With the vast majority of applications for the 2012-2013 application season already submitted and the start of the 2013-2014 app rush still half a year away, you may think that there’s not much going on when it comes to college admissions. Think again.

Last year, the Common Application announced that it would be making some substantial changes to its widely used application solution. While details were scarce at that time, the last week has shed significant light on what will be different for users of the Common App in 2013-2014 and on. Overall, the most notable change involves the essay required as part of the application packet.

Starting this coming fall, students will face an entirely different set of essay questions along with slightly different requirements for composing the essay. The new prompts are:

1. Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

2. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?

3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?

4. Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?

5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

Here are the six most important things to know about essay-related changes on the 2013-2014 Common Application.

1. There is no longer a “Topic of your choice.” In previous versions of the Common App, students were given five fairly detailed essay prompts along with one that simply said, “Topic of your choice.” That option, which appealed to many applicants because it allowed them to write on pretty much anything with which they were comfortable, is now gone.

2. All essays must be typed and submitted online. As part of this new application, students will no longer have the option to upload files or even print and submit hard copies of their work. If you use the Common App you’ll have to use the online application, which will include a text box where all essays must be cut and pasted for submission.

3. You have an additional 150 words with which to work. For several years, the Common Application did not put an length limit on the essay it asked students to write, instead only specifying a minimum. Unsurprisingly, that elicited complaints from countless admissions departments, who found themselves deluged with multi-page submissions that in some cases read like short novels rather than essays. In response, the Common Application added a 500-word maximum limit to their essay, which pleased admissions departments but frequently frustrated applicants, parents, and counselors who felt it was too short. Just goes to show you can’t please everyone. The new essay requirements seem to seek a compromise between the two sides, giving applicants 30% more words to work with while still capping submissions at a reasonable length.

4. The 650-word limit is hard, with absolutely no room to go beyond it. While the Common Application is giving applicants more space to use in their essays, they are also changing submission options so that even an essay that is 651 words long will no longer be accepted. I’ve always advocated that applicants adhere to length limits as written, while some others have argued that it is acceptable to go over so long as it is only by a small amount (often claimed to be 5%, 10%, or 50-100 words). On the new Common Application, applicants will be forced to cut and paste their essays into a text box on the online application. That text box will automatically count the words in the submission, and will not allow students to submit if the essay exceeds that 650-word maximum.

5. All submissions will have to be in plain text. This is closely tied to the point above and is directly related to applicants now having to submit all essays online. While programs such as Microsoft Word allow you to accent your writing with things like boldface, italics, and underline, those formatting elements will not carry over when applicants copy/paste their essays into the submission box on the application itself. If you’re someone who relies on those formatting elements to clarify or add color to your writing, you’ll need to find a different way to accomplish those ends.

6. The short essay asking you to elaborate on an extracurricular activity is gone. Not much to explain here. Applicants will now only have the single essay (not counting any supplementary ones requested by individual schools) to complete as part of the Common Application.

If you want more information about these big changes, including in-depth analysis of the new essay prompt options, be sure to check back often. We’ll be exploring these changes in detail over the coming weeks and again when the 2013-14 application season begins in earnest.

The undergraduate admissions season is winding down, but there are still many graduate-level programs, including law and business, that will accept applications well into the spring. If you’re targeting one of those programs and haven’t yet written your personal statement, this post is for you. Actually, this post is for anyone who hasn’t written a personal statement but may need to someday. It’s also for people who have written a personal statement but want to improve it. Hm. So I guess it’s for a lot of people… honestly, the advice isn’t confined to this year or admissions cycle and will remain good far into the future.

And what is that advice? Today, I’m going to focus on content you want to avoid in a personal statement. More specifically, I’m going to focus on several types of content that many applicants believe to be a good fit for a statement but in reality do nothing to help you.

1. Accomplishments, grades, awards, and the like. This is an easy mistake to make, as applicants believe talking about positives like a high GPA, prizes, and extracurricular achievements will reflect well on them. In reality, however, anything important enough to warrant listing in a personal statement should be highlighted elsewhere in your application, most likely in your transcript and resume/CV. Some applications even include a specific section separate from the personal statement where you list notable accomplishments, particularly leadership positions and honors. As a result, unless you’re elaborating on one or two particular instances – explaining the extensive research process that led to an academic award, for example – and it contributes to your larger narrative, you should avoid content like this in your statement.

2. Extensive personal background, particularly related to your family. A personal statement needs to be about you, not your parent, sibling, friend, coworker, boss, idol, or anyone else. Even if your father is your role model, mentor, and general inspiration for life, spending a paragraph detailing his rise from poverty into a Fortune-500 executive isn’t going to impress, or even interest, the person who reads your statement. There are rare occasions when you need to include a bit of information like this, but it should never comprise a significant chunk of your statement, nor should it play a pivotal role in your introduction.

3. Basic information about the program pulled from its website. A great personal statement should absolutely show why you are a great fit for a particular school or program and why you have chosen to apply there. While most applicants understand that, many go about doing so in an ineffective way, combing through descriptions, professor listings, and course offerings and then throwing that information into a few sentences or short paragraph at the end of the statement. Dropping a couple professor names and an extracurricular organization, along with a factoid (location, exclusivity, mission statement, available resources, and the like) into your statement is easy. Unfortunately, admissions personnel can immediately tell that you spent no more than 5 minutes researching and adding that info, which reflects poorly on you. Instead, dig deeper into the program and come up with a more original, detailed way to justify your interest in and fit for that particular place.

4. Overly detailed and/or ambitious plans. You may think you have the rest of your career planned out already. Good for you! If you’re just now applying to graduate programs, though, having an intricate road map that covers the next five decades of your life is probably overkill. No matter how confident you are in declaring where you will work, what positions you will hold, and how you will contribute to your field, the simple truth is that if you’re still in school, what you hope will happen after graduating is nothing more than hypothetical. A great personal statement shows that you have considered your future and have direction and goals at some level, but avoids grandiose or overly elaborate plans.

5. Excuses. There is not a single applicant on this planet who is perfect. Schools know this and fully expect every applicant to have struggled, made mistakes, and even – <gasp> – failed, not just a few times but on many occasions throughout their lives. Applicants, on the other hand, tend to feel like any shortcoming, no matter how small, is a giant black mark on their application that must be covered up or somehow justified. That leads them to spend precious space in their personal statement explaining how they caught the flu, broke their leg, and lost their dog the night before the GRE, which ultimately caused their Analytical Writing score to be a half point lower than it surely would have been otherwise. Don’t fall into this trap. Accept and own faults in your candidacy; doing so will make you seem like a more reasonable and even confident applicant, especially if your application in whole shows that you have ultimately thrived despite inevitable obstacles and errors. Also, some applications give you the chance to elaborate on issues like these (struggles, failures) in a supplementary essay. Only write an essay of that type if 1) you have a truly unique and extenuating circumstance or component of your application that demands additional explanation, and 2) providing that information will give the reader a significantly better understanding of you. Optional essays of that type are not the place to claim that standardized tests aren’t fair, complain about a professor you thought didn’t like you, or argue that your life has been remarkably difficult because you had to balance work with school at some point along the line.

6. Embellishment. A GPA of 3.1 is not an A- average. Going to a half dozen practices your freshman year does not make you a varsity athlete. A six-week unpaid internship during which you answered phones for two hours per day does not expose you to the inner dealings of corporate M&A work. Volunteering a couple times does not constitute a lifelong commitment to community service. Being on the email list for an extracurricular group does not make you the club secretary. Selling an old computer on eBay does not make you an entrepreneur. I could go on like this for a long time, but the message is simple: avoid blowing things into something they are not. Be honest and be yourself, don’t BS.

No, I’m not talking about renting a secluded and sparsely furnished cabin and holing up there, subsisting on little more than coffee as you crank out a piece of literature that makes Moby Dick read like a Dick and Jane story. Nor am I talking about falling for one of those ****Make Trillions of Dollars Working from Home 10 Minutes Per Day Writing Blog Posts (or Filling Out Online Reviews… or Completing Surveys…)**** scams. Instead, I’m talking about applying for scholarships that can provide hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars toward the costs of higher education. Sounds great, right? Of course it does. As with anything that sounds good, though, this won’t be easy; just like applying to schools and programs themselves, applying for scholarships today is a cutthroat process where huge numbers of people compete for a tiny number of available awards.

Now, when we talk about scholarships and essays, there are actually two different ways that they go together:

1) Scholarships that are essay-writing contests

2) Scholarships that require an essay as part of the application

Let’s take a look at each of these in greater detail.

Essay-Writing Contests that Give Scholarships

Writing is easy. Look, I wrote something!

Writing well, though – that’s significantly more of a challenge. And writing something that is good enough to earn you money… well, that probably seems impossible to many out there. If you enjoy writing, have some talent in that area, and are willing to devote the time and effort needed to craft a great essay, however, it is possible to earn a significant chunk of cash toward your college education.

Essay-writing contests are quite self explanatory: you write an essay according to some sort of rules or guidelines and submit it. Submissions are judged, and the winner or winners earn a prize of some sort, in this case a scholarship. Simple, yes. Easy, no.

If you decide to enter a contest like this in hopes of earning money for school, here are a few things you should keep in mind:

1. Originality is everything. If you plagiarize in a competition, you will be caught, you will not win, and you may suffer negative consequences at your current school or even your next institution. Don’t do it.

2. Mistakes are unacceptable. Whether you’re writing for school or work, you should always carefully proofread your work. When hundreds or thousands of dollars are on the line, though, checking your work for miscues is even more important. A submission with problems, whether typos, grammatical errors, or even poor formatting, will torpedo your chances.

3. One essay may work for multiple competitions. Some contests have very specific guidelines about what you must write while others offer more flexibility. A great essay that you write for one competition could work for another, with little or no modification. For others, you may be able (or even required) to use a piece of writing that you composed for a class. Be sure to read the rules carefully to determine what is and is not allowed in each particular case.

If you’re looking for competitions of this type, there are many options out there. Here are a few to get you started, but it would be worth your while to take some time and research others, both on a national and local level; there are more than you think!

WyzAnt College Scholarship Essay Contest (deadline: May 1)

- Scholarships of $10,000, $3,000, and $2,000 available

Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest (deadline: April 15)

- Five $1,000 scholarships available

The Bird Dog Foundation Scholarship Essay Contest (deadline: April 15)

- Scholarships of $1,500 and $1,000 available

Essays for Scholarship Applications

A single outstanding piece of writing can, in some instances, earn you scholarship money on its own. In other cases, the essay is just one part of a larger scholarship application. Such scholarships work much like general college applications, in that you have to submit multiple things – grades, scores, essays,  recommendations, and the like – in order to apply. Each of those elements is then considered by a person or group, and the scholarship is awarded to one or more individuals based on that review.

Essays of this type must be approached in their own unique way. Here are three key tips:

1. Read the instructions or prompt carefully. Just as with application essays, scholarship essays almost always have a very specific purpose. Make sure you know exactly what you need to write and how you need to do it (length, formatting, content, etc.).

2. Understand how the essay fits. What kind of scholarship is this? What sort of organization is awarding it? If you’re applying for a scholarship funded by a historical society and you submit an essay talking about exploits on the basketball court, you’re probably not going to win.

3. Do your own work. Again, this should go without saying, but it seems that more and more applicants think they can get away with plagiarizing or having someone else write for them, particularly when it’s not a school assignment. If you’re not a strong writer but are still applying for scholarships that require essays, find someone – a friend, teacher, or consultant – to help you edit and improve your own work rather than cheating.

Ahhh, Friday. Nothing like the end of a long week to put a little bit of extra spring in your step. And if you’re an applicant who has finally finished putting together and submitting your applications, this Friday could be particularly relaxing.

For the vast majority of college applicants, mid-January marks the point at which you’ve finished all of your applications. Whether you applied early and have been done for months or caught one of the many January 15 deadlines earlier this week, hopefully you’re now at a point where you can stop obsessing over test scores, transcripts, essays, recommendations, and other application necessities. If you successfully submitted an application this cycle, whether one or twenty, here’s something from all of us here at EssayEdge:

Congratulations!!!

While this particular outlet doesn’t allow me to add much more emotion to the above exclamation (short of adding more exclamation points, but I consider three an absolute maximum), please accept our heartfelt best wishes. Everyone here, from editors to customer support, means it.

With applications done, I often get asked whether there is anything else hopeful students should do at this time of year. The simple answer is yes – see below for three suggestions on steps you should take when your applications are complete.

1. Say “Thank you!”

No matter how hard you worked to pull applications together, you inevitably had help from others during the process. Make sure that you take some time to say thanks to everyone who helped you along the way. Particularly important are those who wrote recommendations on your behalf. You may also want to reach out to those who helped you with essays, standardized test preparation, or general support. Finally, it’s always worth saying thanks to your parents – even if you think they did nothing but nag and worry throughout the entire application process, they’re still immensely deserving of some gratitude.

2. Don’t completely check out.

Applications are done, but that doesn’t mean you should start coasting right now. There are still many good reasons to stay focused and avoid the infamous “senior slump.” Here are just a few:

- AP exams. If you’re taking any AP courses, giving them your all and ultimately earning a 4 or 5 on AP exams can earn you college credit or allow you to skip entry-level coursework.

- Financial aid. Merit-based financial aid will definitely consider your academic performance as a whole, including this semester.

- Waitlisting. Don’t forget that there’s a chance you won’t be accepted or rejected when admissions decisions are made, but rather waitlisted. If that happens, you won’t want to give the school any reason to second guess your credentials.

3. Relax!

This one’s simple. At this point, the process is out of your hands. Don’t obsess over things, worrying that you could’ve improved on something or made a mistake somewhere else. Your application is in, you did your best, and that’s all that the admissions committee can ask for. Admissions officers are the ones who will now be staying up late agonizing over applications. It’s your turn to put your feet up, catch up on sleep, and remember what high school life is like without an application hanging over your head!

January 7th. Early and first-round application deadlines were so long ago that you can barely remember them. Even many regular and second-round deadlines have faded into the past. At this point, there are just a handful of late application deadlines left to take advantage of. If you’re planning to submit an application but haven’t yet started writing an essay or personal statement, this post is for you. Here are 6 tips especially designed to help procrastinators make the most of the time left and still come out with a great piece of admissions writing.

1. Start Right Now

Whether your deadline is tomorrow or a week down the road, now’s the perfect time to get started. Procrastinators tend to operate with a mentality of, “Well, I haven’t started yet, so I may as well wait until the absolute last minute at this point.” Break free from this line of thinking. Starting 18 hours before your deadline is much better than starting 12 hours before. Even a small amount of extra time could be the difference between submitting an essay that’s mediocre and one that’s very good.

2. Set a Schedule

Before you start writing, evaluate how best to allocate the time available. If at all possible, plan out when you’d like to have drafts done, block off time for editing and/or third-party feedback, and give yourself as much buffer time as possible before your application is due to account for unexpected problems such as technical issues. Use calendar program reminders or even alarms to notify you when you’ve hit certain milestones. Establishing a schedule, whether it’s for a 6-hour period or a 6-day period, will help you track progress and maximize efficiency.

3. Find the Right Writing Environment

If you’re a procrastinator, you also may be a person who is easily distracted. Whether it’s social networking sites, your favorite television shows, calls/texts/chats with friends, or something else entirely, there are undoubtedly many things you’d rather be doing than writing an application essay. The essay won’t write itself, though, so you’re going to have to get through it one way or another. Make it easier to focus on the task at hand by distancing yourself from the things most likely to distract you. Turn off your phone, unplug the wireless router, hide the remote control, and do whatever else necessary to help you focus uninterrupted.

4. Brainstorm and Outline

Writers facing a time crunch tend to skimp on or skip completely the pre-writing process – brainstorming and outlining – and instead dive straight into writing. It can feel like this will save time, when in reality, it usually makes the writing harder and costs you precious minutes or hours in the long run while leaving you with a lower quality finished product. By taking a chunk of time to brainstorm and outline, you will minimize instances of writer’s block, give your writing more direction and cohesiveness, and generally end up with a stronger first draft. Thus, you’ll save time not only during the writing process, but also further down the line when you start revising.

5. Take Breaks

This tip can be challenging for procrastinators to accept, as they often feel like their decision to start late means that they must work straight through from start to finish. Taking breaks, however, will help you improve the quality of your writing and avoid writer’s block. From a 15-minute snack break to a full afternoon spent with friends, time spent away from your essay helps you better evaluate what you’ve already written and come up with fresh ideas. Breaks can and should be scheduled from the very beginning (their frequency and duration will obviously depend on how much time you have available), but you should also try and have enough flexibility that if you hit an unexpected patch of writer’s block, you can step away from your work and come back to it a bit later.

6. Involve Another

Finally, if you’ve waited until the last minute, it can be tempting to simply write and submit your essay without feedback from anyone else. Avoid this if at all possible. The earlier you start, the easier it will be to have someone else read and comment on your work. Even if it’s the night before your application is due, though, see if you can find someone to help you out. Ask a parent  or call in a favor with a friend. You’ll be glad you did – seeing how your essay comes across to someone who isn’t you helps you catch mistakes and iron out trouble spots before an admissions officer sees them.

This December has been a big month for the number 12. To continue in the spirit of 12/12/12 and even that beloved (or possibly, vehemently hated) holiday tune, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” today EssayEdge presents to you, ” The Twelve Dos and Don’ts of Essay Writing.” Enjoy!

12. DO give yourself time. Two weeks is ideal, but twelve days would work too. Even if you’re only a day or two away from your deadline, starting now is always better than starting later.

11. DON’T plagiarize. Using someone else’s work will kill your chance of admission.

10. DO be honest. Trying to make a four-week internship that you spent mainly answering phones sound like you were the CEO of a Fortune 500 firm for a year won’t improve your standing in the eyes of the admissions committee.

9. DON’T exceed the length limit. Admissions officers have heard every excuse in the book for why a particular applicant desperately needs 700 words when the maximum specified was 500. The simple fact is that there is never a good reason to go over, and doing so will reflect poorly on you.

8. DO be descriptive. The easiest way to do this is by using active verbs and dynamic nouns. “The red car stopped directly in front of my friend,” is nothing compared to, “The Ferrari squealed to a halt inches from Steve’s face,” and both use the exact same number of words.

7. DON’T write a resume in essay form. If your essay or statement reads like a narrative listing of your various courses, clubs, jobs, and accomplishments over the past several years, it isn’t serving its intended purpose.

6. DO respond to the prompt. It’s amazing how many applicants write essays that, while generally solid, aren’t actually relevant to the prompt at hand. If the prompt asks a specific question (or several), make sure your essay provides an answer.

5. DON’T use cliches or overuse idioms. This one should be a piece of cake, like taking candy from a baby.

4. DO take breaks. Writing comes in fits and starts. If you feel like you’re making good progress, then by all means continue. If you’re stuck with a nasty case of writer’s block, though, the best cure is often a nap, some exercise, a movie, or anything else that takes your mind off the essay for a while.

3. DON’T rely on spell check. Automatic functions in programs like Microsoft Word are helpful tools, but they’re not infallible. Mistakes can make it though unchecked. See?

2. DO have someone else review your work. Whether a close friend, parent, teacher, counselor, or professional, having someone else read through your essay will give you valuable feedback. Sometimes it takes a new perspective to spot problem areas that you would otherwise miss.

1. DON’T completely stress out. Yes, this is important, and yes, it takes a lot of work, but it’s not the end of the world. Make sure you still find time for relaxation and the things that are important in your life.

If someone were to ask you, “Why are you doing this?” as you worked on your application essay or personal statement, you’d probably give a quick and straightforward answer: you’re writing to [hopefully] gain admission somewhere. You’re not just writing for fun, nor are you undertaking a purely creative exercise. At a root level, that’s the purpose that drives creation of every admissions essay that has ever been written. Just because you have a clear reason for writing an essay, however, does not necessarily mean that the content you’re filling it with has a similar degree of purpose. To the contrary, it’s remarkably easy to end up with an essay that includes a significant amount of content that does not really need to be there.

When I encourage applicants to, “Write with a purpose,” the suggestion is meant to be taken at a different level, specifically at the paragraph, sentence, and even individual word level. To make your writing compelling, you need to ensure each word and sentence has a purpose that is connected to your overall goal. While writing, you should constantly be taking the opportunity to step back and say, “Why am I sharing this information?” or “Does what I just wrote add something to my essay (besides length).”

Length limits are actually one of the parts of application essays that cause trouble when it comes to ensuring your writing has purpose. While many applicants struggle to keep their essays under a given limit, others worry that their essays need to be at least as long as the maximum specified. If you have 1,000 words to work with, some applicants take that to mean that a successful essay must be as close to 1,000 words as possible. Otherwise, it can feel like you are wasting space that could be used to your advantage. In reality, though, an essay that is 800 words long and full of compelling content that has a clear purpose is much better than a 1,000-word essay with 800 quality words and 200 that are simply thrown in to add length. Never feel like you need to add content just to hit a length limit. Instead, write as much as you need to to fully answer the prompt and tell the stories you want to share.

If you need a quick way to get an idea of whether something you’ve written is worth keeping in your essay or statement, ask yourself the following simple questions:

1. Is this information that is included elsewhere in your application? If so, do you really need to repeat it?

2. Is this information that shows something important about me or my experiences? If not, why are you including it?

3. Is this information relevant to your target school or program? If not, is it really strengthening your candidacy?

If you realize that you can’t clearly justify something that you’ve just written or are intending to write, it’s best to simply leave it out. If you can’t justify its inclusion to yourself, how is the admissions officer going to feel about it? Fill your essay with content that clearly contributes something to your overall story, and you’ll create an essay that is compelling beyond its words.

Even if your writing is as clear and concise as it can possibly be, it will fall flat if it doesn’t say something that captures the reader’s attention. Pretty words are just pretty words; without strong ideas behind them, they’re nothing more than a facade. And believe me, admissions officers know when they’re reading something that has substance and something that doesn’t, regardless of how well it may be written. So what exactly is compelling writing, you may be asking yourself?

Compelling writing makes an impression on the reader, drawing him or her into the story you are telling.

When you write in a compelling fashion, your reader takes notice. I don’t mean that the reader will say, “Wow, this writing is really compelling.” Rather, the reader will find him or herself drawn into your prose. Reading your essay won’t seem burdensome at all; rather, it will be effortless and will make an impression.

Make sure that you don’t confuse compelling writing with writing that is overly dramatic or emotional. You don’t have to be over-the-top to get your reader’s attention, nor do you have to use gigantic words and complex constructions. You simply need to say something that’s worth saying in this particular context. You’re applying for admission to a specific program or institution, and you thus need to somehow leave the reader confident that you will be an excellent addition there.

More than the other two C’s, compelling writing depends not only on choices at the word and sentence level, but also at the larger overall organization and content levels. While you can make boring content clear and concise, you can’t make it compelling. If you’re not telling good stories or making solid points, all the polishing in the world won’t make your writing compelling. Admissions officers have seen it all, and are not impressed by fluff masquerading as compelling content.

So how can you make your writing compelling? We’ve got two major suggestions, so check back again soon for more great advice!

For our purposes, concise means precisely what you think it means… unless you think it means angry or purple… in that case, you’d be wrong.

Concise writing says what it needs to say while using words economically.

In this definition, don’t be confused by our use of “economically” – this has nothing to do with money or quality. Rather, it means that concise writing does not waste words. As noted in the previous post, when you’re dealing with a length limit, it’s extremely important that each word contribute something to your story.

While writing in an essay of this type should be concise, that does not mean that it should be boring or clipped. Concise writing should still be eloquent and expressive. Just because you’re working within fairly tight space constraints does not mean that you can throw style out the window in favor of cramming in facts.

Writing that is too long-winded will not work in an admissions essay, as it takes up a ton of space without actually saying much that is meaningful. Admissions committees see tons of this type of writing, and are not impressed by it. Writing that is not concise tends to also be unoriginal and overly generalized. Such traits are often symptomatic of a late start – rushing the process causes people to try and cram whatever comes to mind into the essay as they go – which is yet another reason that you should start this process as early as possible.

Though this kind of writing is no good for our purposes, the opposite isn’t any better; you can take the “concise” idea too far. When that happens, while your essay may be short, it also probably won’t sound good. Writing of that type is mechanical and passionless, which means that it won’t make much of a good impression on the reader. In fact, despite its simple nature, it’s actually hard to read in some respects, since it’s so devoid of energy.

So how do you write in a concise fashion without sacrificing the overall quality of your prose? Well, we have three suggestions that, if heeded, can help you notably improve your writing in this regard. We’ll go into each a bit deeper in our next posts, but here they are now for those of you who want to get a head start:

1. Avoid cliches

2. Minimize use of the verb “to be”

3. Use active verbs and dynamic nouns

Though you may have learned various definitions of what “clear” means in terms of writing, here’s the EssayEdge take:

Clear writing has a readily apparent purpose.

In other words, when you write in a clear fashion, your reader will not have to spend time puzzling over statements, phrases, or words trying to figure out what you’re getting at. The last thing you want for an admissions officer who has read dozens if not hundreds – or even thousands – of essays that day is to be confusing or cluttered (two bad Cs). You need to write in a way that makes your essay understandable.

Now, it is important that you not confuse clear writing with obvious or overly simplistic writing. Clear writing can be complex in form, can use large words (assuming they’re appropriate and don’t feel forced), and can take twists and turns. Sometimes, your essay or statement will be significantly stronger if you work in a story or writing device that is somehow “outside the box” (sorry for the terrible cliché). Still, if you do something like this, you need to ensure that by the end of the essay, the reason you used such a device is clear.

Writing in a clear fashion is important to maintaining the energy and flow of your piece. You should always have your audience, your prompt, and your overall goal for the essay in mind while you’re writing. If what you’re writing doesn’t connect to one of those points, or at least support something that does, you should probably reconsider including it in your work. This is especially important in instances when a length limit is governing the size of your response. You simply don’t have room for additional “fluff.”

So to recap:

Clear writing has a readily apparent purpose. Don’t confuse clear writing with obvious or overly simplistic writing.

In the next post, we’ll move on to the second C, which is closely connected to the first. As you may have realized, clear writing not only helps make your points clear; it also often helps them take up a minimal amount of space. This can be extremely important when dealing with admissions essays, as length is one way these pieces differ greatly from your average piece of academic or personal writing.