Writing Tips

Writing Tips I know this sounds absurdly simple, but it really does make a difference to be as relaxed as possible when you sit down to write. Jacob Imm is a communications specialist in the North Central College Office of Marketing and Communications. He has 10 years of collegiate communications experience and has worked with hundreds of college students. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree from Northern Illinois University. At the same time, don’t go against what you’ve written on the rest of your application. Correct any mistakes you find, but be sure not to rely on grammar and spelling checkers as they cannot put your words into context. Before penning down a word of your admission essay, it is important that you understand the question and what it expects from you. At the end of the essay, the question that was asked should have been answered fully and in detail. If your high school does not rank students, include a statement from your school describing its policy, a copy of your school’s profile and a GPA or grade distribution report. Rank should be indicated as your numerical position out of the total number of students in the class. For example, if you’re fifth in your class of 130, your transcript should report your rank as 5/130. Applicants should submit transcripts indicating rank for the latest completed semester prior to the application deadline. Work with your high school to send us your official transcript documenting all coursework undertaken during your high school career and your class rank. The letter should be able to give additional context or information to support your admission that is not already provided in your application or other submitted documents (résumé, transcripts). Students who wish to have an SAT or ACT score reviewed with their admissions application must submit at least one set of test scores. (We do not require the SAT Essay or ACT Writing scores.) Scores included in transcripts and copies of score reports don’t meet this requirement. If you wish, you may submit either a video/short film or a written review/critique to support your application. A college admission essay doesn’t typically require a title unless it has been specifically mentioned in the instructions. Even after confirming that your essay is as close to perfect as it can get, you need to get it closer still. After rewriting the essay several times, keep it away. Let it sit for a couple of hours untouched or even a whole day where the deadline isn’t close. After catching the new episode of that TV show you love or going a few chapters of the book you have been reading, go through your essay one more time. The quality of your essay will determine your admission to the college. You may submitup to two optional letters of recommendationwith your admission application. These letters may be from teachers, mentors, or people who know you well, either within or outside of your high school. What do you want your audience to know after reading your essay? Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, organization, or anything else. For help getting started, see our handout on brainstorming. Afterward, take the time to think about it before brainstorming on the different ways to answer it. Choose the prompt that comes closest to something you’d like to write about. The purpose of the prompt is to help you reflect on something that matters to you. Your application will be full of information that illuminates dimensions of you and your abilities, but only the essay gives you a vehicle to speak, in your own voice, about something personally significant. Choose something you care about and it will flow more naturally. And, one more time, don’t write in cliches and platitudes. Every doctor wants to help save lives, every lawyer wants to work for justiceâ€"your reader has read these general cliches a million times. It’s probably much more personal than any of the papers you have written for class because it’s about you, not World War II or planaria. You may want to start by just getting somethingâ€"anythingâ€"on paper. Think about the questions we asked above and the prompt for the essay, and then write for 15 or 30 minutes without stopping. Keep the details straight, and if there’s something you want to reveal in the essay, just be sure it’s about your thoughts and feelings, not an important fact you left out elsewhere. If you find that your essay is too long, do not reformat it extensively to make it fit. Making readers deal with a nine-point font and quarter-inch margins will only irritate them. For strategies for meeting word limits, see our handout on writing concisely. Get it out and revise it again (you can see why we said to start right awayâ€"this process may take time). This may be something you did for school or on your own. This is an opportunity to show us your potential as an RTF student. The duration of the video should be no more than 5 minutes OR the review/critique should be no more than 500 words. If you have earned any college credit while in high school, request that the college or university send official transcripts to UT Austin. comparable to the average class rank of students from traditional schools who have equivalent SAT or ACT test scores.