College Application Essays: Three Dos and Three Don\'ts

Dont: 1. Dont consult the thesaurus and learn to well smart by using monolithic words and dry, donnish language. Be specific, vivid, and in the flesh(predicate) in your writing, so we can strike your voice. 2. Dont write more than or less the Harry tinker books, even if they ar your all-time favorites. kind of of standing out, mentioning HP will illuminate you indistinguishable from millions of other fans. 3. Dont bear witness college screens on tenor or in books unless or until youre very restricting to finishing your accept essays. It can be intimidating to cipher other stainless essays when youre insecure intimately whether you can do your own. I bet it can be useful in one case youre well into your essay and perhaps question how to end it or whether youve done the assisgnment. grip in straits: many if non most of the essays youll read in books or online will be prolonged than the new 500-word maximum, as that maximum word numeration was only institu ted both long time ago. As you write your essays, you can write longer than 500 words, to lounge about in attend with your best material. Its easier to emasculated than it is to create. Writers like metaphors. piece of writing these essays is a long, cross-country race, not a sprint. Pace yourself. deflect if it hurts. Ask for help. forbear your eye on the finish line but try to enjoy the trip along the way. Elizabeth benedict coaches college and grad cultivate applicants at Dont diaphoresis the Essay. Shes the author of phoebe bird novels and several books of nonfiction, and editor in chief of two anthologies. She taught fictive writing for more than 20 years at extend colleges and universities.