The College Essay Guy: The Book, The Interview, The Stories Inside

His fans write wonderful things about him and, given what I know, I think all of them are true. Ethan Sawyer’s a rock star even though you won’t find his songs on iTunes or Spotify. His work is, however, read and quoted on all sorts of social media including his own website, on twitter and on forums devoted to words—specifically writing college admission essays. To his fans he is known as the College Essay Guy and on July 1^st his book, College Essay Essentials: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Successful College Admissions Essay will be available as a paperback or ebook.

I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy. Ethan gives anyone interested in writing, and not just admission essays, a way of structuring a story that will permit readers to enter into the writer’s world and words.  Ethan kindly let me interview him about the book, his life, and some of the important issues going on in education today.

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Ethan

Can you tell us a bit about your background—your family and where you grew up.  How did your constant moves affect who you are today? Now that you are a new dad would you consider moving around just to expose your family to different cultures?

I grew up as a missionary kid, primarily in Spain, Ecuador and Colombia and I attended 13 schools. We once counted that we’d lived in 20 different places, so I suppose we made adaptability our home. I learned how to enjoy first nights and last nights in a new place, how to speak and dream in Spanish, and I got pretty good at saying goodbye. As a new dad, it’s tricky: on the one hand, my wife and I want to expose our daughter to many different cultures, but we also want to provide stability. We’d love to one day have a beautiful home surrounded by beautiful people and take trips to amazing places several times a year. Actually, come to think of it, so far so good.

There are lots of schools that use the term global citizen to describe what they hope the education at the school will produce. Are you a global citizen and if so what is needed to get that passport?

I’d say I aspire to be a global citizen. I think it’s a passport that requires frequent renewal. I renew my global citizen passport when I travel, when I read, and when I surround myself with other global citizens. Today I don’t feel particularly global, as lately I’ve been focused on creating stability and consistency for my daughter, who just began daycare. This means we haven’t been traveling much and I’ve been spending a lot more time writing than reading and being with people. But that’s just this month. In terms of what it takes to get a global citizen passport, I’d say it takes living for some portion of one’s life overseas (or its equivalent) and applications are taken on a case-by-case basis. I feel mine is due for renewal.

How did you develop your own writing skills? Were you a good writer in high school, in college? Did you have mentors?

I’ve loved to write for as long as I can remember. I was too shy to dance at high school parties, so I was the kid sitting in the corner scribbling into a notepad. (My friends make fun of me for this, in part because this hasn’t really changed.) A few of my English teachers in high school were supportive and encouraged me to write. I discovered Rimbaud, cummings, and Emerson and initially applied to college as an English major. My interviewer for Northwestern convinced me to change my major to Theater during my actual interview. I was grateful to her for this. When I spoke to the admissions office to ask about an error in my acceptance letter (I’d been accepted for English), the person on the phone let me know that a note on my application indicated my essays had been a deciding factor in my acceptance. I’m not sure if s/he was supposed to tell me that (or if it was true), but I didn’t forget that. In college I had some wonderful mentors—Aleksandr Hemon, for one. He’s an amazing teacher and I learned more from him about writing than anyone. Michael Elyanow taught me the basics of screenwriting and I also learned a lot from Cliff Faulkner, who taught me, among other things, how to write a proper email.

What authors do you admire? Why?

David Foster Wallace. What a great loss. I love the worlds Salinger created, particularly in Nine Stories. I admire certain television and screenwriters: Black Mirror, for example, is amazing, as was The Lives of Others and the 2009 French film Un prophète (sorry, I’m failing to remember the authors’ names at the moment). I think Charlie Kauffman is a genius. I’d call him an author I admire.

Do you think the whole admission process is out of hand or does it simply reflect the way things have become far more competitive in the world?

I’m not sure I’m equipped to say that things are more competitive in the world generally speaking (although I’ve heard folks argue that), but I do see evidence that college admission has become more competitive, even since I applied in 1998. I think it’s a reflection of a few things: 1) technology has made applying to college (and to more colleges) easier than ever, 2) US colleges want to give a wide range of students a chance to distinguish themselves beyond their grades and test scores. But yes, it can feel like an arms race: last week at a conference I heard about a student who took 27 AP classes. Twenty-seven! That’s crazy. But I think it’s possible for a student to navigate the admission process with relative ease and confidence—starting early can help.

You are one of the experts in the world when it comes to writing admission essays. Can you take us through how you got to where you are?

Wow—I didn’t expect you to say that, and I feel a little embarrassed. That’s a huge compliment coming from you. When I was writing the intro to the book I gave this a lot of thought, actually, and I realized a lot has happened in my life to equip me for this role. Here’s the full intro, but the TL;DR version is this: in my life I have come to value practicality, efficiency, vulnerability, patterns, insight, and inspiration, all of which I believe are essential in the college essay writing process.

There are hundreds of books and articles about writing admission essays. What approach do you bring that reaches student and will help them in ways other books might not?

I find most of the extant advice on writing admission essays to be pretty general—a lot of talk about “finding your authentic voice” but no real explanation of what that means, or how to do that. I use a lot of examples in the book—when I say, for example, that insight in an essay is key, I explain what I mean by insight and then offer specific examples. I’m huge on examples.

I’ve also found (through trial and error) that certain exercises don’t get a student really excited to write (so I didn’t put them in the book) but other exercises can get students (and even adults) to want to start writing right away. Over the years I’ve also become more efficient—so what used to take hours (helping a student open up, for example) now can take minutes.

I also like to look out for students who aren’t moving as quickly as others… in the book, for example, I’ll pause a lesson on structure to say, “Hey, still struggling to find your topic? Try this!” because I know, from having taught (and having been a student in) a lot of writing classes, the creative process is an unpredictable thing—there’s no sure-fire way for every single person—so I try to account for that by using a kind of choose-your-own-adventure approach. I loved those books as a kid, and that format has turned out to be a pretty good approach for guiding students on their personal statements.

Early on in your book you come right out and question a few of the sacred truths that get used by many in education:

Practicality. I can’t stand general writing advice that suggests, “Use your authentic voice!” or “Write what you know!” Why? Because I have no idea what these things mean, and because they do not tell me how to do these things. I prefer advice that actually gets me from point A to point B.

Rembrandt's Moses

Are you at all worried that these commandments will, if broken, earn the wrath of English teachers or counselors?

It’s funny, that didn’t occur to me. But perhaps it is a kind of challenge—a challenge to general writing advice. But not worried, no; I love English teachers and counselors and am really open to new ideas. This book is my way of saying, “Here’s what I’m bringing to the potluck! What about you?”

This is a rather broad question but here goes: What approach do you bring that students can respond to?

A few things:

1.     The brainstorming exercises I use tend to generate a lot of deep content in a short amount of time. They go deep, fast.

2.     I love examples and define my terms. So students aren’t left guessing what I mean, for example, when I say “your essay should flow”—because I explain what I believe “flow” is and then give a step-by-step way to make it happen.

3.     I also think I’m pretty good at explaining why I believe a piece of writing works well. How I do this isn’t complex. First, I feel something. Then, I ask, “Why do I feel that?” Then I try and reverse-engineer that. An example is the Four Qualities of an Amazing College Essay chapter from my book, which came about by analyzing what two essays—in the book called “I Shot My Brother” and “Dead Bird”—had in common.

Your book is far more systematic than most books that take on the college essay. How hard was it to set up this structure and how did you decide which examples of essays to use?

In a way, it wasn’t hard—it was just a process of asking, “How could I help a student do [that—whatever that might be].” And in another way I guess it did take some time, since the book represents 10+ years worth of thinking about personal statements. In most cases, I chose the essays first and wrote chapters analyzing the principles they demonstrate, rather than the other way around.

Some of the essays you include are for some (including me) a bit intimidating. Do you think almost anyone can write a great essay?

I think almost anyone can write a very good essay (I talk about the four qualities it takes in the book) but I do not think every student can write an amazing essay. Why? The essays I’d identify as “amazing” (and I could count them on two hands) had as their subject an unusual situation, often with life/death stakes, and had some talent for writing, and I think it’s rare to find both.

You show (and tell) how going through the process of writing an essay can be transformative. Can you give an example of student you have worked with where you have seen this happen?

I sometimes give some weird homework when I’m working one-on-one with students. With one student, for example, she let me know she wanted to write about her relationship with her sister, who happened to have special needs, but it became pretty clear during our session that there was some unfinished business and that she was holding quite a bit of resentment. So the  homework I gave her was to apologize to her sister. Would she do it? I had no idea. But she did, and a few weeks later she came back with this amazing account of the build up to the apology, the apology itself. In the coming weeks the relationship began to shift and it gave her some interesting material for her essay. Months later, she told me this had became a turning point in her life. But it began as a turning point in her essay.

How important do you think the essay should be in the admission process?

Pretty important. I think grades should be more important, but I think an essay can reveal some important information that grades can’t, or don’t.

Can you take us through one essay and show us how to read it and learn from it?

Yes! This one was written for the University of California:

Do re fa mi, re do fa mi, re do sol fa mi re mi re. Have I completely lost it? Should I be locked up in a mental hospital chained to a chair? No. Then what are these utterances coming from my mouth? Music.

I have devoted thousands of hours of my life to playing the santur, a classical Persian instrument that originated in the Middle East. Some people think I'm strange: a Persian redheaded Jewish teenager obsessed with an ancient musical instrument. But they don’t see what I see. My santur is King David’s lyre: it can soothe, enrapture, mesmerize.

The santur also allows me to connect to my culture and Persian heritage, and to visit Iran of the past, a culture rich in artistic tradition. Sometimes I imagine performing for the king in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the santur sounds echoing through the Seven Hills of Jerusalem.

Today, some Americans view Iran as a land of terrorists, but when I play the innocent of Iran, the educated, the artists, the innovators, come to life. Iran is not a country of savages; it’s Kubla Khan’s fountain, an abundant source of knowledge and creativity.

Finally, the santur represents one of my remaining links to my grandfather. In the last few years of his life, Baba Joon did not know me as his grandson. Alzheimer’s slowly took over his brain, and eventually he could not recognize me. Baba Joon grew up with the music of the santur and my father plays it in his car every day, so when I play, the music connects all three generations.

In December I’ll be releasing my first album, a collection of classical Persian pieces. Proceeds from the album will go toward Alzheimer's research, as I hope to play some small part in finding a cure for the disease. My teacher is one of only a handful of santur teachers from Iran, and I sometimes wonder if the santur will soon become extinct, like the seven thousand endangered languages which may soon be gone.

Not if I have anything to say about it.

Santur 

My (Ethan’s) notes:

I think a boring essay uses a common topic, makes common connections, and uses common language. But I believe a stand-out essay selects an uncommon topic, makes uncommon connections, and uses uncommon language… just as this student has done.

Here’s what I mean:

1. Uncommon topic

How great to choose something as unusual as the santur as his topic. Do all students have something like this to write about? No. (More on this in a sec.) But this student does and it’s a good thing he does—it helps him stand out from all the other essays on piano, guitar and violin.

2. Uncommon connections

Boring essays make common connections, and by this I mean they focus on predictable values and take-aways. Take a look at this values list, for example. Which values do you imagine most students focus on in their musical instrument essays? You guessed it: discipline, hard work, perseverance, etc. But this student connects music to a whole different set of values—culture, social change, endangered languages—and each one makes for a more interesting paragraph. Which paragraph would you rather read? The one that begins, “Music has taught me a lot about discipline…” or “…some Americans view Iran as a land of terrorists, but when I play the innocent of Iran, the educated, the artists, the innovators, come to life.”

3. Uncommon language

Look at the sentence I just quoted. Rather than say in a straightforward way, “I’ve also seen how music can be a tool for social change” (which would have been fine, but kind of boring), he brings the language to life—just like when he plays music—so the form matches the content. I call this the difference between playing the notes and playing the music.

There’s more I could say about this essay, but that’s a start.

What do like most about helping students write?

I love going into a session with a student (or a group of students) with no idea what we’ll discover, or where a conversation might lead—it’s like life, but a little better, because we are asking brave and interesting questions.

Aside from your book, what do you tell students to read who want to improve their writing?

I send them to Ethan’s Private Stash of Really Good Reads, of course.

Anything else you want to add?

I’ve really enjoyed this and I’d love to do it again sometime.

Will there be another book?

For sure, I imagine this is just the start! Or maybe I can interview you next time.

I’ll look forward to either.

Thanks, Parke, me too.

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Anyone reading Ethan’s words here or in his book should feel as if they are hearing from someone who knows how to think and write so as to invite us in, to talk in a soothing way. But he avoids talking down to us; instead, he’s a Whitmanesque friend guiding us to compose the song of ourselves. The tone is clear and clean, precisely cut. He is not trying to scare readers into thinking that writing is what a man writing at the time of Whitman (Sherman) called war-- “hell”.

Nor does he does bother to round up the usual suspects of essay advice. He believes, like me, we are inhabited by different voices and we need to choose the one that best fits the topic and the plot.

The way he takes us through what makes the sample essay great shows us how he can cut to the chase without being glib or fatuously abstract. His approach follows Thoreau’s advice “simplify, simplify” and yet he also teaches students a bit of Emily Dickenson’s wisdom: “I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word.” 

This brief troping tour of 19th century American writers is my attempt to show that writing semaphores our souls in ways that are, if not infinite, at least varied enough for students to pick some of the exercises that Ethan gives in his book to ignite the flame that leads us out of our caved clichés and labyrinthine abstractions. Except he does it in ways that are user friendly, both in tone and approach. He knows, as does one of heroes, David Foster Wallace, that: “Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.” The key is to find the ways we can be different or the ways we can be the same or the way we can be something in between. 

The act of finding a topic is not a matter of putting in. It is reaching down and getting out what is already there, and then making it smooth as Grecian marble or as sharp as a Centurion’s sword. Ethan knows how to draw students out and how to draw us in so we can do what he says he does as The Essay Guy: “follow your bliss”. 

Ethan knows that writing can be fun. His own words play and encourage us to join in. The water is not deep and there’s no white whale to impale. Yet Ethan teaches us the shape, the shift, the heft of the weapons, and the soft caresses that make words worth reading and remembering. His cinematic approach, his warm but literate and smart tone will help any student learn the beauty of shaping words into essays that work and play. This is one book applicants to college will want to read. So too should English teachers and college counselors. I have written a lot in my life but I found myself schooled by his words.

I would like to thank Ethan for giving us the gift of this book and the wisdom he’s shared in his interview. 

Ethan