Essays... another journey begins....

Probably the last time I wrote an essay was about a decade ago, when I wrote the Class12 English paper. I dont think I even bothered to prepare for essays back then. Oh well, now its adifferent story!

So thats what I am doing these days..... writing essays! Since my 2 upcoming deadlines are for Cornell and ISB, I am breaking my head over those crazy topics. I must say, ISB has the whackiest of essays! But if there is one that beats all those ISB essays, it is Cornell's 3rd essay -

You are the author for the book of Your Life Story. Please write the Table of Contents for the book.(400 word limit).

If anyone can offer me any tips on how to go about this, I'll be eternally greatful!!!

Anyways, coming back to ISB, I am just half-way done. I completed the first drafts of the first 2 essays, and they came out in decent shape as per my reviewers. The weekend is here, and apart from eating some excellent food that my wife plans to cook, I need to merge all those comments and tips to create the near-final drafts of ISB essays 1 and 2. Sunday, I hope to start writing something about building that dam on River Zumba.

Cornell's first 2 essays are relatively straightforward. The usual career-goals essay came out pretty well after some serious soul-searching. Well I am a techie and I aspire to continue in this field (I work in the semiconductor design industry) post-MBA. So I needed to articulate this well, and I think I've done a decent job on this Cornell essay. The other one was related to a professional accompolishment. That is presentable so far, need to fine-tune it.

Over the last month or so, ever since I started working on these essays, I have come across some great tips by a few bloggers. The ones that impressed me most:

http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/search/label/Essays
The best essay-advice compilation I came across. Thanks a bunch Juggler.

http://poweryogi.blogspot.com/2005/05/chicago-essays.html
Nice information.

http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2005/12/will-i-be-proud-to-call-you-fellow.html
Dave is the man when it comes to MBA adivce.

http://tinydancermba.blogspot.com/2008/09/essay-advice.html
Tinydancer @ Wharton gives some succint information on essay writing.

Apart from these, I have been refering to some sample essays which throw light on how things are woven together. Richard Montauk's book no doubt is the first source I went to, but apart from that you can check out MBA Game Plan website - they have some nice sample essays.

So long then, its back to the re-writing the ISB essays now......... congratulations to all those who have got interview calls from ISB!!!