to a specific event, incorporating the lessons I learned from that experience?

I'll post my essay(s) in a bit. I'll do one for each way I brought up.

Thanks.

I did it in a straightforward manner... I don't know how you would write a story in 150 words...

Some people find ways and personally I think it just says, "I TRYING TO IMPRESS YOU!"

I think the whole "story format" is good for a self explanatory extracurricular eg: soccer, band, etc but for an activity that needs to be explained (internships/service trip) just go with the straight forward answer

hahahah, no, not an unspoken standard. It's a challenge. The part of the application about writing tests whether you can write well, and many people need to be challenged to achieve brevity.

But 150 is not a lot of words...

"briefly elaborate"--- yeah, good call, that is an oxymoron.

Well, I see that you are a language person, so just do it. If I challenged you to do it in 10 words I would expect you to be able to do it.

Water polo? Well... it will be good to include a few different activities and most importantly a theme, a memorable concept.

i wrote it in a straightforward manner because it's hard to REALLY elaborate with a 150 limit