如果說申請的過程就是一個自我營銷(Personal Branding)的過程,這個展示的過程有兩個重要因素,一個是產品本身——申請者自身的背景和能力,一個是包裝——如何按照招生官的需求呈現申請者最好的一面。在包裝里,文書是受到最大重視,也是很多同學最頭疼的部分。小編立志每周為大家解讀一段文書書寫和修改的解析,爭取將我們常見的文書寫作中的問題以可觀的方式呈現出來。今天Australiaway小編將要介紹的是文書Essay寫作指導。
文書essay寫作思路
Essay的寫作
和PS不同,Essay主要是針對申請項目提出的特定問題進行回答,和國內的命題作文類似。
為了寫出來一篇合格的、成功的商學院essay,首先要理解商學院設置給定essay的目的,以申請人遇到的最多的兩類essay題目(Leadership和Teamwork)為例,我們本期將首先為大家分享Teamwork的寫作:
學校/項目要求申請人完成Teamwork文書的目的:
Admission officer/商學院希望看申請人是否能夠在短時間內很好的將自己融入到一個全新的團隊/項目里。并且在之后的學習中能夠很好的和自己的同學或teammates合作達到最好的結果,能夠很好的和其他團隊/項目成員發(fā)生好的化學反應,相互促進提高。
在了解了出題目的以后,我們才能更清楚的知道,teamwork essay應該從哪些方面去展現自己。
但是我們也發(fā)現在teamwork這一類文書寫作的過程中,很多同學會有一些忽略的細節(jié),比如Teamwork的定義里面“Teamwork is the actions of individuals,brought together for a common purpose or goal,which subordinate the needs of the individual to the needs of the group.”請一定注意這句話。在Teamwork essay的寫作中,我們通常會闡述以下內容:
1.你自己做了什么
2.團隊的其他成員做了什么
這兩點比較容易忽略掉,很容易造成2種極端:全部都是自己的功勞;自己在團隊里面沒有明顯的貢獻,所以在整個故事描述時,一定要做好個體與整個團隊之間平衡。
以上是理論部分,接下來我們看看實戰(zhàn)中怎么樣去寫一篇出彩的teamwork essay,這里我們還是首先會提到寫作結構,這里再次安利萬能的PAR結構。
我們在PAR結構基礎上進行了一些優(yōu)化,比如可以在PAR的基礎上加入了project introduction;也可以在PAR的基礎上,將result前置,讓整個文書開頭部分更加令人印象深刻。
或者可以在文章結尾部分和項目的特點結合在一起寫,比如我們之前有一位人大申請到Chicago MBA的同學就在essay結尾處說希望用自己之前輪滑社的經歷,在Booth創(chuàng)辦第一屆輪滑社。
Booth在面試的時候以及最后的錄取offer里面都提到了:非常希望學生能夠在Chicago Booth成功創(chuàng)辦輪滑社。
在文章的結尾部分,我們結合上述故事線呈現結構,用一位成功申請到CMU MSCF的學生文書為例,讓大家有一個更直觀的感覺。
Essay原文
After I came to Michigan,I realized that,compared to Ross School of Business,Michigan offered fewer resources to help its engineering and LSA students prepare for financial careers,who generally lacked awareness of the industry and the interview skills.I co-founded the Quant Finance&Investment Club to address this
challenge,knowing it would be an uphill climb to train students and woo recruiters.
——Situation and Result
I first approached students with financial industry exposure to form the new board.Second,my team and I persuaded Citibank Beijing and UBS Ann Arbor to offer our club members seventeen internship opportunities in total.Third,we persuaded Blue Trading Center in Ross to open to our club where Bloomberg Terminal became available.We created financial mathematics seminars with Professor David Nasha,vice director of undergraduate mathematics program.These early initiatives attracted more than 100 students.To grow our member’s financial experience,we grouped our members into nine trading teams to compete against each other for the internship opportunities in Citibank and UBS.I even networked with financial engineering masters to teach us creating option pricing models.
——Action
The biggest challenge was putting QIC on recruiters’radar.My team and I attended each company presentation in the business school to directly market our club to recruiters.Recruiters from Morgan Stanley,Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas were persuaded to give separate presentations to our club and separate interviews for our member.Last spring,9 QIC members found internships in investment banking industry in developed markets,who came back later and took the leadership roles this semester.
——Challenges and Action,Result
This November,UBS Manager Tim Barry commented to QIC’s board:“I have witnessed many prepared students from QIC for our industry in terms of interview skills and industry understanding.”Our team and I gained the experience of defining an opportunity,pursuing it,organizing around it,and making a real impact.I am proud that we helped many students reach a turning point in life,and more importantly,our board will help more LSA and engineering students to explore the finance world.
——Result