Essay Writing Guide

500 Word Essay

Nova A.

A Complete 500 Word Essay Writing Guide

13 min read

500 word essay

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1000 Word Essay - A Simple Guide With Examples

A 500-word essay is a common format assignment that students have to deal with. It is a three-part paper that provides vivid descriptions of an event, object, or phenomenon.

This format of essay writing is very easy if you know the correct techniques to put down your ideas in a specific word limit. 

The best way to write an essay in this format is by using specific words and making your ideas flow well. This essay enables you to learn how to be concise so that you meet your word limit without sacrificing quality.

We understand that students often face many challenges when writing an essay . Especially, if they are writing on a difficult and uninteresting topic or a theme.  

Now you are saved as you can find all the important instructions here for writing a 500-word essay worthy of an A+ grade. 

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  • 1. The Definition of A 500 Word Essay
  • 2. 500 Words Essay Format 
  • 3. How to Write a 500-word Essay?
  • 4. How Long is a 500 Word Essay? 
  • 5. 500 Word Essay Examples
  • 6. 500 Word Essay Topics 

The Definition of A 500 Word Essay

A 500-word essay is an important piece of academic writing that describes the writer’s perspective on a certain point of view. 

It is actually not an essay type but a specific format. It can be followed while writing different types of essays such as:

Argumentative Essay Analytical Essay Narrative Essay Critical Essay Reflective Essay Descriptive Essay Persuasive Essay Expository Essay Rhetorical Analysis Essay Literary Analysis Essay Cause and Effect Essay Compare and Contrast Essay   A 500-word essay can be the easiest and at the same time, the most difficult one to write. It all depends on two things; the Topic and the Writer’s Abilities .    Teachers love to assign 500-word essay assignments to students. Because it can help them quickly access their critical, analytical and writing skills. 

As a student, it is important for you to follow the required essay format to fit your ideas properly.

500-Word Essay vs. 250-Word Essay

The length of an essay can make a huge difference when it comes to the level of impact it has. A 500-word essay is typically much longer than a 250-word essay, allowing for more detail and evidence to be included in the paper. 

This additional content can help provide a strong argument or support a point of view, helping to make the essay more effective.

500-Word Essay vs. 1000-Word Essay 

When writing a 500-word essay, you should focus on providing an introduction that gives the reader some context for the topic at hand and then quickly moves into your main points.

A 500-word essay can be quite concise and to the point, so there’s no need to add filler or fluff just to reach the word count. 

1000+ word essays require more than just getting right to the point; they also require thorough research and in-depth analysis of your topic. 

With a longer essay, you will have time to provide more detail and evidence to support your points. 

500 Words Essay Format 

The 500-word essay challenges writers to express their thoughts, ideas, and arguments in a compact format. Here is the format and structure of a well-crafted 500-word essay.

  • Introduction (Approximately 50-75 words)
  • Body Paragraphs (2-3 paragraphs, Approximately 150-200 words)
  • Counterargument (Optional, Approximately 50-75 words)
  • Conclusion (Approximately 50-75 words)

Introduction

  • Start with a compelling hook or a thought-provoking question to engage your reader.
  • Provide a clear thesis statement that encapsulates the main idea or argument of your essay.

Body Paragraphs 

  • Each paragraph should focus on a single point or idea that supports your thesis.
  • Begin with a topic sentence that introduces the main point of the paragraph.
  • Provide evidence, examples, or arguments to support your point.
  • Ensure smooth transitions between paragraphs to maintain the essay's coherence.

Counterargument 

  • Address a potential counterargument to your thesis to demonstrate a nuanced understanding of the topic.
  • Refute the counterargument or explain why your thesis remains valid despite it.
  • Summarize the key points made in the essay without introducing new ideas.
  • Restate the thesis in different words to reinforce its significance.
  • End with a thought-provoking closing statement that leaves a lasting impression.

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How to Write a 500-word Essay?

Writing a 500-word essay is pretty much like classic essay writing. Here you have to provide solid arguments to support your claim, inform your reader, or discuss a trendy topic.

Like any other typical essay outline, it contains three parts; introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Here is the step-by-step guide that you can follow for writing a 500-word essay.

Create An Outline

  • Write A Strong Introduction

Composing The Body Paragraphs

  • Write An Impressive Conclusion

Below is a detailed description of each step for writing a perfect 500-word essay. 

First, make a clear and detailed essay outline , and do not miss anything at this point. It will serve as a backbone for your entire paper.

The purpose of this outline is to break down the ideas in a logical and structured manner. Then, to make the content clearer and more coherent throughout the paper. After the outline, write your paper on your own to avoid the risk of plagiarism.

Write a Strong Introduction

The introductory paragraph of your essay will be the first glimpse the reader will catch. Grab your reader from the start of this paragraph with an attention-grabbing hook . Make it as interesting and creative as you can so that they don't put down the essay before reading it all!   For writing an essay introduction , first, you need to introduce your main topic. And give an idea of what the reader may encounter in the rest of the essay.  The first step to start writing an introduction is to introduce your main topic and give a brief idea of what the reader may find later on.

Don’t forget to end this paragraph with a perfect thesis statement on which the whole essay is based. 

The body section of an essay is mostly divided into 3 paragraphs. It is the point where you need to explain all types of arguments you made in an essay. Then, support these arguments with relevant examples, facts, or personal interpretations. 

Here are the key points that are important to cover for a perfect body section of a 500-word essay:

  • Start your body paragraph with an engaging topic sentence that discusses what you are going to talk about.
  • Examine the main point of view and provide solid facts to support the argument.
  • Introduce a new idea with detailed information, examples, and evidence from reliable sources.
  • Make sure every idea described in the body paragraphs is concise and relevant.
  • Make sure you use transitions in your essay paragraphs so the readers understand the relationship between your ideas.

Write an Impressive Conclusion

The last part of the essay where you have to summarise the main argument of the essay. It begins with restating the thesis statement and explaining it with some strong points analyzed in the body section.

It is important to learn how to write a conclusion  that reminds the readers of the thesis. Make sure it does not completely iterate the introduction. Focus on providing critical insight into the main subject of discussion.

Always proofread your essay for mistakes and inconsistencies. Also, make sure the writing convention checklist is followed, as it will give you a clearer idea of what needs to be improved before submitting!

Now you know what a 500-word essay looks like and will be able to write your 500-word essay the best way possible.

If you still need some guidance, here is a video on how to write a 500-word essay!

How Long is a 500 Word Essay? 

Many students wonder how long a 500-word essay is, how many paragraphs it should consist of and what is the appropriate font to use. The answer to these questions seems pretty obvious at first glance. 

But the question is not about the words. Rather, students want to know how many pages are there in a 500-word essay. 

How Many Pages is a 500 Word Essay?

A 500-word essay is typically one to two pages long, depending on formatting and spacing.

For APA style, use a 12-point font for serif (e.g., Times New Roman) and 11-point for sans-serif (e.g., Arial).

Always follow the formatting guidelines provided by your assignment or course.

How Many Paragraphs is a 500-Word Essay? 

A 500-word essay usually includes 4 to 6 paragraphs, with each paragraph containing approximately 75 to 200 words. The specific number and length of paragraphs can vary based on the type and structure of the essay.

Word count is important in this essay so it is best to write an introduction within 100 words, body paragraphs should be of 300 words, and conclude the essay in 100 words.

500 Word Essay Examples

All 500-word essays follow a different style and structure, making it difficult for a student to understand what their instructor expects. In such scenarios, 500-word essay examples can be of great help.

Below you can find some 500-word essay examples on different topics to better understand the various style formats.

500 Word Essay On Honesty

A 500-word essay on honesty is a commonly assigned task to high school and college students. It simply involves writing on how to develop a practice of speaking the truth always.

Here is an example 500-word essay on honesty that you can refer to for your understanding.

500 Word Essay on Honesty

500 Word Essay On Integrity

Below, you can find a great 500-word essay on integrity written by one of our expert writers for your help.

500 Word Essay On Leadership

Leadership essay discusses the quality of leading people. Get help from the following leadership essay example and learn how you can write on one of the important aspects of life.

500 Word Essay On Punctuality  

Punctuality is an important trait that everyone should strive to possess. Take help from this punctual example essay and make your writing even more powerful.

500 Word Essay On Punctuality

500 Word Essay On Responsibility  

Responsibility is an important value that everyone should possess. It dictates the way we interact with others and how we carry out our daily lives. Take a look at our example of an essay on responsibility to understand what it means to be responsible.

500 Word Essay On Responsibility  

500 Word Essay On Why I Deserve a Scholarship  

Writing an essay explaining why you deserve a scholarship can be a challenging experience since students often feel like they’re bragging about themselves. Learn how to write a 500-word essay for scholarship that will make a strong case for your academic excellence with our sample!

500 Word Essay On Why I Deserve a Scholarship Pdf

500 Word Essay on Respect 

Respect is a very important concept in today's society. It is an essential component of any successful relationship, both personal and professional. Check out our essay example on  Respect to begin learning more about this topic.

500 Word Essay On Respect

500 Word Essay on Why I Want to be a Teacher 

Writing essays about something you are passionate about is never an easy task. When it comes to writing about why people want to be a teacher, you can always take help from some great sample essays.

500 Word Essay on Why I Want to be a Teacher

500 Word Essay on Why I Want to be a Nurse 

Nursing is a passion for a lot of people. If you want to write an essay on why you want to be a nurse, you must look at our sample essay.

500 Word Essay on Why I Want to be a Nurse

500 Word Essay on Global Warming

Global warming is not just an environmental concern but a moral obligation for the well-being of our planet. Write a 500 word essay on global warming with the help of our sample.

500 Word Essay Topics 

Following are the best 500-word essay topics that you can go through and choose the one that you find interesting.

  • Describe your favorite trip.
  • Is it possible to earn on the Internet?
  • What are the challenges of people living with disabilities?
  • How to avoid problems at college.
  • What is honesty?
  • Abstract art and its impact on people.
  • Causes of racism.
  • The best day of your life.
  • What is the objective of your life? 
  • What do you mean by punctuality? 

If you want to look at more topics, feel free to choose from our interesting list of topics . Start working on your essay confidently!

Writing essays in this format might seem easy, but the writing process can be tricky for students.

The biggest challenge is fitting all the important details into those 500 words.

If you want help brainstorming ideas, let MyPerfectWords.com address your “ write my essay for me ” requests efficiently. 

Have Questions? Ask our 24/7 available customer support.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many sentences is a 500-word essay.

FAQ Icon

You can fit about 500 words on one page with standard margins, single spacing, and size 12 font. This is because there are usually 5 letters in each word, 15 words in a sentence, and an average of 7 sentences in a paragraph.

Can a 500-word essay have 4 paragraphs?

The length of your essay will depend on the type and topic. A 500-word paper can be 3-4 paragraphs long, while a 600 or 700-word document requires 4 to 5 paragraphs in order for it all to make sense.

How many references are needed for a 500-word essay?

Going by the 500-word essay length, you would not need to add more than 2-4 references since you’re limited by the word count. Each citation needs its introductory statement, followed by the source’s data and its explanation, so that leaves little room to add in too many sources.

Does a 500-word essay have to be exactly 500 words?

Yes, that’s because the general rule for any academic essay is to not exceed the given word count by more than 10%. So applying the same rule, your 500 word essay length should ideally not exceed 10%, that is 550 words, so you should try to wrap up your thoughts within that word count or otherwise risk a negative marking by the professor.

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Nova A.

Nova Allison is a Digital Content Strategist with over eight years of experience. Nova has also worked as a technical and scientific writer. She is majorly involved in developing and reviewing online content plans that engage and resonate with audiences. Nova has a passion for writing that engages and informs her readers.

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Essay Writing Guide

500 Word Essay

Last updated on: Nov 20, 2023

Writing a 500 Word Essay - Easy Guide

By: Nova A.

Reviewed By: Chris H.

Published on: Jan 8, 2019

500 Word Essay

Are you staring at a blank page, trying to write a 500-word essay? Don't worry, you're not alone! 

Many students face this challenge when tasked with writing a concise yet impactful piece. A 500-word essay is a common task often assigned to high school and college students. 

Writing a 500-word essay can be quite difficult as you have to cover all the important points in a few words. However, this is where you can show all your potential. 

Read on to learn how to write a perfect 500-word essay with this step by step guide. You will also get to read some good example essays to help you out. 

Let’s dive into it!

500 Word Essay

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500 Word Essay Definition

A 500-word essay is a short length academic essay. It provides a writer’s perspective on a particular topic. It is usually assigned to high school and college students to teach them necessary essay writing skills.

Every type of essay can follow the 500-word essay format, including:

  • Persuasive essay
  • Descriptive essay
  • Argumentative essay
  • Expository essay
  • Narrative essay

This means that you can write any type of essay in the 500-word format.

How to Write a 500 Word Essay

A 500-word essay is an opportunity to show and improve your writing skills. Here are the steps you need to follow to write your essay:

Make an Essay Outline

An outline is a roadmap that guides you through the different sections of your essay. It is important to make an outline before you start writing. This ensures a well-structured and coherent piece. 

A 500-word essay is usually composed of five paragraphs. Here’s what you need to create an outline:

  • The main topic of the essay
  • The central thesis statement
  • The main point or topic sentence for each body paragraph
  • Supporting points for body paragraphs

This is what your outline will look like:

Write a Good Introduction

An introduction plays an important role in making an impression on the reader’s mind. The readers decide on the basis of the introduction, whether they want to read the rest of the essay or not. 

Here is how you can compose the introduction paragraph:

  • It should start with a strong hook that grabs the reader’s attention immediately.
  • Provide a little background information that helps the reader understand the topic
  • Conclude the intro with a compelling thesis statement that you will support in the body.

Here is an example:

Compose the Body Paragraphs

The body section is intended to provide a detailed description of the topic. It gives complete information about the essay topic and presents the writer’s point of view in detail. Following are the elements of the body section:.

  • Topic sentence

The first sentence of the body paragraph. It presents the main point that will be discussed in the paragraph.

  • Supporting evidence

It could be any points or evidence that support your main thesis.

  • Transition statement

This statement relates the body paragraph back to the thesis, and also connects it with the subsequent paragraph.

Draft a Compelling Conclusion

The conclusion paragraph summarizes the whole essay and presents the final thoughts on the topic. It is as important as the introduction paragraph. Below are the things you include in the conclusion paragraphs:

  • Restate the thesis statement
  • Summarize the essay
  • Provide final thoughts or a call to action

Want to become a master at writing essays? Check out our essay writing guide to become an excellent writer who can craft all types of essays!

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500 Word Essay Format

Here is how you format a 500 word essay in general:

  • A common font style like Calibri, Arial, or Times New Roman
  • 1” margins on both sides
  • Line spacing: double-spaced
  • Alignment: Left 

Remember, these are general guidelines. Always follow the specific page formatting guidelines provided by your instructor. 

Frequently Asked Questions about Writing a 500 Word Essay

Many things come up in your mind when you get to write a 500-word essay. You might want to know the length, outline, time required to write the essay, and many more things.

Below are some common questions that you may ask yourself while writing a short essay.

How Long is a 500 Word Essay?

“How many pages is a 500-word essay?”

An essay length of a 500-word essay is usually 1 to 2 pages. If it is single-spaced, it covers just 1-page. When double-spaced, it covers 2 pages. 

When it comes to spacing, stick to the instructions given by your professor.

How Many Paragraphs is a 500 Word Essay?

The standard 500-word essay template has 5 paragraphs. It has one introduction, three body paragraphs, and one conclusion paragraph. 

The word count is divided into 5 paragraphs evenly. The introduction and conclusion are 100 words long each. While the body paragraphs need to be 300 words long.

How Long Does it Take to Write a 500 Word Essay?

It would take no more than an hour or two to write a complete 500-word essay. Especially if you have enough information about the topic, you can easily write your essay within an hour. 

What is the difference between 500 words essay vs 250 words essay

The word count of an essay plays a significant role in shaping its structure, content, and depth of analysis. A 500-word essay is a bit more detailed and longer than a 250-word essay. A 250-word essay is composed of three paragraphs maximum. Meanwhile a 500-word essay should contain at least five paragraphs.

What is the difference between 500 words essay vs 1000 words essay

Here is a major difference between 500-word essay and a 1000-word essay: 

With a 500-word essay, you have a limited word count, which necessitates a concise and focused approach. You must carefully select your arguments, provide succinct evidence, and present a coherent analysis. 

On the other hand, a 1000-word essay allows for a more extensive exploration of the topic. It provides the opportunity to delve into multiple subtopics and offer more supporting evidence. 

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500 Word Essay Topics

Below are some interesting topics to help you get started on your essay.

  • Should gun ownership be restricted
  • My Favorite Place
  • Should healthcare be free? 
  • The benefits of volunteering in the local community
  • Is hunting for food moral? 
  • The importance of personal responsibility
  • How I spent my summer vacation
  • Describe an ideal personality
  • What is Climate Change?
  • The importance of sports for teenagers

Need more ideas? We’ve got you covered! Check out 100+ amazing essay topics to help you out!

500 Word Essay Example

Now you have a guide for writing a 500-word essay, have a look at the following example to have a more clear understanding.

500 WORD ESSAY ON COVID-19 (PDF)

500 WORD ESSAY ON WHY I WANT TO BE A NURSE (PDF)

500 Words Essay on Why I Deserve a Scholarship

500 WORD ESSAY ON PUNCTUALITY (PDF)

500 WORD ESSAY ON LEADERSHIP (PDF)

500 WORD ESSAY ON HONESTY (PDF)

FREE 500 WORD ESSAY ON RESPONSIBILITY (PDF)

500 WORD ESSAY EXAMPLE FOR COLLEGE (PDF)

With the help of this step by step guide and essay examples, you can easily craft a perfect essay. However, if you need more help, you can contact us anytime.

5StarEssays.com is a legitimate paper writing service that you can rely on to do my essay for me . We offer academic writing help for each category, i.e. research paper, scholarship essay, or any type of academic paper.

Place your order now to get unique and original essays at affordable prices. Or if you need quick writing assistance, try out our AI essay writer now!

Nova A.

As a Digital Content Strategist, Nova Allison has eight years of experience in writing both technical and scientific content. With a focus on developing online content plans that engage audiences, Nova strives to write pieces that are not only informative but captivating as well.

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500 Word Essay

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A 500-word essay is a very interesting type of essay writing. Like other academic writing assignments, this type of essay writing is quite often assigned to students at different academic levels.

A 500-word essay tends to polish the writing and analytical skills of a writer. It is not a very extensive composition, but still, it is meaningful and equally important. 

This type of essay writing is interesting and very easy to write. You have to be on point, which means that you do not have to do a lot of research and stay focused on your point of view.

A 500-word essay format is one of the easiest formats to follow for essay writing.

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What is a 500-Word Essay?

A 500-word essay is basically an essay with three sections that give clear depictions of an occasion or any item. This type of essay is a common article design that can be followed for composing any sort of exposition, for example, a descriptive essay, an argumentative essay, and so forth.

A 500-word essay is mostly doled out at secondary schools and universities. Almost every other student faces it multiple times throughout academic life. It doesn't have any broad heading, so you can show all your latent capacity by not relying on the subject and theme.

How to Format a 500-Word Essay?

The format of a 500-word essay is very simple and very similar to other types of essay formats. The only thing that makes it different is the essay length.

As the word count for this type of essay is less, thus the length of the paragraphs is also small, and the word count ranges from 75-125 words.

Each paragraph has 3-5 sentences. These sentences must be well-written so that despite being short in length, the sentence can explain its purpose.

Here is a standard format of a 500-word essay that has the following components with examples of each component.

The introduction is responsible for keeping the reader engaged. It provides a brief overview of the overall essay and contains the thesis statement for the essay topic.

It provides background information about your essay’s topic and mentions why you chose this topic in particular.

Also, there is a hook statement in the introduction paragraph. This is a statement that usually is a verse or a famous quotation. It is used as an opening sentence for the essay.

For Example 

After the introduction, the body of the essay starts. The body paragraphs make the body of an essay. For a 500-word essay, particularly, there are usually 4-6 paragraphs.

Each paragraph discusses a key element and provides the required evidence to give it a logical sense.

Like the body paragraph of any other essay, the paragraphs of the 500-word essay start with a topic sentence. This sentence acts as an introduction to the paragraph.

Each paragraph should end with a transition sentence to show a connection with the upcoming part.

Make sure that such a body paragraph is meaningful yet in a comprehensive form.

Here is a sample body paragraph to help you craft a winning 500-word essay

A conclusion paragraph is the extract of the whole essay. The writing skills of a writer are judged by the way they conclude an essay.

Writing the conclusion is the most complicated part of essay writing. To write a good conclusion, the writer must logically summarize all the key elements and reiterate the thesis statement.

Whatever is mentioned in the conclusion should give the reader a sense of closure and completion.

Let's continue with the cell phone example for a better understanding of the conclusion phase.

500 Word Vs. 250 Word Essay

500-word scholarship essays provide you with a significantly greater degree of writing freedom than 250-word ones. When you're given fewer words, it can be tricky to express your views in concise and effective phrases without sacrificing clarity.

With 500 words at hand though, you have ample space to make sure that all the facets of your opinion are expressed - yet don't need footnotes and cited resources as often!

500 Word Essay Vs. 1000 Word Essay

The length of a 500-word essay and a 1000-word essay is quite different. 

While a 500-word essay may not require much outside research or citations, it still requires more focus and organization than a 1000-word essay. 

A 1000-word essay requires far more time and effort to write than a 500-word essay. Plus, it requires you to be more thorough in your research, analysis, and composition. It will also require you to use a greater degree of critical thinking skills when making arguments.

Additionally, a 1000-word essay may call for the use of outside sources to support points or draw conclusions. Thus, writing a 1000-word essay can be a much more challenging task than writing a 500-word essay. 

How Long is a 500-word Essay?

You must be wondering how long exactly a 500-word essay is? As it is a very easy style of composing an essay, so every student prefers to complete it right away and get back to other activities.

One of the interesting facts about this essay type is that it is even shorter than we think. It depends on the formatting style, sizing, and spacing a writer chooses to use. If a writer wants a double-spaced writing format, that is also acceptable for writing such an essay.

To make sure that you write the essay with perfection, understand all the requirements provided by your instructor to compose this type of essay.

500-Word Essay Sample (PDF)

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How to Write a 500-word Essay?

Writing a 500-word essay is a very simple task to do. But things might get complicated if you do not follow a standard way of writing.

The following are the steps you should consider while writing a 500-word essay.

Before you start writing an essay, the first thing you should do is to understand the requirements provided by your instructor.

Understanding the requirements will help you to complete your essay without any mess and up to the mark. Proceeding according to the requirements will keep you composed through the essay writing process.

Once you have understood all the requirements, the next step is to think of some interesting ideas. Brainstorming helps you to use the creativity of your mind, especially when it comes to essay writing.

Note down all the elements that you come up with within your mind. Make a rough list of all the ideas and later on organize them to compose an effective essay.

After you have understood all the instructions and spent enough time brainstorming different ideas, it is time you choose a topic.

Always choose a unique and interesting topic. A good topic is highly responsible for making your essay attractive. Also, try that you have selected a topic that is not overdone. An overdone and repetitive topic would make your audience boring.

For a 500-word essay, a topic must be very interesting as you have to make the essay interesting within a very limited word count. Make sure that you choose such a topic about which you can easily collect evidence and facts to support it and make it stronger.

Conducting research on the selected topic is an essential part of essay writing. The research will help you collect all the relevant information that is necessary to make your essay stronger.

Also, researching a topic will make the writing process very smooth for you as you will have all the information that is needed for the essay.

Collect all information only from reliable sources as you don’t want to misguide your audience.

The outline is an element of an essay that can save time, make things easy, and earn a better grade.

Just write down all the main features and arguments you want to discuss in your 500-word essay. This will help you to get back on track if you forget the things you wanted to write about.

Moreover, your essay will always be structured and clear, so the audience will read it easily and will follow your thoughts without any challenges.

Since you have your topic and all the information related to the topic thus, you are all set to start writing your essay.

Essay writing starts with writing an introduction. As you are writing an essay of 500 words, an introduction should have only one paragraph. In that paragraph, you should explain the main topic and its importance and also the thesis statement.

After introducing the topic, state the body paragraph, and explain all the key elements in it. Usually, there are three body paragraphs in such essays to explain different key elements.

Don’t forget to add transition words, which will make the text smooth and readable. Also, ensure that you use the standard font styles, preferably Arial or Times New Roman.

The same as an introduction, your conclusion should be one paragraph long. Summarize all the key elements in a very precise way and do not add any new points.

Devoting some extra time to proofreading, revision, and editing can make your essay a whole lot better.

This is the simplest thing to do, but most students still skip it and make the biggest mistake. Proofreading ensures that there are no mistakes left behind in your document.

Always make sure that you revise your essay at least once and do the required editing.

Watch this video that shows cases the 5 common mistakes you might make in your 500-word essay writing. Learn how to avoid them to get the desired grade. 

500-Word Essay Examples

To understand any type of essay, one needs to look into some good examples. Unfortunately, when it comes to writing a 500-word essay, things become a bit technical for the writer.

To understand the method of writing a good 500-word essay on any topic, look at the following 500-word essay sample pdf examples. 

Leadership essays are written to discuss all the qualities of being a leader. Look at the given example and learn how you can write a 500-word essay on leadership

500-Word Essay on Leadership (PDF)

500-word essay writing assignments are often assigned to high school students. If you are a high school and want to see how you can perfectly write such an essay, look at the example given below.

500-Word Essay for High School (PDF)

Our changing environment is an important issue these days. An essay can be composed of different things related to it. The given example is a 500-word essay that discusses the environment in general.

500-Word Essay on the Environment (PDF)

Punctuality is one of the significant qualities of an individual. A well-written 500-word essay on punctuality is mentioned below to help you through.

500-Word Essay on Punctuality (PDF)

Teachers are the backbone of any educational system, and they play an essential role in developing students’ skills. However, many students aspiring teachers get confused writing 500-word essays due to their shortened length. Here is an example to help you out.

500 Word Essay on Why I Want to be a Teacher

Writing on nursing topics helps you to develop an understanding of the complexities of this field while also honing critical thinking skills. Below is a 500-word essay that can help future nurses.

500 Word Essay on Why I Want to be a Nurse

Honesty is an important value that must be cultivated in students from a young age. It helps to establish trust between individuals and sets the foundation for strong character development. Below is a 500 word essay on honesty to guide you on how to write on such a theme.

500 Word Essay on Honesty

500-word essay on why I deserve a scholarship is often dreaded among students. These essays require you to shorten yet express a compelling story that can win over the panel. Here is a pdf to help you out.

500 Word Essay On Why I Deserve a Scholarship PDF

Anger management is a difficult topic to tackle. It requires you to find effective solutions and ideas within such a limited word count. Check out the example given below for help.

500 Word Essay on Anger

The Second World War is one of the most important events in human history and its impact can still be felt today. Writing a 500-word essay on this subject requires research, understanding, and war insight. Below is a sample to help you get an idea about how to tackle such a topic.

500 word essay on ww2

Now that you know exactly what a 500 word essay looks like. Continue reading to select the perfect 500-word essay topic.

Great 500-Word Essay Topics

This type of essay is mostly assigned to high school and middle school students. The following are some amazing topics for 500-word essays.

  • Difference between Love and passion.
  • The love story of Romeo and Juliet.
  • Why is there a belief that marriage destroys love?
  • A religious aspect of love.
  • What is real love?
  • Is it possible to make a person truly love somebody?
  • The influence of love on a person’s life?
  • Why is real love often depicted in fairy tales?
  • How to write a 100 words essay in Times New Roman?
  • Can animals feel love for their owners?
  • The effects of single space formatting in an essay.
  • A journey to remember.
  • How to prepare for an exam?
  • Thoughts on spacecraft?
  • How do people earn from the Internet?
  • How can money influence people?
  • How can disabilities be a challenge?
  • Carrying guns by people underage.
  • Telling lies is sometimes useful.
  • Why is smoking the greatest threat to youngsters?

Writing assignments can be really daunting sometimes. To write an essay perfectly, you need to have strong writing skills and a lot of time to complete it. Instead of being stressed out, the best option is to seek professional help.

At  CollegeEssay.org , we have a qualified team of expert writer who can take care of any writing assignment. From writing a good college essay to providing you with the best research paper, we have got you covered.

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Get in touch with us now and place an order now for your 500-word scholarship essay or any other essay you need. We provide you with the best custom essay writing service  and an amazing experience.

Frequently Asked Question (FAQs)

How many pages is a 500 word essay.

A 500-word essay page is approximately one page single-spaced, or two pages double-spaced. This may vary depending on your writing style and font size.Usually time new roman 12 is used. Typically, a 500 word essay will be about one page single or two pages double spaced.

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How to Write a 500 Word Essay

write an essay in about 500

Gabriel Jimenez-Ekman is a content editor and writer at Scholarships360. He has managed communications and written content for a diverse array of organizations, including a farmer’s market, a concert venue, a student farm, an environmental NGO, and a PR agency. Gabriel graduated from Kenyon College with a degree in sociology.

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write an essay in about 500

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How to Write a 500 Word Essay

With only about a page and a half to get your point across, every word counts in a 500 word essay. A succinct response packed with impactful examples can easily put you ahead of the crowd!

Follow our concise step-by-step guide to write an effective 500 word essay:

Start with an outline

Applying the outline to an example.

  • Deciding on how many examples to use

Don’t worry about the word count in your first draft

Don’t forget to proofread.

Keep reading to learn how to write the best 500 word essay you have ever written!

Don’t miss:  Scholarships360’s free scholarship search tool

Writing essays with word limits can be a balancing act. You may have a lot you want to say, but not enough space to sufficiently explain each point that you want to make. That’s why it is a great idea to start by outlining the 3-4 main ideas you’d like to address in your essay. Trying to pack any more than four main ideas into a 500-word essay could prevent you from effectively explaining your examples.

We suggest making a bullet point list for your outline, which could look something like this:

  • Hook the reader with an engaging first line and introduce your response.
  • Expand on your first point or example
  • Elaborate on your second point or example
  • Expand on your third point or example
  • Expand on your fourth point or example
  • Tie your examples together and conclude your essay with a meaningful last line

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Let’s try using this outline to respond to a prompt: Please describe your commitment to working within your community . With a prompt like this, you could hook your reader with a sentence emphasizing what community work means to you on a personal or emotional level, or how you first started working with your community.

Each body paragraph would be a description of different experiences you’ve had working in your community, and what they taught you. And you could use your conclusion to point out a common thread between these experiences; now that the reader has read all about your involvement in the community, you can use this opportunity to describe how the experiences have come together to reshape your relationship with community work. 

See more : How to write a winning scholarship essay

Comparing essay lengths

As you sit down to write your essay, you might wonder how you should adjust your approach to a 500 word essay as opposed to a 250 or 1000 word essay. 250 word essays are expected to be extremely brief, with only minimal elaboration on each point, and 1,000 word essays are expected to be more thorough, and might even include citations. A 500 word essay falls in a grey area between these two; it gives you the freedom to elaborate on the details you find to be the most important.

Will an admissions officer keep reading my essay if I go over?

You might be wondering “what happens if I go over the word limit? Will an admissions officer still read my essay?”

As with many topics related to the admissions process, it depends. If you have gone way over and wrote 2,000 words, it is possible that the admissions officer will not continue to read your essay or may just skim it. Remember, admissions officers and scholarship essay readers are busy people who have to get through many applications and essays.

So if you go over by a few words or sentences, you are probably fine and the admissions officer will likely not even notice. However, if you go over the word count in an obvious, noticeable way, this is something that is unlikely to help you (even if the writing is excellent).

Also see: How to write a 250 word essay

Deciding on how many examples you should use

A common question for writing a 500 word essay is whether or not you should include a fourth example. If your examples require a lot of thorough explanation in order to be impactful, it might be best to only include three. It’s better to have three impactful examples than four examples that don’t resonate with the reader. However, if the prompt is straightforward and you can explain your examples quickly, go ahead and add that fourth body paragraph!

Recommended: Wondering how to format your essay? Scholarships360’s guide will tell you all that you need to know!

Try writing out a first draft without worrying about your 500 word limit! This is a great way to get all your thoughts down on paper. It’s easier to cut the extra content down at the end than it is to keep interrupting your writing to edit it as you go. This can take you out of your writing flow, and make the essay take longer

A 500 word essay requires a lot of editing in order to make a point effectively in a limited number of words. It’s a great idea to ask a friend or family member to proofread your final copy. They can catch simple mistakes that you have been glossing over, or come up with new ways to reword your essay and slim it down to fit the word limit.

With this said, it’s important for you to maintain ownership over the voice of your essay. The job of the proofreader or editor is to catch mistakes and give general feedback–it is not to rewrite the entire essay.

A few more resources

Learn how to effectively conclude your scholarship essay by reading our guide on how to end scholarship essays . Many scholarships want to know more about you, so it’s important to know how to write an essay about yourself . If you are looking for additional scholarship opportunities that involve writing, check out our list of top writing & essay scholarships .    

Remember, writing scholarship essays is an opportunity to show exactly why you are deserving of a scholarship. Learn to write in a way that puts your best self forward, and  win all the awards that you qualify for!

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Writing a 500 Word Essay: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide

By: Author Oliver

Posted on Last updated: September 7, 2023

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Are you looking to improve your English writing skills? One great way to do so is by practicing writing 500 word essays. This type of essay is a popular assignment in academic settings, and it can also be a helpful tool for those looking to improve their writing abilities. In this article, we will explore the basics of the 500 word essay, including its format, structure, and tips for writing a successful essay.

500 Words Essay

Writing a 500 Word Essay: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide

Understanding a 500 Word Essay

What is a 500 word essay.

A 500-word essay is a type of academic writing that requires the writer to express their perspective on a particular topic or issue in 500 words. It is a concise and straightforward format that allows the writer to present their ideas in a clear and concise manner. This type of essay is commonly assigned to high school and college students as a way to develop their writing skills.

Importance in Academic Writing

The ability to write a 500 word essay is an essential skill for students in high school and college. It helps them to develop critical thinking, analytical, and writing skills. Writing a 500-word essay requires the writer to be concise and to the point, which is an essential skill for academic writing.

In addition, a 500 word essay is an excellent way for students to learn how to structure their ideas and arguments in a logical and coherent manner. It helps them to develop their writing skills, which are essential for success in college and beyond.

Here are some words and phrases that can be useful when writing a 500 word essay:

Example sentence: To write a successful 500-word essay, you must analyze the topic thoroughly and present a well-structured argument.

Planning the 500 Word Essay

Choosing a Topic

The first step in planning your essay is choosing a topic. The topic should be something that interests you and is relevant to the essay type you are writing. Brainstorming is an excellent way to come up with ideas for your topic. Write down all the topics that come to mind, and then narrow them down to the one that you feel most passionate about.

Creating a Thesis Statement

Once you have chosen your topic, the next step is to create a thesis statement. A thesis statement is a sentence that summarizes the main point of your essay. It should be clear, concise, and specific. Your thesis statement should be included in the introduction paragraph of your essay.

Research and Gathering Facts

After creating your thesis statement, the next step is to research and gather facts to support your arguments. This step is crucial as it provides evidence to back up your claims. You can use various sources such as books, articles, and online resources to gather information. Ensure that the sources you use are credible and reliable.

To help you with your research, here are some words and phrases you can use to find relevant information:

The Structure of a 500 Word Essay

When it comes to writing a 500 word essay, having a clear and well-organized structure is crucial. In this section, we will discuss the three main components of an essay: the introduction, the body paragraphs, and the conclusion.

The Introduction

The introduction is the first part of your essay and it should be attention-grabbing. It should provide a brief overview of the topic you will be discussing and set the tone for the rest of the essay. A good introduction should include a thesis statement, which is a sentence that summarizes the main point of your essay.

Here are some words and phrases that you can use to start your introduction:

The Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs are where you will provide the main arguments and evidence to support your thesis statement. Each paragraph should focus on one main idea and include supporting details. It’s important to use transition words and phrases to connect your ideas and make your essay flow smoothly. For a 500 word essay, there should be two body paragraphs, whose lengths should be about around 170 – 200 words.

Here are some words and phrases that you can use to start your body paragraphs:

The Conclusion

The conclusion is the final part of your essay and it should summarize the main points you have made in your essay. It should also restate your thesis statement in a new way and provide a final thought on the topic.

Here are some words and phrases that you can use to start your conclusion:

Writing the 500 Word Essay

Writing a 500 word essay can be a daunting task, especially for those who are not confident in their writing skills. However, with the right approach, anyone can write a concise and compelling essay that effectively communicates their arguments and evidence.

Drafting the Essay

The first step in writing a 500 word essay is to draft the essay. This involves brainstorming ideas, outlining the essay, and writing a rough draft. When brainstorming ideas, it is important to focus on a specific topic and come up with a clear thesis statement. Once a thesis statement is established, the essay can be outlined, and the rough draft can be written.

Incorporating Arguments and Evidence

Incorporating arguments and evidence is a crucial part of writing a 500 word essay. To effectively incorporate arguments and evidence, it is important to use clear and concise language and to provide specific examples to support your arguments. When using evidence, it is important to cite your sources properly to avoid plagiarism .

Here are some words that can help you incorporate arguments and evidence:

For example, “The claim that technology has improved our lives is supported by ample evidence, including the fact that we can now communicate with people from all over the world in real-time.”

Maintaining Unity and Coherence

Maintaining unity and coherence is essential in writing a 500 word essay. Unity refers to the overall focus of the essay, while coherence refers to the logical flow of ideas. To maintain unity and coherence, it is important to use transitional words and phrases to connect ideas and to avoid repeating information.

Here are some words that can help you maintain unity and coherence:

For example, “Furthermore, the use of renewable energy sources is not only environmentally friendly but also cost-effective. Similarly, the implementation of energy-efficient technologies can significantly reduce energy consumption. Consequently, it is essential that we take steps to reduce our reliance on non-renewable energy sources.”

Revision and Proofreading

Revising the essay.

After writing the first draft of your 500 word essay, it is crucial to revise it. Revising the essay means looking at the content, structure, and language to ensure that it meets the requirements of the assignment. Here are some tips for revising your essay:

  • Read through your essay and check that it makes sense and flows logically.
  • Check that each paragraph has a clear topic sentence and supports the main idea of the essay.
  • Make sure that your essay has a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.
  • Check that your language is clear, concise, and free of errors.
  • Ensure that you have used reliable sources to support your arguments.

Proofreading for Errors

Once you have revised your essay, it is time to proofread it. Proofreading means checking for errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Here are some tips for proofreading your essay:

  • Read your essay slowly and carefully, checking for errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
  • Use a spell checker to help you catch any spelling errors.
  • Check that you have used correct grammar, such as subject-verb agreement and proper use of pronouns.
  • Ensure that your punctuation is correct, including commas, periods, and quotation marks.
  • Double-check that you have used the correct tense and verb forms throughout your essay.

Remember, revising and proofreading are essential steps in the writing process. By taking the time to revise and proofread your essay, you can ensure that it is clear, concise, and error-free.

Challenges and Solutions When Writing a 500 Word Essay

Common challenges.

Lack of Confidence

One of the most common challenges in essay writing is lack of confidence. If you think you’re not good at writing, you might have trouble starting your paper. You might doubt your capability to complete it as well. To overcome this challenge, try to focus on the task at hand and break it down into smaller, manageable parts. Start with an outline and gradually build up your essay. Remember, practice makes perfect, and the more you write, the more confident you’ll become.

Time Management

Another common challenge is time management. You might have other assignments to complete, or you might be working a part-time job. To manage your time effectively, create a schedule that includes time for research, writing, and editing. Stick to your schedule and avoid distractions, such as social media or TV. If you’re struggling to manage your time, consider seeking help from a tutor or mentor.

Choosing a topic can also be a challenge. You might be given a specific topic, or you might have to choose your own. To choose a topic, consider your interests and the requirements of the assignment. Brainstorm ideas and narrow down your options until you find a topic that you’re passionate about and that fits the assignment.

Solutions and Tips

Research is key to writing a successful 500-word essay. Start by gathering information on your topic from credible sources, such as academic journals, books, and reputable websites. Take notes and organize your information into an outline. This will help you stay focused and ensure that your essay is well-researched and informative.

Structure is also important in essay writing. A well-structured essay is easy to read and understand. Start with an introduction that grabs the reader’s attention and provides background information on your topic. Follow this with body paragraphs that provide evidence and support for your argument. Finally, end with a conclusion that summarizes your main points and leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

Editing and Proofreading

Editing and proofreading are crucial to writing a successful 500-word essay. Once you’ve completed your essay, take a break and come back to it later with fresh eyes. Read through it carefully, looking for errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Make sure your essay flows well and that your ideas are clear and concise. Consider asking a friend or family member to read through your essay as well, as they might catch errors that you missed.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some tips for writing a 500 word essay in English?

Writing a 500 word essay in English can be challenging, but with the right tips, you can make it easier. Here are some tips to help you:

  • Plan your essay: Before you start writing, plan your essay by creating an outline. This will help you organize your thoughts and ideas.
  • Use simple language: Use simple and clear language to express your ideas. Avoid using complex words and sentences that may be difficult for the reader to understand.
  • Write in short paragraphs: Write in short paragraphs to make your essay easier to read. Each paragraph should focus on one idea or point.
  • Edit and proofread: After you have finished writing your essay, edit and proofread it to ensure that it is free of errors.

What are some common English language essay topics?

There are many English language essay topics that you can write about. Here are some common ones:

  • My favorite hobby
  • The importance of education
  • The effects of social media on society
  • The benefits of exercise
  • The impact of technology on our lives

How can I improve my English vocabulary in my essay writing?

Improving your English vocabulary is essential for writing a good essay. Here are some ways to improve your vocabulary:

  • Read extensively: Reading extensively will expose you to new words and help you understand how they are used in context.
  • Use a dictionary: Use a dictionary to look up new words and their meanings.
  • Practice writing: Practice writing essays to improve your vocabulary and writing skills.

What are the benefits of learning English for non-native speakers?

Learning English has many benefits for non-native speakers. Here are some of them:

  • Improved communication: Learning English will improve your ability to communicate with people from different countries and cultures.
  • Better job prospects: English is the language of business, and many employers require employees to speak English.
  • Access to information: English is the language of the internet, and learning English will give you access to a wealth of information online.

What are some strategies for starting a 500 word essay in English?

Starting a 500-word essay in English can be daunting, but with the right strategies, you can make it easier. Here are some strategies to help you:

  • Start with a hook: Start your essay with an interesting fact, quote, or anecdote to grab the reader’s attention.
  • Create an outline: Creating an outline will help you organize your thoughts and ideas before you start writing.
  • Write a strong thesis statement: Your thesis statement should clearly state the main point or argument of your essay.
  • Write the introduction last: Write the introduction last to ensure that it accurately reflects the content of your essay.

Writing a 500-word essay in English can be challenging, but with the right tips, you can make it easier. Here are some tips to help you:

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There are many resources that can help you with writing a 500-word essay. Here are some of them:

  • Writing guides: There are many writing guides available online that can help you with writing essays.
  • Writing apps: Writing apps like Grammarly and Hemingway can help you improve your writing skills and catch errors.
  • Writing tutors: If you need more personalized help, you can hire a writing tutor to work with you one-on-one.

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  • Start with a hook: Start your essay with an interesting fact, quote, or anecdote to grab the reader's attention.
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How to Write a 500-word essay-Advice by Experts

how to write a 500 words essay

Whether it is a scholarship application, an admission essay, an in-class essay, a standard essay assignment, or a college essay, sometimes you are required to submit a 500-word essay. It can as well be a current event essay .

College students often find it hard to write a 500-word essay. While it is indeed a short essay , it is comparatively challenging to put together compared to the long essays. Thus, this article on how to write a 500-word essay will help.

In this article, we demystify your concerns on how much is a 500-word essay? What is a 500-word essay? And how many paragraphs should a 500-word essay have? Plus, many more complex questions on 500-word essays.

What is a 500-word essay?

As the name suggests, a 500-word essay is a short essay comprising an introduction paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph as its three main sections where the writer discusses, describes, analyzes, and writes about a topic. It is just a paper written in 500 words, either as one single-spaced paper or two double-spaced pages.

It is a common format preferred for short exam essay-based questions, college essays, descriptive essays , persuasive essays, argumentative essays, or personal essays. If you have come across a short essay about yourself, friendship, family, or a prolific person, you would agree that most of them are written in 500 words.

A 500 words essay is nearly the same as a two-page essay. It is mostly assigned in college, university, and high school.

From its name, it is clear that a 500-word essay is an essay that requires you to follow the 5-paragraph essay format. It involves writing on a topic, an issue, or a question in five hundred words. So naturally, the word count is usually 500 words.

How long is a 500-word essay?

How Many Pages are 500 Words? This is a common question. Well, we have an answer to it.

A page is approximately 500 to 550 words single-spaced. On the other hand, when considering a double-spaced page, the word count is 250-275 words. Therefore, a 500-word essay can either be one single-spaced page or two double-spaced pages.

And you might be interested in the number of paragraphs that make a 500-word essay. Well, given the understanding of the pages and the word count, a 500-word essay follows the classic five-paragraph essay format.

Thus, it has an introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. You could have approximately 100 words paragraphs of 6-7 short sentences. Some of the prompts allow either plus or minus 10% of the indicated word count.

The time it takes to complete a 500-word essay

You probably wonder how long it might take to complete this variant of a short essay. Assuming that you are familiar with the topic and are researching and writing, it could take 1-3 hours to write an excellent 500-word essay.

If you are a professional, expert essay writers can write 500-word essays in 30 minutes to 1 hour. Of course, they are mavens in essay writing. Besides, they work with the best essay writing service .

Format of a 500-word Essay

A 500-word essay follows the conventions of five-paragraph writing in terms of structure. You are expected to follow an appropriate essay format to present your ideas. When writing a 500-words essay, consider the following structure.

  • It differs depending on the formatting style chosen, e.g., MLA, APA, Havard, or Chicago styles.
  • It consists of your credentials, university name, professor's name, and date of submission
  • It also entails the title of your essay
  • A hook statement that grabs the attention of the readers
  • Background information that expounds on the topic
  • A roadmap that explains how you explore the topics
  • The thesis statement that is the controlling idea for your essay
  • Body paragraph 1 : Topic sentence (your first main point or idea), evidence (facts, examples, illustrations, explanations, and interpretations), closing sentence, and transition to the next paragraph.
  • Body paragraph 2 : Topic sentence (your second main point or idea), evidence (facts, examples, illustrations, explanations, and interpretations), closing sentence, and transition to next paragraph.
  • Body paragraph 1 : Topic sentence (your last main point or idea), evidence (facts, examples, illustrations, explanations, and interpretations), closing sentence, and transition to the conclusion.
  • Summary of your claims, arguments, and discussions.
  • Rephrased thesis statement
  • Your final account on the essay: recommendation, observation, or suggestion.
  • If you have used references, list them alphabetically (A-Z) depending on the citation format, such as APA, MLA, Chicago, or Havard formats.

Seven Steps to Write a 500-word Essay

You can simply follow the steps of classic essay writing to complete your 500-words essay. As long as your essay has solid arguments supporting your claim, you are good to go. Writing a 500-word essay should take less time than, say, a 1000-word essay , considering that it is short. Here are some steps you can use to craft a 500-word essay successfully.

1. Read the Requirements

Although most students either ignore this or do it lightly, reading the essay prompt prepares you to write the essay and sets you up for success. Therefore, read and comprehend the requirements, including the topic, preferred approach, paragraphing rules, citation style and format, and the deadline.

2. Brainstorm for ideas

 You can either use your computer or pen and paper to brainstorm and record your ideas based on the instructions. You can highlight some of the most exciting ideas that come to mind. Doing so also helps to use your creativity and critical thinking, which essay writing tests. Your rough list comes in handy during research and when writing the essay.

3. Select a good topic

With everything held in place, it is now time to choose a topic. You can either do this from the list provided by your professor or choose an independent but relevant and interesting topic. Select a topic that you find exciting and has not been overdone. You can focus on controversial social issues, current affairs, and debatable areas related to your interests or field of study.

A topic for a 500-word essay should be exciting and narrow so that you share your insights and concepts briefly but exhaustively. The topic you choose should have enough content. You can gauge this by looking for evidence from scholarly articles.

4. Conduct a thorough research

If you are running short of time, you can combine research and writing. However, if you have adequate time, spend more time researching for resources that you can use to support your claims in the paper.

Consolidating the information you need to explore your chosen topic reduces time wastage during the writing process. Assuming that you organize the sources, you can write as you cite to avoid plagiarism .

5. Create an outline

You can then create a detailed outline to envision the structure of your essay. Remember, you only have 500 words to convince or inform your readers. Therefore, adequate planning is necessary. An outline is your essay plan or roadmap. It is the backbone upon which your essay rests.

Break down the main points for each section of your essay to ensure a logical and structured flow of information. Then, ensure that you refine the content to have an essay that is coherent, competent, clear, and classy.

Your outline will help you stay on course when writing.

6. Write the essay beginning with body paragraphs

Break the monotony of beginning your essay with an introduction during the writing process. Instead, start your 500-word essay by writing the body paragraphs first now that you have an outline. This approach is better because you can write the body paragraphs that support the thesis. And suppose there are changes in the paragraphs. In that case, you can tweak the thesis statement to reflect the change instead of cumbersomely doing it otherwise.

The body paragraphs comprise 80% of your word count. So, you have 400 words to spread the content of three body paragraphs, meaning you have to have short paragraphs. The paragraphs should each have at least 133 words. Remember you have a + or?10% word count allowance. So, a paragraph of 4-6 short sentences would suffice. The body paragraphs should have a topic sentence highlighting the main idea, examples and evidence, and a concluding sentence.

Related: Paragraph writing rules

Once you are done with the body paragraphs, write your introduction. Your introduction should be strong as it is a selling point to your readers. Convince your readers by including attention grabbers. Introduce the topic and give some background information. Finally, have a strong thesis statement to wrap up your introduction. For this, you have 100 words, which means you need not include irrelevant words and sentences.

Finally, write an impressive conclusion for your essay. It would help to summarize your main argument and then restate the thesis statement.

When writing, use relevant transition words for smooth flow and quality arguments.

7. Revise, edit, Proofread, and Polish

Finally, because you focused on writing first and editing last, revise and polish your essay as a final step.

Read the essay aloud to yourself and correct the spelling, grammatical, punctuation, and stylistic errors you can identify. As well, check your paper through a plagiarism checker to ensure it is devoid of plagiarism.

Proofread your essay well and if you need help, especially for critical essays such as personal essays, SOPs, and scholarship essays, hire a professional proofreader.

Helpful Tips when writing a 500 Word Essay

Everybody looks forward to writing an essay that earns them good grades. To do so, you can use these tips used mainly by top students when writing short essays.

  • Always read instructions . Reading the instructions helps you comprehend what your instructor will be looking for as they mark your paper.
  • Take a break before proofreading . Before you edit and proofread your 500-word essay, ensure that you take a break. Doing so helps you develop an objective mind, making it easier to spot mistakes.
  • Use academic phrases . Avoid using clich? words when writing your essay. Instead, use academic writing phrases that will entice grades from your professor. Instead of overloading your 500-word essay with complicated vocabulary, maintain simplicity and express your ideas directly. Keep your content pristine, organized, and 100% non-plagiarized.
  • Use strong verbs . You are writing an essay in just 500 words. Therefore, structure your arguments and use strong verbs to avoid wasting words. Always use simple language. Avoid jargon and complicated vocabulary, as well as synonyms.
  • Use active voice . Like any other academic paper, ensure that you use active voice unless the passive voice is unavoidable. Check out our guide on using active voice .
  • Each paragraph has one idea . As you structure your paragraphs, ensure that each body paragraph focuses on a single idea. As well, ensure that you use transition words to connect your paragraphs. Your body should have topic sentences, supporting facts (well-cited), and concluding sentences.
  • Confirm your instruction vs. your paper before submitting it . Reread the essay prompt and then your paper before submitting it. When writing, editing, and proofreading the essay, always have the audience in mind.
  • Research widely . Research online to get credible sources of information. We recommend starting on a Google search to understand your topic. You can also get scholarly articles online to supplement your arguments. Research is invaluable as you write or familiarize yourself with the topic.

500-word essay Topics

Below are some suggestions or topic ideas for your upcoming 500 words essay.

  • The importance of Names
  • Is diversity a good thing within a team, and why?
  • Is living longer necessarily a good thing?
  • Is it fair to use children in television advertisements?
  • Why Housing Mentally Ill Offenders in Prisons is Wrong
  • High school doesn't prepare you for life
  • Should students work part-time while studying?
  • Should student debt be discharged in the face of bankruptcy?
  • The Wrongs of Polygamy
  • Is the US HealthCare System Broken?
  • Dogs are better friends than humans
  • Keeping pets is beneficial
  • Benefits of stem cell technology
  • Emotional impacts of HIV and Aids
  • Benefits of being earnest
  • Causes and consequences of wars
  • Role of ethics in business
  • Benefits of CSR activities
  • The American Dream
  • Video games and violence
  • Impact of covid on marriages
  • Impact of social media on relationships
  • Does social media promote promiscuity?
  • Why I want to be a nurse
  • The best leadership styles
  • Profile essay on Putin
  • Benefits of punctuality
  • Benefits of integrity in the workplace
  • Role of code of ethics
  • Why people should have respect for others
  • Time management strategies for students
  • How to score the best grade in math
  • Is a college education worth it?
  • Rising student loan debts
  • Essay on responsibility
  • Education should be free
  • How social media enables human trafficking
  • Ethics of human trafficking
  • How to spend summer vacation
  • How to revise for exams
  • A perfect day
  • An ideal society
  • Teenagers should be educated on sex
  • Suicide rates among teenagers
  • Impacts of driving when texting
  • Rape victims should not be questioned
  • Happiness is a choice
  • Importance of sleep on human growth
  • Animal testing should be prohibited
  • Impacts of covid 19 on education

Final Remarks

Understanding how to write a 500-word essay is integral to your academic journey. Students taking English courses would agree that writing essays and research papers is mandatory.

For your English 102 essay , you might be required to write a 500-word essay. Whichever subject you are pursuing and you need to write such an essay, do everything we have highlighted and set yourself up for success.

Now, if you are pressed on time, have thought about your essay at the last minute, and all you need is help with writing the 500-word essay, we can help. Our last-minute essay writers can craft your 500-word essay in less than 2 hours. Again, we are talking about you getting a 100% unique, custom-written, and plagiarism-free essay.

If this sounds like what you are after, do not hesitate to place an order through the order form on our homepage. Consider some of these benefits:

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500 Word Essay Examples + Topic Ideas

Writing a 500-word essay may seem like a piece of cake. But don’t get fooled by it! Although a paper of this length is short and takes only one page, its writing process has its pitfalls. And the most complicated aspect is finding a balance between the small size and the depth of argumentation.

A typical 500-word paper can be:

  • a traditional 5-paragraph essay
  • a college admission essay
  • a personal statement
  • a book report
  • a critical analysis essay, and many other types of written works.

If you need to write one of these, then definitely check out this article. Our simple explanations and inspirational topics will help you craft an exceptional 500-word paper. And make sure to check out our free essay examples for even more ideas!

  • 🎓 Personal Statement Examples
  • 📜 500-Word Memoir Topics
  • ✨ My Values Essay Examples
  • ✊🏿 Rosa Parks Essay Topics
  • 💬 Narrative Essay Examples

✍️ How to Write a 500-Word Essay

  • 😱 Stress Impact on Health Essay Samples
  • 🚀 Sample Essays on Accountability
  • 💡 Essay Topics on Respect
  • 🎯 Example Essays on Career Goals
  • 📚 Topics on the Importance of Education
  • 🩺 Alzheimer’s Disease Topics
  • ❤️ Romeo and Juliet Essay Examples
  • 🏫 College Essay Topics

🎓 500-Word Personal Statement Examples

  • Personal Statement for a Major in Geography and Planning From my perspective, geography is a prominent professional field that has incredible potential, and I want to contribute to the advancement of this area to improve the lives of societies and organizations.
  • APRN Program Applicant Personal Statement While studying to be a nurse, I discovered the function of nurse practitioners and felt it was exactly what I was searching for.
  • Personal Statement on My Most Effective Learning Style Thus I believe my mode of learning is the best to use when studying. Through the use of this method, I have found learning to be more exciting and captivating.
  • Personal Teaching Philosophy Statement: Encouraging Lifelong and Individual Learning Thus, the learners will more easily relate to music, and as a result, necessary prerequisites for active engagement in the studies, and an enthusiasm for the required material, can be expected.

📜 500-Word Memoir Topics to Write About

  • Describe your most exciting adventure.
  • Share a story of a volunteer experience that changed your life.
  • How you rediscovered your passion for an old hobby.
  • Write about a lesson you’ve learned from a unique friendship.
  • What life events had the most significant impact on your personality?
  • Discuss your experiences in competitive sports.
  • Explore and discuss your heritage and cultural roots.
  • Write about the situation when you had to step out of your comfort zone.
  • Reveal your path to forgiveness and reconciliation.
  • What is your favorite childhood memory? Why is it significant?

✨ My Values Essay: 500 Words Examples

  • The Importance of Values and Virtues To further illustrate this concept in a more detailed manner, I will refer to a couple of the values I follow, while depicting a situation when I have broken them.
  • Social Work: Values, Experience, and Educational Goals First of all, I would like to start with the fact that people, as phenomena, have always attracted me, and also aroused a desire to help, if necessary.
  • Values in Caring for Dying Patients Therefore, medical professionals’ main task is to provide the most satisfying life for patients and peace of mind for loved ones. In conclusion, the care and treatment of dying patients imply adherence to certain professional […]
  • Nursing Values and Responsibilities Some of the legal responsibilities of a nurse include preventing malpractice cases and respecting a patient’s confidentiality. The legal responsibilities of a nurse involve preventing malpractice and respecting a patient’s confidentiality.
  • Businessperson’s Vision, Mission, and Values Statement In addition, I intend to use my skills and knowledge in finance to mitigate the risks that the company is facing.
  • Personality and Values in Human Services Practice In order to overcome this problem, I plan to find a colleague who can help me review the plans and assessments of current situations to ensure that I cover all the basic issues.

✊🏿 Rosa Parks Essay: 500 Words Topics

  • What were the early years of Rosa Parks and her upbringing?
  • Describe Rosa Parks’ involvement in the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
  • Explore Rosa Parks’ collaboration with Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Write about Parks’ later years and continued activism.
  • What was Rosa Parks’ personal philosophy?
  • The cultural depictions of Rosa Parks in literature, film, and art.
  • Analyze Parks’ contribution to the fight for racial equality.
  • Study the cultural and historical context of Parks’ actions.
  • Discuss the legacy of Rosa Parks’ writings and speeches.
  • What is the significance of the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama?

💬 Narrative Essay Examples: 500 Words

  • Counseling and Social Work Challenges Also, it may be important to try to work with different people and assess the impact that individual differences have on the work results.
  • Blog Response: Developing Different Kinds of Narratives I get the news set that makes her keep asking “is this journalism” and feel relaxed as she makes me realize am reading and not in the situation.
  • A Horrible Walk in the Wilderness Upon some reflection, Ashley concluded that she should have asked someone to meet her at the bus stop when she arrived at 10 o’clock and guide her to the picnic site.”One would have thought that […]
  • Walking Tour: Irving Street in San Francisco The first place, which you can see is the Baskin Robbins store at the corner of the 24th avenue. The fine restaurant is located nearby the intersection of the Irving Street and the 23rd avenue.
  • Architectural Design of the Autostadt Roof This is one of the main attributes of this architectural design. It should be kept in mind that this work is located on the territory of Autostadt, the museum of Volkswagen.

Writing 500 words is not much work. If the topic is simple, you can easily finish everything in a couple of hours. However, writing essays on more complex issues is an entirely different process. It is essential to structure everything well and cover the topic fully within the tight word limit. Not sure how to do it? Have a look at the guide below.

500-Word Essay Structure

If you want to write an excellent 500-word essay, then make sure to outline it first. A standard 5-paragraph piece will have the following structure:

  • 1 intro paragraph that provides the necessary background and states your thesis
  • 3 body paragraph with a detailed presentation of all evidence and arguments
  • 1 conclusion paragraph that sums everything up.

Each paragraph should contain about 100 words. Such length is enough to cover almost any topic.

An explanation of a 500-word essay structure.

Did you know you can use the power of AI to create an excellent essay plan? Our outline generator can make you a perfect one in no time.

500-Word Essay Introduction

In a 500-word paper, an introduction is usually 50—100 words long, which takes up about 10—20% of the general word count. The size may vary depending on the complexity of the topic.

Here are a few helpful tips on writing a good introduction:

  • Start with an arresting hook. It can be a thought-provoking question, a quote, or an intriguing piece of statistics. Need some inspiration? Try our essay hook generator !
  • Provide enough background. That’s a tricky part. The context you give should be sufficient for understanding your topic and arguments but not overly detailed.
  • Present a well-formulated thesis statement. It’s the most critical part of your intro. To create it quickly and painlessly, you can use our thesis statement generator .
  • Remember to use transition sentences. They will make your writing smoother and more logical. We recommend using them in body paragraphs as well.

500-Words Essay Conclusion

The conclusion of a 500-word paper is about the same size as an introduction. It wraps up all you’ve been discussing before and gives a sense of closure to your readers.

Follow these tips to write a striking conclusion:

  • Restate your thesis statement. Try paraphrasing your thesis to showcase a fresh understanding you’ve developed throughout your essay.
  • Sum up the main points you’ve used to support your opinion. Try to introduce them in a way that clearly shows how they are connected.
  • Finish with a memorable final thought. Our closing sentence generator will help you ensure perfect results.

How Many References for 500-Word Essay Should You Include?

The number of references in a 500-word essay may differ depending on the assignment type, academic level, and your instructor’s specific requirements. Generally, an essay includes 8 to 12 citations for every 1000 words. So, if the number is not specified, you can safely use 4—6 references for your 500-word paper. Want to be sure that your citations are correctly formatted? Make them with our AI-based citation generator !

😱 Stress Impact on Health Essay: 500 Words Samples

  • Effects of Stress on Human Health There are numerous theories and researches on stress and health, they all agree that stress has an adverse effect on human health; the statement goes “a stressed man is an unhealthy man”.
  • The Relationship Between Stress and Health: Article Summary The implications of the study allow for stating that the increased exposure to stress at work leads to worsened health of the stressed individuals.
  • Coping with Stress and Physical Health Problems In this regard, Julie, first of all, needs to accept the situation as it is, to appreciate the things and the context that she is no longer able to change.
  • Coping with Stress: Stress and Health In terms of physical, emotional, and behavioral signs, Julia is experiencing severe stress, which requires the help of specialists and the introduction of various techniques that contribute to the normalization of all aspects of life.
  • Occupational Health: Workplace Stress To avoid noise-related stress, Ruth handles her job with a positive attitude and this makes it easy to enjoy work. In conclusion, work-related stress is a major cause of poor performance by employees due to […]
  • Health and Stress in College Students We may believe that stress has only psychological relevance, but the perspective of psychologists is that stress is the physiological and psychological reaction of an individual to a condition that poses a threat calling for […]
  • Minority Stress and Health: Societal Issues Due to the peculiarities of the LGBT people’s personal life, they might experience limited support and restricted access to medical services.

🚀 500-Word Essay on Accountability: Examples

  • Pursuing Professional Accountability and Just Culture It is suitable to combine the quantitative and qualitative approaches to evaluate organizational culture since this ensures that the strength of the other adjusts for the shortcomings of one method.
  • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act: Privacy and Security Rules Violation Most cases present with the use of malicious malware to access protected data without the consent of the insurers and inappropriate use of that information.
  • Social Work Career, Professional Behavior and Accountability I have the desire to fight for human rights and social change, and I want to fight for justice in all corners to make society a better place.
  • Civil Society and Political Accountability in Samoa Also, one of the priorities in the political life of Samoa is the attraction of local communities and governments to the state governance system to ensure progress in all aspects of the country’s life.
  • Accountability in Healthcare Organizations and Improving the Quality of Service This is true in view of the fact that the clients of a health care organization may not possess the knowledge to judge the technical quality of the healthcare service provided and the clients’ wellbeing […]
  • A Critical Reflection of “Accountability in the Shadow of Hierarchy” by Thomas Schillemans The article by Schillemans addresses the emergence of the phenomenon of horizontal accountability in response to the accountability deficit of agencies.
  • Wise Judgment: Ethics, Accountability, and Human Conscience The man, now in a state of dilemma, does not know whether to blow the whistle and lose his job or just maintain a blind eye to his manager’s unethical acts.

💡 Topics for a 500-Word Essay on Respect

  • The significance of respect for building healthy relationships.
  • Is self-respect a necessary condition for a happy life?
  • The unseen power of silent respect in non-verbal communication.
  • Discuss the importance of respecting and understanding different religious beliefs.
  • Write about the role of respect for older people in different cultures.
  • Should society show respect to criminals? In what way?
  • Explain the importance of politeness and open-mindedness in online communication.
  • Why is the ethical treatment of animals important?
  • Analyze how disrespect in the workplace affects productivity and motivation.
  • Recognition and respect towards indigenous cultures and traditions.

🎯 500-Word Essay on Career Goals Examples

  • Family Nurse Practitioner Career Goals As I plan to deal with children, I will be involved with planning the care of children with their parents and treating childhood illnesses.
  • Short and Long-Term Goals for Nursing Career For one to fulfill long-term goals, it takes him or her a lot of time while short-term goal is a part of the several steps involved in the long-term goal.
  • A Degree in Social Work: Reasons for Seeking, Career Goals and Aspirations I would like to pursue a degree in social work at this because I am in a position to accommodate the strict nature of the study being fresh from school, young and energetic at the […]
  • How the DTC Major Supports Your Career Goals Digital technology and culture ensures that the knowledge people have in art is updated depending on the modern technology and everyone for communication to be effective understands the language used.
  • Reaching the Career Goals: In Search for a Place Under the Sun Quicksilver Nespresso Fastsing Narrowing the Choice Down to Three Options While the list provided above offers a fairly detailed account of the career options that I can possibly use in order to achieve success in […]
  • Career Goals in Educational Technology The University offers the Master of Arts and the doctor of Philosophy degrees in Educational Technology. One of the spread and reasonable career goal for an applicant is to achieve success in the field of […]

📚 Topics for an Essay on Importance of Education in 500 Words

  • Importance of Education to Student-Athletes Education enables student athletes to develop appropriate skills that they require to be independent and to succeed in academics. Although athletics forms a vital part of a student athletes’ life, it is vital to understand […]
  • Importance of Higher Education Education creates awareness in the minds of individuals, a new sense of responsibility, openness to change and progress, all of which are important factors in the development of a nation.
  • The Importance of Education in the Global Society The role and the importance of education in the modern world is a subject of this essay. The elementary and secondary education is obligatory and free in the majority of them.
  • Importance of Sex Education for Teens One of the advantages of cohabitation in modern society is that it eliminates the obligations of marriage while providing sexual and emotional intimacy for couples. One of the disadvantages is that for most couples, cohabitation […]
  • Importance of Managing Students in the Education System This would not only benefit the students, but also the teachers who will be able to understand the capacity of the students they are admitting to the institution.

🩺 Alzheimer’s Disease Essay: 500 Words Topics

  • Describe early warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
  • How does Alzheimer’s impact caregivers?
  • Explain the importance of overcoming the stigma associated with dementia.
  • Alzheimer’s disease and gender differences: prevalence and effects.
  • Discuss the common misperceptions of Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Is there a connection between Alzheimer’s and one’s lifestyle?
  • Study the role of music and art therapy in treating Alzheimer’s patients.
  • Write about the significance of inclusive clinical research of dementia.
  • Alzheimer’s disease and the importance of physical activity.
  • Explore non-pharmacological interventions for Alzheimer’s patients.

❤️ Romeo and Juliet Essay: 500 Words Example Texts

  • Analysis of the Play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Another interesting scene of the production that makes it real understanding of the authors work is the casting of the romantic love between Romeo and Juliet, the physical love of the nurse and the contractual […]
  • Romeo and Juliet: Analysis of Play Being a tragedy, the story narrates the challenges two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, go through due to the enmity between their respective families. For example, the story of Juliet and Romeo presents a romantic and […]
  • Analysis of “Romeo and Juliet” Directed by Simon Godwin The actors played in the theater without an audience, and the shooting itself took two and a half weeks, but also due to the director’s attempt to combine the action on the theater stage and […]
  • Nurse and Friar Laurence in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” The way Friar Laurence supported Romeo and Juliet to get Married, The way the Nurse is opposing in her regards of Romeo and Paris, When Friar Laurence clandestinely married them, the way the Nurse is […]
  • “Analysis of Causes of Tragic Fate in Romeo and Juliet Based on Shakespeare’s View of Fate” by Jie Li The article is easy to read and makes a compelling case for the reasons that precipitated the tragedy in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

🏫 500-Word College Essay Topics

  • Describe a book or movie that made a profound impact on you.
  • What academic achievement influenced your career choice?
  • Share the life lesson you’ve learned from a memorable mistake.
  • Write about the impact of a mentor on your academic or personal growth.
  • Describe a life-changing act of kindness.
  • How did participation in a community service project influence you?
  • Tell about a project or initiative you’ve started and its impact.
  • Talk about the time when you stood up for your beliefs.
  • What is your vision of a better world? How do you plan to contribute?
  • How did you discover your passion for a particular field of study?

📌 500 Word Essay: Answers to the Most Pressing Questions

📌 500 word essay is how many pages.

How many pages is 500 words of academic text? According to the guidelines of all the key citation styles, one page should contain approximately 250 words (12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced). If you follow these guidelines, your 500-word essay will be 2 pages. If you make it single-spaced, it will take one page.

📌 How Much Is 500 Words in Paragraphs?

How many paragraphs is a 500-word essay? Since a typical paragraph in academic writing contains 50-100 words, an essay of 500 words will consist of 5 to 7 paragraphs.

📌 How Many Sentences Is 500 Words?

How many sentences is a 500-word essay? A typical sentence in academic writing consists of 15-20 words. So, 500 words are not less than 25-28 sentences.

📌 How to Outline a 500-Word Essay?

A 500-word essay outline usually follows a standard five-paragraph structure. Start your paper with a short introduction that includes an attention-grabber, some background information, and a thesis. Then add three body paragraphs that focus on your arguments. Finish your 500-word paper with a conclusion that contains a restated thesis and a summary of your ideas.

📌 How Long Does It Take to Write 500 Words?

How long does it take to write a 500-word essay? It will take you 10-20 minutes to type 500 words on your keyboard (the total time will depend on your typing speed). Writing an academic paper will take more time because you’ll have to research, make an outline, write, format, and edit your text. It would be best if you planned to spend not less than 1 hour and 40 minutes for a 500-word paper.

📌 How Many Body Paragraphs Are in a 500 Word Essay?

A typical 500 words essay consists of 4 to 6 paragraphs. Each of the paragraphs should contain 75-150 words.

  • Chicago (A-D)
  • Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, November 23). 500 Word Essay Examples + Topic Ideas. https://ivypanda.com/essays/words/500-words-essay-examples/

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How to Write a 500 Words Essay: Definition, Format, Writing Tips

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by  Antony W

September 6, 2023

500 words essay

In this guide, we teach you exactly how to write a 500 words essay, fast. Whether you have enough time left or you’re in your last minute essay writing , you’ll find this post helpful.

Here’s the deal:  

Your paper can’t be a one-paragraph essay , but it can definitely be a 500 words assignment.

The problem is:

You don’t have sufficient room to write as much as you’d like in a 500-word limit. But that doesn’t mean you can’t write a great essay within this scope.

So in this guide, we show you exactly how to write a 500 words essay, step-by-step – and without trying so hard.

Key Takeaways

  • Writing a 500-word essay requires you to follow the same steps you would to write standard essay.
  • In practice, your essay must have an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
  • Given the limit in the number of words for the assignment, we can expect the essay to have roughly three paragraphs or a maximum of 5 paragraphs give or take.
  • Later on, your teacher may ask you to make an essay longer to add more depth to your work, but this is subject to their discretion.

What is a 500-word Long Essay?

There’s no one-size-fits-all definition for a 500-word essay.

However, the most straightforward and meaningful definition is that it’s an assignment that answers a specific question. The topic can be on anything depending on the assignment prompt.

For example:

You may write an essay to give a direct response to an arguable claim , to talk about yourself, as is the case with college admission, or to convince an audience that your position on a topic is more plausible.

You get the idea.

However, since you don’t have the freedom to write as much as you would want to, the limitation demands that your claim should be precise and your arguments must be concise and straight to the point.

500 Words Essay Format

It’s important to keep one thing about essay writing in mind moving forward:

An essay has three sections regardless of the limit in the number of words. It must have an introduction, body paragraph(s), and a conclusion.

We like to describe a 500-word paper as a short essay . But you still should follow the correct format to get it done, or you risk getting a zero after review.

Given that we’re talking about a short essay, you should have at least 3 to 5 paragraphs for this assignment. You may want to make each paragraph 75 to 125 words long and then ensure that each paragraph doesn’t exceed 5 sentences long.

How to Write a 500-word Essay

Now that you understand what a 500-word essay is and the right format to use, here’s how to write:

Introduction

Write the introduction paragraph as a compelling hook, which aims to captivate your professor’s attention right from the start. Ensure that the opening sentence is exceptionally engaging.

Develop a concise thesis statement of about one or two sentences, making sure that it provides a direct response to the essay prompt’s question.

Body Paragraphs

To structure the body section effectively, consider organizing it into distinct paragraphs based on the number of arguments you wish to present and defend.

Begin each paragraph by introducing your argument, accompanied by supporting evidence or descriptive details, and then conclude the paragraph with a cohesive summary.

Ensure that each paragraph revolves around a distinct idea, factor, or argument, and justify your perspective by providing reasons and ample evidence to bolster your arguments.

Remember to conclude each paragraph by summarizing the initial statement you made at the beginning of that specific paragraph.

The final paragraph should go beyond a mere repetition of the opening statement. While it is important to reiterate the thesis, you must do it in a manner that avoids the appearance of copying and pasting the introduction into the conclusion.

You can use diverse vocabularies and language choices in the conclusion to add quality to your work and enhance the overall engagement.

By adhering to this outline diligently, not only will your professor be enthusiastic to delve into your essay, but you will also receive the grades that truly reflect your abilities.

250-word vs 500-word vs 1000-word Essays

A 250-word essay represents the minimum length for a student’s composition, but it imposes limitations on the amount of content you can include.

To convey your ideas concisely, you may find yourself summarizing profound thoughts to reach the main point. Unfortunately, this brevity often leads to omitting crucial information that would enhance the readability and credibility of the essay.

In contrast, a 500-word essay offers a bit more flexibility, giving you some space to express yourself. However, it isn’t enough to incorporate cited resources and footnotes that could strengthen your arguments.

Then there is the 1,000-word essay . For this one, you have the freedom to employ comprehensive sentence structures that elaborate on your essay’s claims or defend your position in an argument.

Given its length, typically spanning around four double-spaced pages, your professor will likely expect you to include cited sources or references to support your claims or bolster your stance in a 1,000-word essay.

Final Thoughts

Irrespective of the word limit, the objective of an essay remains consistent.

Essentially, an essay should serve as a comprehensive representation of your thoughts and reasoning, and they must be strong enough to compel readers to support your claim or engage in a debate surrounding your argument.

Moreover, and regardless of the specified word count, your essay must adhere to the standard structure, which means it must have an opening paragraph, a body section, and a concluding paragraph.

Lastly, don’t write your essay as a single paragraph, as this can distort the intended message you wish to convey.

About the author 

Antony W is a professional writer and coach at Help for Assessment. He spends countless hours every day researching and writing great content filled with expert advice on how to write engaging essays, research papers, and assignments.

500 Word Essay: Structure and Topics

Composing a 500-word paper would appear a troublesome task. Notwithstanding, let us disclose to you something: negative attitude towards the given assignment can just lead to your failure. Relax and be hopeful about the imminent work!

In addition, Writix tips for composing 500-word and 1000-word  articles will encourage your work and will help you to get a clear answer to the main question: What does a 500-word essay look like?

500 Word Essay Definition

A 500-word essay belongs to academic writing tasks where high school or college students have to provide their analysis and outlook on a certain topic. It is both the easiest and the most challenging task due to length.

There are at least five 500-word essay types:

  • Persuasive (persuade your readers).
  • Descriptive (describe something).
  • Argumentative (argue about something).
  • Expository (expose things).
  • Narrative (tell a story).

These definitions reflect the style of writing and the methodology that you must follow.

How to Write a 500-Word Essay?

First of all, it is essential to consider how your target audience will perceive your paper. It is a short essay after all, which is why things must be narrowed down a little bit to fit your objectives. While it may be impossible to conduct an in-depth analysis of your subject, writing this essay assignment usually requires fast thinking and creativity. Remember that if you have already found certain external sources, these must be mentioned both in text and on your Bibliography page.

Here are the steps that you must consider to make your 500-word essay stand out:

  • Choose Your Topic Correctly Unless Already Provided With a Prompt. Choose something that inspires you because it will always show in your writing. If you are already given a prompt, do not be afraid to ask your school teacher or a college professor if something is unclear. The same relates to cases when your paper’s prompt has a double meaning.
  • Research Your Subject. If you have an opportunity or you write something other than a personal essay, take your time to research your topic and add some statistical data to your writing.
  • Start With An Outline. When you have an outline, you can narrow things down and write down all the key elements that explain your subject.
  • Create An Interesting Hook. If you choose to write an argumentative essay, consider using an interesting fact or inspiring information to keep your readers motivated to read further.
  • Study The Rules of Your Essay Type. It means that writing a descriptive essay is not the same as working with expository writing. Read about definitions of each task type and consider which one fits you the best way to reflect your thoughts and ideas.
  • Provide a Thesis Statement. The heart of your writing is the thesis statement. It should reflect an idea and/or reflect your take on a problem. Your thesis may be either one or two sentences, depending on if you need any additional explanation.
  • Proofread Your Essay. It is necessary to check your writing for grammar, repetitions, clarity, spelling mistakes, and style. It is recommended to read it aloud and ask yourself whether you have met the objectives of your prompt.

500 Word Essay Structure

If you have to find an answer to the request “ write an essay for me “, we recommend you to start from analyzing the 500-word essay structure to understand which information to include in your paper and which not.

  • The introduction. Despite the fact that this passage starts things out, it’s most effortless to compose it last. That is on the grounds that you don’t comprehend what to write after you have created this part. Once the body of the exposition is finished, you can return to this passage and make the presentation.
  • The body will consist of 3 sections. The primary section will be the principle idea you are attempting to introduce to the peruser. Ensure you support this claim with truths or with your perspective, contingent upon what sort of exposition you’re composing.
  • Then comes the second purpose of the body . Similar principles apply to this claim. While writing an assignment, ensure you give satisfactory support.
  • What’s more, the third and last primary purpose of the body ; keep it compact and give the essential supporting proof.
  • The conclusion is the final passage of the paper. It can likewise have 100 words, roughly. It ought to be a summary of the essay. Ensure it’s formulated uniquely in contrast to the presentation. It ought to leave the reader with something to consider.

Your article ought to have an effect. It ought to be significant, intriguing and roll out for the readers. Before you make your last modification, make sure you have fulfilled every one of the necessities of the task.

Word tally is critical; however, it’s not by any means the only thing that matters. At times there is no need to stick to certain organizing rules. The textual style must be proper. The header and footer and the side edges ought to all be as indicated by the task also.

Read also: Lab Report paper writing by our Professional Essay Writing Service

500 Word Essay Format

In the majority of cases with 500 words essay, universities recommend dividing things into five sections:

  • Introduction. This is where you introduce an idea or tell about what inspires you to explain something. It may be anything from your definition of friendship to bullying on social media.
  • Main Argument Paragraph.
  • Factual Examples Paragraph.
  • Your Analysis Paragraph.
  • Conclusion. Sum up things and provide a moral lesson if applicable. Since the task is aimed at beginner writers, it generally follows the same formatting scheme.

500 Word Essay Ideas

  • What technology has helped me the most during Covid-19 times.
  • The most valuable memory from my childhood.
  • The role of social media in our lives.
  • The definition of love and friendship.
  • Starting a college band in 2021.
  • The most interesting startup ideas for students.
  • The ways how we can address the world’s environmental issues.
  • Do politics and religion work together?
  • The definition of corporate ethics.
  • Is global warming a hoax that should be demystified?

Remember that if you use any external information, it is necessary to cite your sources accordingly to avoid plagiarism issues.

How many paragraphs are 500 words?

It may depend on your subject and structure that you would like to choose, yet experts at Writix recommend using five paragraphs where you have three body parts, introduction, and conclusion. Alternatively, you may have two or four body paragraphs.

How long does it take to write 500 words?

If you plan to type an already finished 500 words essay, it might take you about 10-15 minutes. If you plan to use handwriting, it usually takes about 25 minutes to get things done. If you want to research your subject at greater depth, it can take you about two hours to finish.

What do 500 words look like?

It always depends on your spacing, yet it does not look big per se. For example, single-spacing will look like one standard page. When you implement double-spacing, it will be about two pages. It is a standard size for blogs, newspapers, or high-school writing tasks.

How many pages is a 500-word essay?

It will be from one page (single-spaced) or one page and a half if you use double-spacing. Remember that there may be MLA headers and indents.

How many references for a 500-word essay?

According to academic writing standards, a 500-word essay should use up to five sources. However, in most cases, three sources are optimal. It depends on how much you have to cite, yet overfilling your work with quotes may go against the rules as a 500-word essay must have your voice.

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How to Write a Perfect 500-Word Essay With Samples and Tips

11 December 2023

last updated

A 500-word essay is one of the short-length papers that individuals at any level of education must continually use for educational purposes. Basically, this guide starts with a detailed definition of a 500-word essay. It highlights the main three main sections: introduction, main body, and conclusion. Also, the evaluation of a sample paper, “The Dilemma of Compensation in College Athletics,” provides an example-based deconstruction of the 500-word essay structure. In this case, a comparison of 250-word, 500-word, and 1000+ word essays reveals differences regarding the paragraph count, structure, and complexity of the thesis statement. Hence, a brief discussion highlights the minor issues concerning a 500-word essay, such as the meaning of page length and word count and consistency of essay structures at different levels of education. Finally, the guide provides a simple 12-point list of mandatory rules on how to write a perfect 500-word essay.

General Aspects of How to Write a Perfect 500-Word Essay

Essay writing is an essential skill at any level of education. Basically, the mastery of academic writing is a sequential process that begins at the lower levels of education with the learning of basic English skills, such as making a complete sentence. Over time, students learn advanced English skills, which prepare them for essay writing. In this case, a 500-word essay is among the first papers that an individual learns upon introduction to essay writing. This paper type lays the foundation for the development of writing skills for the successful completion of complex and more extended papers. Consequently, a 500-word essay is the focus of this guide, which analyzes the core features using a sample paper.

Write a 500-word essay

How Long Is a 500-Word Essay?

A 500-word essay is a paper that contains a total of 500 words, which is inclusive of headings and in-text citations. Basically, the 500-word count does not consider the content of the title page, header or footer sections, and the reference page. In this case, the structure of a 500-word essay length has three segments that represent predetermined portions of the word count: introduction (10%), main body (80%), and conclusion (10%). Moreover, a standard 500-word essay should contain a total of five paragraphs by considering how many pages is a 500-word essay. In turn, the introduction and conclusion segments have only one paragraph each, while the main body section has three paragraphs. Besides, there may be headings of different levels within the essay body.

An Example of Writing a 500-Word Essay

Topic: The Dilemma of Compensation in College Athletics

Sample Paragraph 1: Introduction

Nowadays, an ugly side to college sports exists, although people ignore it. Basically, participants in college sports are subjected to various compensation agreements by their colleges. Mostly, the compensation received is not equivalent to player skill or effort. In particular, college athlete compensatory models that provide limited bargaining rights for players and universal guidelines for sharing the proceeds acquired from college athletics programs are a permanent solution to the player compensation issues.

The word count of the introduction part is 72 words .

Sample Paragraph 2: The Problem of Defining Fair Pay

Firstly, player compensation problems revolve around the difficulty in determining “fair pay.” In this case, college players are typically entitled to some education-related benefits, which are outlined in the scholarship agreement, for example, free tuition and stipends for living expenses. Basically, the terms of scholarship packages are unique to each college. Then, the benefits of the scholarship may be distinct for each player, depending on their perceived value at the time of recruitment. Upon joining college athletics, students receive a raw deal. Moreover, the proceeds from the use of the player’s names and images and other endorsements do not have any influence on the terms of the scholarship agreements. As a result, college players are not given fair compensation packages despite the knowledge of other stakeholders regarding the dynamics of college athletics.

The word count of the first body section in this 500-word essay example is 132 words .

Sample Paragraph 3: A Conflict of Interests

Secondly, college athletics boards and state legislators are two stakeholders that hold polarized positions, which hinder the development of a universal compensation model. For instance, a universal compensation model can resolve the challenge of college player compensation to ensure that all students are protected equally. However, state legislators are concerned that the college players are a vulnerable group, which lacks any bargaining rights. In contrast, college sports representatives argue that it is critical to maintain the amateurism of college-level sports by constraining the role of monetary incentives. Hence, the disagreement regarding the hierarchy of concerns in college athletics complicates the process of establishing a universal compensation model, which may significantly benefit college players.

The word count of the second body section in this 500-word essay example is 114 words .

Sample Paragraph 4: The Value of a Solution

Thirdly, the creation of a universal compensation model should overcome the threat of instability to the college sports system. If college players retain full bargaining rights, there is a high probability that monetary incentives would become the new tool for negotiations while other aspects of college sports fade away, for instance, player development and education. Conversely, complete suppression of bargaining rights exposes players to exploitation because the proceeds of their hard work and talent are left entirely to the colleges. Therefore, it is vital to find a middle ground where students maintain some bargaining rights, and stringent regulations for managing the proceeds conserve the amateurism of college sports.

The word count of the third body section in this 500-word essay example is 108 words .

Sample Paragraph 5: Conclusion

College players need to retain a fair amount of bargaining power in negotiating the terms of their compensation agreements while enjoying a standardized portion of the proceeds generated by the sport. Basically, participants in college sports do not have fair compensation packages. On the whole, a balance between the maintenance of amateurism and the protection of bargaining rights, which have equal importance, is mandatory. Thus, the future of college athletics hangs in the balance.

The word count of the conclusion part in this 500-word essay example is 74 words .

In order to understand what does a 500-word essay look like, there is a need to calculate the word count of a sample 500-word essay. Hence, introduction + 3 body paragraphs + conclusion = 72+132+114+108+74 = a 500-word essay.

Sample Analysis of a 500-Word Essay Example

1. introduction part.

The introductory part contains three crucial elements: a hook, a run-through of the topic, and a thesis statement by considering how to write a good 500-word essay. Basically, the hook is the first sentence of the first paragraph. It draws the readers’ attention by suggesting that there is something wrong with college sports. Then, the two sentences that follow provide a run-through of the compensation topic to create the context for the thesis statement. Lastly, the thesis statement appears at the end of the introductory section.

Thesis Statement

The primary role of the thesis statement is to inform readers of the author’s response to the essay question to learn how to write a perfect 500-word essay. Basically, a thesis sentence takes the form of a single argument. In the example paper, the question-answer dynamic is apparent:

Question: Is there a solution to the problem of unfair compensation in college athletics?

Answer: College athlete compensatory models that provide limited bargaining rights for players and universal guidelines for sharing the proceeds acquired from college athletics programs are a permanent solution to the player compensation issues.

Hence, the thesis statement is the most crucial element of the entire 500-word essay.

2. Main Body of a 500-Word Essay

The main body of a sample 500-word essay has three paragraphs. Basically, there are four segments in each section: a topic sentence, evidence or fact, an evaluation, and a transition statement. In this case, the topic statement is the first sentence in all the paragraphs in the main body section of the paper. Then, the author presents a single idea that supports the main argument in this statement. Basically, the evidence portion contains an undebatable piece of information, which may require in-text citation to ascertain the source. Then, the evaluation part is a detailed explanation of the author’s rationale. This aspect led the author to propose a minor idea in the topic statement. In turn, the number of statements in the evidence or evaluation segments varies depending on the paragraph’s length. Finally, the transition statement is a summary of the paragraph and links the consecutive paragraphs.

Break Down of Paragraphs to Learn How to Write a 500-Word Essay

Paragraph 2 :

Topic sentence: It is challenging to define fair compensation.

Evidence: College players sign scholarship agreements with different benefits.

Evaluation: Explains the variations in college scholarship agreement’s terms.

Transition statement: Introduces the role of stakeholders in college sports.

Paragraph 3 :

Topic sentence: Recognizes the conflict between the priorities of college athletic boards and state legislators.

Evidence: Identifies the universal compensatory model as a possible solution.

Evaluation: Illustrates the impact of the two stakeholder’s priorities on the development of the compensatory model.

Transition statement: Links the universal model with player benefits.

Paragraph 4 :

Topic sentence: Instability is the main threat to college athletics.

Evidence: Singles out monetary incentives as the cause of instability.

Evaluation: Describes an alternative situation.

Transition statement: Emphasises the association between monetary incentives, bargaining rights, amateurism, and compensation models.

3. Conclusion

The conclusion of a 500-word essay has two elements:

  • Restatement of the thesis: The writer repeats the argument in the thesis statement to develop the first statement of the last paragraph, but employs different words to ensure that the statements are non-identical.
  • Summary of main points: The author develops a concise overview of the ideas contained in the main body section of the paper and demonstrates their value to the thesis.

Differentiating Page Length and Word Count When Writing a Perfect 500-Word Essay

Page length and word count do not necessarily refer to the same quantity of written text. Basically, a double-spaced page contains approximately half the words present in a single-spaced page. The larger line spacing utilizes the space on a page much faster despite each line containing the same number of words in both cases. Furthermore, a word processing application can place additional spaces between sections. In this case, the presence of content in the headers and footers can affect the available page size. Also, it reduces the number of words that appear on a page. Moreover, the existence of multiple formatting factors that influence sheet size demonstrates the ambiguity of page length by considering the size of a 500-word essay vs. a 750-word essay. Consequently, the word count is a superior measure of text length because the number of words is consistent regardless of the text’s formatting.

Essay Structure and Education Level

The structure of a 500-word essay structure is constant across all education levels. For instance, the presence of an introduction, main body, and a conclusion is necessary for writers at high school, college, or tertiary education levels. In this case, this attitude provides a straightforward and organized approach to written communication. Then, the maintenance of the paper structure is a common practice, although there is a significant difference in the capability of authors to exploit the structure in communicating their ideas. Also, high school and postgraduate students’ papers (250-word essay vs. 500-word essay) must follow the same structure. Nonetheless, the postgraduate student’s essay has a higher quality than the high school student’s paper because the author is a more seasoned essay writer.

Comparison Between Writing Essays With Different Lengths of 250, 500, 750, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 Words and More

Paragraph count.

The target word count influences the number of sections in a 500-word essay. Basically, the process of determining the paragraph count requires an individual to consider the minimum number of sentences required in a paragraph and the overall length. In this case, a 250-word essay may have a maximum of five paragraphs. Each part must have at least four sentences, which is approximately 50 words per paragraph. Conversely, a 500-750-word essay cannot have less than five paragraphs. Having only two sections in the main body would translate to 200-word paragraphs that are relatively long. In turn, a 500-word essay vs. 1000+ word essay is not subject to a minimum or a maximum number of paragraphs. However, the author must find a balance between appropriate paragraph lengths and proper idea separation.

Essay Structure

All essays have a relatively identical structure, although increasing word count causes some alterations in the structure. For example, the introduction, main body, and conclusion are common features in each essay regardless of its length. In this case, the 250-word, 500-word, 750-word, 1000-word, 1500-word, 2000-word, and 2500+ word essays follow the standard essay rules. However, once a paper has passed 1000 words, an abstract should be added to the essay structure. In this case, the abstract appears on a separate page immediately after the title page. Also, the introduction and conclusion sections in a paper that exceeds 1000 words may have more than one paragraph.

The Complexity of the Thesis Statement

The scope of thesis statements tends to broaden with the increase in the length of the essay. For instance, 250-word and 500-word essays usually have an extremely focused thesis statement. The length of papers does not allow authors to explain complicated and extensive arguments. In turn, a word count of 1000 words or more enables authors to increase the scope of the thesis statement. It facilitates the presentation of intricate arguments in a convincing manner. Moreover, the increasing scope of the thesis statement forces writers to use third, fourth, and fifth heading levels. This aspect has less utility in a 250-word or 500-word essay.

Summing on How to Write a Perfect 500-Word Essay

Word of advice.

Beyond the mere adherence of the writer to this guide, proper planning using an essay outline may be very useful in the successful completion of a 500-word essay assignment. Basically, the rules on how to write a 600-word essay are similar to the guide on how to write a perfect 500-word essay. Also, the practice of writing essays without the use of an outline increases the risk of repetition, disorganization, and divergence from the preferred essay structure. In this case, students should take the time to develop an outline of the essay. This type of work contains the hook, thesis statement, paragraph ideas and headings, and concluding remarks. Also, writers must assign each section a maximum word count. They must ensure that the introduction, main body, and conclusion maintain their ideal portions of the essay’s word count.

Word of Caution

This guideline presents the best practices for writing a 500-word essay. However, it does not represent a fixed set of regulations for all papers. At times, the essay instructions have additional technical requirements. In the case where some of the technical requirements go against the best practices mentioned in this guide, the author should adhere to the instructions provided along with the essay question. However, if there are technical requirements issued with the essay prompt, the writer should follow the guidelines of this guide to the letter.

Rules to Remember for Writing a 500-Word Essay

  • The first statement of an essay should be the hook.
  • The thesis statement is a single statement appearing at the end of the first paragraph.
  • The introduction should be approximately 50 words.
  • The main body section of the paper should contain 400 words.
  • There is a minimum of three paragraphs in the main body section when writing a 500-word essay.
  • Each part discusses one idea that supports the thesis statement.
  • Appropriate use of headings increases the readability of a 500-word essay.
  • All main body sections must have a minimum of four sentences.
  • The topic sentence, evidence, evaluation, and transitions sentence should be readily apparent in each paragraph.
  • The first sentence of the conclusion is a restatement of the thesis statement using different words.
  • A summary of the main ideas in each section should appear in the conclusion section.
  • There is a 50-word limit on the conclusion length.

To Learn More, Read Relevant Articles

How to write a poem with explanations and a sample of poetry, how to write a perfect 250-word essay with samples and tips.

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How To Write An Amazing 500 Word Essay For College And Scholarship Applications (+Examples)

500 words. It doesn’t sound like much. But when you’re asked to write a 500 word essay, you’re not alone if you find yourself staring aimlessly at a blank screen — especially when it comes to essays for college and scholarship applications.

Why? Because, often, you’re trying to write it using the standard essay format you learned in school. You know the format. It typically goes like this: introduction with  a thesis statement, body paragraphs supporting the thesis, and conclusion paragraphs that restate your thesis.

BUT college admissions officers and scholarship selection committees usually aren’t looking for those types of 500 word essays. 

So, how do you write the type of  500 word essay that can help you get into college and win college scholarships ? Keep reading! Because, in this blog post, we’re going to discuss:

  • How the goal of a college or scholarship essay is different from the goal of an academic paper
  • How to format a 500 word essay for college and scholarship applications
  • 2 examples of essays you can look to for inspiration
  • 5 tips to help improve your writing process when writing these essays

Let’s dive into that first point right now!

The Goal of a 500 Word Essay for College and Scholarship Applications

Your goal when writing college and scholarship application essays is simple: stand out as one of the most qualified and interesting applicants. And that’s much different from the goal you have when writing an academic paper for a high school or college class. 

In those classes, you’re usually writing essays to explain, argue for, or defend an idea. For example, your high school teacher might ask you to write a 500 word essay on a topic like, “ Is testing products on animals ethical?” 

But you’re unlikely to find this type of question on college and scholarship applications. Why? Because few college admissions officers and scholarship selection committees want to read thousands upon thousands of essays from students who all write about the same thing using the same structure. 

They’d much rather learn more about what makes you and your way of thinking unique! And that’s why you’re more likely to find essay prompts like: 

  • “Has there been a time when you’ve had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged? How did you respond? How did the challenge affect your beliefs?” ( Coalition Application)
  • “Tell us about what you value in a community and how your perspective, lived experiences, or beliefs might contribute to your College community.” ( Sarah Lawrence College )  
  • “How has creativity helped you in problem solving?” ( Dixie Belle Paint Company Scholarship)

Do you see what we’re talking about? Your goal with these types of essays isn’t to make an evidence-based argument to support a thesis statement. Nope. Your goal with this essay type is to give the person reading it a better idea of who you are as a person! 

But how do you format and write such an essay? Let us show you how! 

How to Format a 500 Word Essay for College and Scholarship Applications

To write an amazing essay for college and scholarship applications you’ve got to use your creative writing skills. And, oftentimes, that means breaking the standard “introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion” essay format you’d use for high school or college papers.

Here’s a format you can follow instead. 

Hook introduction

The first one or two lines of your essay are the most important. And, therefore, they need to be engaging. Because, if they’re not, do you know what your reader is likely to do? Skim. Scan. And get bored real quick. 

That’s why for these types of 500 word essays, you’ve got to start with a hook introduction. What’s that? It’s an opening to your essay that’s so intriguing that your reader can’t help but keep reading because they’re hooked and want to know more. 

There are a few ways to go about writing a hook introduction. Check out some of the awesome examples in this video from the College Essay Guy .

  • Context for the hook 

Now that you’ve got your reader hooked, you need to give them context. Why are you telling this story? What’s the importance of this moment in your life? What does it say about you? 

Bring your reader into your essay using descriptive details that show rather than tell why you’re a deserving applicant. If you’re not sure what it means to show rather than tell, don’t worry. We explain that writing technique in the 5 essay writing tips we share later in this blog post. 

Examples that showcase your strengths 

Once you’ve given context, your job is to tell the story in a way that showcases your strengths that are related to the essay prompt. For instance, if the prompt asks you about creativity in problem solving, walk your reader through a moment you creatively solved a complex problem. 

BUT please resist the urge to be too obvious. You don’t need to say something like “this story is a great example of how I creatively solve problems.” Why? Because that’s boring, and you know it! 

That boring sentence is also a great example of doing more telling than showing, which is the opposite of what you want to do. Again, you want to describe your strengths in a way that makes them clear and memorable in your readers’ minds. 

  • A conclusion that makes it clear you’ve responded to the essay prompt

You’re almost done! Now, you just need to wrap up your story nicely with a strong conclusion. But, again, this isn’t a research paper for your World History class. So, ditch boring phrases like “in conclusion” or “in summary”. Instead, use natural language to tell the end of the story. 

But also remember: this is an essay to get you into college or win scholarship money. So, make sure you’ve fully responded to the prompt. For example, in scholarship applications, you may want to wrap up your essay by specifically stating how the scholarship will benefit your education. 

500 Word Essay Examples 

Want to see some examples before you start writing your 500 word essay? Good idea! Here are two examples of winning essays that ditched the standard essay format and told an engaging, memorable story related to the essay prompt. 

Example 500 Word Essay #1

The first essay comes from a student admitted to Johns Hopkins University. The essay was originally posted on JHU’s “Essays that Worked” section of its undergraduate admissions website. 

Essay prompt: Founded on a spirit of exploration and discovery, Johns Hopkins University encourages students to share their perspectives, develop their interests and pursue new experiences. Use this space to share something you’d like the admissions committee to know about you (your interests, your background, your identity or your community) and how it has shaped what you want to get out of your college experience at Hopkins.

Essay length: 400 words

I cannot dance.

This is not something I often admit willingly; in fact, it is quite baffling to me how horribly incapable I am at performing even the most basic movements on command. My grandmother often describes it as “a tragedy” as she is forced to watch her grandchild absolutely butcher our country’s cultural dances, beautiful expressions of our unique West African roots turned into poor facsimiles by my robotic movements.

And yet, year after year, I find myself taking the dance floor at my family’s events, seemingly unaware of my objective lack of skill. Eventually, my display proves to be so amazingly unbearable that I am removed from the floor and shown the correct movements over and over again until I am able to replicate them well enough to come back. Bizarrely, despite my previous declaration that I cannot dance, for the past three years, I have found myself performing an entire choreographed routine at my school’s yearly pep rallies.

It is through looking back at these events that I realize that I have created a mischaracterization of my dancing abilities through my decisive first sentence. I can dance and am, in fact, very capable of doing so, but not when I act insularly. My ability to dance correlates directly with how willing I am to collaborate, the input and support of others turning the uncoordinated and unwieldy into the near-graceful.

My attempts at dancing have led me to value community and collaboration greatly, and I find myself seeking and being drawn towards environments that will allow me to continue to develop both of these values as I learn and grow. Through my internship with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, I was exposed to and became fascinated by the collaborative spirit that lies at the heart of Johns Hopkins. The idea that one cannot discover or innovate when working alone was affirmed during my research, and I have come to see that mutual collaboration and community are integral aspects of Johns Hopkins’ unique culture. From the research initiatives that breach the boundaries between class levels, to the many organizations such as the Tutorial Project, relying on the shared initiatives of different students to directly make an impact on Baltimore and its many communities, and the distinctive access to especially interdisciplinary topics such as neuromorphic systems, I view that Johns Hopkins exemplifies the peak of collaborative achievement in education.

Example 500 Word Essay #2

This second example essay was written by a student who won the Women’s World Banking’s Founder’s Scholarship . 

Essay prompt: Unfortunately, there’s no information listed about the essay prompt on the foundation’s website. But, based on the content of the essay, we assume that this was an essay asking the student to explain why she deserved this scholarship. 

Essay length: 464 words 

“Twice a week I head down to volunteer at the Los Sures Social Services office, situated next to the local senior citizen home, to help at the food pantry. We distribute food to people in my neighborhood. Many are familiar faces. Many are middle-aged Hispanic women with children dangling from their hips like grass skirts. These women are there as a result of their culture and lack of financial knowledge. In our Spanish culture, patriarchy prevents women from preparing for themselves as much as they should. This leads to Hispanic women having little or no money management skills. Financial illiteracy is a major issue in my neighborhood, and that is why I hope to give Hispanic women a chance for a better future through financial education.

While I was volunteering I met a woman who happened to live in the same building as my aunt. Unemployed with two young children, and a husband earning minimum wage at a fast food restaurant, she struggled to get by every day. I thought to myself – many in my community are just like her. Then I realized I could do something to help. How? I can start a financial literacy program, which teaches Hispanic women to earn and manage money. Once a woman becomes financially literate, she is capable of making good personal and professional decisions, empowering her to improve her family’s financial well-being. Moreover, such a program will help Hispanic women become competitive employees, even in a slow recovering economy such as the one we are experiencing now.

Participating in the 2013 Women’s World Banking Global Meeting in Amman, Jordan gives me access to invaluable resources that will help me achieve this goal. I hope to find mentors from a roomful of inspiring, experienced leaders who will offer me their guidance. Also, meeting accomplished women from other countries means access to new ideas and unique perspectives. And if I am lucky, I may even come across individuals who can provide financial support to jumpstart my financial literacy program for Hispanic women. Lastly, I will tell my idea to everyone I meet in Jordan, a baby step to help Hispanic women rise from poverty.

The world continues to change rapidly, especially with globalization. It is about time that Hispanic women strive for gender equality. Thus, it is essential that Hispanic women increase their roles and knowledge in finance. The women in my neighborhood shall no longer be left out. I will task myself to help these women become better, stronger and most importantly, take control of their lives. I want to be involved so that they can save themselves from any unforeseen financial crisis. This is a tremendous goal, but for me, it is an opportunity to make a difference – in my neighborhood and for my Spanish community.”

5 Crucial Essay Writing Tips for College and Scholarship Applications

There are tons of essay writing tips we could share with you on how to write amazing essays and improve your writing process. But, in this section, we’ll share just 5 of the tips we think are most important. For even more tips, you can check out our ultimate essay writing guide on how to write scholarship essays ! 

#1 Tell a story about yourself related to the prompt 

Remember, admissions officers and scholarship selection committees are going to read hundreds, if not thousands, of essays all responding to the same writing prompt. The only way to truly make sure your essay stands out is to write about something no one else can write about. And the only way to do that is to structure your essay around a unique story from your life!

#2 Start your essay with a strong hook statement

We know we already said it. But we have to emphasize the importance of a hook introduction again! Because it’s a common mistake for college and high school students to start their introduction paragraph with something like, “I’m deserving of this scholarship because…” 

But that type of opening sentence is boring. It’s predictable. And it just screams that you didn’t even try to be creative. We know you don’t want that. So, start your essay strong using one of the writing techniques mentioned in the video we shared earlier in this article. 

#3 Use descriptive language

Another way to keep your readers engaged is to use descriptive language that forces them to use their imagination. This is what it means to show rather than tell.  

For example, instead of saying something like, “I felt scared to give a speech in front of my class” you can describe exactly how it felt. How? By saying something like, “as soon as I got to the front of the class, I could feel the hairs stand up on the back of my neck and my palms begin to sweat. But I took a long sip of water and told myself I just needed to focus on one word at a time.” 

When you show what you mean using descriptive writing rather than simply tell, you let readers see things from your perspective. And, as a result, you get them to root for you along your journey! 

#4 Stick to the word count

As you may have noticed in the example essays, you don’t always need to write exactly 500 words. You should do your best to get close to that word count. But it’s no problem if you write less as long as it’s within the recommended word count. 

However, what you definitely cannot do is write more than 500 words. Why not? Well, for one, writing too many words might make your reader think that you don’t know how to follow instructions. 

It might also be impossible to input more than 500 words for your essay if you’re applying online. So, if the prompt asks for 500 words, aim to write somewhere between 400-500 words! 

#5 Don’t submit your first draft 

Your first draft for any essay will never be your best draft. And that’s okay. It isn’t supposed to be. That’s why it’s important to give yourself enough time to proofread and edit your work before you submit your applications. 

We recommend using writing and editing tools like Grammarly , reading your essay aloud, and letting someone else proofread. By doing so, you’re more likely to catch grammar and spelling mistakes, confusing sentences, or anything that can leave readers with a bad impression.

Key Takeaways

Writing a 500 word essay for college and scholarship applications is not the same as writing an academic paper for high school and college classes. 

The essays you write for these applications should be engaging and tell an interesting story. To do that well, you’re better off avoiding the standard essay format that calls for an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph. 

Instead, follow the advice we’ve shared in this blog post and make sure your essay includes: 

  • A hook introduction 
  • Examples that showcase your strengths

If you follow that formula, you’ll be on your way to writing better college and scholarship essays! 

Need help finding scholarships to try out the techniques you’ve learned? Download the Scholly App ! It’s the #1 scholarship app in the world that instantly matches you with hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships based on your interests, accomplishments, and traits!

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500 Word Essay – Writing Guide and Examples

Jan 27, 2022

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Jan 27, 2022 | Blog

A perfect 500-word essay typically consists of 5 paragraphs. The first paragraph for the introduction, three paragraphs for the body section, and one paragraph for the conclusion.

For beginners, their first essay is required to complete in a maximum 500-word limit

500-word essays are popular in the education system for two reasons:

  • They are short – a student should not take ages to finish.
  • Still, they are long enough to accommodate all the basic elements of an academic paper (introduction, body, and conclusion).

That said, it still requires effort to research and write a 500-word paper.

In this ultimate type of essay writing, we will guide you on how to create an outline for such an essay and explain how you should write each section of the essay.

Also, we have provided two exemplary samples that put the information in this guide into perspective.

 Definition of a 500-word essay

A 500-word essay is an interesting type of essay writing that requires the writer to convey their experience or opinion on an issue. An essay of 500 words is not a specific type, but rather an established common format that may be followed while writing different types such as:

  • Argumentative Essay
  • Analytical Essay
  • Narrative Essay
  • Critical Essay
  • Reflective Essay
  • Scholarship Essay

Teachers love to assign 500-word assignments, and they help students learn critical analytical writing skills quickly. As a student, it is advisable to follow this required essay format of essay writing carefully to get your idea.

A 500 words essay is the easiest to write and also the most difficult. The answer will depend on both the story and the writer.

500 Word Essay Topics

The best essay topics are waiting for you. Read on to find the topic that speaks to your heart and head, then get writing.

  • Describe your favorite trip.
  • Education should be free.
  • Students should not be allowed to play PUBG
  • Should plastic be banned?
  • The best day of your life.
  • What do you mean by punctuality?
  • Smoking in public places should be banned.
  • Should Students get limited access to the Internet?
  • Pollution due to Urbanization
  • Causes of racism.
  • Facebook should be banned.
  • What are the challenges of people living with disabilities?
  • Selling Tobacco should be banned
  • How to avoid problems at college.
  • What is the objective of your life?
  • What is honesty?
  • Is it possible to earn on the internet?
  • Abstract art and its impact on people.

The list of topics we have compiled for you is comprehensive and will appeal to various interests. If your instructor has not assigned the topic, you can choose from the above list and start the writing process.

Requirements Of A 500 Word Essay

Writing a 500 Word Essay - Easy Guide

500-word essays differ in goals – they could be informative, argumentative, expository, analytical, comparative, and so on.

Whatever the paper’s goal, you should not go beyond the five-hundred-words limit, which is about two pages on a double-spacing page count. But on single spacing page count, its one page despite being 500 words on the word counter on Google docs or Microsoft Word processors.

Like most essays, it should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

In most cases, it takes the classic 5-paragraph structure , where the first paragraph is the introduction, the last paragraph, the conclusion, and the other paragraphs are the body.

How To Write A 500 Word Essay?

Writing a 500-word essay is creative and engaging because it requires you to be persuasive, informative, or discuss trending topics.

The 500-word essay structure has three sections: an introduction with your thesis statement (your claim) and supporting arguments.

An elaboration of the points in the body paragraphs by using evidence from outside sources such as articles/evidence books.

Then finally, sum up everything that has been discussed so far before coming back to your original argument, which should come first when writing an essay.

Follow the following steps to write an excellent 500-word essay .

1. Conduct Your Research For Such an Essay

Writing a 500 Word Essay - Easy Guide

An essay is not the same as a  research paper , but preparing one for college still asks for preliminary research.

Well-written essays are founded on solid arguments , which means that you’ll need authentic evidence and references from reliable sources to back your original claims.

Some types of essays, like reflective essays , do not require research, but you will still need to think about the personal experiences to write.

To avoid forgetting your main points, jot down short notes as you research.

2 Create an outline

Writing a 500 Word Essay - Easy Guide

An outline, basically, is a rough draft of the paper you will write.

Be it detailed or rough; an outline should serve as a skeleton for your entire essay.

Its purpose is to help you break down a topic logically, structure your thoughts, and make them clearer and more coherent. Use headings to separate arguments into paragraphs and start expanding on them.

It guides you on the structure and highlights the content to include in each paragraph.

With an outline, you are not likely to get stuck when you start writing your paper .

In the paper, an outline can help break down ideas logically and in a structured way.

This prevents messy writing that makes it difficult for readers to follow your thoughts or arguments; instead, they will be able to see how you are building on each point sequentially.

3. Write your paper

Writing a 500 Word Essay - Easy Guide

With good research and an outline, you are ready to write your paper.

Write A Strong Introduction

Do you know how some people start their writing with an intriguing introduction?

Well, your first paragraph is the same for a 500-word essay. Introduce your topic quickly and grab their attention from the beginning to continue reading to learn more about what you have to say.

An introduction plays an important role in making an impression on the reader’s mind.

Based on the introduction, the readers decide whether they want to read the rest of the essay or not. Here is how you can compose the  introduction paragraph :

  • It should start with a strong hook that grabs the reader’s attention immediately.
  • Provide a little background information that helps the reader understand the topic.
  • Conclude the intro with a compelling thesis that you will support in the body.

The introduction to an essay can set the tone for the rest of your paper. The opening paragraph should introduce a topic and give readers some idea of what they may encounter as you elaborate on that point throughout the text.

Ending with a strong and relevant thesis statement will be enough encouragement for them to continue reading, even if it’s not so interesting at first glance.

Composing The Body Paragraphs

The body section of your 500-word essay is the key to successful work. It provides your arguments and backing with facts, personal interpretation, or examples to convince the reader you have their best interest at heart.

The main points for success in the body paragraphs part in a 500-word essay are:

  • It’s important to examine the main point of view when discussing a topic. We must provide solid facts to support any argument or opinion.
  • Introduce a new idea with detailed information, examples, and evidence from reliable sources.
  • Make sure every idea described in the body paragraphs is concise and relevant throughout.
  • Make clear transitions between body paragraphs and sentences for the readers to understand the relationship between your ideas.

Write An Impressive Conclusion

The final section of the essay summarizes its main argument. You’ll restate your thesis statement and analyze it with some points from within the body section.

Finally, finish off with how these insights have led to new connections or conclusions about what it means to be human.

The conclusion paragraph to a paper should not simply repeat what was said in the introduction. Create an insightful ending that will make your readers want more information about the topic you discussed without reiterating everything they’ve just read.

4. Edit your final draft

Writing a 500 Word Essay - Easy Guide

Revise and edit your work until you are satisfied; you have come up with the best possible version of the essay .

As you edit your work , pay attention to the strength of your points and the flow of ideas.

Of course, correct grammar errors and typos.

5. Have someone else proofread your work

Writing a 500 Word Essay - Easy Guide

Human beings tend to be oblivious to their own mistakes.

Therefore, it is advisable to have someone else proofread your work and give you feedback.

The Best 500 Word Essay Length

Many students wonder about three things when they see an assignment that requires them to write 500 words.

How long does a 500-word essay take?

How many paragraphs should make up this type of paper, and finally, do you need any special font or formatting requirements for such papers?

The answers seem simple enough, but if someone asked me those same questions, I would be wondering too!

This article will elaborate on all three points so your worries can lay down with ease, knowing exactly what 1 page equals, as well as some helpful hints.

How Many Pages Is A 500-word Essay?

A 500-word essay takes about 1 page if single-spaced, while double spacing means the paper would measure around 1 ½ pages long. Also, try sticking to the commonly used fonts such as Times New Roman or Arial.

How Many Body Paragraphs Is A 500 Word Essay?

A good rule of thumb is 5 paragraphs: one-paragraph introduction, three body paragraphs, and finally ending with a conclusion that sums up everything from before while providing new information about how this knowledge will help readers out. Each of these sections has a particular purpose and a recommended word count.

The most important aspect of a 500-word essay is the word count. Beginners should be careful to follow this rule because it will help ensure that their writing does not exceed 500 words. They can still make an effective argument supporting or against whatever topic may arise on any given day.

You’re given 500 words from the start. Your introduction must be 100-words long, and you should have 3 body paragraphs totaling 300 words in length. Keep your conclusion to just 100 more or less so that it doesn’t take anything away from what came before. It would help if you asked about going over the word count because it depends on the instructor.

How To Create An Outline For A 500 Word Essay

Writing a 500 Word Essay - Easy Guide

An outline for your 500-word paper should include the following sections:

1. Introduction and Thesis Statement

The introduction states your thesis.

It should also have a hook , a statement, fact, or rhetorical question that will grab the reader’s attention.

In a 500 word essay , the introduction will not be long (it will be about 50 words).

However, you should ensure in that small paragraph; you clearly inform the reader of the purpose of your paper.

The body consists of three paragraphs.

Each paragraph should present a new point, idea, or argument.

Remember, you have a specific word limit – so keep everything brief by going straight to the point.

3. Conclusion

We all know what you are expected to do in conclusion, summarizing the main ideas in your paper.

Also, remember to restate your thesis and relate it to your main points.

However, if you want a strong conclusion, consider finishing it with a rhetorical question, questions for further research, or a call to action.

500 Word Essay Examples To Improve Your Writing Skills

The 500-word essay can be difficult to understand, especially when the instructor is unclear about what they want. But thanks to these great examples and sample essays with various topics and styles, understanding will no longer be an issue. See the following example:

500-word Essay Example #1

500-word essay example #2, get reliable help for your 500 word essay.

So now you know what a 500-word essay is, how to write one, and the best length.

Writing an essay of 500-word essay format seems easy, but different types of students find difficulty in the actual writing process.

If it’s still unclear or you need help with your own essay, contact us for reliable assistance from our team of experts who are ready to answer any questions that come up along the way.

We are an online essay help of specialists who can write any essay topic, follow the provided important instructions, and provide the required length of the paragraphs.

We offer live chat support so that there’s never an off time when we can’t offer guidance on writing essays at all hours. No matter which question comes up about your paper or brainstorming for ideas, don’t hesitate to reach out.

You’ll get weekly tips and tricks for improving your own writing and for achieving academic success through your writing.

We also have the experts and services necessary to provide great help in creating a well-formulated, high-quality essay that will score higher than your competition’s.

Our team of professional essay writers holds graduate and professional degrees from major universities. It has helped many students in their academic careers with writing essays at any length, including those for college admissions or scholarship essays.

If you’re looking for reliable assistance with your essay, our native English professional writers can make it happen.

sarah Bentley

With a passion for helping students navigate their educational journey, I strive to create informative and relatable blog content. Whether it’s tackling exam stress, offering career guidance, or sharing effective study techniques

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Ultimate Guide to Writing Your College Essay

Tips for writing an effective college essay.

College admissions essays are an important part of your college application and gives you the chance to show colleges and universities your character and experiences. This guide will give you tips to write an effective college essay.

Want free help with your college essay?

UPchieve connects you with knowledgeable and friendly college advisors—online, 24/7, and completely free. Get 1:1 help brainstorming topics, outlining your essay, revising a draft, or editing grammar.

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Writing a strong college admissions essay

Learn about the elements of a solid admissions essay.

Avoiding common admissions essay mistakes

Learn some of the most common mistakes made on college essays

Brainstorming tips for your college essay

Stuck on what to write your college essay about? Here are some exercises to help you get started.

How formal should the tone of your college essay be?

Learn how formal your college essay should be and get tips on how to bring out your natural voice.

Taking your college essay to the next level

Hear an admissions expert discuss the appropriate level of depth necessary in your college essay.

Student Stories

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Student Story: Admissions essay about a formative experience

Get the perspective of a current college student on how he approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about personal identity

Get the perspective of a current college student on how she approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about community impact

Student story: admissions essay about a past mistake, how to write a college application essay, tips for writing an effective application essay, sample college essay 1 with feedback, sample college essay 2 with feedback.

This content is licensed by Khan Academy and is available for free at www.khanacademy.org.

PrepScholar

Choose Your Test

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!

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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 :

Craft Your Perfect College Essay

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.

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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.

body_fixers

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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The recommendations in this post are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links PrepScholar may receive a commission.

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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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  • How to write an expository essay

How to Write an Expository Essay | Structure, Tips & Examples

Published on July 14, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

“Expository” means “intended to explain or describe something.” An expository essay provides a clear, focused explanation of a particular topic, process, or set of ideas. It doesn’t set out to prove a point, just to give a balanced view of its subject matter.

Expository essays are usually short assignments intended to test your composition skills or your understanding of a subject. They tend to involve less research and original arguments than argumentative essays .

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Table of contents

When should you write an expository essay, how to approach an expository essay, introducing your essay, writing the body paragraphs, concluding your essay, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about expository essays.

In school and university, you might have to write expository essays as in-class exercises, exam questions, or coursework assignments.

Sometimes it won’t be directly stated that the assignment is an expository essay, but there are certain keywords that imply expository writing is required. Consider the prompts below.

The word “explain” here is the clue: An essay responding to this prompt should provide an explanation of this historical process—not necessarily an original argument about it.

Sometimes you’ll be asked to define a particular term or concept. This means more than just copying down the dictionary definition; you’ll be expected to explore different ideas surrounding the term, as this prompt emphasizes.

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An expository essay should take an objective approach: It isn’t about your personal opinions or experiences. Instead, your goal is to provide an informative and balanced explanation of your topic. Avoid using the first or second person (“I” or “you”).

The structure of your expository essay will vary according to the scope of your assignment and the demands of your topic. It’s worthwhile to plan out your structure before you start, using an essay outline .

A common structure for a short expository essay consists of five paragraphs: An introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Like all essays, an expository essay begins with an introduction . This serves to hook the reader’s interest, briefly introduce your topic, and provide a thesis statement summarizing what you’re going to say about it.

Hover over different parts of the example below to see how a typical introduction works.

In many ways, the invention of the printing press marked the end of the Middle Ages. The medieval period in Europe is often remembered as a time of intellectual and political stagnation. Prior to the Renaissance, the average person had very limited access to books and was unlikely to be literate. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century allowed for much less restricted circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation.

The body of your essay is where you cover your topic in depth. It often consists of three paragraphs, but may be more for a longer essay. This is where you present the details of the process, idea or topic you’re explaining.

It’s important to make sure each paragraph covers its own clearly defined topic, introduced with a topic sentence . Different topics (all related to the overall subject matter of the essay) should be presented in a logical order, with clear transitions between paragraphs.

Hover over different parts of the example paragraph below to see how a body paragraph is constructed.

The invention of the printing press in 1440 changed this situation dramatically. Johannes Gutenberg, who had worked as a goldsmith, used his knowledge of metals in the design of the press. He made his type from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, whose durability allowed for the reliable production of high-quality books. This new technology allowed texts to be reproduced and disseminated on a much larger scale than was previously possible. The Gutenberg Bible appeared in the 1450s, and a large number of printing presses sprang up across the continent in the following decades. Gutenberg’s invention rapidly transformed cultural production in Europe; among other things, it would lead to the Protestant Reformation.

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The conclusion of an expository essay serves to summarize the topic under discussion. It should not present any new information or evidence, but should instead focus on reinforcing the points made so far. Essentially, your conclusion is there to round off the essay in an engaging way.

Hover over different parts of the example below to see how a conclusion works.

The invention of the printing press was important not only in terms of its immediate cultural and economic effects, but also in terms of its major impact on politics and religion across Europe. In the century following the invention of the printing press, the relatively stationary intellectual atmosphere of the Middle Ages gave way to the social upheavals of the Reformation and the Renaissance. A single technological innovation had contributed to the total reshaping of the continent.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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An expository essay is a broad form that varies in length according to the scope of the assignment.

Expository essays are often assigned as a writing exercise or as part of an exam, in which case a five-paragraph essay of around 800 words may be appropriate.

You’ll usually be given guidelines regarding length; if you’re not sure, ask.

An expository essay is a common assignment in high-school and university composition classes. It might be assigned as coursework, in class, or as part of an exam.

Sometimes you might not be told explicitly to write an expository essay. Look out for prompts containing keywords like “explain” and “define.” An expository essay is usually the right response to these prompts.

An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.

An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.

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Artificial Intelligence Essay

500+ words essay on artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has come into our daily lives through mobile devices and the Internet. Governments and businesses are increasingly making use of AI tools and techniques to solve business problems and improve many business processes, especially online ones. Such developments bring about new realities to social life that may not have been experienced before. This essay on Artificial Intelligence will help students to know the various advantages of using AI and how it has made our lives easier and simpler. Also, in the end, we have described the future scope of AI and the harmful effects of using it. To get a good command of essay writing, students must practise CBSE Essays on different topics.

Artificial Intelligence is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is concerned with getting computers to do tasks that would normally require human intelligence. AI systems are basically software systems (or controllers for robots) that use techniques such as machine learning and deep learning to solve problems in particular domains without hard coding all possibilities (i.e. algorithmic steps) in software. Due to this, AI started showing promising solutions for industry and businesses as well as our daily lives.

Importance and Advantages of Artificial Intelligence

Advances in computing and digital technologies have a direct influence on our lives, businesses and social life. This has influenced our daily routines, such as using mobile devices and active involvement on social media. AI systems are the most influential digital technologies. With AI systems, businesses are able to handle large data sets and provide speedy essential input to operations. Moreover, businesses are able to adapt to constant changes and are becoming more flexible.

By introducing Artificial Intelligence systems into devices, new business processes are opting for the automated process. A new paradigm emerges as a result of such intelligent automation, which now dictates not only how businesses operate but also who does the job. Many manufacturing sites can now operate fully automated with robots and without any human workers. Artificial Intelligence now brings unheard and unexpected innovations to the business world that many organizations will need to integrate to remain competitive and move further to lead the competitors.

Artificial Intelligence shapes our lives and social interactions through technological advancement. There are many AI applications which are specifically developed for providing better services to individuals, such as mobile phones, electronic gadgets, social media platforms etc. We are delegating our activities through intelligent applications, such as personal assistants, intelligent wearable devices and other applications. AI systems that operate household apparatus help us at home with cooking or cleaning.

Future Scope of Artificial Intelligence

In the future, intelligent machines will replace or enhance human capabilities in many areas. Artificial intelligence is becoming a popular field in computer science as it has enhanced humans. Application areas of artificial intelligence are having a huge impact on various fields of life to solve complex problems in various areas such as education, engineering, business, medicine, weather forecasting etc. Many labourers’ work can be done by a single machine. But Artificial Intelligence has another aspect: it can be dangerous for us. If we become completely dependent on machines, then it can ruin our life. We will not be able to do any work by ourselves and get lazy. Another disadvantage is that it cannot give a human-like feeling. So machines should be used only where they are actually required.

Students must have found this essay on “Artificial Intelligence” useful for improving their essay writing skills. They can get the study material and the latest updates on CBSE/ICSE/State Board/Competitive Exams, at BYJU’S.

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6 Best Paper Writing Services: Legitimate Essay Writing Services

A re you searching for essay assistance or a legitimate company that can compose your essay? There are hundreds or even thousands of essay writing services available online. Each claims to be the preeminent essay writer for pupils. Difficulty may arise when attempting to discern a legitimate writing service from a fraudulent one.

You did indeed read that accuratelyIf you are at a loss for words and the due date is quickly approaching, you can seek the assistance of reputable essay writing services.

A person might query, "How can I ascertain which service merits my confidence?" That is a valid concern. Because there are so many online options, becoming perplexed and uncertain about which ones to believe is simple.

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This page addresses your inquiry regarding the optimal approach to obtaining an essay from a reputable academic service.

6 Best Paper Writing Services:

  • ProWritingCrew 
  • EssayMasterz 
  • EssayScribez  
  • SkilledEssayWriter
  • EssayLegend
  • QualityEssayWriter 

The sites were ranked by how good the papers were, how helpful the customer service was, and how much they cost. They don't use ChatGPT or any other AI tools to write material, so the papers they give you are original and can't be copied.

Difficulties In Writing

Writer's block: .

Writer's block, arguably the most infamous barrier, can manifest abruptly, devoid of any discernible path or strategy, leaving the author blank-spaced.

Lack of Inspiration: 

Even when ideas flow, writers may need help finding inspiration or motivation to develop their thoughts into coherent writing pieces.

Time Constraints: 

Balancing writing with other responsibilities such as work, school, or family commitments can be challenging, leading to limited time for writing or research.

Perfectionism: 

The pursuit of perfection may induce writerly paralysis, wherein they laboriously revise and edit their work rather than progressing along the writing process.

Organization and Structure:

Determining a coherent framework and systematically arranging ideas can prove challenging, particularly when confronted with intricate subjects or protracted undertakings.

Research Challenges: 

Conducting thorough research and finding credible sources can be time-consuming and overwhelming, particularly for topics that are unfamiliar or require in-depth analysis.

Self-Doubt: 

Doubting one's writing abilities or fearing criticism from others can hinder creativity and confidence, making it difficult to express ideas effectively.

Procrastination: 

Putting off writing tasks until the last minute can result in rushed and subpar work, which can lead to increased stress and lower-quality outcomes.

Editing and Proofreading: 

Polishing and refining written work through editing and proofreading requires attention to detail and a critical eye, which can be challenging for some writers.

Writer's Fatigue: 

Writing for extended periods can be mentally and physically exhausting, decreasing productivity and creativity over time.

1.ProWritingCrew

ProWritingCrew is a preeminent provider of academic papers recognized for its professionalism, dependability, and outstanding quality. They offer a vast array of services to accommodate the requirements of both students and professionals, utilizing a group of seasoned writers and editors. ProWritingCrew provides superior essays, research papers, dissertations, and individualized presentations to meet each client's needs.

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ProWritingCrew sets itself apart with its commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction. Its writers are highly qualified and proficient in various subjects, ensuring that every paper is well-researched and expertly written. Additionally, its transparent communication and prompt delivery make it a trusted choice for students and professionals worldwide.

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EssayMasterz is a trustworthy paper writing service that helps students all over the world with their schoolwork. With a team of experienced writers and editors, EssayMasterz offers a wide range of services tailored to meet the diverse needs of students across various academic levels and disciplines.

EssayMasterz stands out as one of the best paper writing services due to its commitment to excellence, reliability, and customer satisfaction. Their team of expert writers possesses the necessary skills and expertise to deliver top-notch essays, research papers, dissertations, and more. Additionally, EssayMasterz prioritizes communication with clients to ensure that every paper meets their specific requirements and expectations.

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About essaylegend:.

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Are you searching for essay assistance or a legitimate company that can compose your essay? There are hundreds or even

How Mercer’s CEO planned her own retirement–and succession

write an essay in about 500

Martine Ferland has spent more than 40 years on the front lines of retirement. This week, the CEO of Mercer and vice chair of Marsh McLennan is stepping down to start her own. Over the past five years, she has led the consulting giant to its best growth since 2008. In recent months, she’s also focused on facilitating a smooth transition for her successor, Pat Tomlinson. That includes traveling with him on a grand tour of Mercer’s global locations, holding weekly two-hour meetings on a wide range of topics, and letting Tomlinson own all the long-term decisions so they’re aligned with his vision.

She also gave him a book–a slim volume published last year by McKinsey called The Four Seasons of a CEO . Although it was not for sale (“a complete black market,”  Ferland jokes), she did secure an extra copy that she presented to Tomlinson a few weeks ago at her retirement party in London. (This collection of articles might give you a taste of McKinsey’s leadership advice.)

Leaders like to impart wisdom through gifting books–or writing them. George David gave Louis Chenevert half a dozen history books to read when handing over the reins as CEO at United Technologies Corp. in 2008. (While writing a story on David, he sent me the same collection; Lenin’s Tomb stood out.) Ferland often gives books to colleagues, with a current favorite being The Heart of Business by former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly in 2021.

Tomlinson says he plans to read Four Seasons . “I have it right here!” he said on a Zoom call, reaching above his desk. While the first chapter on becoming a high-potential CEO candidate didn’t captivate him, he says the second “would be good to read over the next few weeks as it’s about your first six to twelve months.”

More important was joining Ferland on global visits, especially as Tomlinson has built his career in the U.S. Along with helping him build key relationships, he says, Ferland shows “how you get good economic growth and outcomes and doing it with empathy.”

When asked which books have influenced him, Tomlinson reaches for two: The 2004 classic Blue Ocean Strategy and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by executive coach Marshall Goldsmith in 2007. The latter came at a time in his career when he had to transition from building to influencing others as a leader. “Someone said, ‘Look, if you keep running things like this, you won’t have time for anything else.’ I gave that advice to somebody two days ago.”

Even for an HR consultancy, this CEO succession was unusually well-planned. “I wish I’d had an introduction similar to this one,” says Ferland, who recalls that her onboarding was rather short and sweet. Having helped her successor, her next best practice? Get out of the way.

Diane Brady [email protected]

Commuting is back–sort of

An analysis of travel patterns in 10 major global cities has shown that commuting has recovered since lockdowns brought in-office work to a sharp halt. But not as we knew it. In New York, for example, Amtrak’s passenger ridership has surpassed pre-pandemic levels. Yet employees are popping into the office for shorter periods, (or, “coffee badging” ) instead of commuting into the city for the whole working day. Financial Times

The rise and fall of Stability AI’s CEO

Emad Mostaque, the founder and CEO of Stability AI, resigned from the $1 billion startup he founded on Saturday, following a wave of key departures. Fortune ’s Jessica Mathews and Allie Garfinkle interviewed 20 Stability investors, former Stability and Coatue (one of Stability’s largest backers) employees, and Coatue-backed founders to uncover Mostaque’s stunning fall from grace. Fortune

Heat action plans

Hot off the heels of last year’s record-high temperatures, two of the world’s biggest aid agencies are set to host an inaugural global summit on extreme heat–and they’re urging business leaders, as well as governments, schools, and hospitals to prepare for the “silent killer” and develop “heat action plans.” In the U.S., extreme heat is already deadlier than all other climate impacts put together, including hurricanes and floods. Guardian

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Respect Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on respect.

Respect is a broad term. Experts interpret it in different ways. Generally speaking, it is a positive feeling or action expressed towards something. Furthermore, it could also refer to something held in high esteem or regard. Showing Respect is a sign of ethical behavior . Unfortunately, in the contemporary era, there has been undermining of the value of Respect. Most noteworthy, there are two essential aspects of Respect. These aspects are self-respect and respect for others.

Self-Respect

Self-Respect refers to loving oneself and behaving with honour and dignity. It reflects Respect for oneself. An individual who has Self-Respect would treat himself with honour. Furthermore, lacking Self-Respect is a matter of disgrace. An individual who does not respect himself, should certainly not expect Respect from others. This is because nobody likes to treat such an individual with Respect.

Self-Respect is the foundation of a healthy relationship . In relationships, it is important to respect your partner. Similarly, it is equally important to Respect yourself. A Self-Respecting person accepts himself with his flaws. This changes the way how others perceive the individual. An individual, who honours himself, would prevent others from disrespecting him. This certainly increases the value of the individual in the eyes of their partner.

Lacking Self-Respect brings negative consequences. An individual who lacks Self-Respect is treated like a doormat by others. Furthermore, such an individual may engage in bad habits . Also, there is a serious lack of self-confidence in such a person. Such a person is likely to suffer verbal or mental abuse. The lifestyle of such an individual also becomes sloppy and untidy.

Self-Respect is a reflection of toughness and confidence. Self-Respect makes a person accept more responsibility. Furthermore, the character of such a person would be strong. Also, such a person always stands for his rights, values, and opinions.

Self-Respect improves the morality of the individual. Such an individual has a good ethical nature. Hence, Self-Respect makes you a better person.

Self-Respect eliminates the need to make comparisons. This means that individuals don’t need to make comparisons with others. Some people certainly compare themselves with others on various attributes. Most noteworthy, they do this to seek validation of others. Gaining Self-Respect ends all that.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Respect of Others

Everyone must Respect fellow human beings. This is an essential requirement of living in a society. We certainly owe a basic level of Respect to others. Furthermore, appropriate Respect must be shown to people who impact our lives. This includes our parents, relatives, teachers, friends, fellow workers, authority figures, etc.

One of the best ways of showing respect to others is listening. Listening to another person’s point of view is an excellent way of Respect. Most noteworthy, we must allow a person to express his views even if we disagree with them.

Another important aspect of respecting others is religious/political views. Religious and cultural beliefs of others should be given a lot of consideration. Respecting other people’s Religions is certainly a sign of showing mature Respect.

Everyone must Respect those who are in authority. Almost everyone deals with people in their lives that hold authority. So, a healthy amount of Respect should be given to such people. People of authority can be of various categories. These are boss, police officer, religious leader, teacher, etc.

In conclusion, Respect is a major aspect of human socialization. It is certainly a precious value that must be preserved. Respectful behaviour is vital for human survival.

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Is a robot writing your kids’ essays? We asked educators to weigh in on the growing role of AI in classrooms.

Educators weigh in on the growing role of ai and chatgpt in classrooms..

Kara Baskin talked to several educators about what kind of AI use they’re seeing in classrooms and how they’re monitoring it.

Remember writing essays in high school? Chances are you had to look up stuff in an encyclopedia — an actual one, not Wikipedia — or else connect to AOL via a modem bigger than your parents’ Taurus station wagon.

Now, of course, there’s artificial intelligence. According to new research from Pew, about 1 in 5 US teens who’ve heard of ChatGPT have used it for schoolwork. Kids in upper grades are more apt to have used the chatbot: About a quarter of 11th- and 12th-graders who know about ChatGPT have tried it.

For the uninitiated, ChatGPT arrived on the scene in late 2022, and educators continue to grapple with the ethics surrounding its growing popularity. Essentially, it generates free, human-like responses based on commands. (I’m sure this sentence will look antiquated in about six months, like when people described the internet as the “information superhighway.”)

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I used ChatGPT to plug in this prompt: “Write an essay on ‘The Scarlet Letter.’” Within moments, ChatGPT created an essay as thorough as anything I’d labored over in AP English.

Is this cheating? Is it just part of our strange new world? I talked to several educators about what they’re seeing in classrooms and how they’re monitoring it. Before you berate your child over how you wrote essays with a No. 2 pencil, here are some things to consider.

Adapting to new technology isn’t immoral. “We have to recalibrate our sense of what’s acceptable. There was a time when every teacher said: ‘Oh, it’s cheating to use Wikipedia.’ And guess what? We got used to it, we decided it’s reputable enough, and we cite Wikipedia all the time,” says Noah Giansiracusa, an associate math professor at Bentley University who hosts the podcast “ AI in Academia: Navigating the Future .”

“There’s a calibration period where a technology is new and untested. It’s good to be cautious and to treat it with trepidation. Then, over time, the norms kind of adapt,” he says — just like new-fangled graphing calculators or the internet in days of yore.

“I think the current conversation around AI should not be centered on an issue with plagiarism. It should be centered on how AI will alter methods for learning and expressing oneself. ‘Catching’ students who use fully AI-generated products ... implies a ‘gotcha’ atmosphere,” says Jim Nagle, a history teacher at Bedford High School. “Since AI is already a huge part of our day-to-day lives, it’s no surprise our students are making it a part of their academic tool kit. Teachers and students should be at the forefront of discussions about responsible and ethical use.”

Sign up for Parenting Unfiltered.

Teachers and parents could use AI to think about education at a higher level. Really, learning is about more than regurgitating information — or it should be, anyway. But regurgitation is what AI does best.

“If our system is just for students to write a bunch of essays and then grade the results? Something’s missing. We need to really talk about their purpose and what they’re getting out of this, and maybe think about different forms of assignments and grading,” Giansiracusa says.

After all, while AI aggregates and organizes ideas, the quality of its responses depends on the users’ prompts. Instead of recoiling from it, use it as a conversation-starter.

“What parents and teachers can do is to start the conversation with kids: ‘What are we trying to learn here? Is it even something that ChatGPT could answer? Why did your assignment not convince you that you need to do this thinking on your own when a tool can do it for you?’” says Houman Harouni , a lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Harouni urges parents to read an essay written by ChatGPT alongside their student. Was it good? What could be done better? Did it feel like a short cut?

“What they’re going to remember is that you had that conversation with them; that someone thought, at some point in their lives, that taking a shortcut is not the best way ... especially if you do it with the tool right in front of you, because you have something real to talk about,” he says.

Harouni hopes teachers think about its implications, too. Consider math: So much grunt work has been eliminated by calculators and computers. Yet kids are still tested as in days of old, when perhaps they could expand their learning to be assessed in ways that are more personal and human-centric, leaving the rote stuff to AI.

“We could take this moment of confusion and loss of certainty seriously, at least in some small pockets, and start thinking about what a different kind of school would look like. Five years from now, we might have the beginnings of some very interesting exploration. Five years from now, you and I might be talking about schools wherein teaching and learning is happening in a very self-directed way, in a way that’s more based on … igniting the kid’s interest and seeing where they go and supporting them to go deeper and to go wider,” Harouni says.

Teachers have the chance to offer assignments with more intentionality.

“Really think about the purpose of the assignments. Don’t just think of the outcome and the deliverable: ‘I need a student to produce a document.’ Why are we getting students to write? Why are we doing all these things in the first place? If teachers are more mindful, and maybe parents can also be more mindful, I think it pushes us away from this dangerous trap of thinking about in terms of ‘cheating,’ which, to me, is a really slippery path,” Giansiracusa says.

AI can boost confidence and reduce procrastination. Sometimes, a robot can do something better than a human, such as writing a dreaded resume and cover letter. And that’s OK; it’s useful, even.

“Often, students avoid applying to internships because they’re just overwhelmed at the thought of writing a cover letter, or they’re afraid their resume isn’t good enough. I think that tools like this can help them feel more confident. They may be more likely to do it sooner and have more organized and better applications,” says Kristin Casasanto, director of post-graduate planning at Olin College of Engineering.

Casasanto says that AI is also useful for de-stressing during interview prep.

“Students can use generative AI to plug in a job description and say, ‘Come up with a list of interview questions based on the job description,’ which will give them an idea of what may be asked, and they can even then say, ‘Here’s my resume. Give me answers to these questions based on my skills and experience.’ They’re going to really build their confidence around that,” Casasanto says.

Plus, when students use AI for basics, it frees up more time to meet with career counselors about substantive issues.

“It will help us as far as scalability. … Career services staff can then utilize our personal time in much more meaningful ways with students,” Casasanto says.

We need to remember: These kids grew up during a pandemic. We can’t expect kids to resist technology when they’ve been forced to learn in new ways since COVID hit.

“Now we’re seeing pandemic-era high school students come into college. They’ve been channeled through Google Classroom their whole career,” says Katherine Jewell, a history professor at Fitchburg State University.

“They need to have technology management and information literacy built into the curriculum,” Jewell says.

Jewell recently graded a paper on the history of college sports. It was obvious which papers were written by AI: They didn’t address the question. In her syllabus, Jewell defines plagiarism as “any attempt by a student to represent the work of another, including computers, as their own.”

This means that AI qualifies, but she also has an open mind, given students’ circumstances.

“My students want to do the right thing, for the most part. They don’t want to get away with stuff. I understand why they turned to these tools; I really do. I try to reassure them that I’m here to help them learn systems. I’m focusing much more on the learning process. I incentivize them to improve, and I acknowledge: ‘You don’t know how to do this the first time out of the gate,’” Jewell says. “I try to incentivize them so that they’re improving their confidence in their abilities, so they don’t feel the need to turn to these tools.”

Understand the forces that make kids resort to AI in the first place . Clubs, sports, homework: Kids are busy and under pressure. Why not do what’s easy?

“Kids are so overscheduled in their day-to-day lives. I think there’s so much enormous pressure on these kids, whether it’s self-inflicted, parent-inflicted, or school-culture inflicted. It’s on them to maximize their schedule. They’ve learned that AI can be a way to take an assignment that would take five hours and cut it down to one,” says a teacher at a competitive high school outside Boston who asked to remain anonymous.

Recently, this teacher says, “I got papers back that were just so robotic and so cold. I had to tell [students]: ‘I understand that you tried to use a tool to help you. I’m not going to penalize you, but what I am going to penalize you for is that you didn’t actually answer the prompt.”

Afterward, more students felt safe to come forward to say they’d used AI. This teacher hopes that age restrictions become implemented for these programs, similar to apps such as Snapchat. Educationally and developmentally, they say, high-schoolers are still finding their voice — a voice that could be easily thwarted by a robot.

“Part of high school writing is to figure out who you are, and what is your voice as a writer. And I think, developmentally, that takes all of high school to figure out,” they say.

And AI can’t replicate voice and personality — for now, at least.

Kara Baskin can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her @kcbaskin .

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Sob stories? Trauma dumps? Black kids worry about writing college essays after affirmative action ban

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education, it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions.

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write an essay in about 500

CHICAGO (AP) — When she started writing her college essay, Hillary Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. About being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana and growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. About hardship and struggle.

Then she deleted it all.

“I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18-year-old senior at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.”

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education , it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. For many students of color, instantly more was riding on the already high-stakes writing assignment. Some say they felt pressure to exploit their hardships as they competed for a spot on campus.

Amofa was just starting to think about her essay when the court issued its decision, and it left her with a wave of questions. Could she still write about her race? Could she be penalized for it? She wanted to tell colleges about her heritage but she didn’t want to be defined by it.

In English class, Amofa and her classmates read sample essays that all seemed to focus on some trauma or hardship. It left her with the impression she had to write about her life’s hardest moments to show how far she’d come. But she and some of her classmates wondered if their lives had been hard enough to catch the attention of admissions offices.

“For a lot of students, there’s a feeling of, like, having to go through something so horrible to feel worthy of going to school, which is kind of sad,” said Amofa, the daughter of a hospital technician and an Uber driver.

This year’s senior class is the first in decades to navigate college admissions without affirmative action. The Supreme Court upheld the practice in decisions going back to the 1970s, but this court’s conservative supermajority found it is unconstitutional for colleges to give students extra weight because of their race alone.

Still, the decision left room for race to play an indirect role: Chief Justice John Roberts wrote universities can still consider how an applicant’s life was shaped by their race, “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability.”

“A benefit to a student who overcame racial discrimination, for example, must be tied to that student’s courage and determination,” he wrote.

Scores of colleges responded with new essay prompts asking about students’ backgrounds. Brown University asked applicants how “an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you.” Rice University asked students how their perspectives were shaped by their “background, experiences, upbringing, and/or racial identity.”

Wondering if schools ‘expect a sob story’

When Darrian Merritt started writing his essay, he knew the stakes were higher than ever because of the court’s decision. His first instinct was to write about events that led to him going to live with his grandmother as a child.

Those were painful memories, but he thought they might play well at schools like Yale, Stanford and Vanderbilt.

“I feel like the admissions committee might expect a sob story or a tragic story,” said Merritt, a senior in Cleveland. “And if you don’t provide that, then maybe they’re not going to feel like you went through enough to deserve having a spot at the university. I wrestled with that a lot.”

He wrote drafts focusing on his childhood, but it never amounted to more than a collection of memories. Eventually he abandoned the idea and aimed for an essay that would stand out for its positivity.

Merritt wrote about a summer camp where he started to feel more comfortable in his own skin. He described embracing his personality and defying his tendency to please others. The essay had humor — it centered on a water gun fight where he had victory in sight but, in a comedic twist, slipped and fell. But the essay also reflects on his feelings of not being “Black enough” and getting made fun of for listening to “white people music.”

“I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to write this for me, and we’re just going to see how it goes,’” he said. “It just felt real, and it felt like an honest story.”

The essay describes a breakthrough as he learned “to take ownership of myself and my future by sharing my true personality with the people I encounter. … I realized that the first chapter of my own story had just been written.”

A ruling prompts pivots on essay topics

Like many students, Max Decker of Portland, Oregon, had drafted a college essay on one topic, only to change direction after the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Decker initially wrote about his love for video games. In a childhood surrounded by constant change, navigating his parents’ divorce, the games he took from place to place on his Nintendo DS were a source of comfort.

But the essay he submitted to colleges focused on the community he found through Word is Bond, a leadership group for young Black men in Portland.

As the only biracial, Jewish kid with divorced parents in a predominantly white, Christian community, Decker wrote he constantly felt like the odd one out. On a trip with Word is Bond to Capitol Hill, he and friends who looked just like him shook hands with lawmakers. The experience, he wrote, changed how he saw himself.

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“It’s because I’m different that I provide something precious to the world, not the other way around,” he wrote.

As a first-generation college student, Decker thought about the subtle ways his peers seemed to know more about navigating the admissions process. They made sure to get into advanced classes at the start of high school, and they knew how to secure glowing letters of recommendation.

If writing about race would give him a slight edge and show admissions officers a fuller picture of his achievements, he wanted to take that small advantage.

His first memory about race, Decker said, was when he went to get a haircut in elementary school and the barber made rude comments about his curly hair. Until recently, the insecurity that moment created led him to keep his hair buzzed short.

Through Word is Bond, Decker said he found a space to explore his identity as a Black man. It was one of the first times he was surrounded by Black peers and saw Black role models. It filled him with a sense of pride in his identity. No more buzzcut.

The pressure to write about race involved a tradeoff with other important things in his life, Decker said. That included his passion for journalism, like the piece he wrote on efforts to revive a once-thriving Black neighborhood in Portland. In the end, he squeezed in 100 characters about his journalism under the application’s activities section.

“My final essay, it felt true to myself. But the difference between that and my other essay was the fact that it wasn’t the truth that I necessarily wanted to share,” said Decker, whose top college choice is Tulane, in New Orleans, because of the region’s diversity. “It felt like I just had to limit the truth I was sharing to what I feel like the world is expecting of me.”

Spelling out the impact of race

Before the Supreme Court ruling, it seemed a given to Imani Laird that colleges would consider the ways that race had touched her life. But now, she felt like she had to spell it out.

As she started her essay, she reflected on how she had faced bias or felt overlooked as a Black student in predominantly white spaces.

There was the year in math class when the teacher kept calling her by the name of another Black student. There were the comments that she’d have an easier time getting into college because she was Black.

“I didn’t have it easier because of my race,” said Laird, a senior at Newton South High School in the Boston suburbs who was accepted at Wellesley and Howard University , and is waiting to hear from several Ivy League colleges. “I had stuff I had to overcome.”

write an essay in about 500

In her final essays, she wrote about her grandfather, who served in the military but was denied access to GI Bill benefits because of his race.

She described how discrimination fueled her ambition to excel and pursue a career in public policy.

“So, I never settled for mediocrity,” she wrote. “Regardless of the subject, my goal in class was not just to participate but to excel. Beyond academics, I wanted to excel while remembering what started this motivation in the first place.”

Will schools lose racial diversity?

Amofa used to think affirmative action was only a factor at schools like Harvard and Yale. After the court’s ruling, she was surprised to find that race was taken into account even at some public universities she was applying to.

Now, without affirmative action, she wondered if mostly white schools will become even whiter.

It’s been on her mind as she chooses between Indiana University and the University of Dayton, both of which have relatively few Black students. When she was one of the only Black students in her grade school, she could fall back on her family and Ghanaian friends at church. At college, she worries about loneliness.

“That’s what I’m nervous about,” she said. “Going and just feeling so isolated, even though I’m constantly around people.”

The first drafts of her essay focused on growing up in a low-income family, sharing a bedroom with her brother and grandmother. But it didn’t tell colleges about who she is now, she said.

Her final essay tells how she came to embrace her natural hair. She wrote about going to a mostly white grade school where classmates made jokes about her afro. When her grandmother sent her back with braids or cornrows, they made fun of those too.

Over time, she ignored their insults and found beauty in the styles worn by women in her life. She now runs a business doing braids and other hairstyles in her neighborhood.

“I stopped seeing myself through the lens of the European traditional beauty standards and started seeing myself through the lens that I created,” Amofa wrote.

“Criticism will persist, but it loses its power when you know there’s a crown on your head!”

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    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.

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