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Essay on My Best Gift

Students are often asked to write an essay on My Best Gift in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on My Best Gift

Introduction.

The joy of receiving gifts is immeasurable. Among all the gifts I have received, one stands out as the best.

The Best Gift

My best gift was a book, gifted by my grandmother on my 10th birthday. It wasn’t just any book, but a collection of inspiring stories.

Why It’s Special

This book is special because it ignited my love for reading. Each story taught me valuable lessons about life.

The best gifts aren’t always the most expensive ones. They are those that leave a lasting impact on our lives, just like my book.

250 Words Essay on My Best Gift

Gifts hold a unique place in our lives, often serving as markers of significant moments or relationships. The best gifts are not necessarily the most expensive, but those that carry profound emotional value. For me, the best gift I’ve ever received is a small, worn-out notebook from my grandmother, a gift that has shaped my life in unimaginable ways.

The Gift’s Significance

The notebook, filled with my grandmother’s handwritten recipes, is more than just a collection of dishes. It is a testament to her love for cooking and a symbol of her desire to pass on the family’s culinary heritage. She had spent years perfecting those recipes, and her gift was a way of entrusting me with a piece of our family’s history.

Impact of the Gift

The notebook has significantly influenced my life. It sparked a passion for cooking that I was previously unaware of. I found joy in replicating the recipes, each dish bringing me closer to my roots and instilling a sense of connection to my family. The notebook also taught me the value of preserving traditions and the importance of sharing them with future generations.

In conclusion, the best gift I’ve ever received is not valuable in monetary terms, but it is priceless in its emotional significance. It represents a tangible link to my family’s past and a guide for preserving our traditions. It is a gift that has shaped my interests, values, and identity. The notebook from my grandmother is not just a collection of recipes; it is a cherished keepsake, a source of inspiration, and undoubtedly, my best gift.

500 Words Essay on My Best Gift

Gifts are a universal way to express emotions such as love, appreciation, and gratitude. Throughout our lives, we receive various gifts, but some hold a special place in our hearts. The best gift I ever received was not wrapped in shiny paper or tied with a colorful ribbon, but was a profound life experience that forever changed my perspective.

The Unexpected Gift

The best gift I ever received was a two-week trip to a remote village in Africa, a gift from my parents on my eighteenth birthday. Initially, I was perplexed, even disappointed. I had expected a car, a gadget, or a lavish party, but instead, I was given an experience that seemed unexciting. Little did I know, this trip would be the most valuable gift I’d ever receive.

Experiencing a Different World

In the remote village, I was exposed to a world far removed from the comforts of my urban life. The villagers lived in humble huts, tilled their fields manually, fetched water from wells, and cooked on open fires. There were no shopping malls, no internet, and no fast food. Initially, it was a culture shock. But as the days passed, I began to understand the essence of their lifestyle.

Lessons from Simplicity

The villagers taught me the beauty of simplicity. They found joy in the simplest things – a good harvest, a community gathering, a starlit sky. They were content with what they had, and they shared generously. Their sense of community was profound; they worked together, celebrated together, and supported each other in times of need. The happiness and contentment they derived from their simple lives were eye-opening.

Valuing What Matters

This experience taught me to value relationships and experiences over material possessions. I realized that the relentless pursuit of material wealth often leads to stress and discontentment. On the other hand, the villagers, with their simple lives and strong community bonds, seemed happier and more content. This realization was a paradigm shift for me, making me reconsider what I truly valued in life.

In retrospect, the trip to the African village was the best gift I ever received. It was not a material possession that would lose its value over time, but an experience that enriched my life and broadened my perspective. It taught me the importance of simplicity, contentment, and community – lessons that continue to shape my life. This gift from my parents was indeed a profound life experience, a gift that keeps on giving.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

  • Essay on Gift
  • Essay on Geography
  • Essay on Today’s Generation

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

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College Admissions , College Essays

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The personal statement might just be the hardest part of your college application. Mostly this is because it has the least guidance and is the most open-ended. One way to understand what colleges are looking for when they ask you to write an essay is to check out the essays of students who already got in—college essays that actually worked. After all, they must be among the most successful of this weird literary genre.

In this article, I'll go through general guidelines for what makes great college essays great. I've also compiled an enormous list of 100+ actual sample college essays from 11 different schools. Finally, I'll break down two of these published college essay examples and explain why and how they work. With links to 177 full essays and essay excerpts , this article is a great resource for learning how to craft your own personal college admissions essay!

What Excellent College Essays Have in Common

Even though in many ways these sample college essays are very different from one other, they do share some traits you should try to emulate as you write your own essay.

Visible Signs of Planning

Building out from a narrow, concrete focus. You'll see a similar structure in many of the essays. The author starts with a very detailed story of an event or description of a person or place. After this sense-heavy imagery, the essay expands out to make a broader point about the author, and connects this very memorable experience to the author's present situation, state of mind, newfound understanding, or maturity level.

Knowing how to tell a story. Some of the experiences in these essays are one-of-a-kind. But most deal with the stuff of everyday life. What sets them apart is the way the author approaches the topic: analyzing it for drama and humor, for its moving qualities, for what it says about the author's world, and for how it connects to the author's emotional life.

Stellar Execution

A killer first sentence. You've heard it before, and you'll hear it again: you have to suck the reader in, and the best place to do that is the first sentence. Great first sentences are punchy. They are like cliffhangers, setting up an exciting scene or an unusual situation with an unclear conclusion, in order to make the reader want to know more. Don't take my word for it—check out these 22 first sentences from Stanford applicants and tell me you don't want to read the rest of those essays to find out what happens!

A lively, individual voice. Writing is for readers. In this case, your reader is an admissions officer who has read thousands of essays before yours and will read thousands after. Your goal? Don't bore your reader. Use interesting descriptions, stay away from clichés, include your own offbeat observations—anything that makes this essay sounds like you and not like anyone else.

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Technical correctness. No spelling mistakes, no grammar weirdness, no syntax issues, no punctuation snafus—each of these sample college essays has been formatted and proofread perfectly. If this kind of exactness is not your strong suit, you're in luck! All colleges advise applicants to have their essays looked over several times by parents, teachers, mentors, and anyone else who can spot a comma splice. Your essay must be your own work, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting help polishing it.

And if you need more guidance, connect with PrepScholar's expert admissions consultants . These expert writers know exactly what college admissions committees look for in an admissions essay and chan help you craft an essay that boosts your chances of getting into your dream school.

Check out PrepScholar's Essay Editing and Coaching progra m for more details!

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Links to Full College Essay Examples

Some colleges publish a selection of their favorite accepted college essays that worked, and I've put together a selection of over 100 of these.

Common App Essay Samples

Please note that some of these college essay examples may be responding to prompts that are no longer in use. The current Common App prompts are as follows:

1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. 2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? 3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome? 4. Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you? 5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. 6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Now, let's get to the good stuff: the list of 177 college essay examples responding to current and past Common App essay prompts. 

Connecticut college.

  • 12 Common Application essays from the classes of 2022-2025

Hamilton College

  • 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2026
  • 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2022
  • 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2018
  • 8 Common Application essays from the class of 2012
  • 8 Common Application essays from the class of 2007

Johns Hopkins

These essays are answers to past prompts from either the Common Application or the Coalition Application (which Johns Hopkins used to accept).

  • 1 Common Application or Coalition Application essay from the class of 2026
  • 6 Common Application or Coalition Application essays from the class of 2025
  • 6 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2024
  • 6 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2023
  • 7 Common Application of Universal Application essays from the class of 2022
  • 5 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2021
  • 7 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2020

Essay Examples Published by Other Websites

  • 2 Common Application essays ( 1st essay , 2nd essay ) from applicants admitted to Columbia

Other Sample College Essays

Here is a collection of essays that are college-specific.

Babson College

  • 4 essays (and 1 video response) on "Why Babson" from the class of 2020

Emory University

  • 5 essay examples ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) from the class of 2020 along with analysis from Emory admissions staff on why the essays were exceptional
  • 5 more recent essay examples ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) along with analysis from Emory admissions staff on what made these essays stand out

University of Georgia

  • 1 “strong essay” sample from 2019
  • 1 “strong essay” sample from 2018
  • 10 Harvard essays from 2023
  • 10 Harvard essays from 2022
  • 10 Harvard essays from 2021
  • 10 Harvard essays from 2020
  • 10 Harvard essays from 2019
  • 10 Harvard essays from 2018
  • 6 essays from admitted MIT students

Smith College

  • 6 "best gift" essays from the class of 2018

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Books of College Essays

If you're looking for even more sample college essays, consider purchasing a college essay book. The best of these include dozens of essays that worked and feedback from real admissions officers.

College Essays That Made a Difference —This detailed guide from Princeton Review includes not only successful essays, but also interviews with admissions officers and full student profiles.

50 Successful Harvard Application Essays by the Staff of the Harvard Crimson—A must for anyone aspiring to Harvard .

50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays and 50 Successful Stanford Application Essays by Gen and Kelly Tanabe—For essays from other top schools, check out this venerated series, which is regularly updated with new essays.

Heavenly Essays by Janine W. Robinson—This collection from the popular blogger behind Essay Hell includes a wider range of schools, as well as helpful tips on honing your own essay.

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Analyzing Great Common App Essays That Worked

I've picked two essays from the examples collected above to examine in more depth so that you can see exactly what makes a successful college essay work. Full credit for these essays goes to the original authors and the schools that published them.

Example 1: "Breaking Into Cars," by Stephen, Johns Hopkins Class of '19 (Common App Essay, 636 words long)

I had never broken into a car before.

We were in Laredo, having just finished our first day at a Habitat for Humanity work site. The Hotchkiss volunteers had already left, off to enjoy some Texas BBQ, leaving me behind with the college kids to clean up. Not until we were stranded did we realize we were locked out of the van.

Someone picked a coat hanger out of the dumpster, handed it to me, and took a few steps back.

"Can you do that thing with a coat hanger to unlock it?"

"Why me?" I thought.

More out of amusement than optimism, I gave it a try. I slid the hanger into the window's seal like I'd seen on crime shows, and spent a few minutes jiggling the apparatus around the inside of the frame. Suddenly, two things simultaneously clicked. One was the lock on the door. (I actually succeeded in springing it.) The other was the realization that I'd been in this type of situation before. In fact, I'd been born into this type of situation.

My upbringing has numbed me to unpredictability and chaos. With a family of seven, my home was loud, messy, and spottily supervised. My siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing—all meant my house was functioning normally. My Dad, a retired Navy pilot, was away half the time. When he was home, he had a parenting style something like a drill sergeant. At the age of nine, I learned how to clear burning oil from the surface of water. My Dad considered this a critical life skill—you know, in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed. "The water's on fire! Clear a hole!" he shouted, tossing me in the lake without warning. While I'm still unconvinced about that particular lesson's practicality, my Dad's overarching message is unequivocally true: much of life is unexpected, and you have to deal with the twists and turns.

Living in my family, days rarely unfolded as planned. A bit overlooked, a little pushed around, I learned to roll with reality, negotiate a quick deal, and give the improbable a try. I don't sweat the small stuff, and I definitely don't expect perfect fairness. So what if our dining room table only has six chairs for seven people? Someone learns the importance of punctuality every night.

But more than punctuality and a special affinity for musical chairs, my family life has taught me to thrive in situations over which I have no power. Growing up, I never controlled my older siblings, but I learned how to thwart their attempts to control me. I forged alliances, and realigned them as necessary. Sometimes, I was the poor, defenseless little brother; sometimes I was the omniscient elder. Different things to different people, as the situation demanded. I learned to adapt.

Back then, these techniques were merely reactions undertaken to ensure my survival. But one day this fall, Dr. Hicks, our Head of School, asked me a question that he hoped all seniors would reflect on throughout the year: "How can I participate in a thing I do not govern, in the company of people I did not choose?"

The question caught me off guard, much like the question posed to me in Laredo. Then, I realized I knew the answer. I knew why the coat hanger had been handed to me.

Growing up as the middle child in my family, I was a vital participant in a thing I did not govern, in the company of people I did not choose. It's family. It's society. And often, it's chaos. You participate by letting go of the small stuff, not expecting order and perfection, and facing the unexpected with confidence, optimism, and preparedness. My family experience taught me to face a serendipitous world with confidence.

What Makes This Essay Tick?

It's very helpful to take writing apart in order to see just how it accomplishes its objectives. Stephen's essay is very effective. Let's find out why!

An Opening Line That Draws You In

In just eight words, we get: scene-setting (he is standing next to a car about to break in), the idea of crossing a boundary (he is maybe about to do an illegal thing for the first time), and a cliffhanger (we are thinking: is he going to get caught? Is he headed for a life of crime? Is he about to be scared straight?).

Great, Detailed Opening Story

More out of amusement than optimism, I gave it a try. I slid the hanger into the window's seal like I'd seen on crime shows, and spent a few minutes jiggling the apparatus around the inside of the frame.

It's the details that really make this small experience come alive. Notice how whenever he can, Stephen uses a more specific, descriptive word in place of a more generic one. The volunteers aren't going to get food or dinner; they're going for "Texas BBQ." The coat hanger comes from "a dumpster." Stephen doesn't just move the coat hanger—he "jiggles" it.

Details also help us visualize the emotions of the people in the scene. The person who hands Stephen the coat hanger isn't just uncomfortable or nervous; he "takes a few steps back"—a description of movement that conveys feelings. Finally, the detail of actual speech makes the scene pop. Instead of writing that the other guy asked him to unlock the van, Stephen has the guy actually say his own words in a way that sounds like a teenager talking.

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Turning a Specific Incident Into a Deeper Insight

Suddenly, two things simultaneously clicked. One was the lock on the door. (I actually succeeded in springing it.) The other was the realization that I'd been in this type of situation before. In fact, I'd been born into this type of situation.

Stephen makes the locked car experience a meaningful illustration of how he has learned to be resourceful and ready for anything, and he also makes this turn from the specific to the broad through an elegant play on the two meanings of the word "click."

Using Concrete Examples When Making Abstract Claims

My upbringing has numbed me to unpredictability and chaos. With a family of seven, my home was loud, messy, and spottily supervised. My siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing—all meant my house was functioning normally.

"Unpredictability and chaos" are very abstract, not easily visualized concepts. They could also mean any number of things—violence, abandonment, poverty, mental instability. By instantly following up with highly finite and unambiguous illustrations like "family of seven" and "siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing," Stephen grounds the abstraction in something that is easy to picture: a large, noisy family.

Using Small Bits of Humor and Casual Word Choice

My Dad, a retired Navy pilot, was away half the time. When he was home, he had a parenting style something like a drill sergeant. At the age of nine, I learned how to clear burning oil from the surface of water. My Dad considered this a critical life skill—you know, in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed.

Obviously, knowing how to clean burning oil is not high on the list of things every 9-year-old needs to know. To emphasize this, Stephen uses sarcasm by bringing up a situation that is clearly over-the-top: "in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed."

The humor also feels relaxed. Part of this is because he introduces it with the colloquial phrase "you know," so it sounds like he is talking to us in person. This approach also diffuses the potential discomfort of the reader with his father's strictness—since he is making jokes about it, clearly he is OK. Notice, though, that this doesn't occur very much in the essay. This helps keep the tone meaningful and serious rather than flippant.

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An Ending That Stretches the Insight Into the Future

But one day this fall, Dr. Hicks, our Head of School, asked me a question that he hoped all seniors would reflect on throughout the year: "How can I participate in a thing I do not govern, in the company of people I did not choose?"

The ending of the essay reveals that Stephen's life has been one long preparation for the future. He has emerged from chaos and his dad's approach to parenting as a person who can thrive in a world that he can't control.

This connection of past experience to current maturity and self-knowledge is a key element in all successful personal essays. Colleges are very much looking for mature, self-aware applicants. These are the qualities of successful college students, who will be able to navigate the independence college classes require and the responsibility and quasi-adulthood of college life.

What Could This Essay Do Even Better?

Even the best essays aren't perfect, and even the world's greatest writers will tell you that writing is never "finished"—just "due." So what would we tweak in this essay if we could?

Replace some of the clichéd language. Stephen uses handy phrases like "twists and turns" and "don't sweat the small stuff" as a kind of shorthand for explaining his relationship to chaos and unpredictability. But using too many of these ready-made expressions runs the risk of clouding out your own voice and replacing it with something expected and boring.

Use another example from recent life. Stephen's first example (breaking into the van in Laredo) is a great illustration of being resourceful in an unexpected situation. But his essay also emphasizes that he "learned to adapt" by being "different things to different people." It would be great to see how this plays out outside his family, either in the situation in Laredo or another context.

best gift short essay

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Example 2: By Renner Kwittken, Tufts Class of '23 (Common App Essay, 645 words long)

My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver. I saw it in my favorite book, Richard Scarry's "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go," and for some reason, I was absolutely obsessed with the idea of driving a giant pickle. Much to the discontent of my younger sister, I insisted that my parents read us that book as many nights as possible so we could find goldbug, a small little golden bug, on every page. I would imagine the wonderful life I would have: being a pig driving a giant pickle truck across the country, chasing and finding goldbug. I then moved on to wanting to be a Lego Master. Then an architect. Then a surgeon.

Then I discovered a real goldbug: gold nanoparticles that can reprogram macrophages to assist in killing tumors, produce clear images of them without sacrificing the subject, and heat them to obliteration.

Suddenly the destination of my pickle was clear.

I quickly became enveloped by the world of nanomedicine; I scoured articles about liposomes, polymeric micelles, dendrimers, targeting ligands, and self-assembling nanoparticles, all conquering cancer in some exotic way. Completely absorbed, I set out to find a mentor to dive even deeper into these topics. After several rejections, I was immensely grateful to receive an invitation to work alongside Dr. Sangeeta Ray at Johns Hopkins.

In the lab, Dr. Ray encouraged a great amount of autonomy to design and implement my own procedures. I chose to attack a problem that affects the entire field of nanomedicine: nanoparticles consistently fail to translate from animal studies into clinical trials. Jumping off recent literature, I set out to see if a pre-dose of a common chemotherapeutic could enhance nanoparticle delivery in aggressive prostate cancer, creating three novel constructs based on three different linear polymers, each using fluorescent dye (although no gold, sorry goldbug!). Though using radioactive isotopes like Gallium and Yttrium would have been incredible, as a 17-year-old, I unfortunately wasn't allowed in the same room as these radioactive materials (even though I took a Geiger counter to a pair of shoes and found them to be slightly dangerous).

I hadn't expected my hypothesis to work, as the research project would have ideally been led across two full years. Yet while there are still many optimizations and revisions to be done, I was thrilled to find -- with completely new nanoparticles that may one day mean future trials will use particles with the initials "RK-1" -- thatcyclophosphamide did indeed increase nanoparticle delivery to the tumor in a statistically significant way.

A secondary, unexpected research project was living alone in Baltimore, a new city to me, surrounded by people much older than I. Even with moving frequently between hotels, AirBnB's, and students' apartments, I strangely reveled in the freedom I had to enjoy my surroundings and form new friendships with graduate school students from the lab. We explored The Inner Harbor at night, attended a concert together one weekend, and even got to watch the Orioles lose (to nobody's surprise). Ironically, it's through these new friendships I discovered something unexpected: what I truly love is sharing research. Whether in a presentation or in a casual conversation, making others interested in science is perhaps more exciting to me than the research itself. This solidified a new pursuit to angle my love for writing towards illuminating science in ways people can understand, adding value to a society that can certainly benefit from more scientific literacy.

It seems fitting that my goals are still transforming: in Scarry's book, there is not just one goldbug, there is one on every page. With each new experience, I'm learning that it isn't the goldbug itself, but rather the act of searching for the goldbugs that will encourage, shape, and refine my ever-evolving passions. Regardless of the goldbug I seek -- I know my pickle truck has just begun its journey.

Renner takes a somewhat different approach than Stephen, but their essay is just as detailed and engaging. Let's go through some of the strengths of this essay.

One Clear Governing Metaphor

This essay is ultimately about two things: Renner’s dreams and future career goals, and Renner’s philosophy on goal-setting and achieving one’s dreams.

But instead of listing off all the amazing things they’ve done to pursue their dream of working in nanomedicine, Renner tells a powerful, unique story instead. To set up the narrative, Renner opens the essay by connecting their experiences with goal-setting and dream-chasing all the way back to a memorable childhood experience:

This lighthearted–but relevant!--story about the moment when Renner first developed a passion for a specific career (“finding the goldbug”) provides an anchor point for the rest of the essay. As Renner pivots to describing their current dreams and goals–working in nanomedicine–the metaphor of “finding the goldbug” is reflected in Renner’s experiments, rejections, and new discoveries.

Though Renner tells multiple stories about their quest to “find the goldbug,” or, in other words, pursue their passion, each story is connected by a unifying theme; namely, that as we search and grow over time, our goals will transform…and that’s okay! By the end of the essay, Renner uses the metaphor of “finding the goldbug” to reiterate the relevance of the opening story:

While the earlier parts of the essay convey Renner’s core message by showing, the final, concluding paragraph sums up Renner’s insights by telling. By briefly and clearly stating the relevance of the goldbug metaphor to their own philosophy on goals and dreams, Renner demonstrates their creativity, insight, and eagerness to grow and evolve as the journey continues into college.

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An Engaging, Individual Voice

This essay uses many techniques that make Renner sound genuine and make the reader feel like we already know them.

Technique #1: humor. Notice Renner's gentle and relaxed humor that lightly mocks their younger self's grand ambitions (this is different from the more sarcastic kind of humor used by Stephen in the first essay—you could never mistake one writer for the other).

My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver.

I would imagine the wonderful life I would have: being a pig driving a giant pickle truck across the country, chasing and finding goldbug. I then moved on to wanting to be a Lego Master. Then an architect. Then a surgeon.

Renner gives a great example of how to use humor to your advantage in college essays. You don’t want to come off as too self-deprecating or sarcastic, but telling a lightheartedly humorous story about your younger self that also showcases how you’ve grown and changed over time can set the right tone for your entire essay.

Technique #2: intentional, eye-catching structure. The second technique is the way Renner uses a unique structure to bolster the tone and themes of their essay . The structure of your essay can have a major impact on how your ideas come across…so it’s important to give it just as much thought as the content of your essay!

For instance, Renner does a great job of using one-line paragraphs to create dramatic emphasis and to make clear transitions from one phase of the story to the next:

Suddenly the destination of my pickle car was clear.

Not only does the one-liner above signal that Renner is moving into a new phase of the narrative (their nanoparticle research experiences), it also tells the reader that this is a big moment in Renner’s story. It’s clear that Renner made a major discovery that changed the course of their goal pursuit and dream-chasing. Through structure, Renner conveys excitement and entices the reader to keep pushing forward to the next part of the story.

Technique #3: playing with syntax. The third technique is to use sentences of varying length, syntax, and structure. Most of the essay's written in standard English and uses grammatically correct sentences. However, at key moments, Renner emphasizes that the reader needs to sit up and pay attention by switching to short, colloquial, differently punctuated, and sometimes fragmented sentences.

Even with moving frequently between hotels, AirBnB's, and students' apartments, I strangely reveled in the freedom I had to enjoy my surroundings and form new friendships with graduate school students from the lab. We explored The Inner Harbor at night, attended a concert together one weekend, and even got to watch the Orioles lose (to nobody's surprise). Ironically, it's through these new friendships I discovered something unexpected: what I truly love is sharing research.

In the examples above, Renner switches adeptly between long, flowing sentences and quippy, telegraphic ones. At the same time, Renner uses these different sentence lengths intentionally. As they describe their experiences in new places, they use longer sentences to immerse the reader in the sights, smells, and sounds of those experiences. And when it’s time to get a big, key idea across, Renner switches to a short, punchy sentence to stop the reader in their tracks.

The varying syntax and sentence lengths pull the reader into the narrative and set up crucial “aha” moments when it’s most important…which is a surefire way to make any college essay stand out.

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Renner's essay is very strong, but there are still a few little things that could be improved.

Connecting the research experiences to the theme of “finding the goldbug.”  The essay begins and ends with Renner’s connection to the idea of “finding the goldbug.” And while this metaphor is deftly tied into the essay’s intro and conclusion, it isn’t entirely clear what Renner’s big findings were during the research experiences that are described in the middle of the essay. It would be great to add a sentence or two stating what Renner’s big takeaways (or “goldbugs”) were from these experiences, which add more cohesion to the essay as a whole.

Give more details about discovering the world of nanomedicine. It makes sense that Renner wants to get into the details of their big research experiences as quickly as possible. After all, these are the details that show Renner’s dedication to nanomedicine! But a smoother transition from the opening pickle car/goldbug story to Renner’s “real goldbug” of nanoparticles would help the reader understand why nanoparticles became Renner’s goldbug. Finding out why Renner is so motivated to study nanomedicine–and perhaps what put them on to this field of study–would help readers fully understand why Renner chose this path in the first place.

4 Essential Tips for Writing Your Own Essay

How can you use this discussion to better your own college essay? Here are some suggestions for ways to use this resource effectively.

#1: Get Help From the Experts

Getting your college applications together takes a lot of work and can be pretty intimidatin g. Essays are even more important than ever now that admissions processes are changing and schools are going test-optional and removing diversity standards thanks to new Supreme Court rulings .  If you want certified expert help that really makes a difference, get started with  PrepScholar’s Essay Editing and Coaching program. Our program can help you put together an incredible essay from idea to completion so that your application stands out from the crowd. We've helped students get into the best colleges in the United States, including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale.  If you're ready to take the next step and boost your odds of getting into your dream school, connect with our experts today .

#2: Read Other Essays to Get Ideas for Your Own

As you go through the essays we've compiled for you above, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Can you explain to yourself (or someone else!) why the opening sentence works well?
  • Look for the essay's detailed personal anecdote. What senses is the author describing? Can you easily picture the scene in your mind's eye?
  • Find the place where this anecdote bridges into a larger insight about the author. How does the essay connect the two? How does the anecdote work as an example of the author's characteristic, trait, or skill?
  • Check out the essay's tone. If it's funny, can you find the places where the humor comes from? If it's sad and moving, can you find the imagery and description of feelings that make you moved? If it's serious, can you see how word choice adds to this tone?

Make a note whenever you find an essay or part of an essay that you think was particularly well-written, and think about what you like about it . Is it funny? Does it help you really get to know the writer? Does it show what makes the writer unique? Once you have your list, keep it next to you while writing your essay to remind yourself to try and use those same techniques in your own essay.

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#3: Find Your "A-Ha!" Moment

All of these essays rely on connecting with the reader through a heartfelt, highly descriptive scene from the author's life. It can either be very dramatic (did you survive a plane crash?) or it can be completely mundane (did you finally beat your dad at Scrabble?). Either way, it should be personal and revealing about you, your personality, and the way you are now that you are entering the adult world.

Check out essays by authors like John Jeremiah Sullivan , Leslie Jamison , Hanif Abdurraqib , and Esmé Weijun Wang to get more examples of how to craft a compelling personal narrative.

#4: Start Early, Revise Often

Let me level with you: the best writing isn't writing at all. It's rewriting. And in order to have time to rewrite, you have to start way before the application deadline. My advice is to write your first draft at least two months before your applications are due.

Let it sit for a few days untouched. Then come back to it with fresh eyes and think critically about what you've written. What's extra? What's missing? What is in the wrong place? What doesn't make sense? Don't be afraid to take it apart and rearrange sections. Do this several times over, and your essay will be much better for it!

For more editing tips, check out a style guide like Dreyer's English or Eats, Shoots & Leaves .

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What's Next?

Still not sure which colleges you want to apply to? Our experts will show you how to make a college list that will help you choose a college that's right for you.

Interested in learning more about college essays? Check out our detailed breakdown of exactly how personal statements work in an application , some suggestions on what to avoid when writing your essay , and our guide to writing about your extracurricular activities .

Working on the rest of your application? Read what admissions officers wish applicants knew before applying .

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

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The recommendations in this post are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links PrepScholar may receive a commission.

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Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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Ielts writing task 2 sample 15 - people remember special gifts or presents that they receive, ielts writing task 2/ ielts essay:, some people say that people remember special gifts or presents that they receive. why do you think that is, use specific reasons and examples to support your answer..

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A special gift I received

Profile picture for user TranThiHongDao

Every year, I always receive a lot of different gifts from my parents, brothers and friends on my birthday. But on my 21th birthday, I received a special gift from my best friend. She gave me a small red box and said that: “This is my special gift for you. I hope you will love it”. I opened it. It was a thick book.

I could have been never envisage that my best friend would give me such a precious gift. The book with title was “Life Without Limits” by an extraordinary man, Nick Vujicic. The book was not only Nick’s story but also plenty of stories of other people that Nick encount...

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Full essay evaluations

I could have been never envisage that I could have been never envisaged that

to live an independent and fulfilling life to live in an independent and fulfilling life

flaws: Avg. Sentence Length: 13.217 21.0

Number of Paragraphs: 3 5 better to have 4-5 paragraphs:

para 1: introduction para 2: reason 1 para 3: reason 2 para 4: reason 3 (optional) para 5: conclusion

para 1: introduction para 2: idea one. para 3: however, idea two para 4: in my opinion...

Attribute Value Ideal Score: 5.5 out of 9 Category: Satisfactory Excellent No. of Grammatical Errors: 2 2 No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2 No. of Sentences: 23 15 No. of Words: 304 350 No. of Characters: 1242 1500 No. of Different Words: 169 200 Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.176 4.7 Average Word Length: 4.086 4.6 Word Length SD: 2.184 2.4 No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 65 100 No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 44 80 No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 25 40 No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 13 20 Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0 Avg. Sentence Length: 13.217 21.0 Sentence Length SD: 5.242 7.5 Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.261 0.12 Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.326 0.35 Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.441 0.50 Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.185 0.07 Number of Paragraphs: 3 5

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The Best Gift You Ever Received Essay Example

The Best Gift You Ever Received Essay Example

  • Pages: 2 (296 words)
  • Published: February 4, 2017
  • Type: Essay

What is the best groomsmen gift you ever received?

Every year, I always receive a lot of gifts from my parents and friends on my birthday. But last year, I received a special gift from my best friend. It was my birthday. I was presented many colourful and expensive gifts. But my best friend did not give me a gift like that. She gave me a small blue box and said that: “This is my special gift for you. I hope you will like it. ” I was very curious about what was in the box. I opened it.

A special gift I received

It was a scarf! But it was not colourful, it was blue and white which were my favourite colours. It was not a normal scarf which was

bought from the shop but it was made by my friend. She bought many balls of wool and learned how to knit. She tried her best to make a special gift for me. I knew that she had had much ado and time to finish kniting the scarf . Although it was not beautiful, I was happy and promise her treasure it.

However, it was also the last gift from my best friend. Two months later, she had to move to another country with her family. I was very upset when I knew that. When it is cold, this scarf is very useful for me. It is warmer than other scarfs because it is warm not only by keeping my normothermia but also by our friendship. On my next birthdays, I know that I will receive many beautiful gifts but I alway

believe that this scarf is the best gift I ever received.

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Describe the best gift you have ever received – IELTS Cue Card

Janice Thompson

Updated On Dec 27, 2023

best gift short essay

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Describe the best gift you have ever received – IELTS Cue Card

Predicted 50 + IELTS Speaking Part 3 Topics 2024

In the IELTS Speaking section, one of the most common question types is the Cue Card Speaking prompt. The IELTS Cue Card topics will prompt you to formulate a response and speak on the given topic. To attempt this question, you must narrow down the essential questions on the given topic to answer within the given time. Consider the sample Cue Card below. Study the types of questions that have been formulated based on the cue card and how to go about with your response:

Describe the best gift you have ever received

You should say:

  • What was the gift?
  • Who gave it to you?
  • When did you receive it?
  • And explain why it is the best gift you have ever received

Sample Answer 1

Gifts, are always prized by everyone who receives them. Many people would argue that gifts, are an essential part of almost every special occasion. Gifts are a symbol of gratitude and never fail to uplift a person. One gift that always comes to my mind when I think of gifts is the birthday present I received for my 13th birthday. I had my heart set on a particular bicycle, and I received it for my 13th birthday.

This gift was given to me by my father. I had asked him for a bicycle to ride in the evenings around the neighbourhood for a long time, and he finally agreed to give me one for my 13th birthday. When he asked me what kind of bicycle I would like, I told him I would love a cycle with multiple gears. Although an expensive gift, my father bought it for me.

I received this gift on May 26 2013, and it was a Friday. I distinctly remember that day when my father agreed to take me to the bicycle showroom. I accompanied him on his bike, and we went to a specific bicycle shop on the other side of the city since bicycles with multiple gears were rare.

After we reached the shop and my father had a talk with the store manager, he asked me to pick a colour from the available options. I was elated, and my cheeks blushed with joy as I started to judge which bicycle colour was the best looking. I finally settled on the colour black, and my father made the purchase. After the bicycle arrived at our residence, I wasted no time before I started riding it around our house. That bicycle made my 13th birthday truly memorable and is one of the most cherished gifts I have ever received.

Sample Answer 2

Here is the sample for “Describe the best gift you have ever received” topic:

Gifts speak volumes about the love and care somebody has for you. Although, since childhood, I’ve received plenty of gifts from my relatives and family, one of them that I can never forget was a huge, orange-coloured doll and a battery-operated doll that was sitting on a cake and playing the piano. Just with the click of a button, the cake began revolving, and the doll sang a happy birthday song.

These gifts were given to me by my elder sister on my 12th birthday.

To begin with, it was the first-ever time when my sister had planned a surprise birthday party for me. She had decorated the room, placed these beside a huge cake, and had invited all of my friends – without my knowledge. Although she was merely two years older than me, I still hadn’t expected anything from her because she never used to express her emotions. However, that day, with such a grand gesture, she said a lot of things without expressing herself verbally. Another reason why all of these gifts and the party were special to me was that I didn’t know it was going to be my last birthday with her. She passed away after a few months because of a brain haemorrhage. So, the gifts remained memorable to me.

Sample Answer 3

Gifts are the most endearing thing one can receive. They are a proclamation of love, and they symbolize a feeling shared by the giver. As human beings, we have two ways of expression – Words and Action. When words aren’t enough to describe your emotions, they turn to action. Through gifting, a human being tries to express what words cannot encapsulate. 

The best gift I have received is my pup, Bruno. He is a German Shepherd and the cutest furball I have ever seen. Dogs are simply the most loyal companions one could ask for. They don’t love you for any worldly possessions of yours, they don’t love you for your wealth, they love you for you, and that is a beautiful thing. Dogs don’t care if you’re rich or poor, they just want to be happy, and they want to see you happy. Dogs are simply phenomenal. 

I received Bruno as a gift around 11 months ago. It was a surprise and the minute I saw his ecstatic little face, I knew we had an instant bond. Bruno is the kindest and pleasant dog I have ever met. He loves to take walks and play fetch. The minute he hears someone opening a snack, his ears perk up, and he comes running to get a piece too! He loves sweets and will definitely bring you a ball if he sees you upset. He’s the best gift I’ve ever received because he makes me happier than I thought I could be. He’s my best friend.

Here are the vocabularies for “Describe the best gift you have ever received” with examples:

  • Endearing : inspiring affection. Ex : Amanda was endearing to nearly everyone she met because of her kind heart.  
  • Proclamation : a clear declaration of something. Ex : The authorities issued a proclamation forbidding public meetings
  • Encapsulate : express the essential features of (something) succinctly. Ex : It was very difficult to encapsulate the story of the revolution in a single one-hour documentary.
  • Phenomenal : remarkable or exceptional, especially exceptionally good. Ex : California had experienced a phenomenal growth in population.
  • Ecstatic : feeling or expressing overwhelming happiness or joyful excitement. Ex : Sally was ecstatic about her new job.

Explore More Gift Cue cards >>

Related Cue Cards

  • A Gift You Gave That Took A Long Time To Choose
  • Describe an occasion when you received good service from a company
  • Describe a Change that will Improve your Local Area
  • Film/Movie that you Watched and did not Enjoy

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30 + Difficult IELTS Cue Card Topics with Answer pdf

Janice Thompson

Janice Thompson

Soon after graduating with a Master’s in Literature from Southern Arkansas University, she joined an institute as an English language trainer. She has had innumerous student interactions and has produced a couple of research papers on English language teaching. She soon found that non-native speakers struggled to meet the English language requirements set by foreign universities. It was when she decided to jump ship into IELTS training. From then on, she has been mentoring IELTS aspirants. She joined IELTSMaterial about a year ago, and her contributions have been exceptional. Her essay ideas and vocabulary have taken many students to a band 9.

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6 Thoughtful Ways to Gift Your Writing

by David Safford | 11 comments

There are so many items you can buy that can make a great gift. But what if this year, you give something different? What if the perfect gift you give this year is  writing instead of  things ?

6 Thoughtful Ways to Gift Your Writing

In this article, I will share six ways you can gift your writing this year.

Looking for creative ideas for gifts for writers in your life? Check out our full guide, 100 Best Gifts for Writers .

Do You Also Get Tired of Consumerism?

I love the Christmas season.

I love decorating the tree and baking cookies with my daughter. I love wrapping presents and hiding them from prying eyes.

But with every passing holiday season, I find myself loving something less and less each year: rampant consumerism, and the impossible expectations that come with it.

If you’re anything like me, making room in the budget for pricy gifts is a challenge. The bombardment of commercials doesn’t make it any easier. It seems like every ad shows a happy family unwrapping televisions, expensive smartphones, and new car keys — without a single moment of financial stress or credit card debt!

In daily life, we just can’t keep up with the Joneses.

If you're like me and feeling all of this, you might want to try something different this year. The best, most thoughtful gift you could give might not be something that comes from your wallet, but from putting pen to paper.

A Priceless Gift for Your Loved Ones

Each Christmas, I’ve found a solution to consumerism: “gifting” my writing.

It’s taken many forms. And while it isn’t free, it scales wonderfully because I can usually duplicate or copy the same gift writing to each family “unit,” or group of loved ones.

If you’re like me, you may wonder if this qualifies as a gift. “Isn’t that just hawking my stuff?” you may ask.

Here’s the trick: w rite something new for the gift.

Even if it’s just one new short story, a single poem, or a new “bonus” chapter to a book, create something new that is just for your loved ones on this specific holiday.

Then, if you have any crafting or tech skills, you can spruce it up and make it look really creative and/or professional!

When we give the gift of our writing, we're giving something that's precious. We’re giving our:

  • Heart and soul
  • Time and attention
  • High-value artistic creation

And when those closest to us receive something created specifically for them , it’s a gift that can't be found anywhere else, exchanged at the mall, or shipped back to Amazon.

It’s priceless.

6 Ways to Gift Writing This Holiday Season

As I’ve gifted my writing over the years, I’ve attempted a variety of approaches with varying success. I’ve included strategies I used as a teenager, college student, and adult, so find an approach that works best for your timeline and budget.

Your gift can be whatever you want it to be . It can be wildly fictitious or true-to-life. It can be memoir. It can be something experimental that you’re trying out. It can be poetry, short story, flash fiction, novella, novel, serialized story, a collection of blog posts — nearly anything.

And don’t forget — you can do this in advance and plan for next year !

1. Write/Say What You Want

Before going any further, we have to address an important issue: writing for family can be tough.

Some of us might use writing as a form of escape from family. If that’s true, perhaps gifting your writing will work best for distant relatives or close friends, rather than family members.

It’s up to you what’s best. But whatever you do, do not to use this writing as therapy (though it can be therapeutic to tell stories in your own voice, and then share that with family, distant relatives, or friends and loved ones when the time is right).

It’s up to you whom you feel safe sharing your writing with, and what types of writing you feel safe sharing.

Either way, don’t make the mistake of discounting your voice and its priceless value as a gift.

2. Get Crafty

Back in high school, I printed pages of my short stories and glued them to construction paper and used string as the binding. I colored the cover with colored pencils and was very pleased with the result.

I highly recommend this for younger gift-givers when limited by budgets and time.

By raiding the arts and crafts drawers of your house, you may be surprised what tools are available to create some fun projects for your family. This can work well for any special occasion, especially this holiday season!

3. Mimic Professional Printing

With access to a few more resources, you can construct a professional-looking book with printed pages and card stock. Using online tutorials, I figured how to format a double-sided, paginated booklet, and then used textured card stock for the cover. The textured card stock goes a long way to creating the “feel” of a professional piece of printing, even if the resulting book is rather slim.

With this approach, make sure you have access to a “long stapler,” so you can accurately staple the center spine of the booklet. Copy shops, or your workplace’s copy or mailroom, often have one of these that you can use.

Tapping in to your inner Pam Beasley can be fun and festive! 

4. Go Professional … but Plan Ahead!

If you decide to enlist a professional book printer, or print-on-demand service, you have to plan far in advance. I’m learning this the hard way this year, as some of my gifts won’t ship on time and I’ll have to send a “preview” before the actual book arrives.

This is a great option if you have a longer work that you want to gift to a large amount of people.

This year I’m gifting a book to fifteen family/friend units (grandparents, aunts/uncles, parents, friends, etc) for around $60 total. Out of the eleven stories in it, four have never been published outside of The Write Practice Pro , and three have never been published at all. They’re just for my loved ones.

But you have to plan ahead.

I recommend ordering your books by December 1, especially if you have to wrap and ship them to distant family units.

While this won’t help you with Christmas 2021, it’s a great option as you look ahead to 2022—and start planning your gift budget far in advance.

5. Think Outside the “Book” Box

So far, I’ve only described gift ideas for “books.” What about other media? Here are some suggestions of other ways to share your writing, stories, and creative talents for the holidays:

  • Record your stories or novel into an audiobook, and give CDs, flash drives, or printed “book covers” (with a download link) as gifts!
  • Record YouTube videos and share the URL exclusively with the gift recipients. Perhaps print screenshots and wrap them up as a gift!
  • Partner with an artist or illustrator (preferably with a spouse or another family member) to give paired gifts of art and word!
  • Offer a creative writing lesson to friends or family members that have expressed an interest in storytelling. You can “wrap” this as a coupon or voucher!

The truth is that your stories can be given as a gift in many forms, and you’re the best person to come up with clever ways to share that with those who mean the most!

6. Personalize the Story

Finally, no matter what you do, find ways to personalize the writing or the packaging.

This year I’m dedicating my gift to a family member who is a fellow writer. He wants to thrive as a creative writer, but hasn’t due to the exhausting grind of work and family life.

I’m also including a “ Foreword ” in which I share how we sometimes forget the reason for Christmas, the story of the Man that I and many other people worship and love.

So what can you say, even in just a hundred words, to positively reach out to your family?

Of course, this isn’t the time to air long-standing grievances or call out specific persons, but it is a place you can personalize the story and share your heart, if you feel so inclined.

Consider signing each book, or project, to the recipients.

Let them know that you touched it and thought of them personally. Maybe leave notes to individual loved ones throughout the project. Tiny shout-outs make people feel remembered and special. That alone is a priceless, powerful gift.

Whatever you do, give it little personal touches that really accent the meaning behind the season and the gift you’re giving.

What to Write When Giving a Gift

Now that you've created your gift (go you!), it's time to put your writing skills to work one more time before the big finale.

Surprisingly, a lot of gift givers—yes, even writers—fall short of words when it comes to writing that special message on the tag or in a card. You want to make it personal and meaningful, and doing this means avoiding those familiar cliches. (It's beginning to look a lot like . . .)

To help kickstart your personalized holiday message, here are some ideas on what to write when giving a gift this pandemic year:

  • Even if we can't be together in person, I hope you know how much you mean to me this and every season.
  • It's been a tough year! I hope this gift will bring a smile to your face, and also give you comfort and joy as we head into the New Year. (Come on 2022!)
  • This year wasn't anything we expected. Here's to hoping this surprise gives you some long awaited joy.
  • Pouring all my warm wishes and love into your gift this year.
  • Thinking of you with love and joy this holiday season, and hoping this gives you exactly that.

Still stuck on this? Check out a Christmas card store like Shutterfly or Hallmark for some general messages, and then put a twist on one or two of the words (or phrases) to make the message your own.

What About Gifts for Writers?

This article is about how to gift your writing to others this year. As a writer, you might also be wondering what are some great gifts  for  writers.

For full details on gifts for writers, check out this great article .

However, for some quick and cleaver ideas, consider a gift for writers that will make them writer happy, like:

  • A gift card to their favorite coffee shop or tea brand
  • A paperback book or pre-order of a hardcover they can't wait will come out next year
  • A first edition of their favorite book
  • Audible subscription (they can choose from thousands of audiobooks!)
  • Kindle Unlimited

These are only some of many ideas perfect for a book lover, especially one who is also a writer.

Give the Gift of Writing With Confidence

Finally, when the big moment comes and everyone is opening their gifts, sit tall and smile. Don’t cower or slouch your shoulders in shame.

And when they open the book and see what it is, let them enjoy it. If they compliment you, say, “You’re welcome!” or “I hope you enjoy it!” Don’t apologize that it’s not a new iPhone. Don’t explain yourself or your poverty or lack of creativity or anything else.

Give your gift with confidence!

What is more meaningful: A $20 Starbucks gift card that took five minutes to buy? Or a $5 book that took twenty hours to write, edit, print, personalize, and wrap?

Give with the confidence that you are a storyteller and you are giving to those you care about the most. Because if there’s anything we should be consuming more of each Christmas, it’s meaningful time with the people who mean most to us.

I hope this helps you do just that!

Have you ever given someone the gift of your writing? Do you have other creative gift writing ideas? Let us know in the comments .

Take fifteen minutes and start a new piece of writing that can be a gift to your loved ones this year. It can be a poem, short story, flash fiction, memoir, blog post — anything that comes from your story. Don't worry about whom it's for yet. Just take an idea or piece of inspiration and run with it, and write it with its possible “gift” role in mind.

When you're done, share your potential gift writing in the comments . I'd love to read your gift “inklings” and encourage you onward as creative gift-givers! Happy writing and Happy Holidays!

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David Safford

You deserve a great book. That's why David Safford writes adventure stories that you won't be able to put down. Read his latest story at his website. David is a Language Arts teacher, novelist, blogger, hiker, Legend of Zelda fanatic, puzzle-doer, husband, and father of two awesome children.

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The Best Gift You Ever Received

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Every year, I always receive a lot of gifts from my parents and friends on my birthday.

But last year, I received a special gift from my best friend. It was my birthday. I was presented many colourful and expensive gifts. But my best friend did not give me a gift like that.

She gave me a small blue box and said that: “This is my special gift for you. I hope you will like it. ” I was very curious about what was in the box. I opened it.

It was a scarf! But it was not colourful, it was blue and white which were my favourite colours. It was not a normal scarf which was bought from the shop but it was made by my friend. She bought many balls of wool and learned how to knit. She tried her best to make a special gift for me. I knew that she had had much ado and time to finish kniting the scarf . Although it was not beautiful, I was happy and promise her treasure it.

However, it was also the last gift from my best friend. Two months later, she had to move to another country with her family. I was very upset when I knew that. When it is cold, this scarf is very useful for me. It is warmer than other scarfs because it is warm not only by keeping my normothermia but also by our friendship.

On my next birthdays, I know that I will receive many beautiful gifts but I always believe that this scarf is the best gift I ever received.

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How to Write a Short Essay, With Examples

Parker Yamasaki

Writing clearly and concisely is one of the best skills you can take from school into professional settings. A great way to practice this kind of writing is with short essays. A short essay is any essay that has a word count of fewer than 1,000 words. While getting assigned a short essay might seem preferable to a ten-page paper, writing short poses its own special challenges. Here, we’ll show you how to write a convincing short essay in five simple steps.

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What is a short essay?

A short essay is any type of essay condensed to its most important elements. There is no universal answer to what a short essay length is, but teachers generally assign short essays in the 250- to 750-word range, and occasionally up to 1,000 words.

Just because the essays are short doesn’t mean the subjects must be simple. One of the greatest challenges of short essays is distilling complex topics into a few telling words. Some examples of short essay topics are:

  • The advantages and disadvantages of social media
  • The pros and cons of online learning
  • The influence of music on human emotions
  • The role of artificial intelligence in modern life
  • The ways that climate change affects daily life

Why write short essays?

Short essays have a number of advantages, including effective communication, critical thinking, and professional communication.

Effective communication: In the short essay, you don’t have the space to wander. Practicing short essays will help you learn how to articulate your message clearly and quickly.

Critical thinking: Writing a short essay demands the ability to think critically and identify key points that support the central thesis. Short essays will help you hone your ability to find the most relevant points and shed irrelevant information.

Professional communication: Whether it’s writing a persuasive email, a project proposal, or a succinct report, the ability to convey information effectively in a brief format is a valuable skill in the professional world.

Developing writing skills: As with all writing practice, short essays provide an excellent platform for you to refine your writing skills, such as grammar, sentence structure , vocabulary, and coherence. The more you practice crafting short essays, the more your overall writing proficiency improves.

How to write a short essay

The tactics you use for longer essays apply to short essays as well. For more in-depth guides on specific types of essays, you can read our posts on persuasive , personal , expository , compare-and-contrast , and argumentative essays. Regardless of the essay type, following these five steps will make writing your short essay much easier.

Don’t be afraid of learning too much about a subject when you have a small word count. The better you understand your subject, the easier it will be to write clearly about it.

2 Generate ideas

Jot down key points, arguments, or examples that you want to include in your essay. Don’t get too wrapped up in the details during this step. Just try to get down all of the big ideas that you want to get across. Your major argument or theme will likely emerge as you contemplate.

Outlines are especially helpful for short essays because you don’t have any room for excess information. Creating an outline will help you stay on topic when it comes time to write.

You have to actually write the essay. Once you’ve done your research, developed your big ideas, and outlined your essay, the writing will come more easily.

Naturally, our favorite part of the process is the editing . The hard part (writing) is done. Now you can go back through and make sure all of your word choices make sense, your grammar is checked, and you have cleaned up any unessential or irrelevant information.

Short essay examples

Why small dogs are better than big dogs (209 words).

Small dogs are beloved companions to many, and their unique qualities make them a perfect fit for some pet owners. In this essay, we explore why a small dog might be the right choice for you.

Firstly, the compact size of small dogs makes them ideal for people living in apartments or homes with limited space. As long as you can get your furry friend to fresh air (and grass) a couple of times per day, you don’t have to worry about having a big yard.

Secondly, small dogs require less food, which can be advantageous for those on a budget.

Small dogs are also easier to handle and control. Walks and outdoor activities become less physically demanding, making them a preferable choice for children, the elderly, or those with limited strength.

If you travel a lot for work or family, small dogs are much easier to bring along than their larger counterparts. Some travel companies make dog carriers that tuck neatly under a bus or plane seat.

In conclusion, small dogs offer a multitude of benefits, from their limited space requirements and economic advantages to their ease of handling and portability. These charming qualities undoubtedly make small dogs a cherished choice for pet owners seeking a new companion.

Why big dogs are better than small dogs (191 words)

Big dogs, with their impressive presence and gentle souls, have captured the hearts of countless pet owners. In this essay, we explore why big dogs are better pets than their smaller counterparts.

Firstly, big dogs exude an aura of protectiveness and security. Their size alone can act as a deterrent to potential intruders, making them excellent guard dogs for families and properties. Their mere presence provides reassurance and safety.

Secondly, big dogs tend to have more energy and strength, making them suitable partners for various outdoor activities and adventures. Hiking, jogging, or simply playing fetch becomes an enjoyable experience, fostering an active and healthy lifestyle for both pet and owner.

Lastly, big dogs often have a gentle and patient demeanor, especially when interacting with children and other pets. Their calm nature can bring a peaceful or grounding presence to otherwise chaotic homes.

In conclusion, big dogs possess a captivating blend of commanding protectiveness, physical capacity, and gentle disposition. These qualities make them exceptional companions, providing both security and emotional fulfillment. Big dogs are a great choice for potential pet owners looking for an animal with majestic appeal and a loving heart.

Short essay FAQs

A short essay is any essay that is shorter than 1,000 words. Teachers often assign short essays to teach students how to write clearly, coherently, and concisely.

When do you write a short essay?

Short essays help students practice effective communication, critical thinking, and persuasive writing. While short essays are often assigned in school, they are also useful in professional settings for things like project proposals or reports.

How do you format a short essay?

Short essays should be formatted according to your teacher’s guidelines or the requirements of your workplace. Check your assignment for the word count and stick to it. Make sure your essay flows logically from one idea to the next by presenting a clear thesis, using strong topic sentences, and providing a concise conclusion.

best gift short essay

Home / Essay Samples / Life / Experience

Gift Essay Examples and Topics

The benefits of personalized and customized gifts.

Choosing gifts is a very challenging task. This job becomes even more intimidating during the hustle and bustle of everyone during the holidays, especially when competing with other shoppers in retail shops. What’s worse is if you see your gift given to another person on…

The Significance of Easter Gifts for Christian People

Easter is not only a time of deep reflection for those of the Christian faith, but it is also a time for friends and family get-togethers. It is that long weekend, which brings that much-needed break from a busy and whirlwind-like first quarter of the…

Why and What Types of Award Plaques You Need

You just get one opportunity to legitimately praise a person– at the time, at the occasion, amid the service. No weight, isn’t that so? Here’s the thing: Recognition is close to home. Without a doubt, a nonspecific award marks off a crate on your plan…

Buying Your Loved Ones Jewelry

Buying jewelry for a loved one or yourself can be a difficult task sometimes. Especially when the item is a gift, how can you be sure that your friends, family or significant other will truly love the piece that you have picked out for them?…

Dissimilarity Between Commodities and Gifts

Introduction Societal anthropology conventionally differentiates between two kinds of trade in human social orders. This difference is founded on the extent of friendliness that is engrossed in the trade. The root of the so-termed commodities vs. gift argument rises from the notion of Marcel Mauss…

The Importance of Gift Boxes

Nowadays there are many companies offering you custom gift boxes. A gift is an amazing surprise you ever received from your loved ones. Gifts have the ability to express your feeling in front of the people you love the most. Gift baskets, boxes and various…

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Guest Essay

Like Many a Hero, Flaco the Owl Made His Choice

A photograph at night showing the silhouette of Flaco the owl perched on top of a building in Manhattan.

By Carl Safina

Dr. Safina is an ecologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Flaco the owl is gone, but his life had all the elements of a classic hero’s story, not soon forgotten.

Born in captivity, he lived a dozen years in a comfortable cage in the Central Park Zoo where little happened and less was needed. His was a safe existence. But it was also a life without agency. Then, a little over a year ago, someone released him.

On Friday, when he died of acute traumatic injury, perhaps from a collision with a Manhattan apartment building’s glass windows, his death offered us a chance to reckon with the question at the heart of many a hero’s journey: Can we put a price on freedom? Flaco’s liberation from his comfortable confinement came at a cost — he spent the final year of his life free, but threatened from all sides by a booming city. Was it worth it?

Almost from the moment he was released, Flaco became a symbol of hope for many of the people who followed his story and recognized parts of themselves in him. Some saw him as the embodiment of the American dream, an outsider who had come to Manhattan and made a life for himself here, like millions of others who arrived penniless and unconnected in their quest for freedom. Others saw him as a poignant reminder that you can find happiness even if you’re alone (as the only free-living Eurasian eagle-owl in the Western Hemisphere, he had no chance of ever finding a wild mate).

As a result, as he flew around the city, landing on rooftops and crosswalks from the East Village to the Upper West Side, we were terrified that he’d succumb to the dangers of city life. Flaco had no experience living outside a cage, and New Yorkers initially doubted his chances of survival. We worried that he’d eat a rat with enough poison in its system to kill him. (After Barry, the wild barred owl, was killed by a maintenance truck in 2021, a necropsy showed that she had ingested so much rodenticide that it might have compromised her agility.) And we worried about his chances with oncoming traffic.

On Christmas Day, The Wall Street Journal even issued a stern command: “Capture Flaco.” “If he remains free,” one of the paper’s editors wrote , “rat poison or something worse will kill him.”

But Flaco never looked back. Though the animal literature is peppered with stories of animals — usually pets — who suffer hardships and return home, Flaco never retreated to the zoo. Perhaps freedom itself was the home he’d discovered.

And though we feared for him, his new life thrilled us.

How many of us, our circumstances familiar and safe, are too timid to seek our more fully realized selves? How many of us, viewing our confinements as nothing out of the ordinary, have long stopped wondering what our wings are for? In one of his most surreally profound moments, Flaco turned the tables on all of us — photographed staring into the playwright Nan Knighton’s apartment through a window grate, as if declaring his human viewers the captives, behind bars we built for ourselves.

Have we not all yearned for a life beyond the scope of the one we lead? Flaco showed that our yearning is not misplaced, that we were not merely projecting. His choice reaffirmed a truth: that given a chance, living things choose agency and freedom of movement.

In my own turns as a wildlife rehabilitator, falconer and conservation biologist, I have often observed that when the power of choice is returned to them, animals prefer to take their chances in a free-living existence. Just before the Covid-19 pandemic, my wife and I helped rehabilitate a nestling screech owl found near death, whom we named Alfie. Once she was fit to fly, Alfie briefly came and went from the enclosure that had become her secure home, but she soon chose the larger life.

Humans and owls last shared a common ancestor several hundred million years ago, but a preference to rediscover who we were born to be seems to be a truth universally shared. William Butler Yeats wrote in his poem “The Second Coming” of the falcon “turning and turning in the widening gyre,” oblivious to the calls of the earthbound falconer. In Homer’s “The Iliad,” Achilles declines a long and peaceful life for one that is glorious and short. Ridley Scott’s film “Blade Runner” tells us that the life that burns twice as bright burns half as long. Even those of us who are not mythic heroes confront the trade-off and make our choices.

In life, Flaco’s single year of freedom proved vastly more thrilling and resonant to us than his anonymous years of cage-bound safety, proving that freedom is worth the cost, even when it comes bundled with danger.

News of Flaco’s death came to me in an eerily timed coincidence. Just as I was doing a little maintenance on Alfie the screech owl’s nest box, my wife, Patricia, came outside, near tears, to convey the sad news of Flaco’s demise and the sadder likely cause. Every year, window collisions kill more than half a billion birds in the United States alone. There are solutions : People can hang sheer drapes in their windows or put stickers invisible to the human eye onto the panes to ward off birds; contractors can install bird-friendly glass. But too many windows remain untreated and lethal, especially those that reflect trees and grass.

Alfie — having survived at least one window collision that I witnessed — is coming up on her sixth birthday this spring. We still see her frequently around our backyard. Of course I worry about hawks and stray cats preying on her and about her flying across roads with zooming cars. But her movements and choices are hers. Using that nest box I was cleaning, Alfie has raised 10 wild owlets with two wild mates. Which shows again, I guess, that the prospects of discovering who one was born to be can still outweigh the perils. And we can pay it forward.

Carl Safina, an ecologist, holds the endowed chair for nature and humanity at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His latest book is “Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe.”

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The Death of Alexei Navalny, Putin’s Most Formidable Opponent

By Masha Gessen

A blackandwhite portrait of Alexey Navalny.

Alexei Navalny spent at least a decade standing up to the Kremlin when it seemed impossible. He was jailed and released. He was poisoned, and survived. He was warned to stay away from Russia and didn’t. He was arrested in front of dozens of cameras, with millions of people watching. In prison, he was defiant and consistently funny. For three years, his jailers put him in solitary confinement, cut off his access to and arrested his lawyers, piled on sentence after sentence, sent him all the way across the world’s largest country to serve out his time in the Arctic, and still, when he appeared on video in court, he laughed at his jailers. Year after year, he faced down the might of one of the world’s cruellest states and the vengeance of one of the world’s cruellest men. His promise was that he would outlive them and lead what he called the Beautiful Russia of the Future. On Friday, they killed him. He was forty-seven years old.

Hours after the news of his death broke, his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, addressed the Munich Security Conference. “I don’t know whether to believe the news, the terrible news, which we are only getting from state-controlled sources in Russia,” she said, from the conference’s main stage. “As you all know, for many years we’ve been unable to believe Putin and his government. They always lie. But, if it is true, I want Putin and everyone around him, his friends and his government, to know that they will be held responsible for what they have done to our country, to my family, and to my husband. The day of reckoning will come very soon.”

In Russia, Vladimir Putin was visiting an industrial park in Chelyabinsk, in the Urals. He took questions from staff and students, who were seated a safe distance from the Russian President on what appeared to be the plant floor. Putin seemed to be in an unusually good mood. He bantered and flirted with the audience. He boasted that Western sanctions in response to the war in Ukraine had boosted industrial production inside Russia. He hadn’t seemed so jovial in public in years.

In exactly a month, Russia will hold a ritual that it calls an election. With no actual alternative to Putin, who has total control of the media and the so-called electoral institutions, the current Russian President will be crowned for another six-year term, extending his time in power to thirty-one years. Navalny tried to run against Putin six years ago, but the rigged system stopped him. His very name was banished from the airwaves. Still, even when the system shut him out, and, later, when it put him in prison, Navalny remained Putin’s most formidable opponent.

Putin could only envy Navalny’s ability to mobilize Russians. In July, 2013, as the political crackdown that accompanied the beginning of Putin’s third official Presidential term intensified, a court in the provincial city of Kirov sentenced Navalny to five years behind bars on trumped-up embezzlement charges. That evening, thousands of people risked arrest by taking to the streets in Moscow in a rare spontaneous protest. The following morning, Navalny was summarily released from prison, in violation of established legal procedure. Putin had long been terrified of mass protests. Now he had to be equally afraid of Navalny, a man whose very existence seemed to make people capable of overcoming their own fears.

It’s tempting to see Navalny’s apparent murder, as some American analysts have, as a sign of weakness on the part of Putin. But a dictator’s ability to annihilate what he fears is a measure of his hold on power, as is his ability to choose the time to strike. Putin appears to be feeling optimistic about his own future. As he sees it, Donald Trump is poised to become the next President of the U.S. and to give Putin free rein in Ukraine and beyond . Even before the U.S. Presidential election, American aid to Ukraine is stalled, and Ukraine’s Army is starved for troops and nearing a supply crisis. Last week, Putin got to lecture millions of Americans by granting an interview to Tucker Carlson . At the end of the interview, Carlson asked Putin if he would release Evan Gershkovich , a Wall Street Journal reporter held on espionage charges in Russia. Putin proposed that Gershkovich could be traded for “a person, who out of patriotic sentiments liquidated a bandit in one of the European capitals.” It was a reference to Vadim Krasikov, probably the only Russian assassin who has been caught and convicted in the West; he is held in Germany. A week after the interview aired, Russia has shown the world what can happen to a person in a Russian prison. It’s also significant that Navalny was killed on the first day of the Munich conference. In 2007, Putin chose the conference as his stage for declaring what would become his war against the West. Now, with this war in full swing, Putin has been excluded from the conference, but the actions of his regime—the murders committed by his regime—dominate the proceedings.

Russian prison authorities have said that Navalny felt ill after returning from his daily walk, lost consciousness, and could not be revived. They have ascribed his death to a pulmonary embolism. Anna Karetnikova, a prisoners’-rights activist and a former member of the civilian-oversight body of Russia’s prison system, has said that prison authorities routinely use embolism as a catchall term. Sergey Nemalevich, a journalist with the Russian Service of Radio Liberty, noticed that the ostensible timing of the death didn’t seem to jibe with Navalny’s recent description of his schedule in solitary confinement: he had said that his daily walk took place at six-thirty in the morning, but prison authorities claimed that, on the day of his death, he returned to his cell in the afternoon. Nemalevich suggested that Navalny was dead long before an ambulance—which authorities said took a mere seven minutes to travel twenty-two miles to the prison—was called to declare him dead.

Navalny, who was educated as a lawyer, became active in politics in the early two-thousands and emerged as a public figure around 2010. His early politics were ethno-nationalist, at times overtly xenophobic, and libertarian. He advocated for gun rights and a crackdown on migrants. But he found his agenda and his political voice in documenting corruption. He built a movement based on the premise that citizens, even in Russia, could and should exercise control over the way that government money is spent. In the ensuing years, he evolved from an ethno-nationalist to a civic nationalist, from a libertarian to a social democrat. He learned new languages, read incessantly, and incorporated new ideas into his program. He focussed, increasingly, not only on political power but on social welfare. During the past three years, he used the pulpit provided by an endless series of court hearings to air his political views. In a courtroom speech on February 20, 2021, he outlined a vision for a country with a better health-care system and a more equitable distribution of wealth. He proposed changing the slogan of his political movement from “Russia will be free” to “Russia will be happy.” He continued to assert this hopeful agenda, even as he grew more and more gaunt and even as he was forced to appear in court on a video screen, separated from his audience by glass, a grate, and thousands of miles.

Navalny’s public voice was full of irony without being cynical. He saw the targets of his investigations as ridiculous men with large yachts, small egos, and staggeringly bad taste. He took their abuses seriously by cutting them down to size. This was half of his charisma. The other half was his love story. More than anything else in the world, it seemed, he wanted to impress Yulia. Confined to a cube in a courtroom, he put his hands in the shape of a heart, gesturing at her. He sent love notes from prison, which were posted to social-media for him. On her birthday last July, he posted,

You know, Yulia, I’ve made several attempts at writing the story of our meeting. But every time after I write a couple of sentences, I stopped in terror and couldn’t keep going. I am terrified that it could have not happened. I mean, it was a coincidence. I could have looked in the other direction, you could have turned away. The one second that determined the course of my life, could have turned out differently. Everything would have been different. I probably would have been the saddest person on earth. How awesome is it that we looked at each other back then and that now I can shake my head, drive away these thoughts, rub my forehead, and say, “Phew, what a weird nightmare.”

This seemed the only thing that could have scared him. Reading his wildly popular social-media accounts felt like watching a romantic comedy, but one that starred a superhero.

A year after the Kremlin’s attempt to put Navalny away failed, Putin took a hostage: Alexei’s brother Oleg was jailed on trumped-up charges. It was an old reliable tactic. The henchmen assumed that, with Oleg behind bars, Alexei would cease his political activities to keep his brother safe. But the brothers made a pact to keep going. Alexei built a sprawling organization that expanded far beyond documenting corruption. He ran for mayor of Moscow. He built a network of political offices that could have enabled a Presidential race if such a thing as elections actually existed. He grew frustrated that journalists weren’t following his leads or undertaking investigations of their own, and so he founded his own media: YouTube shows and Telegram channels that publicized the results of his group’s investigations. Navalny’s work spawned an entire generation of independent Russian investigative media, many of which continue working in exile, documenting not only criminal assets but also war crimes and the activities of Russia’s assassins at home and abroad.

The state harassed Navalny, placed him under house arrest, pushed the organization out of its offices, jailed some of its activists and forced the rest into exile, declared them “extremists,” and started going after people who had donated even a small amount of money to the group. Then, in August, 2020, the F.S.B. poisoned Navalny with Novichok , a chemical weapon. He was meant to die on a plane. But the pilot made an emergency landing, doctors administered essential first aid, and Yulia took over the superhero role, pressuring the authorities to let her take Alexei to Germany for treatment.

After weeks in a coma, Navalny emerged and teamed up with another investigator, Christo Grozev, a Bulgarian journalist then working with Bellingcat. Grozev got the receipts: the flight manifests that showed that Navalny had been trailed by a group of F.S.B. agents, some of whom also happened to be chemists. Navalny supplied the performative flair. He called his would-be murderers on the phone and managed to get a guileless confession out of one, complete with the detail of where the poison had been placed: in the crotch area of Navalny’s boxer shorts. The scene would later be incorporated into the film “ Navalny ,” which won an Oscar for Best Documentary, but, before that, Navalny put it in his own made-for-YouTube movie, titled “I Called My Killer. He Confessed.” It was released on December 21, 2020.

A month later, Navalny flew back to Moscow . His friends had tried to talk him out of it. He wouldn’t hear of staying in exile and becoming politically irrelevant. He imagined himself as Russia’s Nelson Mandela: he would outlive Putin’s reign and become President. Perhaps he believed that the men he was fighting were capable of embarrassment and wouldn’t dare to kill him after he’d proved that they had tried to. He and I had argued, over the years, about the fundamental nature of Putin and his regime: he said that they were “crooks and thieves”; I said that they were murderers and terrorists. After he came out of his coma, I asked him if he had finally been convinced that they were murderers. No, he said. They kill to protect their wealth. Fundamentally, they are just greedy.

He thought too highly of them. They are, in fact, murderers.

All over Russia on Friday, people were laying flowers in memory of Navalny. In the few cities where memorials exist to past victims of Russian totalitarianism, these monuments became the destinations. Police were breaking up gatherings, throwing out flowers, and detaining journalists. ♦

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    One of the greatest gifts that I ever received was an angel pin from my grandmother. It was the Christmas of 1993 when she gave it to me, twelve months after my aunt had died. To me, the pin represented my aunt watching over me and my family. I have always thought of her as an angel because...

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    You should say: what the gift was. who gave it to you. when you received it. and explain why it was the best gift/ present you have ever received. [You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you're going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

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