Writing a college admission essay seems like a daunting task because the stakes are high; it stands between you and a place in your dream college. If you have a positive mindset, however, you will view this as an opportunity to convince the admissions board or whoever’s going to read your letter that you are the ideal candidate.
Even with the positivity, you need the technical writing skills to get it right. Unless you are planning to make a sizeable donation to the institution to sway things your way, you better be familiar with the following useful tips regarding writing the perfect admission letter:
1. Plan your essay
Before you start writing, prepare a detailed outline. It will help you look organized which, by the way, is something many applicants get ruled out on. The organization also makes writing easier because everything is laid out and all you need to do is write. If you have no idea how you are going to plan your work, you can seek the services of a college admission essay writing service. See how expert writers do their work and learn from them.
2. Narrow your Focus
Choose one or two personal aspects about yourself and go for them. It will be easier for your readers to learn more about you if there is something fundamental about you that they can trace from the beginning to the end. Make it clear from the introduction because it will guide your readers on what the essay is all about. Ask your teacher or parent to read your introduction and infer what the essay is about.
3. Be Truthful
Irrespective of the kind of letter you choose to write, honesty is important. The people who read your essay have seen everything; therefore, you can be certain that they will sniff a lie from a mile away. Besides, telling the truth makes it easier for you as you write. You know you are authentic and it pretty much writes itself. For those of you who have been fortunate enough to achieve impressive feats and would like to include them in the text to help your cases, go ahead and present everything in an authentic way. Remember, you have documents and references backing up your truth.
4. Avoid Common Mistakes
Refrain from repeating tired phrases that admission officers have read countless times like “my passion”, “my dream”, and “I would love to”. Other useful tips to live (write) by:
- Use the correct punctuation
- Active voice over passive voice
- Avoid contractions like don’t, can’t, and won’t
- Avoid making grammatical mistakes
5. Proofread
When you are done writing, you need to proofread the text; preferably on another day when the mind is fresh. Still, the best way to do it is to hand over the letter to someone else (peers, teachers, professionals if technical) to go through it and give honest feedback. Another ingenious way to do it is to paste the text on Google Translate and make the bot read it by pressing on the audio button.
Conclusion
Everything you have read so far will be useless if you start writing your letter late. Start writing early so that you can have the luxury of planning, writing comfortably, approaching the matter in a couple of ways, and enlisting as much help as you can from mentors and colleagues. To some extent, the most important advice of all is: START EARLY.
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