The Use of Semiotics in Understanding and Interpreting Images Essay

The Use of Semiotics in Understanding and Interpreting Images - Essay Example This paper illustrates that in the society today, an audiovisual culture has developed and is slowly superseding the reading and writing culture. Images are seen in cinemas, magazines, posters, books, newspapers, TVs, clothes and on computer screens. This develops a need for understanding and interpreting the meanings of images. Ideologies, myths, and connotations are mostly embedded in images making it difficult to understand. To achieve this, semiotics is used in analyzing the innate understanding and meanings behind images seen in the society today. This is because semiotics puts an emphasis on the communication of visuals and the kind of system that dominates the images being presented. Semiotics is an apparatus that is associated directly with the existing culture or trends in a society. Fashion today and the images presented by what people put on from clothes, shoes, hairstyle, and jewelry may be difficult to understand. This is because of the many features that it has. However , the images created by what people put on convey a lot of information about the characters, attitude, and moods of individuals. Advertisements also use images which carry a lot of message about the product being advertised. In the society today, advertisements are mostly used to introduce fashion to the society which keeps on changing over time. The semiotics theory explains that advertisements involve images that trigger emotions, feelings, moods, and attributes. This is achieved by the use of objects which create images in the minds of people. Adverts use images which connect objects with the real life to clearly pass the message needed. Advertisements are mostly used to signify, represent people and use objects that are most desired by people.

Every Father’s Dream Essay Example for Free

Every Father’s Dream Essay Parents play an important role in the fulfillment of their children’s dreams. Often, before a child can even start to dream, parents have already made a mental picture of what they want their children to be in the future. In Barack Obama’s (2004) â€Å"Dreams from My Father,† we see the important role a father plays in the success of the incumbent president. On the contrary, in Arthur Miller’s (1949) â€Å"Death of Salesman,† the author illustrates how a father’s dream and example can sometimes destroy a son’s future. Look more:  perseverance example essay In this paper, we compare and contrast the dreams of the fathers in the two works in order to derive a lesson every parent and child should know. Published in 2004, â€Å"Dreams from My Father† narrates the life of the 44th president of the United States. The novel is told by the president himself, who was then elected for the senate. In his story, Obama describes how his father’s ambition and examples helped shape and made him realize his own dreams. The story narrates the young Barack Obama Sr. as a clever and intelligent yet mischievous student during his early years. Unable to finish college in his homeland, he lands a clerical job until two female missionaries help him find scholarship to a university in Hawaii. His perseverance to finish his studies later provides inspiration to his son, Barry. In his letter to his son, the father says, â€Å"Like water finding its level, you will arrive at a career that suits you† (45). This expresses the father’s wish for his son to find his own destiny, his own place in society. Finding one’s place in society is possible through education. Although Barack Sr. does not emphasize to Barry the importance of education, the boy realizes this through his parents’ examples. Specifically, the father’s own perseverance to gain further studies serves as example for the son to follow. Likewise, his words during their last meeting echo and translate in Barry’s mind as, â€Å"You do not work hard enough, Barry. You must help in your people’s struggle. Wake up, black man (126)! † These words serve as Barry’s motivation to persevere in all the struggles and responsibilities he has to face. In the play, â€Å"Death of a Salesman,† the father, Willy Loman has the same dreams for his son, Biff. He wishes for him to find his place in society, to be the best he can be. However, since Biff relies too much on his father’s examples, he becomes disappointed when he finds out that all the while, his father has not been true to his mother. The scene in the hotel where Biff finds out about Willy’s other woman devastates him, and ruins his life later on. Due to this, he decides not to attend the summer school and finish his studies. Considering his actions, Willy can be blamed for Biff’s inability to reach his dreams. The boy’s mindset is very much affected by his father’s actions. In contrast to Obama Sr. who serves his country and continues his studies, Willy shares in the disappointment of his son. These examples show us the important role of the father in giving advice to their sons, and in setting a good example. Despite the fact that Obama leaves his son to his wife, the good memory he leaves the boy serves as a good foundation for the child. Moreover, as the older Obama expresses in one of his letters to his son, for one to realize his place in society, one has to know one’s people, where he belongs (66). To do this, Barry searches for his roots and listens to what his grandmother’s story. From this, he finds out the struggles of his grandfather and his father, and finds strength in their sacrifices and dreams. The dreams of his father to be fully educated and to serve his country are enough to inspire Barry to move on and be the best he can be. In contrast, the theme of knowing oneself in order to realize one’s dreams is expressed differently in â€Å"Death of a Salesman. † In the play, Willy’s high expectations of Biff disappoint the son more. Biff insists to his father, â€Å"Pop, I’m nothing! I’m nothing, Pop. Can’t you understand that? There’s no spite in it any more (99)† Despite this, Willy still believes in Biff. He believes that if given a chance and a big sum to start on his own, his son can be successful. This is the reason why Willy sacrifices his life at the end, so that his sons can have what it takes to start on their own. The legacies of the two fathers are totally different. Obama leaves to his son an identity and reputation he can live with, while Loman bequeathes a good sum, which he is unable to provide his sons during his lifetime. Either way, the examples of the two fathers imply a general truth about fathers, that every one of them desires the best for their children. References Miller, Arthur. (1949). Death of a salesman. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from http://www. franklang. ru/download/Miller_Death_of_a_Salesman__pdf. pdf Obama, Barack. (2004). Dreams from my father. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from http://cephas17507. multiply. com/journal/item/20/Dreams_from_My_Father_Barack_Obama_2004_. pdf

Otavalo Cultural Integrity and the Forces of Globalization :: Outsourcing, Offshoring, Free Trade

Despite common misconception, indigenous peoples the world over are remarkably free from the cultural immobility and permanence suggested of them by foreign travel brochures and â€Å"imperialist nostalgia† (87). The attitudes, perceptions and behaviors of modern Otavalos shift and grow members of the community travel overseas and sell native textiles and music in international markets. Thus, the concept of â€Å"maintaining cultural identity† must reflect the invigorating and active exchange of social, political and economic realities between people. Adaptability is an element of every human culture around the world. Handsome profits roll into Otavalo accounts through their extensive textile industries, a complex international music scene, and annual floods of tourists for the Otavalo Saturday market. Our politically â€Å"potent tropes† of progressive/backward societies, and modern/primitive cultures are frustrated by the reality of Otavalo wealth. Yet these indigenous Ecuadorian people are no less culturally â€Å"authentic† for their organized adaptability than any other affinity of people (96). Indeed, when indigenous societies do not meet the flowery, exotic ideal of a â€Å"forgotten paradise† exhibiting a quality of â€Å"timelessness,† â€Å"foreigners often react with outrage† (87). Yet from the Inuit of Nunavut, to the Himba of Namibia to the Hawai’ians of Hawai’i, no culture is an object ready for the taking. Culture cannot be â€Å"lost like car keys† (97). Change, however, is not without cost and the question of agency. The consequences of forced cultural subordinance, as demonstrated in by colonial era, are destructive, alienating, and endlessly residual. Cultural sovereignty and political autonomy must be vigorously defended for every people: the right to collectively determine the future of one’s own people is intrinsic to maintaining a cultural identity. Ironically, it is via interaction between people and places that we learn to fully define ourselves by our own culture among the many cultures on this Earth. Only through cultural opposition can we human beings determine who we are and the relevance of our own way of living. In the late 1980s, local civil registrars allowed Otavalo parents to officially enroll their newborns given Quichua, rather than Spanish, names. This liberating gesture of cultural sovereignty revived common names of the indigena and permitted the Otavalo to powerfully reject the mestizaje in an explicit statement of faith in their own identity (234). In another, more complex, affirmation of autonomy, Otavalos maintain â€Å"a chameleonlike ability to meet audience expectations while still identifying as Otavalos† in selling their goods and exotic appeal on the global capitalist market (170).

Cubism Essay -- Visual Arts Paintings Art

Cubism is an art period that followed after the art period Fauvism. Cubism is one of the most influential art movements of the twentieth century. It was begun by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, by Cezanne's influence in 1907. The leading artists in the cubist period were Pablo Picasso, Georges Brack, Paul Cezanne, Jean Metzinger, Fernand Leger, Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Delaunay, Albert Gleizes and Matisse. These artists all contributed to the cubist art movement in their own individual way. Cubism sprung from a comment made by French Painter Paul Cezanne. Cezanne claimed "All nature is made up of the cone, the cylinder and the sphere". Cubists liked this idea. So therefore they decided to focus on the forms Cezanne was talking about, and they painted the world and objects as if they were really made up of geometric shapes. At first, their works shocked people. It was unrealistic and quite unlike traditional art styles. The cubists were interested in the way we look at the world. They noticed how things take on different shapes when we see them from different view points, for that reason cubists in some artworks painted many views of the same object together in one painting. Through this technique Cubists found a new way of capturing the 3D world on a flat artists canvas. In cubism the subject matter was broken up, analysed, and reassembled in an abstracted form. It was made of simplified forms and geometrical shapes broken into panes wi...

Cultural Critique – Racism

Unfortunately, in this time and age, racism continues to be an issue in the American society, especially in the south. Since the introduction of slavery, many people have the belief that skin color determines someone’s ranking in life. After the freedom of slaves, racism became a big problem in America. As a result, other races look down upon many different cultures and ethnic groups believing that they are superior to others. Racism has lead to people discriminate against one another and become prejudice. Unfortunately, racism effects peoples lifestyles, job opportunities, and education. Racism affects a person’s lifestyle.Unfortunately, racism can cause a person to go into deep depressions. After constantly hearing negative aspects of a person’s image, people can begin to loath themselves. Unfortunately, self-loathing can cause a person to become suicidal or cause self-harm. Because of racism, people have gone to extreme lengths to change their physical appeara nce. For example, many people have confessed about trying to change their skin complexion by putting harmful substances on their bodies to bleach their skin. Dealing with racism can be oppressive. Fortunately, there are people who turn things like this into auspicious outcomes.For example, during the civil rights movement, the people of America fought to change the oppression of racism. By doing so, they defeated the milestone and overcame racism, by doing what they were told they could not. Instead of letting others put them down with spiteful words, they lifted each other up with encouraging words. As a result, they created self-love and the common phrase â€Å"Black is Beautiful. † Racism can also affect a person’s job opportunities. Racism cause races to believe that they are better than another race. As a result, people may discriminate against another person due to their appearance.For example, many African Americans are discriminates against in the work place. C onsequently, African Americans have to work harder than others to obtain the same job than someone of a different race does, say Caucasians. This affects the African American community causing for the different negative statistics about unemployment and welfare increase. Fortunately, there was a law passed that prohibits discrimination of any type in the work place. These laws prohibit jobs from discriminating against people for their race, gender, and ability. Racism has affected the education of many children.In the past, racism has caused segregation. During the times of segregation, African Americans students attended different schools than the Caucasian students. The African American children had to use used books with torn and ripped out pages, while the Caucasian students used brand new books. This caused there to be a gap in learning process of African American students. Although segregation no longer exists in the school system, it still affects the education of children to day. Schools in African American communities do not have the different amenities as schools located in diverse communities.Researchers have found that the achievement gap is linked to racial segregation. There are currently no segregated schools, but instead schools that are aimed toward different ethnic groups, but will allow any one of any race to attend. For example, there are schools that target the black community and educate them on their heritage and the school board curriculum. The people who participate in racism are intolerable to others racial appearance. Regrettably, racism hurts the lives of many people. The people who continue to be racist and intolerable to others people’s nationality make the lives of others a living hell.Many people have caused self-harm to themselves and others due to racism. People carry racism to their job place, and other places creating an uneasy and negative atmosphere. Racism has shaped America into what it is today. Without racism, pe ople would not be as strong as they are today, with thicker skin for words. Comparing people’s treatment of now to the treatment of who endured racism, the negativity is nowhere near as harsh. Racism has also caused many people to love themselves even more. There is currently a new trend of people becoming excited by their â€Å"haters;† and instead of allowing it to hurt them, they use it for motivation.America has been negatively impacted by racism. It has caused negative changes in people’s lifestyle, job opportunities, and education. Due to the negative influences of racism, people have gone into deep depressions. People have succumb to depression because they are constantly discriminated against inside and outside the work force, they have to constantly over compensate and compete for jobs with people of different races, people are called out of their name, and are being miseducated by the educational system. Racism has negatively influenced America since i t was introduced during slavery.

Business Plan For Ruwenzori Mountain National Park Tourism Essay Essay Example

Business Plan For Ruwenzori Mountain National Park Tourism Essay Essay Example Business Plan For Ruwenzori Mountain National Park Tourism Essay Essay Business Plan For Ruwenzori Mountain National Park Tourism Essay Essay The concern program presents trekking in the Ruwenzori Mountain, comparatively a alone merchandise among East Africans important mountains. Ruwenzori Mountains besides known as the Mountains of the Moon is protected as Ruwenzori Mountains National Park ( RMNP ) , embracing outstanding attractive force from which the Park derived its name. Mount Ruwenzori known as the Mountain of the Moon is situated in Western portion of Uganda. It has hence, go a major travel focal point for touristry finish. Largely, becuase of its brilliant singularity as base from which to research the Ruwenzori Mountains ranges, experience. The olympian Ruwenzori Mountain boosting expedition hence, signifiers portion of Uganda s national touristry industry. It is surely a comfy mountain with in the National Park environment, and there is significant low-cost adjustment with comparatively good nutrient and no deficit of company from other travelers. The program further describes, to market boosting in the Ruwenzori as important merchandise for competition and selling scheme. It does, nevertheless, examine the concern environment in broader position taking into history the tendencies of developing a selling scheme. The SWOT Analysis ( see Appendix ) has been used as footing to develop concern Plan to be implemented as a tool to market trekking as merchandise to pull more tourers. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Ruwenzori Mountain National Park The Ruwenzori Mountain National Park ( RMNP ) falls under Uganda Wildlife Authority ( UWA ) estates. The RMNP direction takes due committedness to beef up touristry publicity, selling, and development of the park in coaction with Uganda Tourism Board ( UTB ) . The RMNP respects touristry sector as an of import, and built-in facet for developmental schemes for the Country, with accent being directed to the economic benefits that are derived from touristry to relieve poorness among the local communities. However, the RMNP besides considers the impacts of touristry on the environment and societal facets every bit good. The direction of RMNP decided to originate development of concern program to market the oustanding beauty of the Ruwenzori Mountain landscape ( see Figure 1.1 ) . Often, the focal point of the concern will be directed to the niche market, because of the alone merchandising proposition ( USP ) of the merchandises encompassed within the RMNP ecosystem. In add-on, RMNP is besides inscribed on the United Nation Education Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ) , and is among the recognized outstanding snow capped mountains scopes of the Moon in the part, by African criterions. The authorities of Uganda ( GoU ) supports the developement of touristry in the Country, apparent policies and substructure for touristry are have showed important betterment on touristry circuts. Uganda is exceptionally of import in footings of biodiversity, one time described by former British Premier Winston Churchil as The Pearl of Africa and is endowed with a assortment of ecosystems. Uganda is gifted by nature, allow entirely the RMNP, Winston Churchill in 1908 was struck by the natural beauty including the Ruwenzori the Mountains of the Moon. The diverse landscape ecosystems and clime that characterize Uganda have supported a diverseness of zoology and flora species. The RMNP stands out with beautiful distinguishable characteristics, considered uncomparable with mist shrouded extremums, which provide the most brilliant position of the national park ( Liniger, et al. , 1998 ) . Figure 1.1 Map of the Ruwenzori Mountain National Park Beginning: UWA-Quarterly Report ( 2009 ) In Table 1.1shows the RMNP has high biodiversity of species that are widely considered vulnerable and endemic to the Albertine Rift ( AR ) , and holds several endangered species endemic to the vicinity. Empirical grounds suggests that, the park has well high figure of workss and trees. The park is recognized for its vegetation, which has been described as the most beautiful in the World ( Liniger, et al. , 1998 ; Hockings, et al. , 2001 ; WRI, 2003 ) . Table 1.1 the preliminary informations of species in Ruwenzori Mountains Standards Mammals Birds Butterflies Reptiles Vulnerable 106 216 213 61 Endemic 15 89 68 36 Endangered 09 10 14 11 DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCT AND SERVICES The development of the merchandises and associated services are organised through the Ruwenzori Mountaineering Service ( RMS ) tour company, that works in close concurrence with the RMNP to keep the substructure within the Mountains landscape such as huts and trails used for tourer. The RMNP direction proctors the environmental spacial force per unit areas of trekkers, and the park governments channels 20 % of the gate fee money into local community development enterprise. The RMNP and RMS shall supply stakeholders with more information particularly, the Private sector with market informations to market the Ruwenzori trekking touristry merchandises. Park direction and RMS shall implement the concern Plan as selling scheme to market its merchandises regional and international nich market. The selling section shall concentrate on trekking in the Ruwenzori Mountain extremums, visitants may besides detect the beauty of assorted flora types and sing birds on their manner. These merchandis es includes: Treking Trail Network There is good web of trails ( see Figure 1.2 ) below, and resting huts on the mountains. The extremums are by and large merely tackled by experient trekkers or tramps. Most visitants stick to the cringle trail, which takes about six to seven yearss. Ruwenzori Mountain is regarded as unique and tougher trek than the acclivities of mountain Kilimanjaro or mountain Kenya. Photo 1.2 boardwalks on the pes of RMNP chief entree point for boosting Beginning: UWA-Ruwenzori General Mamagement Plan ( 2006 ) Long trekking The trekking starts from the Park central office to the first hut, which takes about 5hours walk about 10km. The most longest and strenuous walk takes visitant through marshy countries and it takes about 7 hours from the first hut go throughing through elephantine lobelia species. Visitors so are encouraged to take apprehension or even remain for anight at the 2nd cantonment and bask the brilliant extremums of Ruwenzori. Generally, trekking takes between six to seven yearss ( see Table 1.2 ) below, and it includes portion of the Ruwenzori H2O falls every bit good. It is rather electrifying and rewarding experience but one, which must be planned to finish the circuit. Table 1.2 the Ruwenzori Mountains trekking Circut system N0.of Days Resting Holman hunts Altitude N0.of Hours Elevention Day 1 Nyakalengija Gate to Naybitaba 2600M 5Hrs 1,200M Day 2 Nyabitaba to John Matte 3,515M 7Hrs 9,15M Day 3 John Matte to Bujuku 4,075M 5Hrs 560M Day 4 Bujuku to Kitandara 4,050M 5Hrs 425M Day 5 Kitandara to Guy Yeoman 3,500M 7Hrs 300M Day 6 Guy Yeoman 2,600M 5Hrs Day 7 Nyabitaba to Park HQ s 3Hrs Extremums Visitors who wish to trek the glacial extremums are encouraged to come with or are provided with mounting ropes, an ice-axes, crampoons, mounting boots, snow goggles, a compass and altimeter on hire. Though RMS ushers are really experient, when it comes to taking trekkers to below the snow line. But with small cognition or they are non decently trained in alpine conditions, nevertheless their knowing with peaks locations. Figure 1.3 Lake Bujuku on Ruwenzori Mountain Altitude Sickness The height illness largely occurs when visitants have reached at the extremums ( see Lake Bujuku ) above, one of the important lakes on Ruwenzorit tucked at 4075m above sea degree. The ushers have been trained in First Aid and are really familiar to recognize height related symptoms. Finally, they advice the visitant or visitants to withdraw or name off the trekking. In this instance, should the illness become serious, the ushers may name for the chopper for deliverance. This chopper is based at the Park central offices specifically to react to exigency non merely for visitants, but besides for the general operation of the Park. The olympian Ruwenzori Mountains have high clime and visitant are advised to come with warm vesture s. The chief factor to see when be aftering a trip to trek Ruwenzori is upwind form, the best months for trekking scopes from May to September due to dry spelt and the wettest month April, June, and November severally ( UWA Annual Report, 2008-09 ) . Ruwenzori Mountain is regarded to be the legendary snow-capped mountains of the Moon. The typical glacial extremums are seeable, nevertheless, most trekkers rate Ruwenzori to be the most ambitious of all African Mountains. Short trekkes Ruwenzori Mountaineering Service besides can organize twenty-four hours shorter treks into the five recognized flora zones including the alpine. The visitants will bask sing magnetic birds and nature embedded with endemic species of workss ( see Photo 1.1 ) . Photograph 1.1 the Ugandas magnetic bird species Source: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.ugandawildlife.org Costss Table 1.3 below reflects the fees for sing the Ruwenzori Mountain National Park. The bundle for trekking Ruwenzori Mountains for case four a yearss or seven yearss ( see Table 1.4 ) per individual including Park entry, and deliverance operation. These does non including the porters services, the visitants may wish to transport their baggage. Visitors in most instances are encouraged to negociate with the porters depending on the kgs and figure of yearss. Table 1.3 the Visitor Entrance Fees for Ruwenzori Mountain National Park Visitor Entrance Fees Non-Resident Foreign Resident East Africans Class-Category A Visitation Fee US $ Visitation Fee US $ Visitatio Fee Ush. Adult One day/Night $ 30 One day/Night $ 20 One day/Night Ush 500 Children ( 5-15 old ages ) One day/Night $ 15 One day/Night $ 10 One day/Night Ush 2,500 Child ( 0-5 old ages ) Free Free Free Table 1.4Visitor trekking fees for Ruwenzori Mountains Visitor Trekking Fees Central Circuit Trail Non-Resident Resident and East African Citizen Ugandan Citizen Class of ( Class ) Visitation Fee US $ Visitation FeeUS $ Visitation Fee US $ Adult 7 Days /6Nights US $ 780 US $ 705 US $ 400 The excess extra clip on the Mountain if desired by the Visitor Extra twenty-four hours ( Adult ) US $ 120 US $ 120 US $ 120 The Central Circuit including the celebrated Margherita Peak Adult US $ 990 US $ 870 US $ 470 Desire for other extra beautiful Extremums Extremums US $ 150 US $ 150 US $ 150 Infrastructure The public substructure such as roads and landing field is stipulation for easy motion of tourer to Ruwenzori Mountain for boosting and other touristic activities including traditional cultural entaintment. The RMNP and RMS shall supply improved handiness to hike touristry within the Ruwenzori. The adjustment installations exist within the National Park central office, this will represent improved visitants installations and services to be marketed and later pull more visitants to boost the Ruwenzori Mountain. Hiking as touristry merchandise, untapped shall be encouraged under this Business Plan. The merchandise has possible to vie with other states on the market, if marketed suitably. It will finally supply high bend over and accordingly offset production costs. The Business program will suit the reappraisal of monetary values to do the merchandise outstanding to rivals and measure visitant satisfaction as portion of the selling scheme. Description OF THE MARKET Market Segment Strategy The RMNP in partnership with RMS shall develop a diversified market cleavage scheme to capture aggresively the planetary market based on its uniques selling proportion. The planetary market shall include: International niche markets will concentrate on United Kingdom ( UK ) , United State of America ( USA ) , Canada Australia, Austria, New Zealand, European Union. Mainstream tourer including, the tourers to Tanzania and Kenya. Regional markets the East African members provinces and including South Africa, and Domestic markets will be Ugandan Citizens. Ultimately, class 3 and 4 are considered more robust in instance of safety jobs. The diversified scheme is aimed at associating boosting merchandises with market sections, tapping upper, in-between, and lower terminals of the markets. The backpackers and over Landers are frequently the touristry innovators. The RMNP shall promote this market section in peculiar as Backpackers constitute a strong beginning of income for mountain hike and visit to the local community to research cultural sites within Ruwenzori. Description OF Selling Scheme Distribution Strategy for Promotion The RMNP has been advancing itself through booklets distributed to assorted circuit companies, UWA, UTB, RMS, UTA, Uganda Community Tourism Association ( UCOTA ) , and through other protected countries within the state. The distribution reappraisal will concentrate on the visitants perceptual experience and degree of services provided by RMS. Additionally, RMS shall offer trekking as an sole merchandise, and attention must be exercised to manage visitants in professional and profitable mode. Consequently, the merchandise will be promoted strongly in the undermentioned market topographic points with more accent on market section and distribution of promotional stuffs every bit good: Locally In Uganda, UWA Headquarters and UTB shall work closely with East African Community ( EAC ) to market Ruwenzori boosting merchandise with engagement of the private sector UTA. The reappraisal of selling and distribution shall affect the invitation of the journalist and touristry travel authors to see Ruwenzori and papers hike as a merchandise for selling and publicity both at domestic, regional and international market. The RMS will besides set about selling and publicity locally and co-ordinate with single private sector operators as portion of the reappraisal scheme. Photo 1.2 Local community displays traditional dance for tourer Beginning: Photograph by John Regionally The EAC member provinces such as states like Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Africa etc. Accessibility to Ruwenzori trekking is important. On the other manus to reexamine and research distribution points as bases for selling, and advancing Ruwenzori trekking expedition escapade. Materials like T-Shirts, posting cards and spines, brochures and information sheets, shall be made available in the regional states as platform for selling and publicity. International It includes America, Germany, Britain, Australia, France, and New Zealand, Austria, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Canda, and Belgium etc. The booklets, travel information, trade magazines ( Africa Geographic ) Ruwenzori guidebook and posting picturing hike will be distributed to the afore-mentioned states as selling nexus points and includes Television docudrama ( Discovery Channel from Britain ) and TV 5 Canal Horizon of France. DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Management of the Business The state s National Tourism Policy ( NTP ) set to steer touristry development as vehicle for economic development and to better local community support through sustainable touristry enterprises. It besides seeks to market Uganda as a favoured tourer finish within East African Region ( EAR ) . As mentioned in the content, the authorities has provided an enabling environment including a contributing clime for selling and publicity of Uganda s natural beauty and Ruwenzori Mountain a merchandise to be exploited sustainably. The RMNP, shall actively in partnership with RMS, participate to protect the environment and concentrate on sustainable boosting touristry. It is envisaged that the parties shall play important function in back uping local communities environing the Park to enable them rend the benefit from boosting activity. The touristry development in the Mountain Ruwenzori National Park shall be advanced, whilst staying environmentally sustainable. A certain part of gross accruing from touristry development in RMNP shall be ploughed back towards the protection of natural resource base as pillar for touristry. The concern environment is significantly influenced by modern engineering associated with things like Internet, Fax and computerized systems for selling, all available in the state. The authoritative hotels in this respect are in topographic point to do touristry roar including banking installations and service. Kasese is possibly the most attractive town situated about 21 kilometers with first-class position of Ruwenzori Mountains. The visitants meaning to boost are every bit advised to purchase most of what they need either from Kampala or in Kasese town. Although, there are a figure of stores within Kasese town and at the Park central office. Technology wise, the town has rather a figure of Bankss installations and easy communicating to enable tourist entree or associate up with their households. Tourism concern roars in town since most of the hotels came up as a consequence of touristry development in the Ruwenzori Mountains. The vehicles for hire available within the town with professional registered Tour Guides Association of Uganda ( TGAU ) . Competitive advantage The potency of touristry in Ruwenzori Mountain is the good abandon coupled with presence of about three extremums and high height. With appropriate scheme for selling and publicity Ruwenzori Mountain stand in a better place to vie with other states in the part offering similar merchandises. The most profitable market section for this type of merchandise requires reexamining of the selling and publicity. The focal point will be photographic campaign and adventures tourers. These rivals include, but non limited to the followers: Mountains like Elgon and the Virungas in Uganda The Kilimanjaro Mountain in Tanzania. Mount Kenya in Kenya Product quality On this footing, the selling scheme will be based on merchandise quality, which will do Ruwenzori Mount market led straight linked to its merchandise which include ( see Photo 1.2 ) . Ruwenzori Mountain has high potency to pull tourer because of its added advantage of being the National Park and World Heritage Site recognised globally by UNESCO criterions. Von Hohnel Chameleon Photo 1.2 Ruwenzori dramatic Von Hohnel Chameleon Source: www.exotic-pets.co.uk IMPLEMENTAION OF THE BUSINESS Plan Action Plan / Marketing Strategy The SWOT analysis and the important guiding aims ( see Appendix ) have been developed to impel the program, Ruwenzori Mountain has a really powerful and alone possible place amongst the current scope of touristry trekking finish points in Africa. The merchandise profile in Ruwenzori is diverse including bird watching the Ruwenzori turaco one of the Ruwenzori s dramatic birds found in montane wood. Arguably, the Marketing Manager ( MM ) UWA, Warden Tourism ( WT ) , and the Conservation Area Manager ( CAM ) RMNP will organize with relevant stakeholders to guarantee the execution of the Business program. Management Actions RMNP will no longer advance itself in isolation but will set up and beef up linkages with stakeholders like UTB, and Private sector UTA to advance Ruwenzori mountain attractive force as USP touristry merchandise. UWA and Private sector will originate regional touristry stakeholders to develop and show a coordinated selling scheme to advance and market Ruwenzori mountain trekking and related merchandises. Management Action Action Who Others involved Time period Precedence Develope pertnership with other touristry stakehoders Millimeter WT, UWA, RMS, UTB, UTA Year 1-2 High Develope coordinated scheme for selling and publicity WT CAM, MM, UTB RMS, UCOTA Year 1-2 High Promotional Material Ruwenzori guidebook and current cusps will be made widely available from touristry publicity or retail shows. The RMNP will bring forth a promotional postings. This postings will picture attractive forces such as the Ruwenzori hike to the extremums. It will be distributed as promotional stuff and will be sold to visitants at trade shows regionally and international. Sovenier Certificate A Certificate will be designed with Uganda Wildlife Authority logo and exposure of Ruwenzori Mountain. This certification will be issue to each visitant who hikes Ruwenzori Mountain. This is meant to promote more visitants to come for boosting as portion of selling and publicity scheme. East African usher books The East African guidebooks are of import beginning of information about saddle horse Ruwenzori hike and other regional touristry activities. RMNP will subject up-to-date information in good clip for inclusion in new editions as selling scheme. It is, nevertheless, imperative to ask for the research workers to Ruwenzori mountain touristry site. Information will include Camp installations services, which RMS hires out to tourist for mountain hike as selling scheme through media. Management Action Action Who Others involved Time period Precedence Develop and administer selling promotional stuffs ( Guide books, Bronchures, T-shirts ) Millimeter WT, UWA, UTB CAM, UTA Year 1-2 High Develop and administer posting map and cusps Millimeter WT, RMS, Year 2-3 Medium Develop Sovenier Certificates for visitants Cam UWA, UTB, RMS Year 1 High Maintain and update on a regular basis visitant orientation and reading stuffs WT MM, UTB, RMS Year 2-3 Medium Mass Media Uganda Wildlife Authority will utilize available mass media, both locally and nationally to advance and market Ruwenzori trekking merchandise to pull domestic market e.g. the usage of New vision, The Monitor New Paper, FM Radios, Uganda Television, Mobile Cinema shows in parts in Uganda aimed to tape domestic market. The Trade imperativeness organised by East African Community in Moshi Tanzania, The Magazines Nature and Eco-tourism and United Kingdom Daily Weekly Telegraphic. Filming Crews The cinematography groups will organize portion of the mark market, this program will concentrate at more particularly at international position as important country to be explored through marketing trekking as alone merchandise. The cinematography crew planned to under the Business program includes: St. Thomas Production, France ( Animals Like Us ) The Discovery Channel ( The Royal Tour ) and BBC Natural History Unit ( The Nile ) CNN shooting crew based in Washington D.C. These will enable amore comprehensive certification of the merchandise and hence sets it to be at better place to vie and even out viing other states of the similar merchandise in Africa. This certification would sale like hot bar at the markets and hence stimulates the addition of tourer to the Ruwenzori. Trade Fairs The mark for trade carnival is rather wide aimed at to capture the market at international, regional and domestic. This country is regarded as of high market section, which involves the followers: The British Bird Fair in London, United Kingdom Cultural Fair at Crested Crane Hotel Uganda Annual Domestic Tourism Exhibition Uganda Africa 2000 Tourism. Africa 2000 Tourism is largely organised in Kenya and Tanzania, where by most states in Africa take part in the trade just exhibition. This selling program will hold a broad range of mark publicity particularly the regional clients. The international trade carnival in United Kingdom hopes to aim the over Landers and backpackers. These classs of tourer bring in immense lamp amount of money to Ruwenzori. The ground is that most of their hike expedition last seven yearss, which is good scheme for RMS and the Park as good. Website scheme The Website signifiers speedy and more dependable scheme for marketing trekking in the Ruwenzori. It will necessitate registering with popular hunt engines such as google.com. Searchable database of African Conservation Foundation, Enter Uganda.com, and yahoo.com. The trekking will so be incorporated in as portion of selling and section publicity. Management Action Action Who Others involved Time period Precedence Encourage Mass Media to advance and market trekking in Ruwenzori Mountains Cam RMS, UWA, UTB UCOTA Year 1 High Work with Filming Crews to publises Ruwenzori merchandises on planetary market Millimeter UT, UTA, UTB RMS, UCOTA Year 1-5 High Attend and take part in Trade Fairs to tape niche market through publicity Millimeter WT, CAM, UTB UTA, RMS Year 2-5 Medium Ensure to put in cyberspace installations Cam UWA, RMS, UTB Year 1-2 High Payment of Fees The fees for RMNP entryway and mountain trekking will so be combined as a individual payment. This enterprise will increase the popularity of RMNP to pull more gross. The rates will be adjusted significantly for foreign non-residents, foreign occupants, regional and local or domestic. Booking System The RMNP shall put in a computerized system with Internet service. This will enable Uganda Wildlife Authority central offices reserves office, tourers, and tour companies to book mountain hike and adjustment straight. This will cut down holds and information will flux promptly every bit good as feedback Management Action Action Who Others involved Time period Precedence Establish monitoring and rating system WT MM, RMS Year 3-4 High Analyse fees and adjust to pull visitants Cam MM, RMS, WT UWA, UTB, UTA Year 4 Medium Procure computersfor booking through cyberspace services and supply accurate information to visitants Millimeter WT, CAM, RMS Year 3-4 High Uganda Wildlife Authority in concurrence with support from private sector shall take the advantage of Uganda s foreign missions to backup Uganda Tourism Board publicity and selling attempts through supplying information to tourist seeking for visas to Uganda.The private sector, Uganda Tourism Association shall advance and market Ruwenzori boosting as sole merchandise to pull international and regional niche market in close linkage with Ruwenzori Mountain Service. Finance Budget estimation The costs of this selling and publicity operation would be as follows Description Dollars Travel costs ( regional A ; international ) trade shows 10.000 Selling costs . Television Discovery Channel ( The Royal Tour ) 4000 . Television St. Thomas Production, France ( Animals Like US ) 4000 . BBC Natural History Unit ( The Nile ) 4000 . Radio Uganda A ; FM Station 1500 . Cinemas in Kenya/Tanzania 1500 Subtotal 25.000 Tourism promotional stuff . Booklets and Certificates 5000 . Ruwenzori guidebooks A ; East African guidebook 5000 . New Papers, Magazine, Leaflets A ; Posters, Maps 5000 . Internet installing 5000 Subtotal 45.000 Tourism Directory 1.500 Computer Desktop ( 2 Unit of measurements ) 3.500 ( IBM ) Printer-Laser ( 2 Unit of measurements ) 2.000 Office stationary 8.500 Grand entire 60.500 Monitoring AND Evaluation The formation of maneuvering commission to supervise the public presentation of Business program to guarantee adherance to the action. The flow of tourist enlargement in size of the operation within the RMNP is a map of the future rating of the visitant denseness. Once the Business program has achieved its adulthood stage. Tourism promotional stuffs, which are being widely distributed for marketing the RMNP merchandises will be evaluated to set up the degree of their effectivity on market. The reserve costs as per centum of gross revenues originating out of engagement in touristry trade at regional and international degree. Visitors feedback signifiers can be analysed and hence signifier mechanism to find public presentation criterions of the Business program in respect to tourist flow. A questionnaire will be designed to step degrees of visitants satisfaction, gauge visitants perceptual experience in regard to trekking as important merchandise being marketed. It is besides imperative to supervise and measure, how successful or consequences achieved through selling by lucifer the degree of marketing with modern engineering. The relevancy of the Business program will be monitored during the execution stage and reexamine strategic aims and comparing them with consequences achieved. Mentions Hockings, M. , Stolton, S. , Dudley, N. , and Parrish, J. , 2001. The heightening our Heritage Tool kit: book 1.UNESCO and IUCN Website: hypertext transfer protocol: //.enhancingheritage.net/docs_public.asp ( accessed on 23/11/09 ) Liniger, H. , Weingartner, R. , and Grosjean, M. , 1998. Mountains of the World: Water Tower for 21st Century.University of Bern, Switzerland Pp 45-75 UWA, 2009. Uganda Wildlife Authority ( UWA ) . Quarterly Report. Website: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.ugandawildlife.org ( accessed on 10/11/09 ) WRI, 2003. Earth tendencies, Country Profile: World Resource Institute ( WRI ) , Forests and Dry lands: Uganda. Website: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/ ( accessed on 01/12/09 ) . UWA, 2008-09. Uganda Wildlife Authority ( UWA ) . Annual Report. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.ugandawildlife.org ( accessed on 10/11/09 ) UWA, 2006. Uganda Wildlife Authority Rwenzori General Management Plan.

Comparing the Marketing Techniques Essays

Comparing the Marketing Techniques Essays Comparing the Marketing Techniques Essay Comparing the Marketing Techniques Essay Ml- Compare the marketing techniques used by the two organizations. Comment on the advantages and disadvantages of each. Thorpe Park Thorpe park use many different way of promoting Its selfs. The way that Thorpe Park promotes its self is very clever and reaches out to a certain audience of people. For MI I will be looking at the different ways that Thorpe park and compare that market promote their selfs and the products. Promotion Technique There are servile techniques that Thorpe Park uses so they can attract more people to the park and overall make a bigger profit. A big way that Thorpe Park promotes its self on the internet. The way that it does this is through social media and adverts that pop up on places like Youth before a video and pop that appear on websites. There are section times that Thorpe park promotes its self-more. The main times are when the school holidays start and a couple of days before. This is due to the fact that Thorpe parks mall audience Is a range of kids/ students ranged from 13-21. At the moment the big thing that Thorpe Park Is promoting Is the fright nights. They have two weeks of radio ads, on radio stations Like and KISS. Also Thorpe Park has ads in newspapers like the Sun and other local papers. Thorpe Park promotes its self the most when a new ride is being built and when its officially launched. Place technique Thorpe Park is placed very well and its location is key to its success. Being centre of everything is very for getting huge amounts of customers a year and provides people to come to the park that live all over the I-J. As you can see form the map the big road the MOM and the MM are very close to Thorpe Park, theses road go all round the UK and Its very easy driving once you get on these roads, so this attracts more customs to Thorpe Park. Its hard to place the roller coasters as Thorpe Park has limited land. Also Its hard to get planning promotion. Planning promotion Is a very big thing at the moment, because Its getting harder and harder to get the planning promotion to build the new rides. Product After Sales Service Thorpe Park provides an After Sales Service, this is very important to some customers provoking teen Walt security when Dulling a product. Ensuring satisfaction Thorpe Park use exit questionnaires and other research methods to measure customer satisfaction. Services many guests regrettably lose personal items out of their pockets. Guest services then have the difficult responsibility of matching the reported lost items with the recovered property from in the ride areas. Last season Thorpe Park recovered nearly 2000 items, and returned nearly 25%. Deal with complaints Thorpe Park respond in writing to any complaints that need following up, or in reply to letters, phone calls or emails within 7 days of receiving the initial complaint. The main service is that Thorpe Park is an entertainer, and provides assure for different age groups. The product life cycle The product life cycle of the roller coasters are very long and when its getting old they staff will revamp the roller coasters so they are looking new again. So the product never really runs out unless the roller coaster gets knocked down to build a new one. Some of the roller coaster has been at Thorpe Park for 20 years or so. The roller coasters take a lot of where, but they never fully break because they always gets an annually services, and gets repairs from there. USPS The USPS for Thorpe park is the angry birds land.

How to Write a Great College Essay, Step-by-Step

How to Write a Great College Essay, Step-by-Step SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Writing your personal statement for your college application is an undeniably overwhelming project. Your essay is your big shot to show colleges who you are - it’s totally reasonable to get stressed out. But don’t let that stress paralyze you. This guide will walk you through each step of the essay writing process to help you understand exactly what you need to do to write the best possible personal statement. I'm alsogoing to follow an imaginary student named Eva as she plans and writes her college essay, from her initial organization and brainstorming to her final edits. By the end of this article, you'll have all the toolsyou need to createa fantastic, effective college essay. So how do you writea goodcollege essay? The processstarts with finding the best possibletopic, which means understanding what the prompt is asking for and taking the time to brainstorm a variety of options. Next, you'll determinehow to create an interesting essay that shows off your unique perspective and write multiple drafts in order to hone your structureand language. Onceyour writing is as effective and engaging as possible, you'll do a final sweep to make sure everything is correct. This guide coversthe following steps: Organizing Brainstorming Picking a topic Making a plan Writing a draft Editing your draft Finalizing your draft Repeating the process Feature Image: John O'Nolan/Flickr Step 1: Get Organized The first step in how to write a college essay is figuring out what you actually need to do. Although many schools are now on the Common App, some very popular colleges, including University of Texas and University of California,still have their own applications and writing requirements. Even for Common App schools, you may need to write a supplemental essay or provide short answers to questions. Before you get started, you shouldknow exactly what essays you need to write. Having this information allows you to plan the best approach to each essay and helps you cut down on work by determining whetheryou can use an essay for more than one prompt. Start Early Writing good college essays involves a lot of work: you need dozens of hours to get just one personal statement properly polished, and that's before you even start to consider any supplemental essays. In order to make sure you have plenty of time to brainstorm, write, and edit your essay (or essays), I recommend starting at least two months before your first deadline. The last thing you want is to end up with a low-quality essay you aren't proud of because you ran out of time and had to submit something unfinished. Determine What You Need to Do As I touched on above, each college has its own essay requirements, so you'll need to go through and determine what exactly you need to submit for each school. This process issimpleif you’re only using the Common App, since you can easily view therequirements for each school under the "My Colleges" tab. Watch out, though, because some schools have a dedicated "Writing Supplement" section, while others (even those that want a full essay) will put their prompts inthe "Questions" section. It gets trickier if you’re applying to any schools that aren't onthe Common App. You'll need to look up the essay requirements for each college - what's required should be clear on the application itself, or you can look under the "how to apply" section of the school's website. Once you've determined the requirements for each school, I recommend making yourself a chartwith the school name, word limit, and application deadline on one side andthe prompt or prompts you need to respond to on the other. That way you'll be able to see exactly what you need to do and when you need to do it by. Decide Where to Start If you have one essay that's due earlier than the others, start there. Otherwise, start with the essay for your top choice school. I would also recommend starting with alonger personal statement beforemoving on to shorter supplementary essays, since the 500 - 700 word essays tend to take quite a bit longer than 100 - 250 word short responses. The brainstorming you do for the long essay may help you come up with ideas you like for the shorter ones as well. Also considerwhether some of the prompts are similar enough that you could submitthe same essay to multiple schools. Doing so can save you some time and let you focus on a few really great essays rather than a lot of mediocre ones. However,don't reuse essays for dissimilar or very school-specific prompts, especially â€Å"why us† essays. If a college asks you to write aboutwhy you're excited to go there, admissions officers want to see evidence that you're genuinely interested. Reusing an essay about another school and swapping out thenames isthe fastest way to prove you aren't. Example: Eva's College List Eva is applying early to Emory University and regular decision to University of Washington, UCLA, and Reed College. Emory and Reed both use the Common App. College Essay Prompt University of Washington December 1st 600 words Discuss how your family’s experience or cultural history enriched you or presented you with opportunities or challenges in pursuing your educational goals. OR Tell us a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it. University of Washington December 1st 300 words The University of Washington seeks to create a community of students richly diverse in cultural backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints. How would you contribute to this community? OR Describe an experience of cultural difference or insensitivity you have had or observed. What did you learn from it? UCLA November 30 1,000 words total Describe the world you come from - for example, your family, community or school - and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations. AND Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are? Common App November 1 650 words 1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. 2. The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? 3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again? 4. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. 5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family. Emory University 500 words November 1 Last August, Susan Grant, chief nurse executive for Emory Healthcare, said this of Emory’s choice to treat patients with Ebola: "We can either let our actions be guided by misunderstandings, fear and self-interest, or we can lead by knowledge, science and compassion. We can fear, or we can care." Consider her idea of doing what is in the public interest despite potential cost. Please discuss an example in your life or the life of another that's come to your attention. OR In the spirit of Emory's tradition of courageous inquiry, what question do you want to help answer and why? Reed College Jan 1 200-500 words For one week at the end of January, Reed students upend the traditional classroom hierarchy and teach classes about any topic they love, academic or otherwise. This week is known as Paideia after the Greek term signifying â€Å"education† – the complete education of mind, body and spirit. What would you teach that would contribute to the Reed community? Even though she's only applying to four schools, Eva has a lot to do: two essays for UW, two for the UC application, and one for the Common App, plus the supplements for Reed and Emory. Manystudents will have fewer requirements to complete, but those who are applying to very selective schools or a number of schools on different applications will have as many or even more responses to write. Since Eva's first deadline isearly decision forEmory, she’ll start by writing the Common App essay, and then work on the Emory supplement. (For the purposes of this post, we’ll focus on the Common App essay.) Colored paper clips: functionaland fun! (At least if you love organization.) Step 2: Brainstorm Next up in how to write a college essay: brainstorming essay ideas. There are tons ofways to come up with ideas for your essay topic: I've outlined three below. I recommend trying all of themand compilinga list of possible topics, then narrowing it down to the very best one or, if you're writing multiple essays, ones. Keep in mind as you brainstorm that there’s no best college essay topic, just the best topic for you. Don’t feel obligated to write about something because you think you should - those types of essays tend to be boring and uninspired. Similarly, don't simply write about the first idea that crosses your mindbecause you don't want to bother trying to think of something more interesting. Take the timeto come up with a topic you’re really excited about and that you can write about in detail. Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now: Analyze the Prompts One way to find possibletopics is to think deeply aboutthe college's essay prompt. What are they asking you for? Break them downand analyze every angle. Does the question include more than one part? Are there multiple tasks you need to complete? What do you think the admissions officers are hoping to learn about you? In cases where you have more than one choice of prompt, does one especially appeal to you? Why? Let's dissectone of the University of Washington prompts as an example: "Discuss how your family’s experience or cultural history enriched you or presented you with opportunities or challenges in pursuing your educational goals." This question is basically asking how your family affected your education, but it offers a number of possible angles. You can talk about the effects of either your family life (likeyour relationship with your parents or what your household was like growing up) or your cultural history (like your Jewish faith or your Venezuelan heritage). You can also choose between focusing on positive or negative effects of your family or culture.No matter what however, the readersdefinitely want to hear about your educational goals (i.e. what you hope to get out of college) and how they're related to your personal experience. As you try to think of answers for a prompt, imagine about what you would say if you were asked the question by a friend or during a get-to-know-you icebreaker. After all, admissions officers are basically just people who you want to get to knowyou. The essay questions can make a great jumping off point, but don’t feel married to them. Most prompts are general enough that you can come up with an idea and then fit it to the question. Consider Important Experiences, Events, and Ideas in Your Life What experience, talent, interest or other quirk do you have that you might want to share with colleges? In other words, what makes you you?Possible topicsinclude hobbies, extracurriculars, intellectual interests, jobs, significant one-time events, pieces of family history, or anything else that has shaped your perspective on life. Unexpected or slightly unusual topics are often the best: your passionate love of Korean dramas or your yearly family road trip to an important historical site. You want your essayto add something to your application, so if you’re an All-American soccer player and want to write about the role soccer has played in your life, you’ll have a higher bar to clear. Of course if you have a more serious part of your personal history - the death of a parent, serious illness, or challenging upbringing - you can write about that. But make sure you feel comfortable sharing details of the experience with the admissions committee and that you can separate yourself from it enough to take constructive criticism on your essay. What do you see when you look in the mirror? Think About How You See Yourself The last brainstorming method is to consider whether there are particular personality traits you want to highlight. This approach can feel rather silly, but it can also be very effective. If you were trying to sell yourself to an employer, or maybe even a potential date, how would you do it? Try to think about specific qualities that make you stand out.What are some situations in which you exhibited this trait? Example: Eva's Ideas Looking at the Common App prompts, Eva wasn’t immediately drawn to any of them, but after a bit of consideration she thought it might be nice to write about her love of literature for the first one, which asks about something "so meaningful your application would be incomplete without it." Alternatively, she liked the specificity of the failure prompt and thought she might write about a bad job interview she had had. In terms of important events, Eva’s parents got divorced when she was three andshe’s been going back and forth between their houses for as long as she can remember, so that’s a big part of her personal story. She’s also played piano for all four years of high school, although she's not particularlygood. As for personal traits, Eva is really proud of her curiosity - if she doesn’t know something, she immediately looks it up, and often ends up discovering new topics she’s interested in. It’s a trait that’s definitely come in handy as a reporter for her school paper. Step 3: Narrow Down Your List Now you have a list of potential topics, but probably no idea where to start. The next step is to go through your ideas and determinewhich onewill make for the strongest essay. You'll thenbegin thinking about how best to approach it. What to Look For in a College Essay Topic There's no single answer to the question of what makes a great college essay topic, but there are somekey factors you should keep in mind. The best essaysare focused, detailed, revealing and insightful, and finding the righttopic is vitalto writing a killer essay with all of those qualities. As you go through your ideas, be discriminating - really think about how each topic could work as an essay. Butdon’t be too hard on yourself; even if an ideamay not work exactly the way you first thought, there may be another way to approach it. Pay attention to whatyou're really excited about and look for ways to make those ideas work. Once you have a bunch of "idea"s, you have to decide which one really stands out. Does ItMatter to You? If you don’t care about your topic, it will be hard to convince your readers to care about it either. You can't write a revealing essay about yourself unless you write about a topic that is truly important to you. But don’t confuse important to you withimportantto the world:a college essay is not a persuasive argument. The point is to givethe reader a sense of who you are, not to make a political or intellectual point. The essay needs to be personal. Similarly, a lot of students feel like they have to write about a major life event or their most impressive achievement. But the purposeof a personal statement isn't to serve as a resume or a brag sheet - there are plenty of other places in the application for you to list that information. Many of the best essays areabout something small because your approach to acommon experience generallyreveals a lot about your perspective on the world. Mostly, your topic needs to have had a genuine effect on your outlook, whether it taught you something about yourself or significantly shifted your view on something else. Does It Tell the Reader Something Different About You? Your essay should add something to your application that isn’t obvious elsewhere. Again, there are sections for all of your extracurriculars and awards; the point of the essay is to reveal something more personal that isn't clear just from numbers and lists. You also want to make sure that if you're sending more than one essay to a school - like a Common App personal statement and a school-specific supplement - the two essays take on different topics. Is ItSpecific? Your essay should ultimately have a very narrow focus. 650 words may seem like a lot, but you can fill it up very quickly. This means you either need to have a very specific topic from the beginning or find a specific aspect of a broader topic to focus on. If you try to take on a verybroad topic, you’ll end up with a bunch of general statements and boring lists of your accomplishments. Instead, you want to find a short anecdote or single idea to explore in depth. Can You DiscussIt in Detail? A vague essay is a boring essay - specific details are what imbueyour essay with yourpersonality. For example, if I tell my friend that I hada great dessert yesterday, she probably won't be that interested. But if I explainthat I ate an amazing piece of peach raspberry pie with flaky, buttery crust and filling that was both sweet and tart, she will probablydemand to know where I obtainedit (at least she will if she appreciates the joys of pie). She'll also learn more about me: I love pie and I analyzedeserts with great seriousness. Given the importance of details, writing about something that happened a long time ago or that you don’t remember well isn't usually a wisechoice. If you can't describe something in depth, it will be challenging to write a compelling essay about it. You also shouldn't pick a topic you aren't actually comfortable talking about. Some students are excited to write essays about very personal topics, like their mother's bipolar disorder or their family's financial struggles, but others dislike sharing details about these kinds of experiences. If you're a member of the latter group, that's totally okay, just don't write about one of these sensitive topics. Still, don’t worry that every single detail has to be perfectly correct. Definitely don’t make anything up, but if you remember a wall as green and it was really blue, your readers won'tnotice or care. You don't have to know exactly how many dewdrops there were on the leaf. Can It Be Related to the Prompt? As long as you’re talking about yourself, there are very few ideas that you can’t tie back to one of the Common App prompts. But if you’re applying to a school with its own more specific prompt, or working on supplemental essays, making sure to address the question will be a greater concern. Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now: Deciding on a Topic Once you've gone through the questions above, you should have good sense of what you want to write about. Hopefully, it's also gotten you started thinking about how you can best approach that topic, but we'll cover how to plan your essaymore fully in the next step. If after going through the narrowing process, you’ve eliminated all your topics, first look back over them: are you being too hard on yourself? Are there any that you really like, but just aren’t totally sure what angle to take on? If so, try looking at the next section and seeing if you can’t find a different way to approach it. If you just don't have an idea you're happy with, that’s okay! Give yourself a week to think about it. Sometimes you’ll end up having a genius idea in the car on the way to school or while studying for your U.S. history test. Otherwise, try the brainstorming process again when you’ve had a break. If, on the other hand, you have more than oneidea you really like, consider whether any of themcan be used for other essays you need to write. Example: Picking Eva's Topic After brainstorming, Eva has a list of five possible topics: Love of books Failed job interview Piano Parents’ divorce Reporting Eva immediately rules out writing about playing piano, because it sounds super boring to her and it’s not something she is particularly passionate about. She also decides not to write about splitting time between her parents because she just isn’t comfortable sharing her feelings about it with an admissions committee. She feels more positive about the other three, so she decides to think about them for a couple of days. She ends up ruling out the job interview because she just can’t come up with that many details she could include. She's excited about both of her last two ideas, but sees issues with both of them: the books idea is very broad and the reporting idea doesn’t seem to apply to any of the prompts. Then she realizes that she can address the solving a problem prompt by talking about a time she was trying to research a story about the closing of a local movie theater, so she decides to go with that topic. Step 4: Figure Out Your Approach You’ve decided on a topic, but now you need to turn that topic into an essay. To do so, you need to determine what specifically you’re focusing on and how you’ll structure your essay. If you’re struggling or uncertain, try taking a look at some examples of successful college essays.It can be helpful to dissect how other personal statementsare structured to get ideas for your own, but don't fall into the trap of trying to copy someone else's approach. Youressayis your story - never forget that. Let's go through the key steps that will help you turn a great topic into a great essay. Choose a Focal Point As I touched on above, the narrower your focus, the easier it will be to write a unique, engaging personal statement.The simplestway to restrict the scope of your essayis to recount an anecdote, i.e. a short personal story that illustrates your larger point. For example, say a student was planning to write about her Outward Bound trip in Yosemite. If she tries to tell the entire story of hertrip, heressay will either be far too long or very vague. Instead, she decidesto focus in on a specific incident that exemplifies what mattered to her about the experience: her failed attempt to climb Half Dome. She described the moment she decided to turn back without reaching the top in detail, while touching on other parts of the climb and trip where appropriate. This approach lets her create a dramatic arc in just 600 words, while fully answering the question posed in the prompt (Common App prompt 2). Of course, concentratingon an anecdote isn't the only way to narrow your focus. Depending on your topic, it might make more sense to build your essay around an especially meaningful object, relationship, or idea. Another approachour example student from above could take to the same general topic would be to write about her attempts to keep her hiking boots from giving her blisters (in response to Common App prompt 4). Rather than discussing a single incident, she could tell the story of her trip through her ongoing struggle with the boots: the different fixes she tried, her less and less squeamish reactions to the blisters, the solution she finally found. A structure like this one can be trickier than the more straightforward anecdote approach, but it can also make for an engaging and different essay. When deciding what part of your topic to focus on, try to find whatever it is about the topic that is most meaningful and uniqueto you. Once you've figured that part out, it will guide how you structure the essay. To be fair, even trying to climb Half Dome takes some serious guts. Decide What You Want to Show About Yourself Remember that the point of the college essay isn’t just to tell a story, it’s to show something about yourself. It's vital that you have a specific point you want to make about what kind of person you are, what kind of college student you’d make, or what the experience you’re describing taught you. Since the papers you write for school are mostly analytical, you probably aren't used to writing about your own feelings. As such, it can be easy to neglect the reflection part of the personal statement in favor of just telling a story.Yet explaining what the event or idea you discuss meant to you is the most important essay - knowing how you want to tie your experiences back to yourpersonal growth from the beginning will help you make sure to include it. Develop a Structure It’s not enough to just know what you want to write about - you also need to have a sense of how you’re going to write about it. You could have the most exciting topic of all time, but without a clear structure your essay will end up as incomprehensible gibberish that doesn't tell the reader anything meaningful about your personality. There are a lot of different possible essay structures, but a simple and effective one is the compressed narrative, which builds on aspecific anecdote (like the Half Dome example above): Start in the middle of the action. Don't spend a lot of time at the beginning of your essay outlining background info - it doesn't tend to draw the reader in and you usually need less of it than you think you do. Instead start right where your story starts to get interesting. (I'll go into how to craft an intriguingopenerin more depth below.) Briefly explain what the situation is. Now thatyou've gotthe reader's attention, go back and explain anything they need to know about how you got into this situation. Don't feel compelled to fit everything in - only include the background details that are necessary to either understand what happened or illuminate your feelings about the situation in some way. Finish the story. Once you've clarified exactly what's going on, explain how you resolved the conflict or concluded the experience. Explain what you learned. The last step is to tie everything together and bring home the main point of your story: how this experience affected you. The key to this type of structure is to create narrative tension - you want your reader to be wondering what happens next. A second approach is the thematic structure, which is based on returning to a key idea or object again and again (like the boots example above): Establish the focus.If you're going to structure your essay around a single theme or object, you need to begin the essay byintroducing that key thing. You can do sowith a relevant anecdote or a detailed description. Touch on 3 - 5 timesthe focus was important.The body of your essay will consist of stringing together a few important momentsrelated to the topic. Make sure to use sensory details to bring the reader into those points in time and keep her engagedin the essay. Also remember to elucidate why these moments were important to you. Revisit the main idea.At the end, you want to tie everything together by revisiting the main idea or object and showing how your relationship to it hasshaped or affected you. Ideally, you'll also hint at how this thing will be important to you going forward. To make this structure work you need a veryspecific focus. Your love of travel, for example, is much too broad - you would need to hone in on a specific aspect of that interest, like how travelinghas taught you to adapt to event the most unusual situations. Whatever you do, don't use this structure to create a glorified resume or brag sheet. However you structure your essay, you want to make sure that it clearly lays out both the events or ideas you’re describing and establishes the stakes (i.e. what it all means for you). Many students become so focused on telling astory or recounting details that they forget to explain what it all meant to them. Your essay has to be built step-by-step, just like this building. Example: Eva's Essay Plan For her essay, Eva decides to use the compressed narrative structure to tell the story of how she tried and failed to report on the closing of a historic movie theater: Open with the part of her story where she finally gave up after calling the theater and city hall a dozen times. Explain that although she started researchingthe story out of journalistic curiosity, it was important to her because she'd grown up going to movies at that theater. Recount how defeated she felt when she couldn't get ahold of anyone, and then even more so when she saw a story about the theater's closingin the local paper. Describer her decisionto write an op-ed instead and interviewother students about what the theater meant to them. Finish by explaining that although she wasn't able to get the story (or stop the destruction of the theater), she learned that sometimes the emotional angle can be just as interesting as the investigative one. Step 5: Write a FirstDraft The key to writing your first draft is not to worry about whether it’s any good - just get something on paper and go from there. You will have to rewrite, so trying to get everything perfect is both frustrating and futile. Everyone has their own writing process. Maybe you feel more comfortable sitting down and writing the whole draft from beginning to end in one go. Maybe you jump around, writing a little bit here and a little there. It’s okay to have sections you know won’t work or to skip over things you think you’ll need to include later. Whatever your approach, there are a few tips everyone can benefit from. Don't Aim for Perfection I mentioned this idea above, but I can't emphasize it enough: no one writes a perfect first draft. Extensive editing and rewriting is vital to crafting an effective personal statement. Don’t get too attached to any part of yourdraft, because you may needto change anything (or everything) about your essay later. Also keep in mind that, at this point in the process, the goal is just to get your ideas down. Wonky phrasings and misplaced commas can easily be fixed when you edit, so don't worry about them as you write. Instead, focus on including lots of specific details and emphasizing how your topic has affected you, since these aspects are vital to a compelling essay. Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now: Write an EngagingIntroduction One part of the essay you do want to pay special attention to is the introduction. Your intro is your essay’s first impression: you only get one. It's much harder to regain your reader's attention onceyou've lost it, so you want to draw the reader in with an immediately engaging hook that sets up a compelling story. There are two possible approaches I would recommend. The â€Å"In Media Res† Opening You’ll probably recognize this term if you studied The Odyssey: it basically means that the story starts in the middle of the action, rather than at the beginning. A good intro of this type makes the reader wonder both how you got to the point you’re starting at and where you'll go from there. These openers provide a solid, intriguing beginningfor narrative essays (though they can certainly for thematic structures as well). But how do you craft one? Try to determine the most interesting point in your story and startthere. If you're not sure where that is, try writing out the entire story and then crossing out each sentence in order until you get to one that immediatelygrabs your attention. Let's look at some examples from real students' college essays: "Bottom of the ninth, two outs, the Red Sox down by four. We needed a miracle." Daniel J Shinnick, Connecticut College "I strode in front of 400 frenzied eighth graders with my arm slung over my Fender Stratocaster guitar - it actually belonged to my mother - and launched into the first few chords of Nirvana's 'Lithium.'" Anonymous, University of Virginia Both of these introsthrow the reader right intothe middle of the action. In the first, the game is already mostly over, and as we later find out, his sister is undergoing brain surgery the next day. The immediacy of this intro ("We need a miracle") gives a sense of high stakes, even though we don't know what the real topicis yet. In the second, the author jumps rightinto the action: theperformance. You can imagine how much less exciting it would be ifthe essay opened with an explanation of what the event was and why the author was performing. The Specific Generalization Sounds like an oxymoron, right? This type of intro sets up what the essay is going to talk about in a slightly unexpected way. These area bit trickier than the "in media res" variety, but theycan work really well for the right essay - generally one with a thematic structure. The key to this type of intro is detail. Contrary to what you may have learned in elementary school, sweeping statements don't make very strong hooks. If you want to start your essay with a more overalldescription of what you'll be discussing, you still need to make it specific and unique enough to stand out. Once again, let's look at some examples from real students' essays: â€Å"Pushed against the left wall in my room is a curious piece of furniture.† Neha, Johns Hopkins University â€Å"My name is Brontà «, and if you ask me, I’ll tell you my favorite book is Jane Eyre. This may or may not be a coincidence.† Brontà «, Johns Hopkins University Both of these intros set up the general topic of the essay (the first writer's bookshelf and and the second'slove ofJane Eyre) in an intriguing way.The first intro works because itmixes specific descriptions ("pushed against the left wall in my room") with more general commentary ("a curious piece of furniture"). The second draws the reader in by adopting a conversational and irreverent tone with asides like "if you ask me" and "This may or may not be a coincidence." I wouldn't recommend this intro - it's a bitof a cliche. Don't Worry Too Much About the Length When you start writing, don't worry about your essay'slength. Instead, focus on trying to include all of the details you can think of about your topic, which will make it easier to decide what you really need to include when you edit. However, if your first draft is more than twicethe word limitand you don't have a clear idea of what needs to be cut out, you may need to reconsider your focus - your topic is likely too broad. You may also need to reconsider your topic or approach if you find yourself struggling to fill space, since this usually indicates a topic that lacks a specific focus. Eva's First Paragraph I dialed the phone number for the fourth time that week. "Hello? This is Eva Smith, and I'm a reporter with Tiny Town High's newspaperThe Falcon.I was hoping to ask you some questions about - " I heard the distinctive click of the person on the other end of the line hanging up, followed by dial tone. I was about ready to give up: I'd been trying to get the skinny on whether the Atlas Theater was actually closing to make way for a big AMC multiplex or if it was just a rumor for weeks, but no one would return my calls. Step 6: Edit Aggressively No one writes a perfect first draft. No matter how much you might want to be done after writing a first draft - you musttake the time to edit. Thinkingcritically aboutyour essay and rewriting as needed is a vital part of writing a great college essay. Before you start editing, put your essay aside for a week or so. It will be easier to approach it objectively if you haven’t seen it in a while. Then, take an initial pass to identify any big picture issues with your essay. Once you've fixed those, ask for feedback from other readers - they'll often notice gaps in logic that don't appear to you, because you're automatically filling in your intimate knowledge of the situation. Finally, take another, more detailed look at your essay to fine tune the language. I've explained each of these steps in more depth below. First Editing Pass You should start the editing process by looking foranystructural or thematic issues with your essay. If you see sentences that don’t make sense or glaring typos of course fix them, but at this point, you’re really focused on the major issues since those require the most extensive rewrites. You don’t want to get your sentences beautifully structured only to realize you need to remove the entire paragraph. This phase is really about honing your structure and your voice. As you read through your essay, think about whether it effectively draws the reader along, engages him with specific details, and shows why the topicmatters to you. Try asking yourself the following questions: Does the intro make you want to read more? Is the progression of events and/or ideas clear? Does the essay show something specific about you? What is it and can you clearly identify it in the essay? Are there places where you could replace vague statements with more specific ones? Do you have too many irrelevant or uninteresting details clogging up the narrative? Is it too long? What can you cut out or condense without losing any important ideas or details? Give yourself credit for what you’ve done well, but don’t hesitate to change things that aren’t working. It can be tempting to hang on to what you've already written - you tookthe time and thought to craft it in the first place, so it can be hard to let it go. Taking this approach is doing yourself a disservice, however. No matter how much work you put into a paragraph or much you like a phrase, if they aren't adding to your essay, they need to be cut or altered. If there’s a really big structural problem, or the topic is just not working, you may have to chuck this draft out and start from scratch. Don't panic! I know starting over is frustrating, but it’s often the best way to fix major issues. Unfortunately, some problems can't be fixed with whiteout. Consulting Other Readers Once you’ve fixed the problems you found on the first pass and have a second (or third) draft you’re basically happy with, ask some other people to read it. Check with people whose judgment you trust: parents, teachers, and friends can all be great resources, but how helpful someone willbedepends on the individual and how willing you are to take criticism from her. Also, keep in mind that many people, even teachers, may not be familiar with what colleges look for in an essay. Your mom, for example, may have never written a personal statement, and even if she did, it was most likely decades ago.Give your readersa sense of what you’d like them to read for, or print out the questions I listed above and include them at the end of your essay. Second Pass After incorporating any helpful feedback you got from others, you should now have a nearly complete draft with a clear arc. At this point you want to look for issues with word choice and sentence structure: Are there parts that seem stilted or overly formal? Do you have any vague or boring descriptors that could be replaced with something more interesting and specific? Are there any obvious redundancies or repetitiveness? Have you misused any words? Are your sentences of varied length and structure? A good way to check for weirdness in language is to read the essay out loud. Ifsomething sounds weird when you say it, it will almost certainlyseem offwhen someone else reads it. Example: Editing Eva's First Paragraph In general, Eva feels like her first paragraph isn't as engaging as it could be and doesn't introduce the main point of the essay that well: although it sets up the narrative, it doesn't show off her personality that well.She decides to break itdown sentence by sentence: I dialed the phone number for the fourth time that week. Problem: For a hook, this sentence is a little too expository. It doesn't add any real excitement or important information (other than that this call isn't the first, which can be incorporate elsewhere. Solution: Cut this sentence and start with the line of dialogue. "Hello? This is Eva Smith, and I'm a reporter with Tiny Town High's newspaperThe Falcon.I was hoping to ask you some questions about - " Problem: No major issues with this sentence. It's engaging and sets the scene effectively. Solution: None needed, but Eva does tweak it slightly to include the fact that this call wasn't her first. I heard the distinctive click of the person on the other end of the line hanging up, followed by dial tone. Problem:This is a long-winded way of making a point that's not that important. Solution: Replace it with a shorter, more evocative description: "Click. Bzzzzzzz. Whoever was on the other end of the line had hung up." I was about ready to give up: I'd been trying to get the skinny on whether the Atlas Theater was actually closing to make way for a big AMC multiplex or if it was just a rumor for weeks, but no one would return my calls. Problem: This sentence is kind of long. Some of the phrases ("about ready to give up," "get the skinny") are cliche. Solution: Eva decides to try to stick more closely to her own perspective: "I'd heard rumors that Atlas Theater was going to be replaced with an AMC multiplex, and I was worried." She also puts a paragraph break before this sentence to emphasize that she's now movingon tothe background info rather than describing her call. There's a real Atlas Theater. Apparently it's haunted! Step 7: Double Check Everything Once you have a final draft, give yourself another week and then go through your essay again. Read it carefully to make sure nothing seems off and there are no obvious typos or errors. Confirm that you are at or under the word limit. Then, go over the essayagain, line by line, checking every word to make sure that it’s correct. Double check common errors that spell check may not catch, like mixing up affect and effect or misplacing commas. Finally, have two other readers check it as well. Oftentimes a fresh set of eyes will catch an issue you've glossed over simply because you've been looking at the essay for so long. Give your readersinstructions to only look for typos and errors, since you don't want to be making any major content changes at this point in the process. Thislevel of thoroughness may seem like overkill, but it's worth taking the time to ensure that you don't have any errors. The last thing you want is for an admissions officer to be put off by a typo or error. Example: Eva's Final Draft (Paragraphs 1 and 2) "Hello? This is Eva Smith again. I'm a reporter with Tiny Town High's newspaperThe Falcon, andI was hoping to ask you some questions about - "Click. Bzzzzzzz. Whoever was on the other end of the line had hung up. I'd heard rumors that the historic Atlas Theater was going to be replaced with an AMC multiplex, and I was worried. I'd grown up with the Atlas: my dad taking me to see every Pixar movie on opening night and buying me Red Vines to keep me distracted during the sad parts. Unfortunately my personal history with the place didn't seem to carry much weight with anyone official, and my calls to both the theater and city hall had thus far gone unanswered. Once you've finished the final check, you’re done, and ready to submit! There's one last step, however. Step 8: Do It All Again Remember back in step one, when we talked about making a chart to keep track of all the different essays you need to write? Well, now you need to go back tothat list and determine which essays you still need to write. Keep in mind your deadlines and don't forget that some schools may require more than one essay or ask for short paragraphs in addition to the main personal statement. Reusing Essays In some cases, you may be able to reuse the essay you've already written for other prompts. You can use the same essay fortwo prompts if: both of them are asking the same basic question (e.g. "how do you interact with people who are different from you?" or "what was an important experience and why?"), or one prompt is relatively specific and the other is very general (e.g. "tell us about how your family shaped your education" and "tell us something about your background"),and neither asks about your interest in a specific school or program. If you choose to reuse an essay you wrote for a different prompt, make sure that it addressesevery part of question and that it fits the word limit. If you have to tweak a few things or cut out 50-odd words, it will probably still work. But if the essay would require major changes to fit the criteria, you're probably better off starting from scratch (even if you use the same basic topic). Crafting Supplemental Essays The key to keep in mind in when brainstorming for supplemental essays is that you want them to add something new to your application. You shouldn't write about the same topic you used for your personal statement, although it's okay to talk about something similar, as long as you adopt a clearlydifferent angle. For example, if you're planning to be pre-med in college and your main essay is about how volunteering at the hospital taught you not to judge people on their appearance, you might write your secondary essay on your intellectual interest in biology (which could touch on your volunteering). There's some overlap, but the two topics are clearly distinct. And now, you're really, truly, finally done. Congrats! What's Next? Now that you know how to write a college essay, we have a lot more specific resources for you to excel. Are youworking on the Common App essay? Read our breakdown of the Common App prompts and our guide to picking the best prompt for you. Ormaybe you're interested in the University of California? Check out our complete guide to the UC personal statements. In case you haven't finished the rest of the application process,take a look atour guides to asking for recommendations, writing about extracurriculars, andresearching colleges. Finally, if you're planning to take the SAT or ACT one last time, try out some of our famous test prep guides, like "How to Get a Perfect Score on the SAT" and "15 Key ACT Test Day Tips." Want to improve your SAT score by 160points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Learning to Listen Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Learning to Listen - Essay Example Ramin tells the readers how she has grown up with inquisitive behavior and become curious of everything happening around her. To this extent, the author reveals that the culture of one’s family influences his or her behavior. Further, the author reveals that one’s family can make him or her develop poor or good listening skills, which she emphasizes by reveling to the readers that she learnt about her poor listening skills from her family. Good listening demands that one be keen and completely identify with the speaker. Ramin emphasizes that great listening involves â€Å"deeply identifying with the person you’re speaking with, when their story becomes so vivid that your world becomes less about you and more about them† (Para 2). The author further makes it clear that hearing is different from listening. Hearing simply means making no sense of what the speaker says. Good and effective listening requires an individual to focus more on the speaker rather tha n himself. A good listener is one who identifies with and become part and parcel of the story. Ramin also reveals that poor listening skills can lead to communication barrier and increases one’s likelihood to miss important things said by the speaker. Ramin also reveals that listening skills can be learnt when she says â€Å"I might have missed that, had I not learned to listen† (Para 5) in reference to â€Å"I love you† whisper from an orphaned girl to her at Noah’s community center. Ramin’s claim that one should learn when to speak and when to listen is very true. I particularly had poor listening skills, but learnt a lesson that changed my listening skills completely. I had gate-crushed a certain wedding in the neighborhood. At the door of hall where the occasion was scheduled, a security guard instructed me that empty blue seats were reserved for some special people invited to the wedding. Unfortunately, I was simply nodding and talking at the same time, while my