Going Beyond Cliché: How to Write a Great College EssayBy Angelica Malin

Custom writing can be enjoyable, especially when you know its secrets. With the essential tips on how to write various types of essays, research papers and other forms of writing under custom writing, you can be expert in the writing realm.

How to Write a Great College Essay

Some colleges will require that you write an essay as a way of assessing your suitability to join the college.  The admission committee wants to know about your personality and whether you can write well and underpin your views with logical arguments. The good thing about college essay is that you as the writer are in full control. You have the opportunity to write the best essay that will move the hearts of your assessors.

You have the chance to ensure that you give the best glimpse of your personality, education, experience and writing ability to the admission committee. However, writing a topnotch essay is not always easy. You may, therefore, find yourself worried that your essay may not stand out as there are several other applicants with similar backgrounds as yours.

Though it is a genuine concern, the solution is not in your worry. You need to find some way of writing a top-class essay that will outshine those of other applicants. Here are some helpful tips that you can use in writing your college essay.

Make sure you understand the prompt

Take time to brood over the prompt, and try to explore every aspect of the prompt. Try to reason why college officers would ask such a prompt. Make sure that you understand what the admission officers want to know and its connection with your capacity to perform well in college. Try rereading the prompt after a few minutes or hours to see if you will discover something new. Though this may appear like waste of time, it will ensure that you fully understand the expectations of the admission committee. It will help you ensure that you do not rewrite the essay due to mistakes.

Plan your writing

Planning or organizing your writing is very important. It will ensure that you have easy time writing your essay. You will be able to streamline your writing and eliminate any mistake. Create an outline of the way you would like your essay to look like. Decide on the length of sentences and paragraphs that will help you effectively complete your essay. Divide your essay into various parts such as the introduction, the body and the conclusion. Lastly, decide on the time when you are going to write your essay. For example, you can write one paragraph per day, or complete the essay within 24 hours. Setting the time to write your essay prepares your brain to unleash its potential.

Be Creative

Pick the best anecdotes for your essay, and ensure that you leave enough space for the important aspects of your essay such as self-reflection and analysis. Also ensure that you focus more on your point of view of your story than the story itself. The admission committee is interested more in the point of view of the happenings than the events themselves. Moreover, remember that you are new to the committee. Therefore, you need to give them important information about yourself through the essay. Tell them what your passion is and also provide enough evidence to prove that you are telling the truth. Take the committee through your experiences in a way that will make them feel like they are watching a real story.

Choose your vocabulary wisely

Be careful not to use the wrong vocabulary, especially advanced vocabulary. Bear in mind that even synonyms may have slightly different meanings. Therefore, ensure that you do a bit of research online or elsewhere to ensure that your vocabulary fits well with your sentences. Your paper should mirror good knowledge of college-level vocabulary. Also do not overuse advanced vocabulary. Overusing them might not be welcome by the admission officers as the essay may look more of a comic than a serious essay.

Write Concisely

Preciseness and conciseness is a key to a good college essay. Ensure that your essay demonstrates good organization of thoughts. Remember that long sentences and paragraphs easily put off readers. Try to reduce wordiness by tightening your words. You can replace phrases with simple vocabulary. For instance, you can substitute “on a regular basis” with “regularly.” Also use three to four sentences in a paragraph. Many people have a short attention span, and therefore, wrong sentences and paragraphs may be a problem. Lastly, consider replacing phrasal verbs with the corresponding words. For example, you can replace “put up with” with tolerate and “look up to” with “admire.”

Be yourself and avoid redundancy

The admission officers are intelligent enough to differentiate your voice from others. Therefore, avoid using other people’s voice. Do not put phrases previously used by other people in your essay. Also do not use language that is too formal and unnecessary words. Moreover, avoid redundancy in your work. Examples of redundancy include “advance warning” instead of just warning and intentional suicide. There is nothing like intentional suicide, and therefore the word suicide should not have a qualifier.

Get feedback from a qualified person

Ask a qualified person to go through your essay before the submission date. S/he will help you spot mistakes that you are not able see. Avoid seeking opinion from many people. Feedback from many people will easily confuse you, and this may negatively affect the quality of your essay. Consider using a person who understands the college admission process and has good command of English. The feedback you get will help you improve your essay and increase your chances of emerging victorious. Also remember to proofread the essay to remove typos, passive voice, and spelling mistakes that might still be present after the feedback. Be careful when using words with more than one correct spelling, such as behavior (behaviour) and center (centre). Ensure that there is consistency in the spelling of such words. Fortunately, most word processors will allow you to choose either American or US English. Therefore, you can change the setting of your word processor to your preferred English to help you maintain the consistency. The spellcheck will also help you identify any other misspelt word.