Graphic material/shock openers in your secondaries

[g4m3r2]

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Hi everyone,
I was just wondering what your thoughts are in opening your secondary essay with something graphic or shocking.

The essay asks us to write about a time where we faced a personal challenge, and I was thinking of starting the essays with the racial slurs I had to endure as a child. To be a bit more specific, it'll probably involve people telling me to go back to an Asian country I'm not even from or something about oriental culinary choices.

On one hand, I would think that it would make the piece more memorable. But on the other hand, I don't want to be associated with espousing racism at all.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

[DokterMom]

You don't need to grab the reader's attention like you were advised in high school as these folks have to read it. Interesting them is strong enough. So long as you avoid the "dark and stormy night" (or medical equivalent of "the sirens wailed through the night") cliche, a toned down version of "being called #*^&^@" would be fine.

 

[mehc012]

On a serious note, I have read one essay a long time ago on the same topic for an African American Applicant who started with a single "N" word. I found it quite powerful but it mostly showed his ability to channel anger

Channel it productively, or not so much?

 

[mehc012]

On a serious note, I have read one essay a long time ago on the same topic for an African American Applicant who started with a single "N" word. I found it quite powerful but it mostly showed his ability to channel anger

Channel it productively, or not so much?

 

[gyngyn]

Please don't do it.

 

[Crayola227]

don't go for shock value

there is a way to *professionally* discuss the racism you faced and hopefully were able to use towards your personal growth - this is what they want to see

 

[TaupePremed]

No, no, no.

Don't use swears or racial slurs in your essays.

You know how they say that good writers show, they do not tell? There is an exception for racial slurs, bullying, and other distasteful content, especially in a professional setting. Do not show those things.

Use some nice fuzzy euphemisms.

 

[DingoPingo]

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.” — Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)
http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/
BTW, there is a yearly contest to come up with the worst opening to a book in the fashion of Bulwer-Lytton. It would interesting to do one in the form of a premed essay

I'm a big fan of flowery language. I had a lot of sentences like this in the first draft of my PS. Showed it to a doctor and he told me to cut them all out.

I probably would not use racial slurs, just for the sake of professionalism. Maybe you can allude to them without actually saying them.