Who teaches students to start an essay with a quote? - Reddit
3. How to start a paragraph in an essay? The next step is writing the body paragraphs. Talking about how to start a paragraph in an essay, we should say that all body paragraphs will have the similar basic structure. Write one of your main ideas in the outline as a topic sentence in a paragraph. Then, add supporting ideas. Back each supporting idea with relevant examples, statistics, and other details and make sure you provide enough information to link these smaller ideas together. You will have to write as many body paragraphs as you have main ideas in your outline.
This is an imaginary student’s application essay for MBA programs. Such a quote shows humility and a willingness to learn from mistakes, which should, hopefully, show through in the rest of the essay.
In this example, the quote is not merely sitting idly by itself doing nothing, but is fully nested into the applicant’s first paragraph. Furthermore, notice how the applicant didn’t just randomly put it in there, but deeply thinks it over, places it within the greater context of her field, and uses it to introduce her own research interests (all while using extremely sophisticated language and skillful word choice)?
How to Start an Essay with a Quote - Most Effective Ways!
Notice how the applicant seamlessly integrates this quote into her first paragraph, analyzes its meaning, and uses it as a springboard to introduce her own research interests?
Remember, the admissions committee is on your side. They’re looking for reasons why they should admit you. Don’t make their job hard for them! If you start with a standalone quote, all you’re doing is trying to persuade the admissions committee of the program to which you are applying to accept the person you’re quoting instead of you, which is not your goal.
In this application essay, the student does not interact with the quote at all. The reader gets no sense of what the applicant’s thoughts are about the quote, nor does the reader see the connection between the quote and what the applicant wrote next.
There are issues with its first paragraph as well, but for the purposes of this article, we are going to focus on its opening quote. This essay starts with what we call a “standalone quote.” The problem with starting an essay with a quote in this way is that you are literally using someone else’s words and ideas, without having any input of your own. The entire point of writing a statement of purpose is for the program to which you are applying to understand you and your ideas, not those of someone else.
Using a Quote as the Hook of an Introductory Paragraph - YouTube
If your quotation is lengthy, you should almost always introduce it with a full sentence that helps capture how it fits into your argument. If your quotation is longer than four lines, do not place it in quotation marks. Instead, set it off as a block quotation:
How to Start an Essay With a Quote With Examples - Wr1ter
Finally, note that you can deviate from the common pattern of introduction followed by quotation. Weaving the phrases of others into your own prose offers a stylistically compelling way of maintaining control over your source material. Moreover, the technique of weaving can help you to produce a tighter argument. The following condenses twelve lines from Arendt’s essay to fewer than two:
How to write an Essay about a Quote (2024) - Helpful Professor
In these two examples, observe the forms of punctuation used to introduce the quotations. When you introduce a quotation with a full sentence, you should always place a colon at the end of the introductory sentence. When you introduce a quotation with an incomplete sentence, you usually place a comma after the introductory phrase. However, it has become grammatically acceptable to use a colon rather than a comma:
Is it frowned upon to begin an essay with a quote? - College Essays
My kid started her Common App essay with a quote, and got in everyplace she applied – including UChicago, Swarthmore, and Harvey Mudd. It isn’t automatically a kiss of death – it depends on the quote and the rest of the essay. And it is too late now anyway. Go study for an AP exam or bake cookies or work out – worrying now does no good at all.
21 Killer GRE Essay Quotes You Should Be Using Right Now
I started off my Common App essay with a quote and sent it off, but now I’m reading so many articles that say using a quote at the beginning of an essay is so cliche that it will land you in the reject pile.
Is this a serious mistake that will turn admissions officers off instantly?