can you have dialogue in a college essay

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Articles & Advice > College Admission > Articles

Using Dialogue in Your College Application Essay

Admission officers are swamped. They want to be wowed by hopeful students' applications—including their admission essays. Try using dialogue to stand out!

by Ashley Wellington Founder, Mint Tutors LLC

Last Updated: Oct 4, 2023

Originally Posted: Aug 19, 2014

Admission officers are swamped with applications.   Particularly at very selective institutions, they need to make quick judgements about students' applications and personal statements. This makes the opening line of that application essay critical. If you want to wow them from the get-go, follow the advice below. 

Will your essay get tossed in the "eh" pile?

“I hate to break it to you, but your essay might not get read,” my college counselor remarked without even looking up from his computer as I nervously handed him my first draft. I was horrified at the time, but he was, and still is, right. Just picture it: admission officers, especially those for the most selective institutions, are sifting through a record number of applications and have about three months to eliminate the majority of those deserving, accomplished candidates.

And guess what? When it comes to the Ivy League and their ilk, most of those applicants look identical on paper, with comparable grades, test scores, activity lists, accolades, and course loads. After pulling several weeks’ worth of consecutive all-nighters, the admission officers’ eyes start to blur, and they can barely differentiate among the nation’s best and brightest teenagers, all eagerly vying for a coveted spot in their school’s freshman class. As they flip through the paperwork of yet another valedictorian, someone remarks, “Annie Applicant looks like a run-of-the-mill achieve-o-tron.” But they haven’t gotten to the essays yet, and that’s where students really set themselves apart! They note items on the transcript—over 200 hours of volunteer work at a local special needs daycare, a patent application, a regional award for a short story, the lead role in three school musicals—that really fascinates them, so they assume the essay will shed light on some of these impressive endeavors. Right?

Then they hit the first line of her personal statement. “For as long as I can remember, I have loved to read. When I was younger, books were my escape. I could really relate to the characters and would get lost in various stories for hours at a time. If I had a bad day, I would curl up with a book.”

Before the admission officers even hit the fourth sentence, they’ve tossed her file into the “eh” pile, purgatory for applicants who don’t have the writing chops to match their academic records. Have Annie’s chances of admission been dashed? Not necessarily, but the uphill battle is infinitely steeper now that she’s done nothing to set herself apart from the other applicants who, shockingly, also love to read.

Related: How to Write a Great College Admission Essay, Step-by-Step

Perhaps the third paragraph is where Annie’s narrative really comes alive as she weaves readers through her favorite novels and relates characters to her everyday life, giving insight into her world, but who would read that far? The opening is so generic that admission officers simply don’t have time to give Annie the benefit of the doubt; they quickly move on to their discussion of Joe College, whose first line describing his sublime experience as Townsperson #5 in his school play makes them laugh out loud.

So how do students master that strong opening without seeming too gimmicky or desperate? How do they make the gatekeepers to the country’s top schools stop and think, “Wow, even though I am going blind from squinting at countless single-spaced pages, I sure wish this particular essay were longer than 650 words!”? A great way to capture admission officers’ attention in the application essay is starting with dialogue. This approach is certainly not a Band-Aid for an otherwise mediocre essay, but it might just keep someone reading long enough to get to know you as an applicant. But before you slap a witty exchange on the top of your essay, make sure you heed these warnings:

Don’t make the other person too interesting

You open with: “‘Hey, are you free to come to the environmental club meeting?’ asked my friend Kevin, who was canvassing the library to recruit helpers for the school-wide solar panel installation project he would be pitching at the next faculty meeting.

‘Sorry, but I’ve got miles to go before I sleep!’ I tell him as I launch back into my independent research project on the theme of depression in Robert Frost’s poetry.”

How might admission officers respond to this exchange? Suddenly, they are more interested in Kevin than they are in you. Then, they put your application aside and look to see if there are any applicants named Kevin from your school so they can learn more about this unique solar panel project.

You should have used Kevin’s voice as a sounding board for expressing your own passions and beliefs, not as the force driving the conversation. You have to remember that you’re selling yourself, not your friends, and you don’t want to be overshadowed by your own essay’s supporting cast.

Keep your language natural

You open with: “’I have to scamper off to my occupation of preparing caffeinated beverages!’ I elucidate for the benefit of my roommate, Natalie, as I ambulate through our means of egress.”

Admission officers will read that, scratch their heads, and think, “Yeah, I see that she knows some SAT words, but did she mean, ‘I’ve got to run to my job at the coffee shop!’ I shout to Natalie as I scamper out the door”? That version would have saved time and sounded more like an authentic teenager. Now they really have no idea who you are, and even worse, they probably find you annoying.

Related: How to Show, Don't Tell to Boost Your Writing for School and Beyond

...but not too natural

You open with: “’I’m so wiped I don't even know what to do. Like, I can’t even. It’s ridic!’ I whine as my BFF Selena sits down beside me in English class.”

Admission officers ask themselves, “Is this her real essay? Someone must have hacked her Common App account, because no one would risk coming across as this vapid!” They then worry that you won’t be able to hold your own in seminars on War and Peace when you don’t have the attention span to finish typing the word “ridiculous.” Even if you sound that way in real life (I hope not!), you need to be cognizant of the fact that an essay this important requires you to bring your verbal A-game.

Related:  What NOT to Do in Your College Application Essay

In general, don’t be afraid to lead off with an in-medias-res conversational tidbit that will help you come to life. Here's an example:

“You ski for how many miles? Then you shoot a rifle?” Andy gasped in disbelief as I explained that I couldn’t hang out after school because I had to go to the range and practice my aim for my upcoming biathlon.

“And every time I miss the target, I have to ski a 150-meter penalty loop just for good measure,” I added, chuckling as Andy’s jaw dropped.

Take your time thinking about what examples best represent you as an applicant in the context of the application essay prompts given. Then, once you narrow your options to a worthy anecdote, explore that moment—and the unique, enchanting, entrancing dialogue within.

Looking for more application essay advice? We've got you covered. Check out our College Admission section now!

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Writing A Narrative Essay

• Library Resources
• Books & EBooks
• What is an Narrative Essay?
• Choosing a Topic
• MLA Formatting

Using Dialogue

• Using Descriptive Writing
• OER Resources
• Copyright, Plagiarism, and Fair Use

Examples of Dialogue Tags

Examples of Dialogue Tags:

interrupted

Ebooks in Galileo

Additional Links & Resources

• Dialogue Cheat Sheet

Dialogue is an exchange of conversation between two or more people or characters in a story. As a literary style, dialogue helps to advance the plot, reveal a character's thoughts or emotions, or shows the character's reaction within the story. Dialogue gives life to the story and supports the story's atmosphere.

There are two types of dialogue that can be used in an narrative essay.

Direct dialogue  is written between inverted commas or quotes. These are the actual spoken words of a character 

Indirect dialogue  is basically telling someone about what another person said

Formatting Dialogue

Dialogue is an important part of a narrative essay, However formatting dialogue can be troublesome at times.

When formatting dialogue use these rules and examples to help with your formatting:

Place double quotation marks at the beginning an end of spoken words.  The quotations go on the  outside  of both the words and end-of-dialogue punctuation.

• Example:  "What is going on here?" John asked.

Each speaker gets a new paragraph that is indented.

      “hi,” said John as he stretched out his hand.

           "Good Morning, how are you?" said Brad shaking John’s hand.

                      "Good. Thanks for asking," John said.

Each speaker’s actions are in the same paragraph as their dialogue.

 A  dialogue tag  is anything that indicates which character spoke and describes how they spoke.

If the tag comes before the dialogue,  use a comma straight after the tag. If the dialogue is the beginning of a sentence, capitalize the first letter. End the dialogue with the appropriate punctuation (period, exclamation point, or question mark), but keep it INSIDE the quotation marks.

• Examples Before: 

James said, “I’ll never go shopping with you again!”

John said, “It's a great day to be at the beach.”

She opened the door and yelled, “Go away! Leave me alone!”

If the dialogue tag comes after the dialogue , Punctuation still goes INSIDE quotation marks. Unless the dialogue tag begins with a proper noun, it is  not  capitalized. End the dialogue tag with appropriate punctuation. Use comma after the quote unless it ends with a question mark or exclamation mark.

• Examples After: 

“Are you sure this is real life?” Lindsay asked.

“It’s so gloomy out,” he said.

“Are we done?” asked Brad . 

“This is not your concern!” Emma said.

If dialogue tag is in the middle of dialogue.  A comma should be used before the dialogue tag inside the closing quotation mark; Unless the dialogue tag begins with a proper noun, it is  not  capitalized. A comma is used after the dialogue tag, outside of quotation marks, to reintroduce the dialogue. End the dialogue with the appropriate punctuation followed by the closing quotation marks. 

When it is two sentences, the first sentence will end with a punctuation mark and the second begins with a capital letter.

• Examples middle: 

“Let’s run away,” she whispered, “we wont get another chance.”

“I thought you cared.” Sandy said, hoping for an explanation. “How could you walk away?”

“I can’t believe he’s gone,” Jerry whispered. “I’ll miss him.”

Questions in dialogue.  

if there is a dialogue tag, the question mark will act as a comma and you will then lowercase the first word in the dialogue tag 

• Example: What are you doing?" he asked.

if there is simply an action after the question, the question mark acts as a period and you will then capitalize the first word in the next sentence.

“Sarah, why didn't you text me back?” Jane asked.

“James, why didn’t you show up?” Carol stomped her feet in anger before slamming the door behind her.

If the question or exclamation ends the dialogue, do not use commas to separate the dialogue from dialogue tags.

• Example:  “Sarah, why didn't you text me back?” Jane asked.

If the sentence containing the dialogue is a question, then the        question mark goes outside of the quotation marks.

Did the teacher say, “The Homework is due Tomorrow”?

If you have to quote something within the dialogue.  When a character quotes someone else, use double-quotes around what your character says, then single-quotes around the speech they’re quoting.

• Example: 

"When doling out dessert, my grandmother always said, 'You may have a cookie for each hand.'"

Dashes & Ellipses:

Dashes ( — ) are used to indicate abruptly interrupted dialogue or when one character's dialogue is interrupted by another character.

Use an em dash  inside  the quotation marks to cut off the character mid-dialogue, usually with either (A) another character speaking or (B) an external action.

• Including the em dash at the end of the line of dialogue signifies that your character wasn't finished speaking.
• If the speaking character's action interrupts their own dialogue . 
• Use em dashes  outside  the quotation marks to set off a bit of action without a speech verb. 

Examples: 

• Heather ran towards Sarah with excitement. “You won’t believe what I found out—”
• "Is everything—" she started to ask, but a sharp look cut her off.
• "Look over there—" She snapped her mouth shut so she didn't give the secret away.
• "Look over there"—she pointed towards the shadow—"by the stairway."

Use ellipses (...) when a character has lost their train of thought or can't figure out what to say

• Example:  “You haven’t…” he trailed off in disbelief.

Action Beats

Action beats show what a character is doing before, during, or after their dialogue.

“This isn't right.” She squinted down at her burger. “Does this look like it is well done to you?”

She smiled. “I loved the center piece you chose.”

If you separate two complete sentences, you will simply place the action beat as its own sentence between two sets of quotes.

“I never said he could go to the concert.” Linda sighed and sat in her chair. “He lied to you again.”

• << Previous: MLA Formatting
• Next: Using Descriptive Writing >>
• Last Updated: Jan 24, 2024 1:22 PM
• URL: https://wiregrass.libguides.com/c.php?g=1188382

College Essay Examples: How to Incorporate Dialogue into Your Essay

One way to pull a reader into your essay from the very beginning is to start with dialogue. Many students don’t even consider adding an outdated adage from a parent or a hilarious crack from a high school coach to break up their prose, set the scene or build the profiles of their stories’ characters. And yet, dialogue is one of those devices that can give you a lot of bang for your buck, delivering a punch of personality or a wallop of context using just a few carefully culled utterances. Here is one successful example of how a student uses dialogue to immerse her reader in her essay. We call this applicant, "In The Car with Mom."

• College Essay Examples

Is your College Essay Cliché?

Applicants often choose to write about cliché subjects because they THINK the resulting essays present the kinds stories admissions officers want to read. To the contrary, jumping on an essay cliché bandwagon can make it nearly impossible for an admissions officer to distinguish you from your closest competition. In this video, CEA's Founder and Chief Advisor presents The Cliché Quiz.

Successful College Essay Examples: The Nature Painter

Many students find it helpful to familiarize themselves with successful college essays to better understand what it looks like (or sounds like) when it's done right. There are so many different ways to write a great college essay, so don't feel confined to any formula, structure, approach, or tone. In this essay, our student showcases his love of science and nature by explaining the importance of having the right tools, both as humans and in nature at large. He gained acceptance to Yale University, Stanford, Harvard.

College Essay Examples: How to Write About Another Person While Still Making the Essay About You

So you want to write your college essay about a person who is very important to you and has shaped the person you've become today, but you are nervous that the essay won't say enough about you as the applicant (after all, your grandma isn't applying to college, you are!). We totally get it. Tons of students run into this issue. That's why we're sharing one of our favorite essays, written by a student we're referring to as "What Makes a Woman." This student masters the art of writing about another person's struggles, while reflecting on her own obstacles, perceptions, and identity.

College Essay Examples: Pulling Your Reader in From the Start

So you're reading successful college essays and they sound awesome...but what's the use of a great essay if you don't understand which defining features make the essay sparkle? In this video, we will be exploring TWO successful college essay examples, both of which are great examples of how to pull a reader into your story using visuals, intrigue/suspense, and maybe a little bit of humor.

One way to pull a reader into your essay from the very beginning is to start with dialogue. Many students don’t even consider adding an outdated adage from a parent or a hilarious crack from a high school coach to break up their prose, set the scene or build the profiles of their stories’ characters. And yet, dialogue is one of those devices that can give you a lot of bang for your buck, delivering a punch of personality or a wallop of context using just a few carefully culled utterances. Here is one successful example of how a student uses dialogue to immerse her reader in her essay. We call this applicant, "In The Car with Mom."

College Essay Examples: Writing About a Background, Identity, or Interest

Many students choose to respond to the Common Application's first prompt (listed below) for their personal statement. This student (who we're referring to as The Nike Jordans), is one of them. In her essay, she writes about her background in a way that invites the reader to step into her shoes in order to learn more about her character, outlook, and personality. She gained acceptance to Princeton, MIT, U Chicago, and Columbia, among others.

College Essay Examples: Challenging a Belief or Idea (with Humility)

In this essay, a student we're referring to as The Graduation Speaker, answers Common Application prompt #3. ("Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?") His essay is a fantastic example of how to approach this prompt with humility, wit, and likability. He submitted this essay as his personal statement and received acceptance to Stanford, Yale, Dartmouth, Duke, and UCLA.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, using dialogue in college essays - does it work.

How do you guys feel about including dialogue in college essays? Does it add to the narrative, or is it just taking up valuable space? Anyone had success with this approach?

Hey there! From my experience with my kid's application process, including dialogue in the college essays can definitely work when done correctly. It can bring stories to life and create a connection with the reader. Remember, admissions officers are reading through heaps of essays, so a bit of well-written dialogue can make your piece stand out. However, the key is to use it sparingly and ensure it's impactful. My child used a short dialogue to illustrate a defining moment in her essay, and it seemed to resonate well with the admissions committee—I believe it was a contributing factor in her acceptance. Just be sure that every line of dialogue serves a purpose in demonstrating something significant about you or your perspective. It should add to the narrative, not distract from it. Good luck with your essay!

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10 Guidelines for Highly Readable College Essays

You’ve probably had this happen to you — after reading for a long time, the lines start to blur together, and you look at the words on the page, but they don’t register in your brain. 

Admissions officers deal with this daily, as they have to scan through thousands of applications each cycle. The volume of applications makes it all the more important to write an essay that’s highly readable, both in terms of physical readability, and how engaging your story is. 

In this post, we’ll share our top 10 tips for writing a college essay that will make admissions officers pay attention.

How to Write a Readable College Essay

1. start your essay with an engaging introduction..

Do you sometimes close out of a video or article because the introduction was boring? With so many things vying for our attention in the modern world, it’s important for introductions to grab our attention right away. This is equally true for college essays.

You want the first lines of your essay to make us want to read more. Some ways to do that are using dialogue, or starting your essay in media res , in the middle of action. 

Here’s an example of an essay introduction that uses dialogue and the technique of in media res .

“1…2…3…4 pirouettes! New record!” My friends cheered as I landed my turns. Pleased with my progress, I gazed down at my worn-out pointe shoes. The sweltering blisters, numbing ice-baths, and draining late-night practices did not seem so bad after all. Next goal: five turns.

And here’s an example of an essay that begins in media res :

Was I no longer the beloved daughter of nature, whisperer of trees? Knee-high rubber boots, camouflage, bug spray—I wore the garb and perfume of a proud wild woman, yet there I was, hunched over the pathetic pile of stubborn sticks, utterly stumped, on the verge of tears. As a child, I had considered myself a kind of rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees, who could glide through tick-infested meadows and emerge Lyme-free. I knew the cracks of the earth like the scars on my own rough palms. Yet here I was, ten years later, incapable of performing the most fundamental outdoor task: I could not, for the life of me, start a fire. 

You’ll see that with these introductions, we’re plunged into the writer’s world, and we get to observe the moment as it’s happening. This makes it easier to relate to the writer, and also makes us wonder what happens next in the story.

2. Break up long paragraphs.

No one wants to read a huge block of text, and this can be another deterrent from paying attention to your essay. The ideal paragraph length is 3-5 sentences, or 50-100 words. This allows you to separate your ideas and to include natural breaks in your writing. 

For example, let’s take a look again at the previous excerpt from a student’s essay on starting a fire. The introduction would’ve been easier to read with a new paragraph beginning with the “As a child” line. This line is a fitting place to separate paragraphs, as it goes from the present moment to a description of the writer’s childhood.

Was I no longer the beloved daughter of nature, whisperer of trees? Knee-high rubber boots, camouflage, bug spray—I wore the garb and perfume of a proud wild woman, yet there I was, hunched over the pathetic pile of stubborn sticks, utterly stumped, on the verge of tears.

As a child, I had considered myself a kind of rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees, who could glide through tick-infested meadows and emerge Lyme-free. I knew the cracks of the earth like the scars on my own rough palms. Yet here I was, ten years later, incapable of performing the most fundamental outdoor task: I could not, for the life of me, start a fire.

As you read your draft, go through and see if there are any places you could naturally begin a new paragraph, especially if your paragraphs are long. On the flip side, do make sure that not every paragraph is super short. While having one or two standalone lines is fine for dramatic effect, it can look gimmicky to have too many, and it will also diminish their impact.

3. Include dialogue in your anecdotes to bring readers into the moment. 

Dialogue is a powerful tool not only at the beginning of your essay, but also throughout. You can and should use it any time you want to draw attention to what specifically was said, or to bring your essay to a specific moment. 

Using dialogue tends to be much more engaging than summarizing what was said in your own words. Take this excerpt as an example:

No dialogue: My brother told me that I ruined his life. After months of quiet anger, my brother finally confronted me. To my shame, I had been appallingly ignorant of his pain.

With dialogue: “You ruined my life!” After months of quiet anger, my brother finally confronted me. To my shame, I had been appallingly ignorant of his pain.

Between the two excerpts, the first feels more like a summary of events than a real glimpse into the writer’s life. Adding dialogue takes the reader to the specific moment that the brother actually uttered those words. 

Of course, dialogue should also be used judiciously, as dialogue can’t always reveal important details like your thoughts during a conversation, what the setting was like, or how you felt. Too much of anything is never a good thing, even if it’s a useful writing technique. (Of course, you could make your essay primarily dialogue if you write it in the form of a script for a movie, but that’s a whole other story).

4. Show, don’t tell. 

You may also know this technique as “indirect characterization” from your English class. If you want to describe a personality trait or event, highlight it through your actions, thoughts, and feelings instead of explicitly stating it. Otherwise, your essay will just read like a report of your experiences, which is boring. 

Here’s an example: say you want to say that someone is arrogant. 

If you were “telling” or “directly characterizing” them, you’d write: Bill is arrogant.

If you were “showing” or “indirectly characterizing,” you’d write: Bill swaggered into the meeting late, with his perpetual sly grin. He shooed the presenter away and shut off the projector. “Hey my dudes, I have a killer idea you just won’t believe. It’s my greatest idea yet, and it’s gonna change the world.” Accustomed to Bill’s exaggerated claims, those in attendance gave each other knowing looks.

While the second version is longer, it gives us a better understanding of Bill’s personality, and it’s much easier to relate to the situation. Simply stating that someone is X or Y trait, or summarizing how something happened, is much less illustrative. As you’re writing, think about ways you can use anecdotes to convey what you want, as these are more engaging.

5. Use impeccable grammar and spelling.

This should go without saying, especially since college admissions officers also use your essay to gauge your writing skills. If your essay has several misspelled words or uses improper grammar, it could make an otherwise engaging essay unreadable.

Use spell check, take the time to proofread carefully, and ask others to give you feedback. And before you submit, print your essay out and read it aloud with a pen in your hand. You’d be surprised at the typos you catch. After you read a document over and over, you start to fill in the words that should be there, and can easily miss a mistake.

6. Vary the length of your sentences.

The best essays flow almost rhythmically. If you use too many short sentences, your essay will feel choppy. If all your sentences are long, readers may get lost or bored. 

You don’t have to alternate short or long sentences in a robotic pattern, but try to naturally incorporate varied sentence length. Similar to the tip about paragraph length, break up any sections with many long sentences by creating new, shorter sentences out of the originals. To do this effectively, choose points where the writing shifts, whether that’s in terms of ideas, time periods, or the subject.

7. Make sure that your essay is logically consistent throughout.

It’s important that different parts of your essay don’t contradict each other. For example, if you describe yourself as shy in one section, don’t paint yourself as outgoing later on, unless it’s clear there was a period of change or personal growth. 

This point is especially important if you’re writing a more academic essay, like the fourth Common App prompt . This prompt asks you to describe a problem you’d like to solve, its personal significance, and potential solutions. Say you want to write your essay on food waste, and your argument is that most of the waste is happening at the production/corporate level, and is due to improper distribution. In this case, don’t write your entire essay on ways individuals can reduce their food waste.

8. Be consistent with your use of slang, acronyms, etc.

Similarly, your language should be as consistent as possible. For example if you use an acronym to describe an organization, you might spell it out the first time with the acronym in parentheses, i.e. “National Honor Society (NHS),” but use the acronym the rest of the time. 

Or, if you use slang like “gonna” in your dialogue, keep using it in the rest of the dialogue, unless the person speaking actually has a more formal tone (which you should make clear). Of course, keep in mind that you probably shouldn’t be using slang like “gonna” in parts of your essay that aren’t dialogue. 

You can, however, use contractions, and they can be a great way to not only lower your character count, but also make your essay feel more conversational. Just be sure to stay consistent with them as well.

9. Avoid excessive repetition of words and phrases.

If you find yourself using the same word over and over again in your essay, consider using synonyms, or rephrasing the sentence. An exception, of course, would be repetition for emphasis. In that case, it should be clear that the repetition is intentional. Otherwise, using the same words and phrases can come off as lazy, and your writing can seem unpolished.

10. Make sure that your verb tenses are consistent. 

Use the same tense throughout your essay, or make sure that there are clear lines of demarcation where you shift tenses. There are few reasons to need to shift tenses, but the most common one is incorporating flashbacks into your essay, or changing time periods. In that case, it would make sense to use present tense for the most recent time period, and past tense for the less recent one.

Here’s an example of an essay that does a good job shifting tenses:

Night had robbed the academy of its daytime colors, yet there was comfort in the dim lights that cast shadows of our advances against the bare studio walls. Silhouettes of roundhouse kicks, spin crescent kicks, uppercuts and the occasional butterfly kick danced while we sparred. She approached me, eyes narrowed with the trace of a smirk challenging me. “Ready spar!” Her arm began an upward trajectory targeting my shoulder, a common first move. I sidestepped — only to almost collide with another flying fist. Pivoting my right foot, I snapped my left leg, aiming my heel at her midsection. The center judge raised one finger. 

There was no time to celebrate, not in the traditional sense at least. Master Pollard gave a brief command greeted with a unanimous “Yes, sir” and the thud of 20 hands dropping-down-and-giving-him-30, while the “winners” celebrated their victory with laps as usual. 

Three years ago, seven-thirty in the evening meant I was a warrior. It meant standing up straighter, pushing a little harder, “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am”, celebrating birthdays by breaking boards, never pointing your toes, and familiarity. Three years later, seven-thirty in the morning meant I was nervous. 

The room is uncomfortably large. The sprung floor soaks up the checkerboard of sunlight piercing through the colonial windows. The mirrored walls further illuminate the studio and I feel the light scrutinizing my sorry attempts at a pas de bourrée, while capturing the organic fluidity of the dancers around me. “Chassé en croix, grand battement, pique, pirouette.” I follow the graceful limbs of the woman in front of me, her legs floating ribbons, as she executes what seems to be a perfect ronds de jambes. Each movement remains a negotiation. With admirable patience, Ms. Tan casts me a sympathetic glance.   

There is no time to wallow in the misery that is my right foot. Taekwondo calls for dorsiflexion; pointed toes are synonymous with broken toes. My thoughts drag me into a flashback of the usual response to this painful mistake: “You might as well grab a tutu and head to the ballet studio next door.” Well, here I am Master Pollard, unfortunately still following your orders to never point my toes, but no longer feeling the satisfaction that comes with being a third degree black belt with 5 years of experience quite literally under her belt. It’s like being a white belt again — just in a leotard and ballet slippers. 

But the appetite for new beginnings that brought me here doesn’t falter. It is only reinforced by the classical rendition of “Dancing Queen” that floods the room and the ghost of familiarity that reassures me that this new beginning does not and will not erase the past. After years spent at the top, it’s hard to start over. But surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become. In Taekwondo, we started each class reciting the tenets: honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet. 

The thing about change is that it eventually stops making things so different. After nine different schools, four different countries, three different continents, fluency in Tamil, Norwegian, and English, there are more blurred lines than there are clear fragments. My life has not been a tactfully executed, gold medal-worthy Taekwondo form with each movement defined, nor has it been a series of frappés performed by a prima ballerina with each extension identical and precise, but thankfully it has been like the dynamics of a spinning back kick, fluid, and like my chances of landing a pirouette, unpredictable.

The shift of tenses in this essay is very clear, and it marks a transition from seven years ago to the present day.

Final Thoughts

The readability of your essay is just as important as the content. If your essay is hard to read, it’s unlikely that admissions officers will pay attention. Follow these tips to present your essay in the best possible light, and to make it as engaging as possible. With that, we wish you the best of luck on your essays!

For more inspiration and advice on your college essays, check out these posts:

How to Format and Structure Your College Essay

11 Cliché College Essay Topics + How to Fix Them

How to Use Literary Devices to Enhance Your Essay

Want help with your college essays to improve your admissions chances? Sign up for your free CollegeVine account and get access to our essay guides and courses. You can also get your essay peer-reviewed and improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

College Nut

Can College Essays Have Dialogue?

Understanding the role of dialogue in college essays.

When it comes to writing college essays, many students are unsure whether or not they can include dialogue. Dialogue is a tool commonly used in creative writing, but its use in academic writing is less clear. In this essay, we will explore the role of dialogue in college essays, its benefits, and its potential drawbacks.

The Purpose of Dialogue in College Essays

Dialogue is a powerful tool that can help bring a college essay to life. It can be used to add depth to characters or to illustrate a point. Dialogue can also help to break up dense blocks of text, making an essay easier to read and more engaging for the reader.

The Benefits of Using Dialogue in College Essays

There are several benefits to using dialogue in college essays. First, it can help to convey a character’s personality or point of view more effectively. It can also be used to add authenticity to a story or to illustrate a particular point. Additionally, dialogue can help to break up long paragraphs and make an essay more engaging for the reader.

The Potential Drawbacks of Using Dialogue in College Essays

While there are many benefits to using dialogue in college essays, there are also some potential drawbacks. First, dialogue can be difficult to write effectively. It requires a good understanding of character development and dialogue structure. Second, dialogue can be distracting if it is not used judiciously. Finally, overuse of dialogue can make an essay seem more like a script than a piece of academic writing.

Best Practices for Using Dialogue in College Essays

Now that we have discussed the role of dialogue in college essays, let’s consider some best practices for its use.

Determine Your Purpose

Before including dialogue in your college essay, it is important to determine your purpose. Ask yourself why you want to include dialogue and what you hope to achieve by doing so. Once you have a clear understanding of your purpose, you can begin to craft your dialogue in a way that supports your goals.

Develop Your Characters

Effective dialogue relies on well-developed characters. Spend some time developing your characters before you begin writing your dialogue. Think about their personalities, backgrounds, and motivations. This will help you write dialogue that is authentic and meaningful.

Use Dialogue Sparingly

While dialogue can be an effective tool, it should be used sparingly in college essays. Too much dialogue can be distracting and take away from the overall message of your essay. Use dialogue only when it is necessary to convey a point or to develop a character.

Format Your Dialogue Correctly

When including dialogue in your college essay, be sure to format it correctly. Use quotation marks to indicate speech and be sure to include dialogue tags to identify the speaker. Additionally, be sure to use proper punctuation and capitalization.

Edit and Revise

Effective dialogue is the result of careful editing and revision. Once you have written your dialogue, take some time to read it aloud and make sure it flows naturally. Edit for clarity and eliminate any unnecessary dialogue. Finally, be sure to proofread your essay for errors before submitting it.

In conclusion, dialogue can be an effective tool for bringing college essays to life. However, it should be used sparingly and only when it is necessary to convey a point or to develop a character. By following the best practices outlined in this essay, you can use dialogue effectively in your college writing and create essays that are engaging and meaningful.

Writing Dialogue [20 Best Examples + Formatting Guide]

Have you ever found yourself cringing at clunky dialogue while reading a book or watching a movie? I know I have.

It’s like nails on a chalkboard, completely ruining the experience. But on the flip side, well-written dialogue can transform a story. It’s the magic that makes characters leap off the page, immersing us in their world.

As a writer, I’m fascinated by the mechanics of great dialogue.

So here are 20 of the best examples of writing dialogue that brings your story to life.

Example 1: Dialogue that Reveals Character

Table of Contents

One of the most powerful functions of dialogue is to shed light on your characters’ personalities.

The way they speak – their word choice, tone, even their hesitations – can tell us so much about who they are. Check out this example:

“Look, I ain’t gonna sugarcoat this,” the detective growled, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the chair. “You were spotted leaving the scene, and the murder weapon’s got your prints all over it.”

Without any lengthy description, we get a sense of this detective as a no-nonsense, direct type of guy.

Example 2: Dialogue that Builds Tension

Dialogue can become this amazing tool to ratchet up the tension in a scene.

Short, clipped exchanges and carefully placed silences can leave the reader on the edge of their seat.

Here’s how it might play out:

“Do you hear that?” Sarah whispered. “Hear what?” A scratching noise echoed from the attic. Sarah’s eyes widened. “It’s coming back.”

The suspense is killing me just writing that!

Example 3: Dialogue that Drives the Plot

Conversations aren’t just about characters sitting around and chatting.

Great dialogue should actively push the story forward. It can set up a conflict, reveal key information, or change the course of events.

Take a look at this:

“I’ve made my decision,” the king declared, the crown heavy on his brow. “We go to war.”

A single line, and the whole trajectory of the story shifts.

Formatting Tips: The Basics

Now, before we get carried away, let’s cover some essential dialogue formatting rules.

Think of these as the grammar of a good conversation.

• Quotation Marks:  Yep, those little squiggles are your best friend. They signal to the reader: “Hey! Someone’s talking!”
• New Speaker, New Paragraph:  Whenever a different character starts talking, give them a new paragraph. It’s all about keeping things easy to follow.
• Dialogue Tags:  These are the little phrases like “he said” or “she replied.” Use them, but try not to overuse them. A well-placed action beat can often do a better job of showing who’s speaking.

Example 4: Dialogue that Creates Humor

Dialogue can be ridiculously funny when done well.

The key? Snappy exchanges, playful misunderstandings, and just a dash of absurdity. Consider this:

“I saw the weirdest thing at the grocery store today,” Tom said, “A woman arguing with a head of lettuce.” “Was she winning?” Lily asked, a grin playing on her lips.

You can almost hear the deadpan delivery, can’t you?

Example 5: Dialogue that Shows Relationships

The way characters speak to each other says a ton about the dynamics between them.

Is there warmth, hostility, an underlying power struggle? Dialogue can paint a crystal-clear picture. Imagine this exchange:

“You didn’t do the dishes again?” Sarah sighed, hands planted on her hips. “Aw, c’mon babe. I was busy,” Mike whined, avoiding her gaze.

We instantly sense the long-suffering tone from Sarah and the playful guilt from Mike.

Example 6: Dialogue with Subtext

The most interesting dialogue often has layers. What the characters say might not be exactly what they mean.

This is where subtext comes in – the unspoken thoughts and feelings bubbling beneath the surface.

Take this snippet:

“It’s a nice ring,” Emily said, her voice flat. “You don’t like it?” Mark’s brow furrowed. Emily shrugged. “It’s fine.”

Is Emily truly indifferent? Or is she masking disappointment, perhaps a sense of something not being quite right? Subtext makes us read between the lines.

Formatting Tips: Getting Fancy

Now, let’s spice things up with a few more advanced formatting tricks:

• Ellipses (…):  These little dots are perfect for showing a character trailing off, hesitating, or searching for words. Example: “I…I don’t know what to say.”
• Em Dashes (—):  These guys can interrupt a thought or indicate a sudden change in direction. Example: “I was going to apologize, but then — well, you’re still being a jerk.”
• Internal Dialogue:  Instead of quotation marks, sometimes you’ll want to italicize a character’s inner thoughts. Example:  Why did I say that? I’m such an idiot.

Cautionary Note

It’s important to remember: dialogue shouldn’t feel like an interrogation. Avoid rigid “question-answer, question-answer” patterns. Real conversations flow and meander naturally.

Example 7: Dialogue with Dialects and Accents

Regional dialects and accents can bring so much flavor to your characters, but it’s a delicate balance.

You want to add authenticity without it becoming a caricature or making it hard to understand.

Here’s a subtle example:

“Well, I’ll be darned,” drawled the farmer, squinting at the sky. “Looks like a storm’s brewin’.”

Notice how just a few word choices and a slight change in pronunciation hint at the speaker’s background.

Example 8: Dialogue in Groups

Writing conversations with more than two people can get chaotic fast. The key is clarity.

Here are a few tips:

• Strong Dialogue Tags:  Sometimes, you need to be more specific than just “he said” or “she said”. Example: “Don’t be ridiculous,” scoffed Sarah.
• Action Beats:  Break up chunks of dialogue with actions that show who’s speaking. Example: Tom slammed his fist on the table. “I won’t stand for this!”

Example 9: Dialogue Over the Phone (or Other Technology)

Conversations where characters aren’t physically together pose unique challenges.

You can’t rely on body language cues. Instead, focus on conveying tone and potential misunderstandings.

For instance:

“Hello?” Sarah’s voice crackled through the phone. A long pause. “Sarah, is that you?” “Mom? Why are you whispering?”

Instantly there’s a sense of distance and something not being quite right.

Example 10: Inner Monologue with a Twist

We often think of internal dialogue as a single character reflecting, but sometimes our inner voices can argue.

This can be a powerful way to showcase internal conflict.

Here’s how it might look:

You should just tell him how you feel, one voice chimed. Are you crazy? the other shrieked back. He’ll never feel the same way .

This creates a vivid picture of a character torn between opposing desires.

Example 11: Dialogue With a Manipulative Character

Manipulative characters often use language as a weapon.

They might use guilt trips, flattery, or veiled threats to get what they want.

Consider this:

“After everything I’ve done for you…” The old woman sighed, a flicker of disappointment in her eyes. “Well, I guess I shouldn’t expect gratitude.”

Notice how she doesn’t directly ask for anything, instead hinting at a debt, leaving the listener feeling uneasy and obligated.

Example 12: Dialogue Across Time Periods

If you’re writing historical fiction or anything with time travel elements, you’ll need to capture the distinct speech patterns of different eras.

Imagine this exchange:

“Gadzooks! What manner of contraption is this?” The Victorian gentleman exclaimed, staring in bewilderment at the smartphone. “It’s a phone,” the teenager replied, barely suppressing a laugh. “Let me show you.”

This little snippet highlights the potential for both humor and linguistic challenges when worlds collide.

Formatting Tip: Dialogue Without Tags

Sometimes, for a rapid-fire or dreamlike effect, you might want to ditch the “he said” or “she asked” altogether.

It’s a bold move, but it can be effective if done sparingly.

Check this out:

“Where are you going?” “Away.” “When will you be back?” “I don’t know.” “Please don’t leave me.”

This creates a sense of urgency, the raw exchange forcing us to focus solely on the words themselves.

Example 13: Dialogue that Shows Transformation

A great way to showcase how a character develops is through shifts in how they speak.

Maybe they become bolder, quieter, or their vocabulary changes.

Let’s see an example:

Scene 1: “I-I don’t know,” Emily whimpered, cowering in the corner. Scene 2 (Later in the story): “That’s it. I’m not taking this anymore!” Emily declared, her chin held high.

The dialogue itself reflects her transformation from victim to someone ready to stand up for herself.

Example 14: Dialogue that’s Just Plain Weird

It’s okay to get strange sometimes.

Absurdist humor or unsettling conversations can add a unique flavor to your story. Just be sure it fits the overall tone.

“Do you believe in cucumbers?” the man asked, his eyes wide and unblinking. “Excuse me?” “Cucumbers, my dear. Agents of the underground vegetable kingdom.”

This immediately creates a sense of oddness and perhaps a touch of unease. Is this guy crazy, or is there something more going on?

Example 15: Dialogue with a Purpose

Remember, good dialogue isn’t just about being entertaining.

It should move your story along. Here are some functions dialogue can serve:

• Providing Exposition:  Sometimes, you need to inform the reader of backstory or world-building details. Trickle information through natural conversation rather than an information dump.
• Foreshadowing:  Subtle hints within a conversation can foreshadow future events or create a sense of unease for the reader.
• Revealing a Twist:  A single line of dialogue can completely flip the script and reframe everything that came before.

Example 16: Dialogue with Non-Verbal Elements

So much of communication happens beyond just words.

Sighs, laughs, and gestures can add richness to dialogue on the page.

“I’m fine,” she said, crossing her arms and looking away.

Notice how the body language contradicts her words, hinting at inner turmoil.

Example 17: Silence as Dialogue

Sometimes, what isn’t said is the most powerful thing of all.

A pregnant pause or a character refusing to speak can convey volumes.

Imagine this:

“So, will you help me or not?” Tom pleaded. Sarah stared at him, her lips a thin line. Finally, she turned and walked away.

The lack of a verbal response speaks louder than any words could.

Example 18: Dialogue With Humorous Effect

A well-timed O.S. voice can deliver a funny remark or punchline, undercutting the seriousness of a scene or taking a moment in an unexpected comedic direction.

INT. CLASSROOM – DAY The teacher drones on about the causes of the American Revolution, his voice as dull as the worn textbook in front of him. KEVIN tries to stifle his yawns, failing miserably. STUDENT (O.S.) Is he ever going to stop talking? My brain just turned to mush. Snickers ripple through the class. The teacher pauses, a look of annoyance flickering across his face. Kevin shoots a desperate look towards the source of the O.S. voice.

• Timing is everything. The best comedic O.S. lines act as a witty reaction to something else happening in a scene. The student’s comment comes right as Kevin’s boredom peaks.
• Subverting expectations is funny. The audience expects the scene to continue with a stern reprimand for speaking out of turn, but the script doesn’t give us that. This leaves room for further humor.
• Consider the tone of the voice – sarcastic, matter-of-fact, or outright whiny? This adds to the comedic effect.

Example 19: Dialogue With Unexpected Reveals

Think of this as a surprise twist using O.S. dialogue.

The audience (and maybe even some characters) are led to believe one thing, only for an O.S. voice to reveal something completely unexpected, shifting the scene’s dynamic.

INT. POLICE INTERROGATION ROOM – NIGHTDETECTIVE HARRIS paces in front of a nervous SUSPECT. Photos of the crime scene are scattered on the table. HARRIS Don’t lie to me! We’ve got witnesses who saw you at the scene. SUSPECT I – I swear, I had nothing to do with it! I was… I was with my girlfriend. Harris leans in, a triumphant glint in her eyes. She claps her hands sharply, startling the suspect. WOMAN (O.S.) That’s a lie! He was nowhere near me last night! The suspect whips around. His face pales as we hear the sound of the interrogation room door swinging open…

• The power lies in the build-up. The initial dialogue and the characters’ reactions should lead the audience to believe one outcome, making the O.S. interruption all the more impactful.
• Consider who speaks the O.S. line. Is it someone the audience recognizes, or a totally new character whose identity becomes a new mystery?
• Play with the proximity of the voice. Is it right outside the room, adding to the dramatic reveal as the door opens, or is it more distant – perhaps a voice over an intercom – for an even more unsettling effect?

Example 20: Dialogue With a “Haunted” Feeling

Explanation: O.S. can be used to create an eerie or unsettling atmosphere, particularly in horror or psychological thrillers. This could be unexplained voices, creepy whispers, or sounds that hint at a supernatural (or simply unnerving) presence.

INT. OLD MANSION – NIGHTSARAH explores the abandoned mansion, flashlight cutting through the thick dust. Cobwebs cling to every surface. A faint WHISPER drifts through the air, seeming to come from everywhere at once. Sarah freezes. VOICE (O.S.) Get out… leave this place… Sarah’s breath catches in her throat. She hesitantly follows the direction of the voice, her flashlight beam trembling.

• Less is more. The vaguer and more inexplicable the O.S. voice, the more chilling it becomes.
• Layer sounds for a full creepy effect. Combine whispers with unexpected bangs, creaks, or the faint sound of footsteps following behind Sarah.
• Play with audience expectations. If the script initially leads the audience to think the house is merely abandoned, the O.S. voices become that much more terrifying.

Here is a good video about writing dialogue:

Additional Dialogue Tips & Tricks

• Read Your Dialogue Aloud:  This is the best way to catch awkward phrasing or unnatural rhythms. Our ears often pick up on what our eyes might miss.
• Less is More:  Don’t feel the need to have every single interaction be profound. Sometimes a simple “Hey” or “Thanks” can do the job just fine.
• Eavesdrop:  Paying attention to real-life conversations is fantastic research. Note the pauses, the filler words, the way people interrupt each other.

Final Thoughts: Writing Dialogue

Phew! We did it!

Does that feel like a solid collection of dialogue examples? We haven’t covered absolutely every scenario, but I hope these illustrate the vast potential within dialogue to bring your stories to life.

Read This Next:

• How To Use Action Tags in Dialogue: Ultimate Guide
• How Do Writers Fill a Natural Pause in Dialogue? [7 Crazy Effective Ways]
• Can You Start a Novel with Dialogue?
• How To Write A Southern Accent (17 Tips + Examples)
• How to Write a French Accent (13 Best Tips with Examples)

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Paul Auster, author who explored New York and life’s riddles, dies at 77

Over more than 30 books, mr. auster often used new york as a backdrop for stories of characters struggling to make sense of life’s random chaos.

Paul Auster, a celebrated American novelist, memoirist and screenwriter who used New York — and in particular his beloved Brooklyn — as a canvas for tales populated with characters groping for meaning amid the randomness of chance and life-altering events, died April 30 at his home in Brooklyn. He was 77.

His death, of complications from lung cancer, was announced by his family.

Mr. Auster began as a poet and retained his affinity for evocative language and mood as one of the emerging stars of the New York literary scene in the 1980s. Other writers looked to the bacchanal of Manhattan during a boom time of fast money and Wall Street excesses. Mr. Auster found his voice within darker corners of the city and the soul, most notably with his “The New York Trilogy,” three novels from the 1980s later combined into a single volume.

Reviewers often portrayed Mr. Auster as a transatlantic hybrid during a career that included more than 30 books as well as essays, poetry and screenplays. He was fully American in his sense of place and dialogue. To many, though, his books were also infused with French literary traditions, including existential musings and surrender to fate, from his years living in Paris as an aspiring author.

Mr. Auster acknowledged an intellectual debt to France. Yet one of the most recurring themes of his work — how a single, chance moment can change everything — came from an incident at summer camp when he was 14.

A lightning bolt killed one of the boys in his group as they scrambled to find an open field during a sudden storm. “I’ve always been haunted by what happened, the utter randomness of it,” Mr. Auster recalled . “I think it was the most important day of my life.”

More than two decades later, the vagaries of chance led him to his first novel , “City of Glass” in 1985. He was at home in Brooklyn, dabbling with story ideas and worrying about his growing debts, when the phone rang. The caller asked if he had reached the number for the storied Pinkerton detective agency. Auster said no. The same man, still looking for Pinkerton, misdialed Mr. Auster’s number the next day, too.

Mr. Auster then imagined: What if he had pretended to be a Pinkerton private eye and took a case. In the novel, a writer named Quinn poses as a detective. The story unfolds in classic noir style of hard-boiled dialogue and deepening intrigue, but the case also uncovers clues that lead to meditations on language and the lines between reality, illusion and madness.

“Kafka goes gumshoe” was how one of Mr. Auster’s editors described “City of Glass” and the following books in the trilogy, published the next year, “Ghosts” and “The Locked Room.”

The critical success of the trilogy led Mr. Auster to often being called a writer of detective fiction. He complained that such a label was too narrow, saying that he sought to convey life’s Jenga tower of memory, events and decisions. “You could also say ‘Crime and Punishment’ is a detective story, I suppose,” he wrote in a 2017 examination of his work, “A Life in Words.”

His novels that followed the trilogy delved more into the archaeology of the mind, often layered with autobiographical, literary and historical references. “Moon Palace” (1989) unspools the odyssey of a college student at Columbia (Mr. Auster’s alma mater) who inherits 1,492 books (think Columbus voyage) from an uncle and then gradually sinks into misery as he reads, and then sells off, the collection.

In 1992’s “Leviathan,” a novelist named Benjamin Sachs is blown to bits by a bomb he was assembling. Another writer, Peter Aaron, digs into Sachs’s life. (Aaron’s wife is Iris, a backward rendering of the name of Mr. Auster’s second wife, novelist Siri Hustvedt.)

The novel takes its name from a treatise on the obligations of power by the 17th-century social philosopher Thomas Hobbes and also is an allusion to Ahab’s ill-fated obsession with the white whale in “Moby Dick,” which Mr. Auster called one of the greatest works in American literature.

“Sachs,” Mr. Auster told the New York Times, “is somebody torn between his gift — which is literary — and something in him that is constantly pushing him out into the world to make a real difference in a concrete way.” But Sachs is neither a hardcore revolutionary nor a sociopath. It’s unclear what Sachs really wants.

‘Exposing the plumbing’

Mr. Auster reveled in such ambiguities. His characters are often unreliable narrators, leaving readers to grapple with what is truth and what is not. “I’ve always been interested in turning the process inside out, exposing the plumbing so to speak, not covering up the walls,” he said.

Mr. Auster’s narratives were mostly rooted in the here and now. His writing style was not. He wrote his first drafts in notebooks, often using a fountain pen, in a minimalist apartment near his brownstone in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood. “You feel that the words are coming out of your body,” he once said of physical act of writing in longhand, “and then you dig the words into the page.”

He then typed the pages on his Olympia typewriter, a machine that was the star of his 2002 book , “The Story of My Typewriter,” with illustrations by Sam Messer. For decades, Mr. Auster puffed away at Davidoff cigarillos, whose gray-blue smoke became as much a part of his public image as his heavy-lidded eyes and thick dark hair.

With his literary fame on the rise, Hollywood took interest. One of his first screenplays, “Smoke” (1995), was something of a love letter to his Brooklyn neighborhood. In the film, directed by Wayne Wang, a tobacco shop owner (played by Harvey Keitel) is the anchor for a group of local strivers and strugglers, including a chain-smoking writer (William Hurt) whose name is Paul Benjamin, Mr. Auster’s first and middle names.

The tobacco proprietor takes a photo of the shop every day at 8 a.m. from the same angle. He explains that each photo is subtly different depending on the weather or the angle of the seasonal light. This daily photo mission was Mr. Auster explaining his own creative method, needing to write every day even if the words are not flowing.

“[The] excitement, the struggle, is emboldening and vivifying,” he said in a 2017 interview. “I just feel more alive writing.”

New Jersey to Brooklyn

Paul Benjamin Auster was born in Newark on Feb. 3, 1947, and was raised in suburban New Jersey towns including Maplewood. His father was part of a family-run business that owned buildings in Jersey City. His mother was a homemaker.

Mr. Auster’s first memoir , “The Invention of Solitude” (1982), looked back at the emotional gulf he felt with his father. “Instead of healing me as I thought it would,” he wrote, “the act of writing has kept this wound open. … Instead of burying my father for me, these words have kept him alive.”

Two very different publications — Mad magazine and a six-volume collection of Robert Louis Stevenson — shaped his early life, Mr. Auster said. Stevenson inspired him to craft his own adventure stories. Mad’s adolescent irreverence, he wrote in his 2013 memoir, “Report from the Interior,” showed him “you don’t have to swallow the dogma they were trying to sell you.”

He graduated from Columbia in 1969 with a degree in comparative literature — and also took part in antiwar demonstrations and sit-ins. He was nearly expelled when he abandoned an exchange program in Paris, upset over rules that demanded French language study instead of literature classes. (He stayed at Columbia for a master’s degree in 1970.)

He found a spot briefly on an oil tanker in the Gulf of Mexico before moving to Paris in 1971, working on poetry and finding translation jobs. He returned to New York in 1974 and hunted for any way to make money from writing, including once agreeing to try to write a pornographic novel under the pen name Paul Quinn. He gave up after “about 20 or 30 pages,” he wrote.

He also tried his hand at theater, writing plays that included an exploration of futility called “Laurel and Hardy Go to Heaven.” It was, he said, “a flop.”

A volume of original poetry, “Unearth,” was published in 1974. For nearly the next five decades, Mr. Auster produced a new book every several years, including “The Book of Illusions” (2002), about a biographer looking into the disappearance of a star from the silent-movie era; “Oracle Night” (2003), about a man who learns how much of his life was governed by chance; and “Winter Journal” (2012), an examination of aging.

He wrote and directed movies such as the comedy “Blue in the Face” (1995) and “The Inner Life of Martin Frost” (2007), about an author (David Thewlis) who becomes infatuated with a young woman at a friend’s country house.

Mr. Auster turned to nonfiction in recent years with “Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane” (2021) and “Bloodbath Nation” (2023) about American gun violence. His final novel , “Baumgartner,” came out last year.

The book follows the eponymous lead character — in his 70s like Mr. Auster — as he deals with failing health, loneliness and looming mortality. “Anything can happen to us at any moment,” Baumgartner says in the novel. “You know that, I know that, everyone knows that — and if they don’t, well, they haven’t been paying attention.”

In April 2022, while Mr. Auster was finishing the book, his 44-year-old son Daniel Auster died following a drug overdose after being charged in the drug-related death of his 10-month-old daughter, Ruby. According to court records, the girl consumed a lethal amount of heroin and fentanyl while Daniel Auster was sleeping after taking drugs. Mr. Auster declined to publicly speak about incident.

Mr. Auster’s first marriage, to the writer Lydia Davis, ended in divorce. He married Hustvedt in 1981. In addition to his wife, other survivors include their daughter; a sister; and a grandson.

Mr. Auster received several French literary awards. In 2017, he was shortlisted for Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize for the novel “4321,” which has a thunderstorm scene eerily similar to Mr. Auster’s childhood experience. In the book, a 13-year-old boy, excited by discovering books and girls and happy with life in general, is killed by a falling tree branch after a lightning strike.

“As his inert body lay on the water-soaked ground … thunder continued to crack, and from one end of the earth to the other,” he wrote, “the gods were silent.”

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Advice to Protesters, and History’s Echoes

More from our inbox:, trump logic, another civil war in the u.s., the four lessons.

To the Editor:

Re “ Universities Choose Different Ways to End Unrest ” (news article, May 2):

The rigid dialogue on American college campuses about the Israel-Hamas war has been fruitless.

One side argues that Palestine should be freed from Israel’s tyranny, when clearly the real tyranny is from Palestinian terrorist leaders whose pointless insistence on the destruction of Israel is why Palestinians don’t live in peace.

The other side absolves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government of any wrongdoing. This is absurd, as Mr. Netanyahu failed to protect his people, and in doing so was compelled to wage a war that has killed countless innocent Gazans.

My encouragement to the college protesters on both sides is to stop doing easy things like setting up encampments and chanting slogans at each other. Instead, join together to do the hard work of trying to find a sustainable solution to peace in the Middle East.

Leave blind partisanship to politicians, and use your intelligence, energy and creativity to be the generation that solves the problem.

Richard Stever-Zeitlin Hyattsville, Md.

Relationships break down when people stop talking. Brown University seems to have found a solution to campus unrest by continuing talks with protesters. This is good news! I recommend that university leaders meet with students, close the doors to the room and come out when you’ve reached an agreement. Keep talking!

Ronald Yarger Morris Plains, N.J.

Re “ How Protesters Can Actually Help Palestinians ,” by Nicholas Kristof (column, May 2):

Recently I began to total up in my mind what the students have spent to be comfortable, appropriately dressed, fed and able to produce new protest signs every day. ​They have spent millions of dollars on themselves while demanding that colleges and universities rethink their investment strategies. Those are millions of dollars that could have fed, housed, clothed and healed millions of people in Gaza.

I hope students read Mr. Kristof, and begin to understand that they have the power, and perhaps the obligation, to help ease the lives of those caught up in a tragedy. Their protest will be successful if it moves everyone to take a moment to rethink their “investment strategies.”

Elaine Hess Bethlehem, Pa.

Spot on, Nicholas Kristof. It’s unbearable to watch the wrong-turn activism turn people away from the rightness of this justified protest. So much more could be accomplished — helping “real people in desperate need,” as Mr. Kristof puts it — by raising funds or putting educated boots on the ground.

Maggie Hill Queens

Re “ On Campus at Columbia, in 1968 and Now ,” by Serge Schmemann (Opinion, April 30):

I second Mr. Schmemann’s view of the benefits of college demonstrations. Sixty years ago this December, I was part of an 800-student sit-in at Sproul Hall on the University of California’s Berkeley campus.

The Free Speech Movement, as it became known, was protesting a policy that prohibited students from placing card tables on campus to solicit money and volunteers to work for voting rights and against racial bias in hiring at restaurants in Jack London Square in Oakland. Yet card tables to sell tickets for school events had been regularly allowed.

Officials called the police, and we were arrested in the middle of the night. We were tried en masse, convicted of trespass and fined.

I learned two lessons. First, calling the cops on students is almost always a bad idea regardless of the disruption. We would have been gone after a day or two of sleeping on Sproul Hall’s dirty floor and using its backed-up toilets.

Second, watching the trial led me to switch from grad school to law school, where I learned that the university’s policy discriminated based on viewpoint and content, in violation of the First Amendment. We might have achieved the same goal with a federal court injunction, but then we would have missed out on all the student camaraderie.

Stephen Gillers New York The writer is emeritus professor at N.Y.U. School of Law.

Re “ Trump, Seeking Presidential Immunity, Wants to Prosecute Biden ” (news analysis, May 1):

While it’s logically inconsistent for Donald Trump, out of one side of his mouth, to demand presidential immunity for himself while out of the other side of that same discordant mouth threaten to have Joe Biden indicted, Mr. Trump is speaking not as a logician (LOL) or a lawmaker, but as a politician rallying his base by simultaneously stoking his own anger and that of his followers.

Mr. Trump has never shown the slightest ability or need to traffic in logic or consistency, knowing that the right-wing media will have his back, regardless of his unending emittance of fallacious foibles, and knowing, too, that his essential appeal to his base is built upon anger and rage, not logic and consistency, nor even a passing resemblance to facts or truth.

Richard J. Brenner Miller Place, N.Y.

Re “ How the Movie ‘Civil War’ Echoes Real Political Anxieties in America ” (news article, April 24):

I do believe, sadly, that political violence or even a civil war could erupt, depending on the whims of Donald Trump. Mr. Trump is running a campaign based on revenge and retribution. Look at how he tries to intimidate witnesses and court personnel regarding his various legal matters.

He has said that if he wins the presidency again he will install only people completely loyal to him to run government offices, and he will use these offices to go after people he does not like.

The threat of violence is a useful tool for Mr. Trump in his quest to become president again and continue to try to destroy our democracy, our governing systems and the rule of law.

Do not ever underestimate him; take him at his word. If he orders his supporters to take to the streets, there is a strong possibility that enough will comply so that damage and harm will ensue, possibly marking the beginning of a civil war.

We are in this dangerous moment courtesy of Mr. Trump. And he cares nothing about the consequences.

Howard Herman Skokie, Ill.

Re “ The Most Important Lessons Aren’t on the Syllabus ,” by Frank Bruni (Opinion guest essay, April 21):

I could not agree more with Mr. Bruni’s piece. I tell my students at the New School that they may forget the content of the course, but I hope they remember three things they will learn in class: how to think, how to write and how to present an idea with enough humility that others will listen.

I now have to add a fourth: the courage to stand up for what you think is right respectfully. If they accomplish this, they can consider themselves educated.

Alan McGowan New York