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Tips on improving word choice for your essay
- Whenever possible, use the shorter, simpler word.
You can use a thesaurus for jogging your memory when you’re trying to come up with better word choice, but never use a word with which you aren’t already familiar. Words often have connotations and nuances of meaning that you can appreciate only after seeing them in context, so you’re taking a great risk if you use a word that you don’t know well. It can play a bad game with you, especially when we talk about college admission essay.
Even if you do feel comfortable with more advanced vocabulary, you should use the simpler synonym if that captures your meaning just as well. For example, instead of “ameliorated the situation,” you could just as easily say “improved the situation.” On the other hand, word choice like “exasperated” is more intense than a synonym like “frustrated,” and so you should use it if that’s the sense you’re trying to convey.
- Use precise language.
Choose words that capture your experience fully and accurately. For example:
VAGUE: When we first started the business, I performed a range of duties to get the company going.
PRECISE: When we first started the business, I took the initiative to contact potential partners, evaluate the service of our competitors, and tailor our plan to local markets.
To be aware of word choices that can make your essay better, look through personal statement examples for college. You can make notes and create a list of the words worth mentioning in your essay to diversify the content.
- Use nouns and verbs rather than adverbs and adjectives.
Inexperienced writers think that using fancy adverbs and adjectives will make their writing look more eloquent, but in fact, they just bog down your rhythm and usually sound like fluff. They also tend to make your writing sound abstract because they are not actual physical substances. Good writers stick to concrete nouns that the reader can grasp, and even more importantly, vivid verbs that are the lifeblood of active, engaging language. Better word choice can easily increase the quality of any piece of writing.
BEFORE: I ran quickly to the board where the results would be posted, with many curious people standing around waiting anxiously to see their scores.
AFTER: I rushed to the board to find people crowded around, muttering prayers to themselves as they awaited the dean’s arrival with their score results.
The phrase “ran quickly” has become the more succinct and punchy “rushed.” Instead of “many curious people standing around,” we have substituted “people crowded around muttering prayers to themselves.” Thus we gain a more vivid verb word choice in “crowded” and a concrete image of people muttering prayers instead of the abstract adjective “curious” and the clunky adverb “anxiously.” In focusing on nouns and verbs, we have succeeded in showing instead of telling.
- Avoid repetition.
Don’t use words twice in close proximity, and don’t use the same words regularly throughout an essay. The problem usually comes in overusing the same noun that’s central to your topic. Although we emphasized the importance of precision when you’re describing the details of experiences, you can get away with synonyms when writing more broadly about themes and topics. Moreover, synonyms are the key to improving word choice for the essay, such words make the content vivid and variegate.
For example, if your essay is about your skills in interpersonal interaction, you could use similar phrases as “communication strengths” and “building trusting relationships.”
Why is it crucial to choose better word choice for your admission essay?
When applying for a place in the college, students are to write several essays. There are cases when future students are that much perplexed and motivated at the same time that they try to do some unnecessary actions only to make the essay better. Using inappropriate words is one of those actions that can spoil everything. Suppose the admissions officer reads essay introduction and finds there a great deal of the words that are not common to be used in the teen’s life. Such word choices spoil the impression of the whole essay right from the introduction.
The problem of unfitting words is a common issue, and it has a resolution. You don’t have to create the wrong impression when using words that are not intrinsic to you in real life. The goal of the essay is to prove yourself and illustrate your personality without pretending to be someone else.
You can look through samples of the successful essays and understand some specific traits of the person within only the words they use. Thus, try to be yourself in writing and work on improving word choice for your essay to create an outstanding impression.
However, to be absolutely secure that your essay is clear and in the right shape, it is important to have someone to peruse it. Essay editor is that person who can check everything and provide you with appropriate replacements for the omissions.
How appropriate word choice can improve the whole essay?
The text that is an engaging and easy-to-read one is an inherent way to make the reader interested in the narrative on the whole. Moreover, the utterance with its better word choice attracts the reader more and provokes them to continue reading until the last sentence.
Suppose you are writing your essay right now and feel some uncertainty about the appropriateness of the word usage. In that case, you can refer to college essay editing for professional advice that will help you craft the essay worth attention and admiration.
If you are not sure about your essay’s better word choice, check out our blog for more interesting and useful tips that will help you create your best essay ever!
Academic writing is a formal style, but students perceive it literally and add too many extra elements. This short guide on word choice must help you realize the critical mistakes. If you aren’t as confident as you would like to be to submit an application, contact us. Use this chance to see how a professional MBA essay editing service reviews students’ papers to achieve perfection.
