{"id":450,"date":"2014-09-15T05:23:55","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T05:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/?p=450"},"modified":"2018-06-25T15:53:23","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T21:53:23","slug":"top-ten-tips-for-successful-application-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/top-ten-tips-for-successful-application-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Ten Tips for Successful Application Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your college application writing is not just about writing one personal statement. There are often several shorter essays, supplemental questions, and short answers required by schools, too. This top ten list will quickly prepare you for all of the writing required on your college applications. Heed this advice and you will be able to start your process \u201cin the know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>1.<\/strong> Begin your application brainstorming and writing process the summer before your senior year in order to get ahead.<\/span> By working in the summer, your coursework won\u2019t suffer and you will have more time to spread out the process since you are not in school.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>2.<\/strong> Just because a question requires a shorter answer does not mean it is a \u201cthrow away question.\u201d<\/span> Spend quality time crafting each answer, no matter how short it may be. Don\u2019t assume that shorter means less important. If colleges didn\u2019t care about a response to something, they would not ask for one.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>3.<\/strong> It may sound obvious, but write about something you are passionate about and best illustrates a glimpse of who you are as a person.<\/span> Your genuine feelings more easily show through in your writing come if the topic you choose or story you tell is meaningful to you.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>4.<\/strong> Write in the first person.<\/span> This writing is about you, so use \u201cI\u201d when writing about yourself. Also, an active voice brings your reader into your narrative.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>5.<\/strong> Be specific and do your research.<\/span> For a \u201cwhy this school?\u201d question, make sure you include facts, names of professors, courses, campus traditions, etc. from each school so your reader knows you are serious and knowledgeable about their school.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>6.<\/strong> For an activity paragraph, show, don\u2019t tell.<\/span> If you elaborate on activity that is meaningful to you, don\u2019t simply describe or list things you did in that activity. Instead, tell a story, paint a picture for your reader, and offer them some tangible images of your role or experience in that activity.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>7.<\/strong> For an academic paragraph, bring your reader into your head and allow them to see how you think.<\/span> Connect ideas and demonstrate to your reader that you would be a great addition to their college campus classroom.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>8.<\/strong> For fill-in-the-blanks or short answers that are just a sentence or two, be sure you choose your words carefully.<\/span> Make your answers impactful despite their brevity.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>9.<\/strong> Proofread more than once.<\/span> Print out your essays and read your writing out loud to yourself. Sometimes when you read it you catch things that you didn\u2019t see on a computer screen or that don\u2019t sound right when read aloud. 1<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>10.<\/strong> Read <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Writing-Successful-College-Applications-Essay\/dp\/0768938899\/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1409797290&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=Writing+Successful+College+Applications\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Writing Successful College Application Essays<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(available for purchase September 30!)\u00a0for a more in-depth look at many of these tips as well as to read more than one hundred real college applications from other students.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Good luck and don\u2019t forget to breathe! You will survive this rite of passage!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your college application writing is not just about writing one personal statement. There are often several shorter essays, supplemental questions, and short answers required by schools, too. This top ten list will quickly prepare you for all of the writing required on your college applications. Heed this advice and you will be able to start<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[506,560,29,509],"class_list":{"0":"post-450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colleges","8":"tag-college-application","9":"tag-editing","10":"tag-essays","11":"tag-writing"},"better_featured_image":{"id":5689,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":2048,"height":1538,"file":"s3:\/\/pcom-wp-media\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/10124505\/aaron-burden-521422-unsplash.jpg","sizes":{},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":450,"source_url":"https:\/\/wp-media.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/10124505\/aaron-burden-521422-unsplash.jpg"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Top Ten Tips for Successful Application Writing - Peterson&#039;s<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/top-ten-tips-for-successful-application-writing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top Ten Tips for Successful Application Writing - Peterson&#039;s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Your college application writing is not just about writing one personal statement. 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