Starting with the little things. by Jasmine

Starting with the little things. by Jasmine - December 2017 Scholarship Essay

Success on a school project for me stems from starting small. When I begin with the most basic groundwork like creating an outline, I find my results to be much more detailed and dependable. It doesn’t really matter whether the assignment is a simple essay or an elaborate project. Building a foundation not only helps me ease into the project, but creates the bullet points that form the bigger picture. This strategy has proven time and time again to bring me the most success in starting out, revising, and delivering a perfected final product.
     I typically like to start with brainstorming what it is I want to actually turn in, for instance if my assignment is a essay prompt such as: “ Write an essay about the importance of empathy in parents.” then I will begin to list off examples of ways empathy is beneficial as well as any real world examples I can think of to support my thesis. I usually choose to do this on a simple piece of notebook paper before I progress to a more laid out list on my laptop. Starting with physical paper allows me to feel more free to make mistakes since it's easily erasable.  Beginning with something as small as brainstorming allows me to really find a direction I feel confident in, which eliminates the possibility of running out of things to talk about. It also allows me more room to start over if necessary since I always have a list of other ideas to come back to which for me is needed often.  After I have brainstormed to my heart’s content I like to move on to creating an outline. This means creating some sort of plan for how it is I want to organize as well as present my ideas. Continuing with the hypothetical prompt I would begin to draw a physical outline for the essay. I would draw a box for my exposition, paragraph one, paragraph two, paragraph three, and my conclusion. I’d begin to start filling in these boxes from ideas and examples from my brainstorming list until I have what resembles a decent essay . This outline will make writing my rough draft easier since I can always refer back to my plan, which helps with revision since I can make sure I have expressed everything I had decided was necessary to express . I will finally create a rough draft and continue to revise and perfect the essay I am willing to present. Starting out with the simple piece of random ideas makes every step after it much easier to complete, as well as building up a “A” worthy essay through phases that grow into other phases which create my final product.
    This process is applicable to any subject whether it be art, algebra, or astronomy I can truly say that starting small has given me the most success on any school project. I am completely able to make sure each step towards my end goal is perfect before I move on to the next part which leads to a refined perfect and utterly presentable project.