Be Specific

During Mr. Bolos's speech about asking teachers for college recommendations, he made a very good point about what makes a compelling recommendation or essay in general. Bolos said that the best teachers to ask for recommendations are those that know you best because they can use the most specific examples in their letter. This got me thinking about the power of using specifics rather than generalities when writing. Yesterday was the track and field banquet, and I noticed how this principle applied to the banquet as well as essay writing. The banquet consisted of many runners and coaches giving speeches and there was a consistent theme throughout the speeches. The ones with specific stories and details were much more interesting than those that used general statements. For example, one runner gave a speech in appreciation of one of the coaches that told a story about a time they talked with the coach and what it meant to them. This gave the audience a much better understanding of the relationship between that runner and their coach because they could see for themselves what kinds of interactions went on between the two. Because the audience contains a lot of parents that may not personally know the coaches or runners, it is hard for them to connect to speeches about the coaches if general statements are used rather than personal stories.