The 3 Ds of College Essay Writing: How Details, Dialogue, and Description Make Your Essay Stand Out (With Examples)
Want to write a personal statement that will really make your college applications stand out? Instead of veering into generalizations, which are boring and send your reader packing, take time to remember Details, Dialogue, and Description, what we at Revision Learning call the 3 Ds, from your lived experience to draw your reader into your experience and leave them asking for more.
The Details, Dialogue, and Description you remember make your college essays vivid and your own. These 3 Ds of college application essays add spice to your writing, just as surely as plenty of salt and pepper keep you in the kitchen on Top Chef.
Here's how to do it:
Details
Share the experience with your reader through vivid sensory details: What colors were the leaves? What sounds came with the pounding rain? Which vegetables could you taste in your grandmother's soup? What perfume was she wearing? Those scratchy trousers you wore to your first interview, were they polyester or wool?
Dialogue
It's much more powerful to recreate the exact words of the conversation. Which of these draws you in and makes you want to read more?
"We talked about Manhattanhenge."
"That is the biggest sun I have ever seen," Charles said, pointing west across 53rd Street.
Description
These are the journalism questions: who, what, when, where, with the occasional why woven in. Who else was there? What was going on at this moment and sociopolitically? What year was it? What season? Where in the world were you? What brought you there? Set the scene for your reader, so they are ready when you appear and take action!
One More D for the Road
It's much better to go into depth with your college application essays, and to talk specifically about one specific moment, than to try to convey your whole life history in 250-500 words!
For more on how to structure your essay around a single meaningful moment, check out our post on how to write a college essay that engages your reader and our college essay rubric guide.
Stuck on your college essays? Come write them live!
Staring at a blank doc? Rewriting the same opening line? Wondering if your topic is "good enough”? Every student hits this wall, and it's much easier to get past with a supportive coach and a room full of peers going through the same thing.
Finding Your Moment: College Essay Workshop is a 2-hour live session where you'll brainstorm, draft, and get real-time feedback using the Moments Method®, the same framework Revision Learning has taught to 250,000+ students.
Tuesday, July 15 · 5–7pm ET · Virtual
Wednesday, July 30 · 5–7pm ET · Virtual
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Led by Nick Fernald, Ed.M., a longtime educator and founder of Revision Learning.