What is a typical extracurricular essay?

How to choose an extracurricular activity you want to write about

You should write on the topic that will provide the most engaging and quality content. In most cases, people write about something they are really passionate about. Maybe, it is something that makes you stand out and show your talents, achievements, or skills, something personal or something you are enthusiastic about. Maybe, you’ve organized a rock band that shows your leadership potential. Or you’ are helping children. It should be something you can discuss for hours, something impressive, the importance of which for you is evident. Of course, to write off playing Warcraft or World of tanks in your essay will be inappropriate.

How to structure your extracurricular essay correctly?

Roughly speaking, there are two types (approaches) of extracurricular activities essays, with the description of challenges you’ve overcome and without that. The structure given below will match both cases.

• the narrative approach – is suitable for students whose extracurricular activity included a challenge or a series of challenges;
• the montage approach – for students who are not writing about any challenge.

The narrative approach to writing an extracurricular activity essay

You can use this approach (structure) when you write about overcoming a challenge or challenges, a volunteer activity essay, any social issue that touches upon your interests, or the problems you would like to solve.

1. Define the principal problem. Write about your challenge. It can be a global challenge, like “Preventing animal cruelty” or a local problem, like “Helping the homeless of our district on Sundays.”
2. Explain the importance of the challenge, why it is significant. Describe the consequences of not solving the problem.
3. The vision of the future. Write how it will look if the problem is solved. Describe the positive outcome, and engage the reader to dream, inspire the reader’s dreaming.
4. Describe your actions towards solving the problem. Write about your team’s actions.
5. Ascertain your role. Write about the important peculiarities of your participation. Explain why your actions were of vital importance for success.
6. Draw conclusions. Write about your impact and your acquired valuable knowledge and experience. Underline why your participation mattered.

The montage approach to writing extracurricular activities essay

This approach is used in the cases when you describe the hidden value in your actions that, at first sight, don’t seem significant. In this case, it is essential to point out how unusually important values are connected to your ordinary deeds and insignificant achievements.

1. Use the brainstorming method to make up an “ordinary” version of the essay. Think of a list of usual standard values that an “ordinary” essay might contain. For example, if you write that you like to compose music, your obvious “ordinary” values will be entertainment value, psychological influence upon the listeners, etc.
2. Think of several unusual values. Now try to think of 3 or 4 unusual values that are not typically associated with composing music. For example, unusual values for composing music will be generosity, kindness, ability to dream.
3. Link the unusual value to a particular example from your life. Describe the way you developed the value through your activity. For example, “Composing music can help me become more understanding and compassionate.”
4. Determine the order in which you will write your thoughts. It’s high time to write a draft. Chronological order is recommended; it will make comprehension easier. Write a draft, it may not be perfect, but later you will correct and modify your text.

Tips to write an extraordinary extra curriculum activity essay

In different colleges, the number assigned for an extra curriculum essay differs. Sometimes writing an essay may seem difficult because you might need to express such information in a few sentences. Below we suggest several essential tips on how to write such an essay if you are pressed for time.

• Content in such essays comes before form. If the number of words you can use is limited, you ought to be especially accurate so that the reader understands what you did and what skills, experience, or valuable knowledge you acquired.
• To convey an exact meaning, you should use active verbs such as: knowing, researching, delivering, brainstorming, writing, etc.
• Express, in one concise sentence, why the activity matters to you. For example, “I am composing astounding chill step music to make people’s lives happier.”
• Don’t go into too many details. Attract the attention of the reader, give a lively picture, keep your sentences brisk.
• If the number of words in your essay is very limited, start your extra curriculum activities essay with a problem. It’s logical to name the problem in the first sentence. After that, you should write what you’ve done about it.
• Underline your particular impact, even if in a few words. For example, “My music awakes in the listener better feelings and inspires me to dream and believe in themselves. I hope that listening to it helped a lot of people, making their day better and motivating them for positive changes”.
• For you, it will be much easier to start from a longer version of the essay. For example, if your assignment should be 150 words. It’s better to start from a 250-word version then shorten it rather than starting from several sentences and thinking what else to write.

A step-by-step instruction how to write an impressive extracurricular essay

This instruction works for various institutions, and since in some of them, there is an assignment to write about your extracurricular activities, it will come in handy. The main task of such essays is to find out about the ways you spend your free time outside school.

One of the important problem’s students face nowadays is the lack of time. To save your valuable time, we’ve written a short step-by-step instruction on how to write an essay that will match the requirements of different institutions:

1. Select an extracurricular activity that will match a number of prompts from the Essay Tracker, where your required essays are listed (up to 20 minutes).
2. Paste the necessary prompts that are good for the chosen topic at the top of your document (3 minutes).
3. Choose the montage or narrative structure appropriate for your essay. Decide what you are going to write (20 minutes).
4. Write the essay (up to 50 minutes).

If you follow the tips from this article, you will write a well-organized extracurricular activities essay that will produce a great impression on your teacher.