Explaining the Essay Ideas App Accelerator

Last year came across an interview on Knowledge @ Wharton with a speechwriter from the Obama White House who had this to say about her writing process:

“A colleague once said to me, ‘You know Sarah, you just kind of spill out a bunch of total nonsense on a page and then spend a week editing it,’ which was harsh but he was right to some extent. I’ll take the transcript that I’ve made of the meeting [with Mrs Obama about what she wanted to say in her speech] and add my own notes and ideas and things to it. That’s just really stream of consciousness notes. Then I’ll start arranging that into an outline, then into specific paragraphs. Then I’ll go through and edit each of those paragraphs. I sometimes get stuck, and when I get stuck I just move on. I don’t allow myself to get writer’s block because sometimes I won’t know what I’m trying to do in paragraph three, but I’ll know what paragraph four is going to say so I can go and write that. There are many times when I’ve written the end of the speech before the beginning. I’m not a super linear writer, but I do stick to an outline that’s very well-structured so I know exactly where I’m going.”

(emphasis added)

Today we’re going to talk to you about outlining, and how super valuable it can be as part of your process of developing strong essays.

The main benefits of outlines before drafts are:

It’s more efficient
You can test out your ideas before committing to them
You can see the structure that you’re trying to put shape to
You can more easily step back and evaluate your argument as a whole
It’s way less painful to throw away an outline and start over than it is a full draft

It’s much easier to redirect your essay strategy at the earliest stage, when you’re coming up with ideas — rather than discovering that you were off target later on, after you’ve sweated bullets (ha ha see what we did there?) writing out complete drafts that you have to throw away. EssaySnark’s Essay Ideas App Accelerator gives you critical input at the earliest stage of essay development, helping you define a strong scaffolding upon which you can best build out your messaging and theme. Starting with the Essay Ideas App Accelerator is the most efficient way to develop your strongest MBA essays.

The Essay Ideas App Accelerator does not tell you what your ideas should be. This isn’t about dictating your strategy. (Hint: Our school-specific essay guides can be invaluable in figuring out that part!) Instead, the Essay Ideas tutorial gives you insights on how to shape your topics into logical essays that flow. After studying the tutorial, you’ll submit your ideas (one school only, up to 500 words) for a personalized review from EssaySnark.

We always see great value in the Essay Decimator, since we get the (ahem) privilege of reading the first drafts, and then we see where the BSer gets to with revisions – and then we often later hear if they got in! The improvement from draft 1 to draft 2 and beyond is evident. Anecdotally, we’ll also share what one BSer said last season, after getting in to a Top Top School with a massive scholarship with essays that they’d gone through the Essay Decimator with us on, yet either getting an outright rejection or a waitlist from the other apps that they did on their own. So, yeah, the Essay Decimator can affect your outcomes, for sure.

However, just as much value if not more could be gained by a diligent BSer leveraging the Essay Ideas App Accelerator instead. It’s way cheaper, but the idea is the same:

What are you saying in this essay, and how are you saying it?

Today’s post is to introduce you to this App Accelerator — yet even more, it’s to suggest that you take time for outlines, before you start writing.

Outlines are your friend.

Outlines help you figure out what you’re trying to say, the cheap and easy* way.

*Well…… Technically there is no such thing as “easy” in this business of applying to bschool. But you already knew that. Hopefully this will make it easy-er!