Back to Blog

The Essayist’s Real Challenge

In supporting college applicants’ thinking, imagining, and writing, we at Hillside are often demonstrating why concern about what an essay is “about” must not precede close interest in and examination of the raw material — close looking at the specific details of experience. Don’t rush to meaning! A fresher, truer “aboutness” almost invariably results from patient recollection (indeed, re-collection) and consideration.

At Hillside, we frequently talk about how the interesting writer is the interested writer.

And so when To Write a Great Essay, Think and Care Deeply, from The Atlantic’s By Heart series, came to our attention, we applauded. In appreciation for the lessons he finds in J.R. Ackerly’s My Dog Tulip, nonfiction writer Lucas Mann describes Ackerly as “leaning closer, looking so carefully” and notes that “it’s the closeness in his gaze, his dedication to looking, that transforms the subject.” Mann reflects how we tend to “prioritize a weighty topic over the force of an author’s gaze, the clarity of her prose, the sincerity of her emotion.” He goes on: “[I]t’s important for me to remind myself sometimes that, at its heart, that’s all a great essay is: a virtuoso performance of care.”

Frequently we talk at Hillside about how the interesting writer is the interested writer — how just isolating and describing the specifics of experience with careful attention (attention that is full of care) is not only an essential step in realizing an authentic meaning but an engaging act in itself. As Mann writes, “[S]pending one’s time fretting about aboutness is a deflection from the essayist’s real challenge: to think and feel as deeply and specifically as possible about whatever it is you’re looking at.”

Allan is Hillside’s founder and a coach.

SIGN UP WITH ALLAN

Related Posts

three students climbing stairs toward college building Friendly Advice from Admissions Officers About Those “Extra” Essays

Writing supplement essays can feel daunting, but these questions really are a great opportunity to share more of your story with admissions officers. In the spirit of sharing, here are some of our favorite resources.

Read More
Following the Details Home

I asked her to draw a map. This is something I do sometimes when a student tells me they have nothing to write about. I have them draw their hometown or a place they know well. I have them sketch landmarks and points of interest. No detail is too small. At this early stage in the writing process, our work is to deal with self-doubt by gathering possibilities.

Read More
Writing as a “Math Person”

The lights of the theater dimmed and all I could think was, "Is this really a good idea?" From a young age, I’d believed I was destined for a different kind of performance. But here I was, at age twenty-seven, backstage at Improv Boston, about to perform a sketch comedy show. Three years later, I would quit my electrical engineering job to pursue writing and teaching full time.

Read More