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Sooner or later but a time comes when students start asking how to write a college application essay. As a rule, this essay is written in rare cases – only when a student applies for a college and needs to provide a strong and argumentative essay on why he/ she should be enrolled. Normally, students are aware of how to organize and structure academic essays, such as argumentative, persuasive, comparison & contrast essays, narrative essays, descriptive essays, and others.
Efficient Application Essay Writing Strategies from Expert Writers
Still, when it comes to college application essay format, there are a lot of questions encountered by students since this essay type differs from the others. When you start writing an application essay, make sure that the structure is not limited to the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. When you need to submit a college application essay, make sure you carefully follow the prompt and address all the instructions given.
How to Write a College Application Essay: Practical Tips
- Make sure you read the essay instructions carefully and understand the essay prompt in depth.
As such, take sufficient time for reading the essay assignment and try to pay attention to all the details and peculiarities mentioned in the task. Even after you have finished writing the essay, re-read the prompt carefully once again and double-check whether the essay covers all requirements.
As a rule, when writing a college essay, you need to focus on 1-2 ideas, which will be central ones in the paper. What ideas you choose depends on the instructions and your spheres of interest. Still, regardless of what you choose to concentrate on, make sure you develop your ideas in a creative and unique way. - Make sure you think about different ideas you would like to discuss and focus on the most important ones.
You may even try brainstorming technique and then choose 2-3 ideas worth your attention. - Even before the brainstorming, try to think of what purpose you intend to achieve with your essay. It will help you be more concentrated when choosing the ideas. Also think how you will develop the ideas, support, and logically introduce each of them into the essay.
- Whatever idea you have chosen to focus on, remember that you need to connect it to your personal experience. Make sure you provide such evidence and examples that reflect on what kind of specialist you are.
How to Start a College Application Essay?
Gather all the ideas possible that relate to your topic/ sphere. First, write down literally all ideas that relate to your essay question. At first, it may seem that the brainstorming prewriting stage is even more tedious and time-consuming that the actual process of writing. Still, it is worth the time spent on it. You will be able to have a look at all the ideas and evaluate which of the ideas are worth being included and which are not.
After you have brainstormed the ideas and written them down, make sure to reflect on them. Some ideas are definitely more interesting than others. Some of the brainstormed ideas provoke more feelings or emotions that the others, so make sure to focus on such ideas and develop them. It is evident when a writer expresses interest in what he/ she writes about.
Some of the most interesting essay aspects that students like to focus on are the following:
- How could my friends describe me?
- What are my strengths?
- What characteristics do I have that help me stand out of the crowd?
- What are the soft and hard skills that I possess?
When starting writing a rough draft for your college application essay, make sure you select three concepts on average that would help best describe yourself as a successful applicant. Make sure you develop ideas, put forward arguments, and provide sufficient examples and illustrations to prove your point. Make sure it is clear from your college application essay who you really are as a student and as a personality.
One of the most beneficial college application essay tips is to compose an outline before writing. The best metaphor that could be found for an outline is a backbone. An outline is the basis your project. It is a kind of an extended plan that helps you ease the very process of writing the paper since you have the main information that you are going to include right before your eyes. Devising an outline greatly eases the process of writing since the bulk of work is prepared beforehand. When working on an outline, make sure you decide how many paragraphs your paper will consist of, what sections it would have, what ideas it will develop, etc. Make sure you provide separate paper sections: the introduction, the body paragraphs, and the conclusive paragraph. While writing an outline, think of how you are going to start the essay. One of the best college application essay prompts is to provide attention-hook in the opening paragraph. A similar tip is to decide on the tone and the style of writing from the very first paragraph.
Make sure you maintain your personal writing style and voice. Do not try to look up to some college admission essay examples but try to be unique in what and how you write. It is vital when it comes to writing essays about yourself.
After you have provided an outline and developed a plan for writing, start writing your paper. Once you have created an outline, a plan whatsoever, you will find it easier to tell your story in an easier and faster way. With a prepared outline, you will be less likely to have a writer`s block. After you have written, make sure you revise and proofread the text. It is essential that the essay makes only positive impression on your target reader and thus has no mistakes in grammar, punctuation, spelling, and content. Moreover, keep in mind that you should follow the recommendations to the word count limit (make sure that you do not provide either too many or too few words).
As you proofread the paper or revise it, make sure you double-check whether there is a central idea that is concisely and logically developed. Once you have chosen a specific paper focus, make sure to stick it throughout the whole essay from beginning till the end. While proofreading, pay attention to the vocabulary you use: do not use terms that might be too narrow or specific and, as a result, not generally known. Besides, avoid clichés and generic phrases that bear no specific meaning and are not informative at all. Double-check whether your arguments or claims are supported properly and illustrated with vivid examples.
When proofreading the paper, make sure you have enough time for it in order to stay as focused and attentive as possible. If you are not good at spotting your own mistakes, you may ask professional college application essay writing help, where professional writers and editors will help you provide a successful paper. Do not merely rely on the computer software for checking grammar or punctuation. Computers cannot be aware of all the nuances in meaning and all rules, so it is not a good idea to trust computers when it comes to academic writing. It is also recommended to ask your friend, family member or a group mate to read your paper or look through it with an aim of spotting mistakes. Moreover, ask these people how comprehensible the paper is and whether they understand the message, you intended to convey.
Pay attention to the consistency of ideas and their logical development. In case you are applying for many colleges, make sure you modify each admission essay depending on the college you apply for. Different colleges have different requirements, so sending one and the same paper to different educational establishments is not a good idea.
Steps for Academic Success
On the whole, working on a college application essay takes a lot of time and effort. Remember this and devote yourself sufficient time for good preparation. Hopefully, the guidelines and tips provided by our professional writers will help you how to write a college application essay.
