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How to Use This Book
You will find this book useful if you use it well, but you will not find a formula for success here. The essays included are as varied as the people who wrote them. Some are long. Some are short. Some are deeply moving. Some are hilariously irreverent. Some are profoundly personal and some are wonderfully whimsical. Yet they are all judged effective, or successful.
The message here is a simple one. Be honest and be confident. Be willing to be different by being yourself. Those who read your essays will be looking for reasons to like you. Trust them by writing what you feel, and by writing whatever you feel.
Take chances. If you think you can be funny, be funny. If you think you have a particular skill or personal quality worthy of note, send the message. This is not the time to be cautious.
Your essay will succeed, if you are prepared when you write it.
As you read the essays here, conduct an experiment. Pick out the ones you like best, and then reexamine their openings. You will find that the best essays have the best openings. A good opening is the result of forethought. If you know what you want to write, and you find an effective way to begin, the essay will pour out of your pencil.
—THOMAS D. HARVEY
Former Assistant Headmaster for External Affairs,
Poly Prep Country Day School,
Brooklyn, NY
