A straightforward guide that makes use of the author’s extensive experience.
Gacharná, an English and writing instructor at the University of Phoenix, presents a hands-on workbook on how to write an effective essay for a college application.
The author notes early on in this detailed guide that her essay-crafting instruction focuses on three main aspects of the writing process: “Communicate. Navigate. Punctuate.” In this day and age, the competition for college entry is fierce; it may seem that every student needs to be a prodigy, or at least have an extensive resume by the age of 18. As a result, writing an essay to impress admissions officials can be a daunting undertaking. However, Gacharná reminds readers that academic essay writing is, at its heart, a technical skill, and it’s one that follows formulas that can be learned. Rather than beginning immediately with a draft, she says, one should step back and truly consider what one wants to write; the biggest part of the puzzle, she asserts, is communication. She goes on to discuss rhetorical and organizational modes, and steers students away from writing uninteresting “hamburger”-style essays in which the introductory thesis statement and conclusion are the two halves of the metaphorical bun, and the burger is the author trying to prove the thesis. The workbook also clearly defines the difference between revising and editing and shows how outlines are key to successful writing. What colleges are looking for, she says, are “noncognitive variables” such as confidence, long-range goals, or leadership skills. Gacharná breaks down an array of such variables with charts and illustrations.
Many of the lessons here are likely to feel familiar to students—such as the difference between thesis topics and topic sentences, for example—but Gacharná manages to present them in new ways by supplying practical tips, graphics, and relevant examples, including successful essays from actual students. The latter, in particular, will provide readers with strong models to guide them. The author looks at rough drafts and finished works, showing in specific detail how applying her principles can help shape a strong essay. As readers progress through this work, they will also find it useful to read the provided examples of college essay drafts that didn’t work; the author shows how to transform them into essays worthy of acceptance. One of the most useful sections in the book is a list of common mistakes students make, such as simply talking about one’s passion: “Please don’t use the word passion in your college essay. Period. Instead, show me what passion led you to do.” In moments such as these, Gacharna’s conversational frankness is refreshing. The last section includes several sample essays that address specific prompts and a list of ideas and topics to jumpstart the writing process; these practical tools are likely to give students the confidence to start drafting their own essays. The last five pages of the book contain testimonials from students and parents, expressing their views on how Gacharná’s advice set them up for success.
A straightforward guide that makes use of the author’s extensive experience.Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9798886541328
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
