College essay constitutes a major part of the total weight of your application for admission to a college. Even some of the brightest students may fall short only for poor composition and below-the-mark presentation of their essays. Never take this for granted for how you produce an essay plays a vital role in defining you. If you want your college essay to sing and speak for your competence, let me walk you through a few simple tips that can take your essays to the next level. If you have a flair for writing, all you need to have is to avoid making the mistakes that may spoil your message beside your prospects of getting through.
Types of Usual Mistakes
While talking about common errors, most students may restrict it to grammar and spelling, which is wrong. Your essay is not a test of grammar. This offers the college authorities a glimpse into your intellect and ability to get your points across. Your style, coherence, syntax, choices of words, and everything count towards your performance. Some of the common mistakes that can ruin your essay may include:
- Use of jargons
- Words that don’t sit well
- Illogical flow
- Repetition of words and phrases
- Using personal bias
- Your failure to understand the topic
- Poor grammar
- Spelling mistakes
Read the Whole Application
Once you have completed your draft of the application, read it to yourself. Try to read it aloud. When you read it aloud, you may get stuck at the points that don’t flow well, contain grammatical errors, miss some essential details, or have some redundant ideas included. At each such point, you should stop and review as to what best you can do to level the things up. Once you are done reading it with all corrections made, spend some time reading it again so you can pick and do away with any remaining ugly spots that you had missed out in your first revisit. If you want to avoid this hassle once and for all, professional paper writing services will easily write an essay for you.
Read the Essay Prompts Carefully
Don’t end up cooking mutton if asked for chicken. I mean, you have to read your essay prompts more than once. Pay attention to them. The first thing that requires you to be careful is the choice of prompt. Choose one that you feel most comfortable with. Once you choose a topic, make sure it is what you think it is. For example, if you are asked to write on human contribution towards the deterioration of the environment; don’t mistake it for something to write about “break-wind”. In a nutshell, make sure you have chosen the right prompt and spent some time to confirm its meanings.
Think About the Content of Your Essay
Content is the soul of your essay. This can have a decisive role in forming the opinion of college authorities regarding your ability. If you fail to do justice to your content, you have a slim chance of getting through depending on what other features in your application can compensate for this gulf. Check if your content:
- Maintains a logical flow
- Sticks to argument
- Is in the right sequence
- Shows your command on the language
If all these requirements are beyond you, don’t worry; a professional writing service can write an essay at cheap prices for you.
Try to Avoid Too Many Direct Quotes
A few well-placed quotes can add to the muscles of your argument. But never go as far as to make your essay abound with quotes. Some students make this mistake and have to pay the price in the form of rejection of their application. Quotes are the same as your essay as salt to a dish. It is advisable not to use more than three to, maximum, four quotes per every 1000 words. Bombardment of quotes gives an impression that you might have spent your life reading, but never bothered to learn a few basic writing skills.
You Do Not Need Incomplete Sentences
If you really want your college essay to stand out. As you can notice what I have just said doesn’t make any sense simply because it is an incomplete sentence. This is one of the most typical mistakes that students make while composing an essay. Make sure your sentences are complete and perfectly interwoven into rest. Making such errors creates a very bad impression of you to college authorities. Not only does it show that you lack command on the subject matter but it also makes authorities suspect your basic language skills.
Proofread and Edit
Correcting an essay wants you not only to proofread but also to edit again and again until you think it stands presentable. You might have raised your eyebrow looking at the header. Remember, proofreading is not the same as editing. As mentioned before, essays may contain more than just grammatical errors. When you proofread, you scan it for grammar. When you edit, you try to purge it from all remaining issues from syntax to style to flow, and so forth.
After having gone through these simple tips, you may feel more confident about composing your college essay. Try to make these ideas a part of your practice. Prepare yourself before you have to prove yourself. Try to compose some mock essays with all these ideas in mind. Make a list of the issues that you find hard nuts to crack. Keep practicing as long as your list contains the minimum one item. Once you find everything embedded in your practice, you’re on your way.
