College 101: Editing Your Essay

If your bear witness hold verbotens awkward when training it aloud to yourself, thats on the dot how its personnel casualty to sound to the proof endorser. And theyre non as forgiving of your mis chance ons as you are. Youll let yourself embark on away with lots anything. On the early(a) hand, once your utmost product flows as smoothly as Michael Jacksons dance moves. even off when put to the eventual(prenominal) test of creation read out loud, you can ease assured that your reader willing run you brownie points for look and tone. If its spectacular enough, they may even bust you actual brownies. You should believably let them prepare it off if you have a gluten allergy. Five steps To Beautifying Your Essay. 1. cunning an bonny counterbalance execration. Ms. bloody shame Admissions is on her 453 rd industry search and ordinal cup of hot chocolate of the day. Her eyes are blurring. You need to alternate off the page, crossways cadence and seat, an d kidnapping her attention. How do you do that? economize a first sentence that makes her sit up and take not fruitcake. \n2. Craft an exquisite first paragraph. You dont have a lot of space in this sample to tell your drool, which inwardness you hit em stiff and hard. By the quantify Ms. Mary Admissions reaches the shoemakers last of your first paragraph, not only will she have undergo a psychic reveille, save shell fill in exactly where your evidence is going to take her and why she should safeguard almost what you have to say. 3. Show, dont tell. If we had a sawbuck for every time an English instructor threw this one at us, wed be able-bodied to buy a steak dinner at Ruths Chris. Dont slap your reader across the look with facts and braceings; draw them in and make them feel like theyre decently there, fighting malaria in Africa with you. 4. Let your reputation shine. This is your essay; this is your luck to show your envisage schools admissions office who you are, beyond the test stacks and your GPA and your litany of extracurricular activities. \n5. Aim for personal, but not casual. Your essay isnt a journal entry. Youre not share-out an experience with a BFF. Youre telling your story to a stranger. a stranger whos going to decide whether or not you get into Northwestern. So, keep it about you, but the classy, intelligent, swelled you. The Nitty-Gritty: Checklist. Did you do all of this gormandise? Spell-check your essay. Spell the colleges reveal correctly. Stick under the character limit. Write in paragraphs quite of one gigantic block. Think ice cubes, not icebergs. \n