• What Is a Perspective Essay?

KRISTINA BARROSO

25 jun 2018.

What Is a Perspective Essay?

Unless you happen to love writing, and it comes naturally to you, you probably aren’t a big fan of writing essays. If you're like most people, though, you likely do enjoy telling others what you think. Even if you don’t like to write, a perspective essay can be fun because you get to express yourself in ways that most other types of essays don’t allow. Whether you are completing an English class assignment, preparing for the essay component of a standardized test like the ACT or submitting a piece for possible publication in a media outlet, knowing how to write a quality perspective essay is a useful addition to your repertoire of skills.

Explore this article

  • How to Choose a Topic for a Perspective Essay
  • Perspective Essay Format

1 What Is a Perspective Essay?

A perspective essay is an opportunity to voice your thoughts and opinions on a given topic. The primary purpose of a perspective essay is to express your views and then provide adequate support for those views using concrete examples. Support and analysis of your opinions is what sets a perspective essay apart from randomly spouting your thoughts on things without bothering to back them up.

2 How to Choose a Topic for a Perspective Essay

If you have many strong opinions, it may be difficult to decide what you want to write about. The best rule of thumb when it comes to choosing a topic for a perspective essay is to select one that you genuinely care about. Something you are passionate about will be far easier to write and will likely lead to a better piece than a topic you aren’t all that interested in. Consider writing about current events that intrigue you or a controversial issue that you have strong feelings about. No matter what topic you ultimately choose, be sure to take a clear position on it. A perspective essay is not the place to be neutral. Pick a side and support it with a healthy mixture of opinion and facts.

3 Perspective Essay Format

Perspective essays typically adhere to the standard format of an introductory paragraph followed by multiple body paragraphs and a conclusion. The introduction should start out with a hook that draws in the reader and a thesis statement that outlines the most important points that the essay will focus on. Each paragraph in the body of the essay should elaborate on, and provide evidence for, each of the points mentioned in the introduction. The conclusion should summarize the essay and restate your thesis in a new way. Since a perspective essay includes your personal experiences, it should be written in the first-person point of view.

  • 1 California State University at Northridge; Basics, Format, Tips
  • 2 Reference: How to Write a Perspective Essay?
  • 3 Study Hub: The Essay Guide: Adopting a Critical Perspective
  • 4 Rutgers: Perspectives Application Essay Guidelines

About the Author

Kristina Barroso earned a B.A. in Psychology from Florida International University and works full-time as a classroom teacher in a public school. She teaches middle school English to a wide range of students from struggling readers to advanced and gifted populations. In her spare time, she loves writing articles about education for TheClassroom.com, WorkingMother and other education sites.

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perspective about essay

How to Write Brown’s Perspective Essay

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Shane Niesen and Vinay Bhaskara i n a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

What’s Covered:

Why this prompt is important, avoiding admission officers’ biases, why someone else should read your essay.

The second Brown University supplemental essay asks students to respond to the following prompt:

Brown’s culture fosters a community in which students challenge the ideas of others and have their ideas challenged in return, promoting a deeper and clearer understanding of the complex issues confronting society. This active engagement in dialogue is as present outside the classroom as it is in academic spaces. Tell us about a time you were challenged by a perspective that differed from your own. How did you respond? (200-250 words) 

In this article, we discuss why this prompt is so important, how to be aware of a reader’s bias, and why having someone else proofread your essay is essential. 

Brown’s second essay is all about being challenged by a perspective different from your own. One of the trickiest parts about this essay is to avoid focusing on presenting the two perspectives and the battle between them. This is not the point of the prompt. Brown admissions officers want to read about your perspective and your thought process when challenged. 

The goal of this prompt is to demonstrate how you think about the world, address challenges, and approach conflict. There is no avoiding conflict in life—over the past few years, for example, our society has experienced a great deal of friction due to opposing perspectives—so do your best to share your thought process around conflict. Dive into how you approach being confronted with differing opinions. 

There are a few questions that you can home in on for this prompt. You can write about your perspective, who challenged you, how it felt being challenged, and if that changed your perspective. This doesn’t mean you have to write about the exact time and place when your mind changed—maybe you felt even stronger about your beliefs after being challenged. The point is that you want to demonstrate that this confrontation had some sort of impact on you. 

Don’t be afraid to step away from the broader issues in our society or politics. Try to focus on a personal situation for this prompt. This will not only make you stand out from the crowd, but it will also help you avoid the biases of the admissions officers. Of course, admissions officers are aware that they will read the essays of students who share different perspectives than their own, but by writing about a personal conflict or issue, you’re more likely to avoid this issue entirely. 

Appealing to the admissions officers is a crucial part of your essay. You want the reader to like you or at least empathize with your perspective. This is why you should check yourself and your opinions while writing. You can do this by sharing your essay with someone else and asking for feedback. If that person tells you that they didn’t like how you talked about your opinion, that’s a sign that the admission officers won’t like it either. 

Ask your reader for feedback on the structure and content of your essay. A big mistake that students make is spending too much time narrating the problem rather than reflecting on the story. Your essay will ideally contain deeply personal topics, so most of it should focus on your emotions and headspace.

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

perspective about essay

Your Complete Guide To Writing Perspective: Who, When, How

  • by Robert Wood
  • December 21, 2016
  • 11 Comments

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Who is telling this story? It’s a strange question, and one that’s based on feigned ignorance, but if you give it a chance, it could do great things for how you consider perspective in your writing.

That’s because by reconsidering a basic assumption, you’ll become aware of multiple decisions you already made. Maybe that just means you’ll see how right you were and get a confidence boost, or maybe it’ll show you a way in which you could improve your book.

Reconsidering perspective

It’s always satisfying when someone passes on a great piece of writing advice. If it’s true enough, you don’t feel like you’re being taught something, but that someone has perfectly phrased something you already knew. One that springs to mind for me is a writing teacher slamming his hands repeatedly onto a table while shouting, “No-one! Cares! About! The &$@!ing! Weather!”

Like a lot of good writing advice, it’s not completely true , but it directs an author’s attention to an area of concern. Yes, you can communicate the weather, but for God’s sake, don’t linger over it for an entire paragraph. Another piece of advice from the same professor was phrased in the form of a question, asked quite sincerely to a young author who had just presented a story told in the omniscient, third-person voice:

Who is telling this story?

The student was dumbfounded, having chosen the third person without really thinking about what it meant for their piece. They’d gone for the default, not even asking if it was the right choice.

Even if you already know the answer, it’s a question that’s worth considering, especially because it asks ten more. Is anyone telling the story? If not, is that okay? If so, where and when are they, and how much do they know? Should their voice be captured in the writing style, and what does that mean for how to communicate the personalities of other characters? Wait a minute, who are they telling it to ?

The questions above are a good way to investigate whether you’re writing the best form of your story, but they also offer avenues to take a good tale and make it great. Not sure where to start? Well, let’s go with tense.

Tense is about when your story is happening in relation to its telling. Did it happen a while ago, is it happening now, or will it occur in the future? Does it span multiple categories, with the story overtaking the teller, or dabble in a few, with some future-tense visions or past-tense memories assailing a present-tense character?

The past tense tends to be the default choice, but is it really the best choice for your story? Present tense offers immediacy, while the future tense is a trippy choice for adventurous authors.

If you’re choosing the past because the other options don’t appeal, remember that this is still a choice. How long ago, exactly, did these events occur? Consider these iconic words from the Star Wars   movies:

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

This is one of the oddest lines in pop culture – a specific reminder that the space battles and sentient robots you’re about to see are positioned firmly in the past. Moreover, no-one even asked – the reader would have assume the events were set in the future. And yet those words don’t just work; they’ve achieved incredible fame. Clearly, they struck a chord.

Why? Well, there’s a lot to it, but part of the Star Wars franchise’s success (and a key component in many of its failures), is that at its best, its universe feels lived in. There’s rust, dirt and damage – the original movies are set long after a vital struggle has been lost, the heroes of which are all but forgotten.

It’s not that Star Wars ’ sense of time is something special, but that the films have such an appreciation of their own tense. They’re set in, and largely about , the past, their plots caught up in looking back. It’s no coincidence that the poorly received prequels lack this element.

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale has a particularly effective grasp of its own tense – the story is told through a diary, and an epilogue re-characterizes the story as a historical document by revealing a society far in the future of the fictional world. Here, Atwood creates distance – the protagonist was always in peril, struggling on her own, and by focusing on how far in the past these events actually were, she’s finally distanced from even the reader.

So the question becomes: When is your reader being told this story in relation to the events in question?

Your answer might be that they’re not – the story is happening elsewhere, in a timeframe that doesn’t involve them. Rest assured that that’s a valid answer, but allow yourself a few minutes of doubt. Isn’t there a way to bring your reader in? Would present tense remove the barrier between them and the story? Could they be overhearing someone else being told the story?

There’s rich ground here, especially when combined with…

Point of view and audience

When considering point of view, there are three options:

  • First person  (I),
  • Second person  (you),
  • Third person  (he/she/it).

I’ve written before on each type of point of view (the articles are linked above), but they’re not the absolute choices many authors think. In fact, third-person narration is the baseline for each – you can only tell the difference once the narrator gets involved in the story. Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions plays on this when the narrator ‘arrives’ near the end of the story, introducing a previously absent ‘I’.

Beyond the usual style decisions around point of view, it’s worth considering more aspects of this choice. First, and returning to the original question: Who is telling this story? Maybe no-one, but really think about your answer, not least because it asks two more questions. Why are they telling it, and who are they telling it to?

Books like Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leave s have done a lot with this concept, constructing layered stories where the characters are telling parts of the story to each other, or even as consciously commercial works. William Goldman’s The Princess Bride adds a whole framing narrative to the story, creating an editor who is presenting the story to his son.

This doesn’t have to be explicit – H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds and The Island of Doctor Moreau are both told by narrators who have survived an amazing experience and are giving their account to interested parties. It’s a low-key effect, but simply by assuming the presence of an in-world audience, Wells taps into a seam of realism that makes the stories particularly unnerving. They feel like real accounts; far more creepy thanks to a choice that many readers will barely notice.

If you have any kind of narrator, really think about why they’re telling their story, and who they’re telling it to. If not, take some time to ponder how bizarre it is to have an omniscient narrator (a potentially Godlike figure) telling a story to someone outside the world in which it happens.

Dig deep enough and this is really about why you’re writing a story. It’s entirely possible that going down this particular rabbit hole will freak you out. After all, it doesn’t just ask your story to justify its existence, but for the very idea of a story to account for itself. That turmoil may settle down with you deciding that the story is simply something that happened, and this is where it’s recorded, or you may reconsider whether or not your narrator or supposed reader has a stake in events.

Either way, this extra consideration will shine through in your writing. You’d be surprised how much more engagingly you can write just from accepting that your story is being told simply because it happened. There’s a quiet assurance there that encourages the reader to invest.

Character perspective

Are you sure your protagonist is the best person to tell your story, or to act as the focus for your narrator? This is an idea to which many authors pay lip service, but most would sooner abandon a project than truly consider rewriting from another character’s perspective. This is a mistake, as following a different character is often the final piece of the puzzle.

Returning to the original Star Wars trilogy, consider the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO. At least to begin with, they’re actually the focus of the story, with the viewer following them from one scene to the next. This is a longstanding artistic tradition – introducing some roving strangers in order to provide a useful perspective. They can be new to the situation, whether that be the world, the situation, or the relationships in front of them.

Many authors employ a similar device, transforming their protagonists into reader cyphers who are often less definite characters than their friends and enemies. Characters like Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker enter the world fresh, more or less knowing as little as the reader in order to give them a way into the story.

In The Quadrant Method Is The Key To Amazing Storytelling , I suggested two versions of the same story, in which a wife discovers she has been hypnotized by her husband and turns the tables. Told from the wife’s perspective, it was a serviceable story, but it really came to life when considered from the husband’s point of view. Sometimes, it’s worth reconsidering your character perspective not to make things easier, but to offer a new structure to your story.

Richard Stark’s Parker novels tend to be from the protagonist’s point of view for the first two quarters, before spending the third quarter cycling between different characters. This is often the point at which a heist has gone wrong, and the resultant chaos is represented in the reader’s experience.

Not only is this exciting, but it allows Stark to hide what his protagonist is up to. Even straightforward actions can be made exhilarating when they’re hidden. The best of Stark’s stories even include some overlap, with a new perspective shedding fresh light on an event that’s already happened. There’s something really special about watching the hero prepare to ambush a gangster and then switching to that gangster’s perspective as they fall into the trap.

Emily Brontë uses multiple narrators to similar effect in Wuthering Heights . Here, the character Lockwood attempts to piece together a reliable account of events. He’s beset on all sides by unreliable narrators – people who only saw part of the story, or were only concerned with their role in it. In fact, Lockwood himself is less than likable, and by switching characters, Brontë manages to leave him behind, divorcing the story from any single narrator and making the reader feel as if they have a special insight that no character has managed to achieve.

Changing your perspective

The aspects of perspective that I’ve described can be used in various configurations, even within a story. You can switch tense, perspective, and even point of view, but remember to do so with finesse.

Tense is the one that causes the biggest problems. Remember that tense isn’t just about when a story took place, but when a story took place in relation to when it’s being told. Slipping into past tense for a flashback makes sense, but slipping into present tense for an action scene or vision is more problematic.

Of course, it can work, but treating tense as fluid unmoors it from any sense of the reader’s timeframe. If your character suddenly darts into the present, that underlines the fact that there was never really a ‘past’ in the first place. It might be worth the risk, but it definitely deserves careful consideration.

Changes in point of view are more common, with many third-person authors throwing in the odd first-person thought to give the reader some brief insight into a character’s inner workings, e.g. ‘ I don’t like this, thought Dougal’. This is a terrible habit for any number of reasons (see How To Express Your Characters’ Thoughts – With Exercises ), but mainly because it once again undermines the internal consistency and logic of your choices.

The reader needs to believe that you chose the point of view of your story for a good reason. If they can see into a character’s mind once, why can’t they do it elsewhere? There’s no good answer that doesn’t rip them out of the story, so it’s better not to raise the question.

Shifting character perspective within a story offers similar pitfalls. There needs to be a good reason for the perspective to shift, it needs to feel ‘right’, or the reader will start thinking about why it really happened. Brontë uses a central narrator to have the reader accept different viewpoints – there are a lot of them, but they all come through Lockwood. Stark, on the other hand, uses the structure of the novel to make shifting characters feel natural. Portions of the book are blocked off, presented as separate areas and making it more understandable that one might behave differently from the others.

If you shift perspective frequently, you’ll need less explanation, as the reader will accept this is simply how the story works (though it might make sense to do this early, so they catch on as soon as possible).

Again, though, getting your reader to accept this kind of decision will come naturally from thinking about it yourself. Throw a different character in on a whim (or because the story demands it), and it’ll feel unnatural. Think about it beforehand, and know why you’re doing it, and you’ll make a series of subtle choices that prep the reader.

Stark, for instance, frequently includes events that can only be explained from another character’s perspective. When this eventually occurs, it closes a circuit the reader barely realized they’d begun and feels natural.

Deciding on perspective

There are no objectively right or wrong choices when discussing perspective, but whatever you do, it should be a choice. Confront yourself with an imaginary professor and ask yourself some of these odd questions. Can you give your answers with confidence? Great, then carry on. Do they unearth a little unease, or reveal that you’ve chosen something just because it was the default option? Explore your options to be sure you’ve chosen the right one.

Have you made any odd perspective choices in your writing, or are you thinking of another author who has? Let me know in the comments. Or, if you’d rather read more about how to decide on and write perspective, check out How To Stop Your Opinion Taking Center-stage In Your Writing and How To Express Your Characters’ Thoughts – With Exercises . Or, for a reason to reconsider perspective decisions, try How And Why You Need To Recycle Writing Ideas .

  • Case study , Point of view , Protagonist , World building

perspective about essay

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Robert Wood

Robert Wood

11 thoughts on “your complete guide to writing perspective: who, when, how”.

perspective about essay

Now I understand the Quadrant Method. I like it. Thanks.

As for tenses, one day the past, present, and future got together: it was tense.

perspective about essay

Haha, thanks for the comment and the joke.

perspective about essay

Great article that was definitely food for thought. I had one counterexample to your article that immediately came to mind for me – F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night. I’d love to hear your views on how Fitzgerald succeeded or failed with this novel by going against the grain, or maybe with the grain if you disagree with me on that point.

Thanks very much. I’m afraid I’m only passingly familiar with Tender is the Night – I remember reading the first few pages a long time ago, finding a sentence I thought was absolutely fantastic, and then for some reason not continuing. It’s on my pile to revisit, but that pile is one of many.

So many great books succeed by going against the grain, or being the exception to otherwise good advice. The problem is that, when they do, many writers take that as a prompt to ignore the rules. Of course the truth is that you have to know the rules better than anyone else to subvert them in such amazing fashion.

perspective about essay

I’m not able to print articles without a rather messy looking draft. I’ve followed all protocols eg clear browser etc etc regularly. I used to be able to print after a few changes had been made. Now, there is no printer icon choice here and that seems to be an issue perhaps? Thx for your feedback.

Thanks for letting us know about this. We’re currently looking into the issue, and should have more information shortly.

Thanks, Rob! I never had a problem until this website was updated, that is, there used to be various options appearing as a left sidebar. One included printing. When those options were removed, I can’t save as a PDF or print as clear copies. I’ve communicated with Alex, who has replied on a few occasions with the same response: that their docs appear fine, suggesting I try another computer. I’m not quite certain why a 2016 iMac wouldn’t be sufficient to at least save an article as a PDF? Seems to be a lot of trouble from my POV. Maybe that’s just me. I’ve contacted Apple Support and there isn’t anything from the software end that would cause problems ie mac OS Sierra. Thx. Paula

perspective about essay

Well, I can give you an answer with confidence, but it’ll be confusing.

My MC is in first person, telling a story in third person, so she’s literally telling the story, and she’s an omnipotent storyteller,

Thanks for sharing, Isabelle – complex, perhaps, but it certainly seems like you’ve zeroed in on what works for your story.

perspective about essay

I changed a storys point of view three times, it was the last one that really clicked, third person deep pov, go figure! Luckly at the time it only had tweny chapters (on an online writing site so about 10 if it was printed out)

It hurt to change it wrapping around a new pov style is so hard when using a different one. Ugg. But it was worth it, most of the cridics (other writers) and regular readers liked it. Once I got into it I loved it, it can be worth changing the pov style as breathes new life into everything.

Definitely a gruelling process, but I think your example proves that hard work and informed experimentation produce the best form of a piece.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 177 college essay examples for 11 schools + expert analysis.

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College Admissions , College Essays

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The personal statement might just be the hardest part of your college application. Mostly this is because it has the least guidance and is the most open-ended. One way to understand what colleges are looking for when they ask you to write an essay is to check out the essays of students who already got in—college essays that actually worked. After all, they must be among the most successful of this weird literary genre.

In this article, I'll go through general guidelines for what makes great college essays great. I've also compiled an enormous list of 100+ actual sample college essays from 11 different schools. Finally, I'll break down two of these published college essay examples and explain why and how they work. With links to 177 full essays and essay excerpts , this article is a great resource for learning how to craft your own personal college admissions essay!

What Excellent College Essays Have in Common

Even though in many ways these sample college essays are very different from one other, they do share some traits you should try to emulate as you write your own essay.

Visible Signs of Planning

Building out from a narrow, concrete focus. You'll see a similar structure in many of the essays. The author starts with a very detailed story of an event or description of a person or place. After this sense-heavy imagery, the essay expands out to make a broader point about the author, and connects this very memorable experience to the author's present situation, state of mind, newfound understanding, or maturity level.

Knowing how to tell a story. Some of the experiences in these essays are one-of-a-kind. But most deal with the stuff of everyday life. What sets them apart is the way the author approaches the topic: analyzing it for drama and humor, for its moving qualities, for what it says about the author's world, and for how it connects to the author's emotional life.

Stellar Execution

A killer first sentence. You've heard it before, and you'll hear it again: you have to suck the reader in, and the best place to do that is the first sentence. Great first sentences are punchy. They are like cliffhangers, setting up an exciting scene or an unusual situation with an unclear conclusion, in order to make the reader want to know more. Don't take my word for it—check out these 22 first sentences from Stanford applicants and tell me you don't want to read the rest of those essays to find out what happens!

A lively, individual voice. Writing is for readers. In this case, your reader is an admissions officer who has read thousands of essays before yours and will read thousands after. Your goal? Don't bore your reader. Use interesting descriptions, stay away from clichés, include your own offbeat observations—anything that makes this essay sounds like you and not like anyone else.

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Technical correctness. No spelling mistakes, no grammar weirdness, no syntax issues, no punctuation snafus—each of these sample college essays has been formatted and proofread perfectly. If this kind of exactness is not your strong suit, you're in luck! All colleges advise applicants to have their essays looked over several times by parents, teachers, mentors, and anyone else who can spot a comma splice. Your essay must be your own work, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting help polishing it.

And if you need more guidance, connect with PrepScholar's expert admissions consultants . These expert writers know exactly what college admissions committees look for in an admissions essay and chan help you craft an essay that boosts your chances of getting into your dream school.

Check out PrepScholar's Essay Editing and Coaching progra m for more details!

perspective about essay

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Links to Full College Essay Examples

Some colleges publish a selection of their favorite accepted college essays that worked, and I've put together a selection of over 100 of these.

Common App Essay Samples

Please note that some of these college essay examples may be responding to prompts that are no longer in use. The current Common App prompts are as follows:

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 obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? 3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome? 4. Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you? 5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. 6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Now, let's get to the good stuff: the list of 177 college essay examples responding to current and past Common App essay prompts. 

Connecticut college.

  • 12 Common Application essays from the classes of 2022-2025

Hamilton College

  • 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2026
  • 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2022
  • 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2018
  • 8 Common Application essays from the class of 2012
  • 8 Common Application essays from the class of 2007

Johns Hopkins

These essays are answers to past prompts from either the Common Application or the Coalition Application (which Johns Hopkins used to accept).

  • 1 Common Application or Coalition Application essay from the class of 2026
  • 6 Common Application or Coalition Application essays from the class of 2025
  • 6 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2024
  • 6 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2023
  • 7 Common Application of Universal Application essays from the class of 2022
  • 5 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2021
  • 7 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2020

Essay Examples Published by Other Websites

  • 2 Common Application essays ( 1st essay , 2nd essay ) from applicants admitted to Columbia

Other Sample College Essays

Here is a collection of essays that are college-specific.

Babson College

  • 4 essays (and 1 video response) on "Why Babson" from the class of 2020

Emory University

  • 5 essay examples ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) from the class of 2020 along with analysis from Emory admissions staff on why the essays were exceptional
  • 5 more recent essay examples ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) along with analysis from Emory admissions staff on what made these essays stand out

University of Georgia

  • 1 “strong essay” sample from 2019
  • 1 “strong essay” sample from 2018
  • 10 Harvard essays from 2023
  • 10 Harvard essays from 2022
  • 10 Harvard essays from 2021
  • 10 Harvard essays from 2020
  • 10 Harvard essays from 2019
  • 10 Harvard essays from 2018
  • 6 essays from admitted MIT students

Smith College

  • 6 "best gift" essays from the class of 2018

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Books of College Essays

If you're looking for even more sample college essays, consider purchasing a college essay book. The best of these include dozens of essays that worked and feedback from real admissions officers.

College Essays That Made a Difference —This detailed guide from Princeton Review includes not only successful essays, but also interviews with admissions officers and full student profiles.

50 Successful Harvard Application Essays by the Staff of the Harvard Crimson—A must for anyone aspiring to Harvard .

50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays and 50 Successful Stanford Application Essays by Gen and Kelly Tanabe—For essays from other top schools, check out this venerated series, which is regularly updated with new essays.

Heavenly Essays by Janine W. Robinson—This collection from the popular blogger behind Essay Hell includes a wider range of schools, as well as helpful tips on honing your own essay.

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Analyzing Great Common App Essays That Worked

I've picked two essays from the examples collected above to examine in more depth so that you can see exactly what makes a successful college essay work. Full credit for these essays goes to the original authors and the schools that published them.

Example 1: "Breaking Into Cars," by Stephen, Johns Hopkins Class of '19 (Common App Essay, 636 words long)

I had never broken into a car before.

We were in Laredo, having just finished our first day at a Habitat for Humanity work site. The Hotchkiss volunteers had already left, off to enjoy some Texas BBQ, leaving me behind with the college kids to clean up. Not until we were stranded did we realize we were locked out of the van.

Someone picked a coat hanger out of the dumpster, handed it to me, and took a few steps back.

"Can you do that thing with a coat hanger to unlock it?"

"Why me?" I thought.

More out of amusement than optimism, I gave it a try. I slid the hanger into the window's seal like I'd seen on crime shows, and spent a few minutes jiggling the apparatus around the inside of the frame. Suddenly, two things simultaneously clicked. One was the lock on the door. (I actually succeeded in springing it.) The other was the realization that I'd been in this type of situation before. In fact, I'd been born into this type of situation.

My upbringing has numbed me to unpredictability and chaos. With a family of seven, my home was loud, messy, and spottily supervised. My siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing—all meant my house was functioning normally. My Dad, a retired Navy pilot, was away half the time. When he was home, he had a parenting style something like a drill sergeant. At the age of nine, I learned how to clear burning oil from the surface of water. My Dad considered this a critical life skill—you know, in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed. "The water's on fire! Clear a hole!" he shouted, tossing me in the lake without warning. While I'm still unconvinced about that particular lesson's practicality, my Dad's overarching message is unequivocally true: much of life is unexpected, and you have to deal with the twists and turns.

Living in my family, days rarely unfolded as planned. A bit overlooked, a little pushed around, I learned to roll with reality, negotiate a quick deal, and give the improbable a try. I don't sweat the small stuff, and I definitely don't expect perfect fairness. So what if our dining room table only has six chairs for seven people? Someone learns the importance of punctuality every night.

But more than punctuality and a special affinity for musical chairs, my family life has taught me to thrive in situations over which I have no power. Growing up, I never controlled my older siblings, but I learned how to thwart their attempts to control me. I forged alliances, and realigned them as necessary. Sometimes, I was the poor, defenseless little brother; sometimes I was the omniscient elder. Different things to different people, as the situation demanded. I learned to adapt.

Back then, these techniques were merely reactions undertaken to ensure my survival. But one day this fall, Dr. Hicks, our Head of School, asked me a question that he hoped all seniors would reflect on throughout the year: "How can I participate in a thing I do not govern, in the company of people I did not choose?"

The question caught me off guard, much like the question posed to me in Laredo. Then, I realized I knew the answer. I knew why the coat hanger had been handed to me.

Growing up as the middle child in my family, I was a vital participant in a thing I did not govern, in the company of people I did not choose. It's family. It's society. And often, it's chaos. You participate by letting go of the small stuff, not expecting order and perfection, and facing the unexpected with confidence, optimism, and preparedness. My family experience taught me to face a serendipitous world with confidence.

What Makes This Essay Tick?

It's very helpful to take writing apart in order to see just how it accomplishes its objectives. Stephen's essay is very effective. Let's find out why!

An Opening Line That Draws You In

In just eight words, we get: scene-setting (he is standing next to a car about to break in), the idea of crossing a boundary (he is maybe about to do an illegal thing for the first time), and a cliffhanger (we are thinking: is he going to get caught? Is he headed for a life of crime? Is he about to be scared straight?).

Great, Detailed Opening Story

More out of amusement than optimism, I gave it a try. I slid the hanger into the window's seal like I'd seen on crime shows, and spent a few minutes jiggling the apparatus around the inside of the frame.

It's the details that really make this small experience come alive. Notice how whenever he can, Stephen uses a more specific, descriptive word in place of a more generic one. The volunteers aren't going to get food or dinner; they're going for "Texas BBQ." The coat hanger comes from "a dumpster." Stephen doesn't just move the coat hanger—he "jiggles" it.

Details also help us visualize the emotions of the people in the scene. The person who hands Stephen the coat hanger isn't just uncomfortable or nervous; he "takes a few steps back"—a description of movement that conveys feelings. Finally, the detail of actual speech makes the scene pop. Instead of writing that the other guy asked him to unlock the van, Stephen has the guy actually say his own words in a way that sounds like a teenager talking.

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Turning a Specific Incident Into a Deeper Insight

Suddenly, two things simultaneously clicked. One was the lock on the door. (I actually succeeded in springing it.) The other was the realization that I'd been in this type of situation before. In fact, I'd been born into this type of situation.

Stephen makes the locked car experience a meaningful illustration of how he has learned to be resourceful and ready for anything, and he also makes this turn from the specific to the broad through an elegant play on the two meanings of the word "click."

Using Concrete Examples When Making Abstract Claims

My upbringing has numbed me to unpredictability and chaos. With a family of seven, my home was loud, messy, and spottily supervised. My siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing—all meant my house was functioning normally.

"Unpredictability and chaos" are very abstract, not easily visualized concepts. They could also mean any number of things—violence, abandonment, poverty, mental instability. By instantly following up with highly finite and unambiguous illustrations like "family of seven" and "siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing," Stephen grounds the abstraction in something that is easy to picture: a large, noisy family.

Using Small Bits of Humor and Casual Word Choice

My Dad, a retired Navy pilot, was away half the time. When he was home, he had a parenting style something like a drill sergeant. At the age of nine, I learned how to clear burning oil from the surface of water. My Dad considered this a critical life skill—you know, in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed.

Obviously, knowing how to clean burning oil is not high on the list of things every 9-year-old needs to know. To emphasize this, Stephen uses sarcasm by bringing up a situation that is clearly over-the-top: "in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed."

The humor also feels relaxed. Part of this is because he introduces it with the colloquial phrase "you know," so it sounds like he is talking to us in person. This approach also diffuses the potential discomfort of the reader with his father's strictness—since he is making jokes about it, clearly he is OK. Notice, though, that this doesn't occur very much in the essay. This helps keep the tone meaningful and serious rather than flippant.

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An Ending That Stretches the Insight Into the Future

But one day this fall, Dr. Hicks, our Head of School, asked me a question that he hoped all seniors would reflect on throughout the year: "How can I participate in a thing I do not govern, in the company of people I did not choose?"

The ending of the essay reveals that Stephen's life has been one long preparation for the future. He has emerged from chaos and his dad's approach to parenting as a person who can thrive in a world that he can't control.

This connection of past experience to current maturity and self-knowledge is a key element in all successful personal essays. Colleges are very much looking for mature, self-aware applicants. These are the qualities of successful college students, who will be able to navigate the independence college classes require and the responsibility and quasi-adulthood of college life.

What Could This Essay Do Even Better?

Even the best essays aren't perfect, and even the world's greatest writers will tell you that writing is never "finished"—just "due." So what would we tweak in this essay if we could?

Replace some of the clichéd language. Stephen uses handy phrases like "twists and turns" and "don't sweat the small stuff" as a kind of shorthand for explaining his relationship to chaos and unpredictability. But using too many of these ready-made expressions runs the risk of clouding out your own voice and replacing it with something expected and boring.

Use another example from recent life. Stephen's first example (breaking into the van in Laredo) is a great illustration of being resourceful in an unexpected situation. But his essay also emphasizes that he "learned to adapt" by being "different things to different people." It would be great to see how this plays out outside his family, either in the situation in Laredo or another context.

perspective about essay

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Example 2: By Renner Kwittken, Tufts Class of '23 (Common App Essay, 645 words long)

My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver. I saw it in my favorite book, Richard Scarry's "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go," and for some reason, I was absolutely obsessed with the idea of driving a giant pickle. Much to the discontent of my younger sister, I insisted that my parents read us that book as many nights as possible so we could find goldbug, a small little golden bug, on every page. I would imagine the wonderful life I would have: being a pig driving a giant pickle truck across the country, chasing and finding goldbug. I then moved on to wanting to be a Lego Master. Then an architect. Then a surgeon.

Then I discovered a real goldbug: gold nanoparticles that can reprogram macrophages to assist in killing tumors, produce clear images of them without sacrificing the subject, and heat them to obliteration.

Suddenly the destination of my pickle was clear.

I quickly became enveloped by the world of nanomedicine; I scoured articles about liposomes, polymeric micelles, dendrimers, targeting ligands, and self-assembling nanoparticles, all conquering cancer in some exotic way. Completely absorbed, I set out to find a mentor to dive even deeper into these topics. After several rejections, I was immensely grateful to receive an invitation to work alongside Dr. Sangeeta Ray at Johns Hopkins.

In the lab, Dr. Ray encouraged a great amount of autonomy to design and implement my own procedures. I chose to attack a problem that affects the entire field of nanomedicine: nanoparticles consistently fail to translate from animal studies into clinical trials. Jumping off recent literature, I set out to see if a pre-dose of a common chemotherapeutic could enhance nanoparticle delivery in aggressive prostate cancer, creating three novel constructs based on three different linear polymers, each using fluorescent dye (although no gold, sorry goldbug!). Though using radioactive isotopes like Gallium and Yttrium would have been incredible, as a 17-year-old, I unfortunately wasn't allowed in the same room as these radioactive materials (even though I took a Geiger counter to a pair of shoes and found them to be slightly dangerous).

I hadn't expected my hypothesis to work, as the research project would have ideally been led across two full years. Yet while there are still many optimizations and revisions to be done, I was thrilled to find -- with completely new nanoparticles that may one day mean future trials will use particles with the initials "RK-1" -- thatcyclophosphamide did indeed increase nanoparticle delivery to the tumor in a statistically significant way.

A secondary, unexpected research project was living alone in Baltimore, a new city to me, surrounded by people much older than I. Even with moving frequently between hotels, AirBnB's, and students' apartments, I strangely reveled in the freedom I had to enjoy my surroundings and form new friendships with graduate school students from the lab. We explored The Inner Harbor at night, attended a concert together one weekend, and even got to watch the Orioles lose (to nobody's surprise). Ironically, it's through these new friendships I discovered something unexpected: what I truly love is sharing research. Whether in a presentation or in a casual conversation, making others interested in science is perhaps more exciting to me than the research itself. This solidified a new pursuit to angle my love for writing towards illuminating science in ways people can understand, adding value to a society that can certainly benefit from more scientific literacy.

It seems fitting that my goals are still transforming: in Scarry's book, there is not just one goldbug, there is one on every page. With each new experience, I'm learning that it isn't the goldbug itself, but rather the act of searching for the goldbugs that will encourage, shape, and refine my ever-evolving passions. Regardless of the goldbug I seek -- I know my pickle truck has just begun its journey.

Renner takes a somewhat different approach than Stephen, but their essay is just as detailed and engaging. Let's go through some of the strengths of this essay.

One Clear Governing Metaphor

This essay is ultimately about two things: Renner’s dreams and future career goals, and Renner’s philosophy on goal-setting and achieving one’s dreams.

But instead of listing off all the amazing things they’ve done to pursue their dream of working in nanomedicine, Renner tells a powerful, unique story instead. To set up the narrative, Renner opens the essay by connecting their experiences with goal-setting and dream-chasing all the way back to a memorable childhood experience:

This lighthearted–but relevant!--story about the moment when Renner first developed a passion for a specific career (“finding the goldbug”) provides an anchor point for the rest of the essay. As Renner pivots to describing their current dreams and goals–working in nanomedicine–the metaphor of “finding the goldbug” is reflected in Renner’s experiments, rejections, and new discoveries.

Though Renner tells multiple stories about their quest to “find the goldbug,” or, in other words, pursue their passion, each story is connected by a unifying theme; namely, that as we search and grow over time, our goals will transform…and that’s okay! By the end of the essay, Renner uses the metaphor of “finding the goldbug” to reiterate the relevance of the opening story:

While the earlier parts of the essay convey Renner’s core message by showing, the final, concluding paragraph sums up Renner’s insights by telling. By briefly and clearly stating the relevance of the goldbug metaphor to their own philosophy on goals and dreams, Renner demonstrates their creativity, insight, and eagerness to grow and evolve as the journey continues into college.

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An Engaging, Individual Voice

This essay uses many techniques that make Renner sound genuine and make the reader feel like we already know them.

Technique #1: humor. Notice Renner's gentle and relaxed humor that lightly mocks their younger self's grand ambitions (this is different from the more sarcastic kind of humor used by Stephen in the first essay—you could never mistake one writer for the other).

My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver.

I would imagine the wonderful life I would have: being a pig driving a giant pickle truck across the country, chasing and finding goldbug. I then moved on to wanting to be a Lego Master. Then an architect. Then a surgeon.

Renner gives a great example of how to use humor to your advantage in college essays. You don’t want to come off as too self-deprecating or sarcastic, but telling a lightheartedly humorous story about your younger self that also showcases how you’ve grown and changed over time can set the right tone for your entire essay.

Technique #2: intentional, eye-catching structure. The second technique is the way Renner uses a unique structure to bolster the tone and themes of their essay . The structure of your essay can have a major impact on how your ideas come across…so it’s important to give it just as much thought as the content of your essay!

For instance, Renner does a great job of using one-line paragraphs to create dramatic emphasis and to make clear transitions from one phase of the story to the next:

Suddenly the destination of my pickle car was clear.

Not only does the one-liner above signal that Renner is moving into a new phase of the narrative (their nanoparticle research experiences), it also tells the reader that this is a big moment in Renner’s story. It’s clear that Renner made a major discovery that changed the course of their goal pursuit and dream-chasing. Through structure, Renner conveys excitement and entices the reader to keep pushing forward to the next part of the story.

Technique #3: playing with syntax. The third technique is to use sentences of varying length, syntax, and structure. Most of the essay's written in standard English and uses grammatically correct sentences. However, at key moments, Renner emphasizes that the reader needs to sit up and pay attention by switching to short, colloquial, differently punctuated, and sometimes fragmented sentences.

Even with moving frequently between hotels, AirBnB's, and students' apartments, I strangely reveled in the freedom I had to enjoy my surroundings and form new friendships with graduate school students from the lab. We explored The Inner Harbor at night, attended a concert together one weekend, and even got to watch the Orioles lose (to nobody's surprise). Ironically, it's through these new friendships I discovered something unexpected: what I truly love is sharing research.

In the examples above, Renner switches adeptly between long, flowing sentences and quippy, telegraphic ones. At the same time, Renner uses these different sentence lengths intentionally. As they describe their experiences in new places, they use longer sentences to immerse the reader in the sights, smells, and sounds of those experiences. And when it’s time to get a big, key idea across, Renner switches to a short, punchy sentence to stop the reader in their tracks.

The varying syntax and sentence lengths pull the reader into the narrative and set up crucial “aha” moments when it’s most important…which is a surefire way to make any college essay stand out.

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Renner's essay is very strong, but there are still a few little things that could be improved.

Connecting the research experiences to the theme of “finding the goldbug.”  The essay begins and ends with Renner’s connection to the idea of “finding the goldbug.” And while this metaphor is deftly tied into the essay’s intro and conclusion, it isn’t entirely clear what Renner’s big findings were during the research experiences that are described in the middle of the essay. It would be great to add a sentence or two stating what Renner’s big takeaways (or “goldbugs”) were from these experiences, which add more cohesion to the essay as a whole.

Give more details about discovering the world of nanomedicine. It makes sense that Renner wants to get into the details of their big research experiences as quickly as possible. After all, these are the details that show Renner’s dedication to nanomedicine! But a smoother transition from the opening pickle car/goldbug story to Renner’s “real goldbug” of nanoparticles would help the reader understand why nanoparticles became Renner’s goldbug. Finding out why Renner is so motivated to study nanomedicine–and perhaps what put them on to this field of study–would help readers fully understand why Renner chose this path in the first place.

4 Essential Tips for Writing Your Own Essay

How can you use this discussion to better your own college essay? Here are some suggestions for ways to use this resource effectively.

#1: Get Help From the Experts

Getting your college applications together takes a lot of work and can be pretty intimidatin g. Essays are even more important than ever now that admissions processes are changing and schools are going test-optional and removing diversity standards thanks to new Supreme Court rulings .  If you want certified expert help that really makes a difference, get started with  PrepScholar’s Essay Editing and Coaching program. Our program can help you put together an incredible essay from idea to completion so that your application stands out from the crowd. We've helped students get into the best colleges in the United States, including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale.  If you're ready to take the next step and boost your odds of getting into your dream school, connect with our experts today .

#2: Read Other Essays to Get Ideas for Your Own

As you go through the essays we've compiled for you above, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Can you explain to yourself (or someone else!) why the opening sentence works well?
  • Look for the essay's detailed personal anecdote. What senses is the author describing? Can you easily picture the scene in your mind's eye?
  • Find the place where this anecdote bridges into a larger insight about the author. How does the essay connect the two? How does the anecdote work as an example of the author's characteristic, trait, or skill?
  • Check out the essay's tone. If it's funny, can you find the places where the humor comes from? If it's sad and moving, can you find the imagery and description of feelings that make you moved? If it's serious, can you see how word choice adds to this tone?

Make a note whenever you find an essay or part of an essay that you think was particularly well-written, and think about what you like about it . Is it funny? Does it help you really get to know the writer? Does it show what makes the writer unique? Once you have your list, keep it next to you while writing your essay to remind yourself to try and use those same techniques in your own essay.

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#3: Find Your "A-Ha!" Moment

All of these essays rely on connecting with the reader through a heartfelt, highly descriptive scene from the author's life. It can either be very dramatic (did you survive a plane crash?) or it can be completely mundane (did you finally beat your dad at Scrabble?). Either way, it should be personal and revealing about you, your personality, and the way you are now that you are entering the adult world.

Check out essays by authors like John Jeremiah Sullivan , Leslie Jamison , Hanif Abdurraqib , and Esmé Weijun Wang to get more examples of how to craft a compelling personal narrative.

#4: Start Early, Revise Often

Let me level with you: the best writing isn't writing at all. It's rewriting. And in order to have time to rewrite, you have to start way before the application deadline. My advice is to write your first draft at least two months before your applications are due.

Let it sit for a few days untouched. Then come back to it with fresh eyes and think critically about what you've written. What's extra? What's missing? What is in the wrong place? What doesn't make sense? Don't be afraid to take it apart and rearrange sections. Do this several times over, and your essay will be much better for it!

For more editing tips, check out a style guide like Dreyer's English or Eats, Shoots & Leaves .

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What's Next?

Still not sure which colleges you want to apply to? Our experts will show you how to make a college list that will help you choose a college that's right for you.

Interested in learning more about college essays? Check out our detailed breakdown of exactly how personal statements work in an application , some suggestions on what to avoid when writing your essay , and our guide to writing about your extracurricular activities .

Working on the rest of your application? Read what admissions officers wish applicants knew before applying .

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Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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Perspective Essay Example Papers and Sample Topic Ideas

Unless you love writing and it comes naturally to you, you probably won't be delighted when assigned essays on perspective. Most people, though, like telling others what they think. So, if you are one of them, writing such kind of paper can be fun because you have an opportunity to express your thoughts on a particular topic. That's the primary purpose of essays about perspective - to share your views and support them with concrete examples.

For those who don't know how to start their piece of content, we've prepared an ever-widening collection of samples that can serve as a valuable source of information and best writing practices. Skim the papers, and you will learn how to create a piece on perspective and deal with your assignment faster. Besides, feel free to use our examples as templates for your own essays. Just stick to the structure and formatting style.

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  • Aphorisms on Perspective

Perspective as Knowledge : The only reason to write an essay – ever – is because you know something your audience doesn’t. Sometimes, that knowledge comes from knowing your situation in life better than anyone else. Maybe others share that situation, and you’re able to speak to it. Or maybe folks who aren’t in that situation could benefit from seeing the issue from that perspective.

The Value of Perspective : Perspective is one of your greatest resources as a writer. Having a perspective is what keeps readers coming back for more. 

Defining Perspective : From the Latin per, “through, + specter, “to look at,” your perspective is the way you see the world from your unique position in it. It is the sustained point of view you have developed over time, as conditioned by your experiences, values, and goals. 

Picking Topics with Perspective : Use your perspective to help you decide which texts and topics to write about. Don’t write about something you don’t care about. 

Finding Yourself in the Material : So, when you’re assigned an essay, ask how you can “find yourself” in the text – your concerns and interests – because those are concerns and interests that you’ve already thought a lot about. That means you have expertise. You might have something to teach us. 

Beyond Perspective : It’s not enough to have a perspective. You have to deliver on it with quality arguments. But having a perspective, and knowing what yours is, is a key step to developing your unique voice as a writer. So what’s your perspective?

Thinking About Experiences and Identities : Perspective is closely bound up with experiences and identities. The best way to develop your academic perspective is to be responsive to the accidents of your life. For example, if you happen to be a recovering alcoholic and former juvenile delinquent who has attempted suicide, experiences bouts of depression, and is an atheist, you should use those experiences when deciding which texts to write about and when writing about those texts. You need not reveal those aspects of your identity in every paper, but you should use those experiences as the foundation for your perspective.

Perspective Need Not Be Traumatic : Having perspective doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve been through some traumatic life event. Sometimes you have, and that’s definitely part of your perspective. But usually perspective is about the specifics of your situation in the world, and how those specifics might relate to the materials you’re writing about and the audiences you’re addressing.

Developing Perspective : The questions below are designed to help you discover and formalize what your perspective is.  Because you may want to keep some of your answers below private, you won’t be asked to show this sheet to anyone else. So aim for honesty and consequentiality as you answer the following questions that will help you see what your unique perspective as a writer might be. 

Identities : List two identities you hold that give your life meaning. These could be biographical (e.g., middle child, father deceased, star athlete, military, etc.), geographical (city kid, Southerner, American), cultural (wealthy, Hispanic, atheist), political (radical, conservative, independent), sexual (in love, transsexual, virgin), or anything else that comes to mind.

Conceptrations : List the two academic fields you are most fascinated by (i.e., possible concentrations). 

Extracurriculars : Write down two extracurriculars you partake in (formally or informally). 

Classes : List the college classes you’ve taken, and any particularly memorable ones from high school.

Expertise : Identify a specific topic you know a lot about (e.g., some people, for whatever reason, know a lot about the French revolution, or soil density, or what have you).

Languages : Do you speak any languages other than English?

Social Challenges : What do you think is the single greatest problem facing society today?

Your Life : What has been the single most influential event on your development as a human being? 

Your Times : What has been the most important historical event of your lifetime? 

Thinking With Perspective : As you’re reading and thinking about essay topics to write about, ask how you might pose questions related to the above issues. True, a text like Shakespeare’s Hamlet is centuries-old, from a very different time and place, but it can also feel very current. Perhaps, instead of writing about the big and obvious themes in Hamlet – ghosts, revenge, tragedy, etc. – you might try writing about something with a significant modern valence in your life or our world. Or maybe Hamlet simply doesn’t speak to you and your perspective, and it could be interesting to ask why. To do that, be “on the look out” for questions and problems that you’re particularly well poised to address (because you already have significant experience or interest in those topics). Ask yourself how you can use the things you care about to interpret Hamlet , and how you can use Hamlet to interpret the things you care about.

Against Objectivity : Thus, don’t try to be objective. Objectivity is a myth. Embrace your perspective as a human and a writer. Allow that perspective to influence and play a part in your argument. If you’ve lost a parent, you have a perspective on Hamlet’s grief. If you’re a feminist, you have a perspective on the way that Polonius treats his daughter. When people tell you to “be objective,” what they really want is for you to be rigorous in your analysis of evidence; they don’t want you to pretend like you’re not who you are.

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Home / Essay Samples / Life / Work / Perspective

Perspective Essay Examples

A writers and readers perspective.

What makes a good reader and writer? There no such thing as a bad reader and writer; sometimes it only needs improvement. A reader and writer understand the purpose; are intellectual with an open minded imagination. I think writing is like food; you can cut...

An Overview of Alternative Perspectives in Criminology

According to Siegel (2018), criminology is defined as the scientific study of the nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal behavior. “Drawing conclusions after close reading of the works of Pierre Bourdieu (a French sociologist, anthropologist, philosopher, and public intellectual) we will adapt five lessons...

The Concept of the ‘need for Uniqueness Scale’

The ‘Need for Uniqueness Scale’ is a scale for detecting the level of uniqueness that one wants. As per this scale normal scores extend somewhere in the range of 98 and 108. Scores lower than 98 demonstrate a lower requirement for uniqueness. Scores higher than...

Perspective of College Education in America

Most young people find themselves oppressed with distressing loans after college. Discussions about colleges' actual contribution to the field of education has become increasingly common. By studying institutions and interviewing higher education leaders, policy makers, as well as students from different states, Andrew Hacker and...

Ict and Disaster Risk Reduction: National and International Perspectives

The assignment encompasses the idea of ICT and its role in national and international perspective. ICT integration in Disaster Risk Reduction is a contemporary idea. Disaster losses can be some-fold reduced if it can integrate technologies with it. ICT can serve in a broader scheme...

Manipulating Perspectives in Tomas More’s Utopia: Cruelty Or Generosity

More’s Utopia critiques the effectiveness how a society functions through imagining one where everything is harmonious. More is able to present his ideas and beliefs of society in a logical way through observation of its structure. In Utopia there is low crime, no poverty or...

Analysis of Ronald Wright’s Perspectives on Progress, and Its Effect on Civilization

Through the specialization of the human brain, people have unlocked an unlimited potential that has led to significant progression which is sometimes self-destructive. According to Ronald Wright, the progression is not always a good thing and civilization is potentially objectionable. Wright argues that people have...

Negative Aspects of Ethnocentrism Perspective

Ethnocentrism is when we are so focused on the way our culture, race, and ethnicity works that we fail to understand the way others work. For example, believing one’s own ethnic world view is the only way we can judge and understand things like customs,...

Understanding Magic from Different Perspectives

Magic can be defined numerous ways in anthropology. For some individuals, magic is methods that are created to attain power over the supernatural. Beginning in the 15th century, Sir George Ripley created the Ripley Scroll which was a series of texts and images that was...

What Should You Know About Plastic Surgery

Plastic surgery is a medical procedure to correct a physical abnormality, ranging from liposuction to correction of a cleft lip and palate. Often times, people from other countries will come to America, hoping to receive plastic surgery because it is easily accessible and cheaper than...

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