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College Cuisine
Going to college is a grand experience. It's the first time many young adults get the chance to begin taking care of themselves, no matter what the consequences. One of the main things that worries parents when their child heads out into the world...
Direct loans, the new way to fund going to college
Going to college can be an expensive proposition for both the student and the government. Many people are finding that going to college is an impossible dream due to raising tutitions and cost of living unless they receive help in the form of a...
Financing A College Education
So your teenager has decided to go to college. You've hoped for this day. You sweated through 12 years of school with your child, and have been an active participant in his/her education. You've been saving for this day for years, but with all the...
How Online College Classes Work
It's no secret that more and more people are looking to the internet for a convenient way to further their education. Online classes are a great way to obtain an accredited college degree from home and continue to work a full time job. Many...
Is Affirmative Action In Jeopardy On College Campuses?
Affirmative action and other set-asides for minorities and women
have come under increasing fire in recent years. These programs,
first started decades ago, were once a given in higher education
for everything from admission to financial aid....
Online College Degrees & Distance Learning
Online and distance degrees are gaining in popularity. Many people find the flexibility offered with distance learning is a huge benefit while trying to juggle the demands of everyday life. Many traditional college institutions are now offering...
Paying For A College Education The Army Way
The United States Army is one of the most organizations in the country at not only promoting higher education for its members and recruits, but in assisting them to pay for it as well. They offer a number of programs to all qualified applicants...
Saving Money for College and 529 Plans
Copyright 2005 Richard Keir
Wanting the best for your children doesn't always make it
possible to give them the best. And when you look at the cost of
four years of college, the idea of coming up with that much
money monthly as your child...
Six Ways To Prepare Your Child for College
A life coach, academic dvisor, and faculty offers some easy tips to make the transition to college easier for both parent and child.
With the end of summer millions of American families will experience the ritual of sending a child off to...
Tips To Consider For Your College Search
There are a number of points that you will want to consider when you start your college search. More than anything, this will at least help cut down the number of options that you have after performing a college search. It doesn't matter if you are...
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Editing Your College Essays
Your college essay is complete. You've poured your heart and
soul into it ... but it's too long by 100 words, and could use a
bit of polishing before it goes out into the world. It's time to
change from being an author to being a copy editor, and to drop
the emotional attachment to your words. Remember ABC: Always Be
Concise. Consider the word limit to be analogous to a speed
limit--you don't have to reach or even exceed it and it's
definitely not a race to see how many words you can use.
Many of us that do some form of copy-editing professionally use
a series of editing passes, each concentrating on a specific
type of problem or problems. Doing so lets you distance yourself
from your essay - and copy edit your own work more effectively.
1. Begin by reading the essay out loud. Doing so uses a
different neural pathway than reading silently. If the
application deadline is looming, this step will probably catch a
great many errors in a short amount of time.
2. Consider the tone of the essay, and avoid pretentiousness.
Showcase yourself without bragging. Don't be shy, don't hide
behind formal and ornate prose...let the adcoms see *you* as a
person. Write as if you were telling the story or having a
conversation with a respected adult you don't know too well. If
you think your essay sounds egotistical and pompous, chances are
your intended audience does, too.
3. Remove tangential paragraphs. If a paragraph is not integral
to your essay, it will lead the reader down a dead-end path and
just leave them there. The flow of the essay will be disrupted,
and the reader won't be so eager to see what's next.
4. Check to see if there is too much setup and explanation in
your essay. It's natural to go into great detail when first
explaining or describing something. These passages can be
frequently shortened or deleted without loss of clarity. The
adcoms, though adult, are not stupid.
5. Go through the essay and remove every - or almost every -
instance of 'to be.' Using the active voice will almost always
shorten and improve your essay.
6. Next, remove redundant phrases. You don't
have the luxury of
repeating yourself for emphasis in a 500 or 250 word essay.
7. Finally, remove redundant words. If a sentence is equally
clear without a word, then it should be cut.
8. Make sure your essay makes grammatical sense. Check your
tenses. Trace each modifier (adjective, prepositional phrase,
etc.) back to the item it's describing; match each subject with
its predicate. Check specifically for misplaced modifiers and
singular subjects with plural predicates, e.g., "none of them
know."
9. Check your spelling and word usage. Catch all the common
errors like "noone" for "no one." Do not rely on spell checking
software; it will not catch misused homonyms ("their" for
"there") or misspelled words or typos that are other words "hat"
instead of "that", "to" instead of "too").
10. Look at your word choices carefully. Don't use the
ten-dollar word when the fifty-cent one will do. Using
ostentatiously literary words usually leads to problems of tone.
11. Good writing is not the result of a democratic process; it
requires a unified vision and execution. When seeking the
editing advice of others, don't let their suggested changes
change the overall "voice" of your essay unless the voice needs
changing. By incorporating too many "editing suggestions" for
word changes, sentence structure, etc., the essay can quickly
fall apart and lose the sense that it's coming from you.
12. Wait at least a day (if you can), and then read the essay
again - OUT LOUD - and really listen this time! With all the
deletions and changes you have made, chances are good that you
introduced a few errors or typos in the process. This last pass
is needed to correct your corrections.
About the author:
Todd, an avid writer counsels students in his free time on how
they can get into a college of their choice.
An interactive guide for individuals who wish to pursue their
higher studies, JustColleges consists of
a listing of over 10,000 colleges and universities worldwide,
articles, essays, FAQs and tips on how to get into the right
college.
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