Ideation: Key Context
Writing the Common App Personal Statement Should Follow a Process
To maximize your chances of success you should think of writing your personal statement as a process that involves three distinct stages:
Ideation: this early stage involves taking an inventory of your life experiences and thinking about how these experiences might exemplify your best character traits. It also involves thinking critically about the question prompts about visualizing the person who will read your essay (and what they value). The depth of reflection you are able to achieve in this initial stage will have a dramatic impact on your essay.
Organizing & Planning: this stage involves systematically examining the ideas you generated during the ideation phase and eliminating many of the concepts from the ideation phase. In this phase you settle on a core concept for the essay and generate an outline for your personal statement.
Drafting and Revising: once you have an outline set, you begin the cycle of drafting and revising. You will start by generating an initial draft and then honing your big picture ideas (hook, explanation, reflection). Once the major ideas and themes are set (which could take 2-3 revisions), you will move to editing your draft at a sentence level and paying attention to specific phrasing.
This course focuses on the Ideation phase. It is the most important stage, yet it is often overlooked
Key Takeaways:
Writing anything requires a process that begins well before you sit down and start typing.
The success of your personal statement depends on how thorough, creative, and reflective you can be during the ideation stage.
Ideation is the subject of this course. It includes — but is not limited to — brainstorming.