If you're a high school junior or senior tasked with composing an essay that will "make admissions officers fall in love with you," you have my permission to leave the room. Scoot over to the blog of Jay "Figaro" Heinrichs for some refreshingly unconventional advice on essay writing.

An experienced editor and a witty rhetorician (his site is number two in our list of Top Ten Blogs for Writers), Heinrichs shares six tips that he originally prepared for his college-bound son:

1. What's your hook?
2. Don't express yourself.
3. Relieve their boredom.
4. A winning essay isn't an essay.
5. It's all about epiphany.
6. Make yourself good and miserable.

I'll leave it to Figaro to explain these gnomes, but here's one hint: get ready to tell a good story.

Even if concerns about college essays are behind you, a visit to Figaro's Blog should prove rewarding. Two or three times a week, Heinrichs plucks a figure of speech from the news and examines its significance: "Figures of Speech Served Fresh." And for those who need convincing, his article "How to Teach a Child to Argue" (originally published in Disney’s Wondertime Magazine) explains how studying classical rhetoric can restore our "ability to usefully disagree."

Pages to Visit:

• Figures of Speech Served Fresh (Jay Heinrichs)
• How to Write a Winning College Essay (Jay Heinrichs)
• How to Teach a Child to Argue (Jay Heinrichs)
• Ten Blogs for Writers