美国留学如何写出个性的ESSAY

以下是两篇在essayforum上比较独特的essay。

它们的独特在于都是从一些生活上的小事反映作者的性格、爱好、个人追求及价值观。所谓的小事,是指卧室的墙壁装饰和家里厨房的摆设。或许以我们的角度来看,这些事情跟个人的价值观没有什么太大的关系,但是读完这两篇文章,我们会觉得这些事情能令作者的形象更丰满以及让他们所说的话更可信。或许在essay的写作中,细节决定一切。

1. Virtually all of Stanford’sundergraduates live on campus. Write a note to your future roommate thatreveals something about you or that will help your roommate - and us - know youbetter.

Dear roommate, if you saw my current roomright now, you might ask what color the wall is. My dorm room walls are adornedwith things ranging from the typical high school photo collage, to napkins Ifound at the dining hall with scribbles of an inspirational quote, to a smirkscan of my brain. To be honest, these three things do give a good insight intome; I treasure my high school friendships, love spontaneous art, and amfascinated by the human brain. However, there is no way you could get a clearpicture of my personality by just examining the decorations on my wall. Youcan, instead, learn that I feel the space you occupy should resonant with yourpersonality. If someone else could come into my room, and call it their own, Iwould feel cheated. Individuality is essential and to me, i find expressing itoutwardly can make me feel more at home. I look forward to sharing a room withyou and hope to learn about you beyond just wall decorations.

2. People find many ways to express theirinner world. Some write novels; others paint, perform, or debate; still othersdesign elegant solutions to complex mathematical problems. How do you expressyour inner world, and how does the world around you respond?

Smell the frying onions, lemon juice, andbaking bread. Feel the warmth of the steaming pots. see bright yellow turmeric,the shine of steel appliances. Hear cumin seeds sputter in oil, the bubbling ofsoup, and the hiss of water as it meets hot oil. Taste tart pink ginger, sweet jiggery,hot paprika. Welcome to my kitchen.

My kitchen combines all the elements of myworld into a little space from which exciting experiments, smells, sounds, andtastes emerge. It is my chemistry lab where ingredients combine, react, mix,burn, and turn into delicious meals.

Inadvertently, my kitchen divides itselfinto two halves. The first half consists of the exotic spices: mint powder,turmeric, chili powder, crushed mustard, saffron, and asafetida. Along withthese come grated coconut, minced coriander, fresh spinach, purple eggplant,and red onions. These are my Indian ingredients; the ones that I am mostfamiliar with. I combine them in dangerous and flavorful medleys that make mytongue tingle: spicy savories, crunchy fritters, and tangy chutneys. They liein chaos; they are combined in chaos, the very essence of the seven years Ispent in India. I know these ingredients well and I experiment extensively withthem; they are in the soul of my cooking.

The second half of ingredients exists inorder: clear, defined, order. These ingredients are drawn from my birthplace, America.This half comprises the all-purpose flour, cheese, graham crackers, bakingsoda, apple sauce, and eggs. These ingredients are combined neatly, precisely,and by the book. They are easy to make a mistake with. But I enjoy their endresults—the cakes, cookies, and tarts. I enjoy their sweetness, predictabilityand organization.

I spread my two cultures through my cookingamongst my friends and family. Every school party kicks off a cooking spree inthe kitchen, with eggs, flour and chocolate rapidly being whisked and bakedinto delightful concoctions. The effort is worthwhile as I see people eat andenjoy what I have made. At home, the Indian ingredients prevail as I mix pureedtomatoes and onions with sautéed potatoes and spice-stuffed eggplants to form adelicious curry that my family eats and appreciates.

My cooking exploits do not always result inperfect meals; cheesecake falls apart, pasta sauce remains stubbornly wateryand curries become an unappetizing mush. Experimenting with differentingredients does not always yield a delectable product. When disaster strikesin the form of a messy and failed meal, my tear ducts open immediately. Soonenough, i dust myself off, clean up my kitchen, and start over again.

Cooking is the lab experiment of my life,the mixture of my upbringings in two separate countries. My inner world issplit into two halves that are separated, yet forever collide and clash. Iexperience both my cultures as I cook Indian and American. I taste them both,and share them both. They make up me, my kitchen, and my world.