Minimum of 100 words, maximum of 200 words
Paragraph 1
The Moment
Describe a specific incident that exposed something about the subject you hadn't accounted for. Let the incident carry the observation rather than explaining its significance upfront.
What to include in your essay:
- Who was involved and the setting.
- The specific claim or argument that was made.
- The gap between what was expected and what actually happened.
Paragraph 2
The Desire
Describe what the moment clarified for you, and be honest if it left something unresolved rather than neatly answered.
What to include in your essay:
- What you did in response, or didn't do.
- The specific thing the moment taught you about the subject.
- An honest admission if the question is still open.
PARAGRAPH 1
A student of mine, Tobi, once wrote an exam essay arguing that Okonkwo isn't a tragic hero in the Aristotelian sense at all, because tragedy assumes a fall from a height the culture recognizes. Umuofia doesn't measure a man's worth the way a Greek city-state does. He got the grade wrong against the rubric I was marking to. He got the argument right.
Technique:
The paragraph doesn't announce that this was a turning point. It states the incident and lets the mismatch between the grade and the argument do the work. The reader is left to notice, on their own, that the rubric was the thing that failed here, not the student.
Breakdown:
Naming the specific claim- tragedy assuming a fall from a height the culture recognizes, Umuofia not measuring worth the way a Greek city-state does- shows the argument was genuinely sophisticated, not just contrarian.
"Got the grade wrong... got the argument right" is stated flatly, with no editorializing, which makes the contradiction land harder than if it were explained.
Keeping the sentence short and declarative at the end of the paragraph mirrors the shock of the realization itself.