Where can I find good essays?

[Omegadramon]

I bet you're already thinking that I want to take the easy way out of my personal statement by copy and pasting from a bunch of different people's essays.....

But, in truth...I just realized that even though I read alot, most of the materials I read are either 1) Internet news articles 2) Random Pharmacy Blogs 3) posts that people make on random messageboards(read SDN) and 4) AIM chat.

I'm kindof scared that my writing skills are off. I just want to read something that doesn't use dangling metaphors. Something not as succinct as a news article, but not too full of details that resemble the rants from angry bloggers. I'm afraid that my writing skills have degenerated into just typing down the first thing that pops in my mind and subsequently pressing the "Submit Post" button.

Perhaps, if I get to read some nice, inspirational essays that actually use literary devices, it may spark back the writer in me (or atleast something decent enough to whoo the bored adcoms).

Care to help a brotha out? (promise I won't cheat )

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[Writer1985]

Check out Arts and Letters Daily, which compiles essays and articles from various online sources.

You could also saunter down to your local library and look in PN6140s (for Library of Congress-style classifications) or 814 (Dewey Decimal) for books of essays. Personally, I am partial to Virginia Woolf and David Sedaris.

 

[nick_carraway]

For me, I have a grammar book that I used for the SATII that was helpful. I skimmed it before I started writing my PS.

Reading books on statements gave me an idea of what to write about but the essays in them are too formulaic so I didn't follow their model.

My drafts had proper grammar (more or less) but boring prose until I was peer editing an SDNer's PS and I loved her writing style. Her introduction began with a story but not in the way you'd expect from a PS and that really inspired me to make my PS less bland and more engaging.

Simply put, I would just go ahead and read as many statements as people are willing to give you.

 

[souslepont]

Go to the library and check out this book, it's really very helpful:

http://www.amazon.com/50-Essays-Ant...8110068?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183175695&sr=8-1

 

[waitforme]

i used this book to help me craft my PS. granted, many of the essays were really pretentious, they had great story lines and it shows where the applicant got accepted.

http://www.amazon.com/Essays-Medica...4571653?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183210811&sr=1-4

"essays that will get you into medical school" by dan kaufman

 

[deleted103644]

It sounds like a lot of plagiarism is going on... even borrowing a sentence from another essay counts. Be careful. Your PS is supposed to be your voice, not someone else's.

 

[TheRealMD]

It sounds like a lot of plagiarism is going on... even borrowing a sentence from another essay counts. Be careful. Your PS is supposed to be your voice, not someone else's.

For the most part, if you get someone to edit your essay well, that sentence will be changed because it won't flow with the rest of the paragraph.

 

[Captain Fantastic]

i used this book to help me craft my PS. granted, many of the essays were really pretentious, they had great story lines and it shows where the applicant got accepted.

http://www.amazon.com/Essays-Medica...4571653?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183210811&sr=1-4

"essays that will get you into medical school" by dan kaufman

I have this book, too. I totally agree with you that most of the essays are really pretentious. I used the book as a reference point just to see what a good personal statement looked and felt like. I expected to see a lot of cookie cutter essays. What I found was a wide variety of essay styles, which really blew my mind. It gave me a lot of confidence in how much latitude I had in crafting my PS.

 

[gujuDoc]

I bet you're already thinking that I want to take the easy way out of my personal statement by copy and pasting from a bunch of different people's essays.....

But, in truth...I just realized that even though I read alot, most of the materials I read are either 1) Internet news articles 2) Random Pharmacy Blogs 3) posts that people make on random messageboards(read SDN) and 4) AIM chat.

I'm kindof scared that my writing skills are off. I just want to read something that doesn't use dangling metaphors. Something not as succinct as a news article, but not too full of details that resemble the rants from angry bloggers. I'm afraid that my writing skills have degenerated into just typing down the first thing that pops in my mind and subsequently pressing the "Submit Post" button.

Perhaps, if I get to read some nice, inspirational essays that actually use literary devices, it may spark back the writer in me (or atleast something decent enough to whoo the bored adcoms).

Care to help a brotha out? (promise I won't cheat )

If this is in relation to writing a personal statement and wanting good examples, there are some books you could get at any good Barnes and Noble or Borders such as the book that Princeton Review published with real life personal statements and where the applicants got accepted and waitlisted and decided to attend. It also explained the applicants profiles like mdapps sort of. At any rate, it was a good book because it gave good tips for writing personal statements while showing examples of both the Harvard acceptee types as well as those with major flaws in their application rather then other books which just show the mr. and mrs. perfect types.


I'd also use the stickies at the top of the page for advice on what makes a good personal statement and then get someone to review it and see how it is coming along and give suggestions.


I think the best thing to do is brainstorm and write everything that comes to mind to create the base skeleton of the essay. Once you've got the skeleton of the essay down then add specific examples and details and work up that way while corresponding with PS readers.


..........................................................................................

Now if you want essays just on random topics for the purpose of reading essays, then I'd recommend looking up the "American Best Essays" series.

 

[gujuDoc]

I have this book, too. I totally agree with you that most of the essays are really pretentious. I used the book as a reference point just to see what a good personal statement looked and felt like. I expected to see a lot of cookie cutter essays. What I found was a wide variety of essay styles, which really blew my mind. It gave me a lot of confidence in how much latitude I had in crafting my PS.

I felt the book that Princeton Review published was much better then this book. I have this book and the one TPR published. The TPR book is better because it shows people who have flaws like people with 3.3 GPAs and 30 MCAT rather then all the 3.8+ GPA and 40+ MCAT score types.


It shows the regular average applicants as well as the super stellar applicants and the essays seem far more real then the over the top essays in this book you mention.

 

[StringTheorist]

why dont you just wrtie your PS and ask other students who have already been accepted to med schools to proof read it. we do this in the pharmacy forum. i would suggest other pre-meds reading it as well, but since competition is so tight, idk if anyone would purposefully not give you good advice... id like to think not, but you never know...

 

[qtrlifecrisis]

For the most part, if you get someone to edit your essay well, that sentence will be changed because it won't flow with the rest of the paragraph.

This may be true TheRealMD, but it still does not excuse plagiarism.

I'm not alleging that you intend to plagiarize OP, but anyone that decides to do so should consider that the ad com might notice discrepancies between the picture they draw from the PS and the impression they get at the interview.

Also, crafting your PS from a bunch of other sources seems to me like a surefire way of ending up with a disconnected, completely unoriginal PS.

I'm actually kind of looking forward to brainstorming for my PS-- Corny as this sounds, I think it will help me discover the root of my motivation to pursue medicine. Good luck to you OP!

 

[gujuDoc]

why dont you just wrtie your PS and ask other students who have already been accepted to med schools to proof read it. we do this in the pharmacy forum. i would suggest other pre-meds reading it as well, but since competition is so tight, idk if anyone would purposefully not give you good advice... id like to think not, but you never know...

We do that here too. In fact, we have a thread that used to be stickied with a list of personal statement readers for people to look into sending their PS to for free.

We also have a thread that is part of a new FAQ series outlining a lot of advice about personal statements which tend to be very comprehensive for people having trouble getting started. I even posted the power point information given by USF COM's adcom in that thread.

 

[Omegadramon]

why dont you just wrtie your PS and ask other students who have already been accepted to med schools to proof read it. we do this in the pharmacy forum. i would suggest other pre-meds reading it as well, but since competition is so tight, idk if anyone would purposefully not give you good advice... id like to think not, but you never know...

Actually, I'm applying to Pharm school and I noticed the topic on Pre-Pharm. I asked here for help to broaden my literature skills, because this forum gets more traffic (which means faster replies)