3 Common College Essay Mistakes To Avoid

3 Common College Essay Mistakes To Avoid The information provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. It is intended to provide opinions and educational information. It is not intended as individual advice and should not be taken as substitute for professional advice. We assume no responsibility for errors or mistakes. Write the first draft from start to finish, even if you know your thoughts are out of order. You can re-arrange them at a later time, but the initial run through will be as fluid as possible. If you have a chance to show your essay to your English instructor or academic adviser, do so. You can use the feedback to improve the essay before submitting it. The essay covered everything we wanted to without the need for extra words. We reserve the right to make deletions, additions, or modifications to the content at any given time without prior notice. In some cases we may be compensated on an affiliate basis when users take certain actions. In order to comply with FTC guidelines we want to be transparent that ScholarshipOwl may get compensated by companies and/or partners based on an affiliate or advertiser partnership. We might get compensated for example for mentioning partners, by you, the user, making a clicking, purchasing, or signing up for a product or service through a tracking link. In no way are we responsible for the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any information on these external websites. Write your essay as though you would be a great second date. That means you should write with voice, that is, you need to write with your own personality. Honesty, humor, talking the way you talk, showing the way you think, all help to create voice. Sometimes even a single word that stands as a paragraph can make the reader wonder and read on. If the prompt asked for at least 500 words, we would add another sentence to support one of the paragraphs. Since that was not a requirement though, we kept the essay as-is to avoid sounding wordy or repetitive. If you are on a date, you would naturally want to be smart, funny, nice, caring, unique, not boring. You also want to have an opinion, not step back like an unthinking geek. Save time and concentrate on what's really important to you. You may have noticed that these ideas got harder to tell honestly as you worked down the list. When you write about difficult topicsâ€"mistakes, learning, making a differenceâ€"it is very tempting to start talking in clichés, or to end in a place where you are perfect. Like Jason, look for activities where you’ve taken a creative approach or dealt with a challenge as you plan your Common Application essay. And when you read a story about food, most people warm up and start thinking about their own favorite foods and family gatherings. Everything in your essay revolves around your thesis. This is the big point you are trying to make, which is usually an answer to a question in the essay prompt. You will use the rest of the essay to support this thesis. We do all the work, and you reap all the rewards. That’s why we start the Story To College Essay in a Day course with Memorable Meal stories. This is an offer for educational opportunities that may lead to employment and not an offer for nor a guarantee of employment. Students should consult with a representative from the school they select to learn more about career opportunities in that field. Put the reader in medias res, that is, in the middle of things. Place the reader in the middle of something happening or in the middle of a conversation.