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College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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15 Tips for Writing, Proofreading, and Editing Your College Essay

What’s covered:, our checklist for writing, proofreading, and editing your essay, where to get your college essays edited.

Your college essay is more than just a writing assignment—it’s your biggest opportunity to showcase the person behind your GPA, test scores, and extracurricular activities. In many ways, it’s the best chance you have to present yourself as a living, breathing, and thoughtful individual to the admissions committee.

Unlike test scores, which can feel impersonal, a well-crafted essay brings color to your application, offering a glimpse into your passions, personality, and potential. Whether you’re an aspiring engineer or an artist, your college essay can set you apart, making it essential that you give it your best.

1. Does the essay address the selected topic or prompt?

Focus on responding directly and thoughtfully to the prompt. If the question asks about your reasons for choosing a specific program or your future aspirations, ensure that your essay revolves around these themes. Tailor your narrative to the prompt, using personal experiences and reflections that reinforce your points.

• Respond directly to the prompt: It’s imperative that you thoughtfully craft your responses so that the exact themes in the prompt are directly addressed. Each essay has a specific prompt that serves a specific purpose, and your response should be tailored in a way that meets that objective.
• Focus: Regardless of what the prompt is about—be it personal experiences, academic achievements, or an opinion on an issue—you must keep the focus of the response on the topic of the prompt .

2. Is the college essay well organized?

An essay with a clear structure is easier to follow and is more impactful. Consider organizing your story chronologically, or use a thematic approach to convey your message. Each paragraph should transition smoothly to the next, maintaining a natural flow of ideas. A well-organized essay is not only easier for the reader to follow, but it can also aid your narrative flow. Logically structured essays can guide the reader through complex and hectic sequences of events in your essay. There are some key factors involved in good structuring:

• A strong hook: Start with a sentence or a paragraph that can grab the attention of the reader. For example, consider using a vivid description of an event to do this.
• Maintain a thematic structure: Maintaining a thematic structure involves organizing your response around a central theme, allowing you to connect diverse points of your essay into a cohesive centralized response.
• Transitioning: Each paragraph should clearly flow into the next, maintaining continuity and coherence in narrative.

3. Include supporting details, examples, and anecdotes.

Enhance your narrative with specific details, vivid examples, and engaging anecdotes. This approach brings your story to life, making it more compelling and relatable. It helps the reader visualize your experiences and understand your perspectives.

4. Show your voice and personality.

Does your personality come through? Does your essay sound like you? Since this is a reflection of you, your essay needs to show who you are.

For example, avoid using vocabulary you wouldn’t normally use—such as “utilize” in place of “use”—because you may come off as phony or disingenuous, and that won’t impress colleges.

5. Does your essay show that you’re a good candidate for admission?

Your essay should demonstrate not only your academic strengths. but also the ways in which your personal qualities align with the specific character and values of the school you’re applying to . While attributes like intelligence and collaboration are universally valued, tailor your essay to reflect aspects that are uniquely esteemed at each particular institution.

For instance, if you’re applying to Dartmouth, you might emphasize your appreciation for, and alignment with, the school’s strong sense of tradition and community. This approach shows a deeper understanding of and a genuine connection to the school, beyond its surface-level attributes.

6. Do you stick to the topic?

Your essay should focus on the topic at hand, weaving your insights, experiences, and perspectives into a cohesive narrative, rather than a disjointed list of thoughts or accomplishments. It’s important to avoid straying into irrelevant details that don’t support your main theme. Instead of simply listing achievements or experiences, integrate them into a narrative that highlights your development, insights, or learning journey.

Example with tangent:

“My interest in performing arts began when I was five. That was also the year I lost my first tooth, which set off a whole year of ‘firsts.’ My first play was The Sound of Music.”

Revised example:

“My interest in performing arts began when I was five, marked by my debut performance in ‘The Sound of Music.’ This experience was the first step in my journey of exploring and loving the stage.”

7. Align your response with the prompt.

Before finalizing your essay, revisit the prompt. Have you addressed all aspects of the question? Make sure your essay aligns with the prompt’s requirements, both in content and spirit. Familiarize yourself with common college essay archetypes, such as the Extracurricular Essay, Diversity Essay, Community Essay, “Why This Major” Essay (and a variant for those who are undecided), and “Why This College” Essay. We have specific guides for each, offering tailored advice and examples:

• Extracurricular Essay Guide
• Diversity Essay Guide
• Community Essay Guide
• “Why This Major” Essay Guide
• “Why This College” Essay Guide
• Overcoming Challenges Essay Guide
• Political/Global Issues Essay Guide

While these guides provide a framework for each archetype, respectively, remember to infuse your voice and unique experiences into your essay to stand out!

8. Do you vary your sentence structure?

Varying sentence structure, including the length of sentences, is crucial to keep your writing dynamic and engaging. A mix of short, punchy sentences and longer, more descriptive ones can create a rhythm that makes your essay more enjoyable to read. This variation helps maintain the reader’s interest and allows for more nuanced expression.

Original example with monotonous structure:

“I had been waiting for the right time to broach the topic of her health problem, which had been weighing on my mind heavily ever since I first heard about it. I had gone through something similar, and I thought sharing my experience might help.”

Revised example illustrating varied structure:

“I waited for the right moment to discuss her health. The issue had occupied my thoughts for weeks. Having faced similar challenges, I felt that sharing my experience might offer her some comfort.”

In this revised example, the sentences vary in length and structure, moving from shorter, more impactful statements to longer, more descriptive ones. This variation helps to keep the reader’s attention and allows for a more engaging narrative flow.

9. Revisit your essay after a break.

• Give yourself time: After completing a draft of your essay, step away from it for a day or two. This break can clear your mind and reduce your attachment to specific phrases or ideas.
• Fresh perspective: When you come back to your essay, you’ll likely find that you can view your work with fresh eyes. This distance can help you spot inconsistencies, unclear passages, or stylistic issues that you might have missed earlier.
• Enhanced objectivity: Distance not only aids in identifying grammatical errors or typos, but it also allows you to assess the effectiveness of your argument or narrative more objectively. Does the essay really convey what you intended? Are there better examples or stronger pieces of evidence you could use?
• Refine and polish: Use this opportunity to fine-tune your language, adjust the flow, and ensure that your essay truly reflects your voice and message.

Incorporating this tip into your writing process can significantly improve the quality and effectiveness of your college essay.

10. Choose an ideal writing environment.

By identifying and consistently utilizing an ideal writing environment, you can enhance both the enjoyment and effectiveness of your essay-writing process.

• Discover your productive spaces: Different environments can dramatically affect your ability to think and write effectively. Some people find inspiration in the quiet of a library or their room, while others thrive in the lively atmosphere of a coffee shop or park.
• Experiment with settings: If you’re unsure what works best for you, try writing in various places. Notice how each setting affects your concentration, creativity, and mood.
• Consider comfort and distractions: Make sure your chosen spot is comfortable enough for long writing sessions, but also free from distracting elements that could hinder your focus.
• Time of day matters: Pay attention to the time of day when you’re most productive. Some write best in the early morning’s tranquility, while others find their creative peak during nighttime hours.

11. Are all words spelled correctly?

While spell checkers are a helpful tool, they aren’t infallible. It’s crucial to read over your essay meticulously, possibly even aloud, to catch any spelling errors. Reading aloud can help you notice mistakes that your eyes might skip over when reading silently. Be particularly attentive to words that spellcheck might not catch, such as proper nouns, technical jargon, or homophones (e.g., “there” vs. “their”). Attention to detail in spelling reflects your care and precision, both of which are qualities that admissions committees value.

12. Do you use proper punctuation and capitalization?

Correct punctuation and capitalization are key to conveying your message clearly and professionally . A common mistake in writing is the misuse of commas, particularly in complex sentences.

Example of a misused comma:

Incorrect: “I had an epiphany, I was using commas incorrectly.”

In this example, the comma is used incorrectly to join two independent clauses. This is known as a comma splice. It creates a run-on sentence, which can confuse the reader and disrupt the flow of your writing.

Corrected versions:

Correct: “I had an epiphany: I was using commas incorrectly.”

Correct: “I had an epiphany; I was using commas incorrectly.”

Correct: “I had an epiphany—I was using commas incorrectly.”

Correct: “I had an epiphany. I was using commas incorrectly.”

The corrections separate the two clauses with more appropriate punctuation. Colons, semicolons, em dashes, and periods can all be used in this context, though periods may create awkwardly short sentences.

These punctuation choices are appropriate because the second clause explains or provides an example of the first, creating a clear and effective sentence structure. The correct use of punctuation helps maintain the clarity and coherence of your writing, ensuring that your ideas are communicated effectively.

13. Do you abide by the word count?

Staying within the word count is crucial in demonstrating your ability to communicate ideas concisely and effectively. Here are some strategies to help reduce your word count if you find yourself going over the prescribed limits:

• Eliminate repetitive statements: Avoid saying the same thing in different ways. Focus on presenting each idea clearly and concisely.
• Use adjectives judiciously: While descriptive words can add detail, using too many can make your writing feel cluttered and overwrought. Choose adjectives that add real value.
• Remove unnecessary details: If a detail doesn’t support or enhance your main point, consider cutting it. Focus on what’s essential to your narrative or argument.
• Shorten long sentences: Long, run-on sentences can be hard to follow and often contain unnecessary words. Reading your essay aloud can help you identify sentences that are too lengthy or cumbersome. If you’re out of breath before finishing a sentence, it’s likely too long.
• Ensure each sentence adds something new: Every sentence should provide new information or insight. Avoid filler or redundant sentences that don’t contribute to your overall message.

14. Proofread meticulously.

Implementing a thorough and methodical proofreading process can significantly elevate the quality of your essay, ensuring that it’s free of errors and flows smoothly.

• Detailed review: After addressing bigger structural and content issues, focus on proofreading for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. This step is crucial for polishing your essay and making sure it’s presented professionally.
• Different techniques: Employ various techniques to catch mistakes. For example, read your essay backward, starting from the last sentence and working your way to the beginning. This method can help you focus on individual sentences and words, rather than getting caught up in the content.
• Read aloud: As mentioned before, reading your essay aloud is another effective technique. Hearing the words can help identify awkward phrasing, run-on sentences, and other issues that might not be as obvious when reading silently.

15. Utilize external feedback.

While self-editing is crucial, external feedback can provide new perspectives and ideas that enhance your writing in unexpected ways. This collaborative process can help you keep your essay error-free and can also help make it resonate with a broader audience.

• Fresh perspectives: Have a trusted teacher, mentor, peer, or family member review your drafts. Each person can offer unique insights and perspectives on your essay’s content, structure, and style.
• Identify blind spots: We often become too close to our writing to see its flaws or areas that might be unclear to others. External reviewers can help identify these blind spots.
• Constructive criticism: Encourage your reviewers to provide honest, constructive feedback. While it’s important to stay true to your voice and story, be open to suggestions that could strengthen your essay.
• Diverse viewpoints: Different people will focus on different aspects of your writing. For example, a teacher might concentrate on your essay’s structure and academic tone, while a peer might provide insights into how engaging and relatable your narrative is.
• Incorporate feedback judiciously: Use the feedback to refine your essay, but remember that the final decision on any changes rests with you. It’s your story and your voice that ultimately need to come through clearly.

When it comes to refining your college essays, getting external feedback is crucial. Our free Peer Essay Review tool allows you to receive constructive criticism from other students, providing fresh perspectives that can help you see your work in a new light. This peer review process is invaluable and can help you both identify areas for improvement and gain different viewpoints on your writing.

For more tailored expert advice, consider the guidance of a CollegeVine advisor . Our advisors, experienced in the college admissions process, offer specialized reviews to enhance your essays. Their insights into what top schools are looking for can elevate your narrative, ensuring that your application stands out. Whether it’s through fine-tuning your grammar or enriching your story’s appeal, our experts’ experience and expertise can significantly increase your likelihood of admission to your dream school!

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The Admissions Strategist

Revising, editing & proofreading your college application essay: a guide.

Although it’s only 650 words , writing the Common App essay is a long and in-depth process.

That’s because these 650 words can have a major impact on whether or not you are accepted to the college of your choice.

The essay gives admissions officers insight into your personality, goals, and interests, plus an idea of how you will fit into and contribute to their college campus.

• For these reasons, revising and editing is an essential step in the college essay writing process. You want your essay to be clear, concise, engaging, and polished.

To accomplish this goal, use this checklist for revising and editing the college application essay.

11-Item Checklist

Revising means improving the overall piece of writing.

This includes enhancing clarity, word choice, and structure.

It may also mean adding new ideas, improving current ideas, or removing ideas that are unnecessary or off-topic.

When it comes to revising the college application essay, here are some items you should consider.

1. Does the essay clearly address the selected topic or prompt?

It’s very important that your college application essay fully addresses the topic you selected or were assigned.

This is the foundation of college essay revisions; nothing else matters if you don’t address the topic correctly.

For example, imagine you selected this prompt from the Common Application:

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

First, make sure that your essay is directly related to the selected topic. It should be focused on a challenge or failure you have experienced and the lessons you learned as a result.

Additionally, ensure that you answered all parts of the question.

• An essay addressing this prompt, for example, would not be fully on topic if it only described a challenge you experienced.
• You must also explain how this challenge affected you and what you learned from the experience.
• Key words from the prompt (in this case “challenge,” or “setback,” and “lessons”) should be mentioned in the essay.

If your essay is off-topic or doesn’t address all parts of the question, you will need to do some revising.

You want to check the soundness of your essay and how it expands on the topic and conflict during the  first draft revision .

The first draft is where you’ll make major changes, such as changing the structure, shifting the focus on the story, rewriting entire paragraphs, or even scrapping the entire essay.

2. Is the college essay well-organized?

The first paragraph of your essay should include some sort of thesis or main idea for the essay.

The rest of the essay should be organized around this thesis, with all additional paragraphs developing and supporting the main idea.

Each paragraph should also have its own subtopic, and all information within each paragraph should further develop and support the subtopic.

• For example, your introduction could mention a challenge (like being bullied growing up as a result of a speech impediment), how this challenge affected you (it was hurtful and made you self-conscious for a while), and the lessons you ultimately learned (to be confident in yourself regardless of what others say, to handle hardships with humor and positivity, etc.).

You could then have one paragraph focused on describing the challenge, one on discussing how the challenge affected you, and a third, longer paragraph explaining the lessons you learned as a result.

• You should also use transitions to smoothly connect ideas and help readers follow your thought process.

It’s important to note that an essay with a complex structure or storytelling arc still needs to have an effective and clear payoff. Complexity is no substitute for solid writing.

• If you think the story and its message are becoming too convoluted, chances are that it is. And if you already think it is, then your readers would definitely agree.

While there’s no need to write a five-paragraph essay (I really mean that), the following structure will help you write a clear essay with an easy-to-follow structure:

• Introduction (Keep this short and sweet; don’t get bogged down with the details.)
• Conflict (What happened? What’s the problem?)
• Solution (What did you do to proactively solve the problem?)
• Lessons learned (What did you learn from pursuing a solution or experiencing this conflict? How have your values changed? How have these changes shifted your perspective? How will you change moving forward?

3. Supporting details, examples & anecdotes

Each paragraph should be well-developed with specific details, examples, or anecdotes supporting your point.

The college essay is not the same as a typical academic essay, which may be dry and lacking in personality.

Instead, the college essay is intended to demonstrate your voice, personality, and uniqueness. It should be engaging and colorful.

• You should include vivid, specific details to bring your points to life.
• In this way, a college essay is similar to a more creative piece of writing.
• As you and your parents or high school counselor look over the first draft of it, find places to add colorful examples and concrete details to breathe some more life into your writing.

Make sure all details and examples help support and develop the main points you are trying to convey.

Having trouble coming up with details? Think of the following:

• Who was involved?
• What happened? What did you do?
• When did this occur? Is there an important chronological context?
• Where did this occur? Is the setting relevant to the story?
• Why did this happen? Why did you react or act the way you did?
• How did you go about solving this problem?

Important : There’s an important principle in writing called “Chekhov’s gun” – use this principle when evaluating whether details are relevant to your essay. So, what is Chekhov’s gun?

• If you’re going to mention something in your college essay, make sure it plays a role somewhere else in the story.
• Don’t describe the color of the sky and the sound of an instrument if they aren’t mentioned again in the essay or don’t influence the plot.
• If you describe a bully as “strong” or a problem as “habitual,” the conflict each is a part of should be influenced by the strength of the bully or repetition of the problem.

Chekhov’s gun is critical because it will help you trim word count and stay on message.

4. Voice & Personality

Another way to make the essay interesting and engaging is to ensure that it is written in your own unique voice .

• Of course, the essay shouldn’t include slang, and it shouldn’t read like a text message to your best friend. But it also shouldn’t sound stiff, forced, or unnatural.

It should read almost as if you are talking to a teacher you feel comfortable with, or to a favorite older relative.

• When revising the essay, make sure you didn’t include too many high-level vocabulary words in an effort to sound intellectual, as this can sound forced.
• You can even read the essay aloud to see if it flows naturally and “sounds” like you.

The essay should also give the admissions officer a glimpse of your personality.

• Does the essay accurately portray who you are beyond your GPA, SAT scores, and extracurricular activities?
• If not, spend some time making sure it captures your unique identity.

This is the climax of the entire process of the revisions process — your own voice, perspective, and lessons learned are the most important elements of the essay.

5. A Good Candidate for Admission

Remember that another key purpose of the college essay is to show your school of choice that you are a strong candidate for admission.

When reading your essay, the admissions officer should form an understanding of what you can contribute to a college campus.

Be sure that your essay paints you in a positive light.

The rest of your application has already provided information about your GPA, SAT scores, and other accomplishments, but what else should admissions officers know about you to see that you are a good candidate for admission?

• This could include your love of learning, curiosity, persistence, motivation, resilience, teamwork, kindness, work ethic, enthusiasm for the school, leadership abilities, etc.

Before you submit the essay, check that it highlights some of the qualities that will make you an excellent college student and an asset to any campus.

Also, consider sharing it with one or two friends or trusted adults to get a second opinion.

This is the Barebones Exercise, a helpful exercise to determine whether you told an effective story and demonstrated your personality, values, and themes:

• Grab a highlighter and print your college essay.
• Highlight the most important sentences of your essay. These sentences should include topic sentences, sentences that propel the story, and sentences that imply or state your values.
• Write or copy and paste those highlighted sentences into a new document.
• Organize the sentences by the order in which they appear in your college essay.
• Read the sentences in order. How does it sound?
• This is the barebones version of your essay. What message are you getting? Is your simplified story still a cohesive narrative?
• Does this barebones version of your essay still imply or state the newfound values found in the conclusion of your original essay? What will the college admissions officer learn about you?

All told, you want this barebones version to emit the same messages and important elements found in your real college essay.

The barebones version helps you momentarily remove complementary details and determine the central premise of your essay.

6. Do you stick to the topic?

We already talked about addressing the topic, but it’s important that you stick to it as well. Check the essay for any information that is off-topic or unnecessary.

• During the entire revision process, it’s important to keep this in mind: Do you stay on topic, and do you extrapolate values as the essay progresses?

An easy way to do this is to identify your thesis statement. Anything in the essay that does not support, develop, or relate to the thesis statement should be cut.

• It can be tempting to include unrelated information that you would like to share with admissions officers, but doing so will make the essay disorganized and difficult to follow.

Additionally, each paragraph should have its own subtopic.

• Anything that doesn’t support, develop, or relate to each paragraph’s topic sentence should also be cut or moved to another, more relevant paragraph.

Use the Barebones Exercise from the previous section. Here’s how it works when checking whether you stuck to your topic:

• Highlight your topic sentences.
• Underline the set-up sentences that immediately follow your topic sentences.
• Highlight your resolution.
• Now, read your highlighted topic sentences.  Ask yourself whether they are properly telling the story.
• Read your set-up sentences that follow your topic sentences.  Do they support the topic sentence or main idea of the story? Are you getting off track? Do you exaggerate or sound overconfident or doubtful? Are you providing unnecessary details? Your words are $100 bills. Spend your money wisely to abide by the word count.
• Read your resolution.  Does it properly end the story in your own image?  Is it a cliché? Are you using pop culture or literary phrases? Too many of these supplant your voice for an artificial one. Are you closing the loop? Open-ended endings are perfectly fine but difficult to execute. Make sure you’re ending the story on your own terms.
• Of course: Did you answer the essay prompt?
• Overall: Are you covering too much ground? If so, rewrite and decrease the scope of the essay. Your job is to write effectively, not compose the next Harry Potter entry.

7. A good mix of short and long sentences

Sentence variety gives writing rhythm and life. It can make essays easier to follow and more engaging.

For these reasons, it’s important that the essay doesn’t include too many short sentences or too many long sentences. Instead, it should include a mix of both.

• Read through your essay to be sure it’s not full of only short, choppy sentences or long sentences with many clauses. Try to add more variety to your sentence lengths before submitting the essay.

Still having trouble? Read your essay aloud by yourself or to a friend and ask how it sounds. Short and choppy? Or smooth and fluid?

Think of your essay as if it were a song. Songs with multiple notes sound far superior to songs with dull, awkward notes.

Editing means fixing basic errors like spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and word usage.

To edit effectively, try reading the essay backward. This helps you focus more on spelling and grammar without being distracted by the ideas in the essay.

Focus on one type of error at a time, and read slowly and carefully, sentence by sentence.

The last four items on our checklist will help you ensure that your college essay is error-free. This is the concluding chapter of the revisions process.

8. Are all words spelled correctly?

Spell check doesn’t catch everything. Homonyms, for example, go unnoticed by spell check.

Homonyms are words that sound the same but have different meanings, like “pair” and “pare,” or “they’re,” “their,” and “there.”

As long as you have spelled the word correctly, spell check won’t notice that the word itself is incorrect.

• The same goes for wrong words, like using “martial” instead of “marital.”
• “My favorite hobby it fishing.”

So relying on spell check could result in you turning in an essay that’s actually full of misspellings and wrong words.

Read carefully through the essay, ensuring that all words are spelled correctly and that you haven’t accidentally used an incorrect word.

9. Proper punctuation & capitalization

Check for proper use of commas, periods, parentheses, question marks, quotation marks and, if applicable, semicolons.

If you’re unsure about punctuation use, see if your English teacher is available to read over the essay and offer some suggestions.

Alternatively, research proper use of punctuation on the Internet or at the library.

• Additionally, the first word in each sentence should be capitalized, along with proper nouns (names of people and places) and the word “I.”
• For the most part, all other words should be lowercase.

Similar to the issue with spelling, programs don’t always notice grammar errors. If grammar and usage aren’t your strengths, you might not realize you’ve written something incorrectly. For example:

“My hard work has positively effected my grades.”

This might be the kind of error many people miss. Do you know the difference between affect and effect?

If not, it’s a good idea to ask someone.

Because grammatical rules can be complicated, it’s better to get help than to risk not using them correctly.

10. Do you abide by the word count?

You need to follow the word count the prompt provides.

• This is non-negotiable.
• Not following the word count implies to college admissions officers that you won’t follow the most basic rules on campus.

At first, your Common App essay should be 800 or 900 words long. Extra details and paragraphs in the preliminary stages are OK.

Now that you like the essence of your college essay, here’s a step-by-step process on trimming word count:

• You can find the most “fat” here because you likely started writing your essay thinking about big ideas.
• That means you tried to explain things and give full but ineffective context to your situation.
• Clichés are usually abundant in this part. Don’t use clichés. You’d be drowning out your writing.
• Be sure to lop off parts that needlessly explain your ending, but be careful not to eliminate useful aspects of your resolution.
• Do you repeat things in different words?
• Do you use clichés?
• Are your quotes of appropriate length?
• Do you overuse aphorisms?
• Are your similes of appropriate length? Do you use too many?
• Are your metaphors of appropriate length? Do you use too many?
• Do you use too many analogies? Are any of them excessively clumsy?
• Are any of them excessively clumsy?
• Are you trying too hard to sound smart?
• Do you use these words in everyday writing? If not, they might not be a good fit for your essay.

11. Sentence Structure

Check that word usage and sentence structure is grammatically correct as well. This includes:

• Subject-verb agreement
• Consistent verb tenses (not switching back and forth between past and present, for example)
• Are there any run-on sentences or sentence fragments?
• Are the antecedents (Ex: my mom, Mr. Hughes) for all pronouns (Ex: she, he) clear, and do pronouns and antecedents agree in number?
• Does the essay include any unnecessary adjectives or adverbs?
• Have you unintentionally left out any words, or included words that should be deleted?

Critical Tips to Help You With Proofreading

After you consult the checklist above, utilize the tips below help you write a stellar and mistake-free essay.

Read Your Essay Aloud

• This is probably the best tip for any piece of writing you plan to show someone, but it’s especially important for the college essay. Most professionals practice reading their work aloud to a small audience or to themselves.
• When you do this, you are far more likely to hear the errors your eyes tend to miss.
• Reading to an audience of one or more people can also be beneficial, because they can catch the errors you didn’t hear.

While reading aloud won’t always help you with typos, it will give you a sense of whether or not your phrasing is awkward, or your sentences are too wordy.

• Simply put, if it doesn’t sound right, it usually isn’t.

Treat reading your college essay aloud like a process. The more you do it, the more chances you have to evaluate particular phrases and sentences.

Proofreading Requires Taking a Step Back

For most writers, time can be incredibly valuable when drafting their work.

Tired eyes often miss simple mistakes, and the more we look at something we have written, the more immune we are to its flaws. That seems counterintuitive, but it’s true.

• There is simply no substitute for taking a break from your writing and coming back to it later.

When you approach your essay with a fresh look, it will seem like a totally new piece of writing. It’s not always the best writing, but that gives you the opportunity to make the necessary changes.  

Print Your Essay

Like taking a break from your work, printing your writing allows you to see it in a completely different way . Most of us are used to only working on a computer, and we rarely print work out to edit.

• However, there is no substitute for marking up your writing with a pencil or pen.

Many people say that when they print out their writing, it seems like someone else wrote it. This is exactly the perspective you need to be a good judge of what’s on the page.

Proofreading With Different Eyes

Having another person proofread your work might not always be your favorite option.

Many of us aren’t very comfortable showing what we’ve written to other people, but having another person edit your work is incredibly helpful.

• This person could be a teacher, friend, or anyone else whose knowledge and writing expertise you trust.
• Y our current or former teachers have the advantage of knowing your writing well, so they are often the best people to consult.

Teachers have likely read many college essays in the past, so they are experts in correcting errors.

While your English teacher might be the obvious choice, consider showing your essay to a college counselor.

They, too, have read many personal essays, and they can help you with any stage of your editing process.

While your teachers know your writing, friends know you personally. They can be the best judges of whether you’re saying something in exactly the right way.

Of course, you are the writer, and it is entirely your choice which suggestions to take or leave, so consider the legitimacy of the advice you get before making any changes.

Save Multiple Drafts

Occasionally, you might proofread your college essay, making some changes to the original document without saving an original. Sometimes, those changes might not be what you want out of a final draft. In writing, it’s always helpful to see where you started.

• If you scrap something, keep the original version so you can remember how you expressed your thinking originally.

Make sure, when saving your drafts, that they are clearly marked to prevent confusion. You don’t want to make the mistake of sending the wrong draft in; there might not be any going back from that step.

Proofread Multiple Times

There is simply no substitute for putting the time and effort in to review your college essay. To maximize your editing skills, you need multiple opportunities to use them. By taking a break, printing your work, or reading aloud, you are automatically providing opportunities for multiple readings. You will probably find that when you do this, you will have opportunities to correct different types of errors. Keep going until your editing is complete.

Create the Ideal Setting

While this may sound obvious, minimizing distractions while proofreading allows for a sharper eye and better-focused attention on your work.

• If you are easily bothered by noise from other people or from music and television, find a quiet place where you can devote all of your attention to the task of editing. If music helps you focus, try that, too.

Editors thrive in the settings that make them feel comfortable and focused, so make sure to find yours.

Advice From a Writing Expert

Amy Ostroth, senior director of communications at Sweet Briar College, has this advice for students:

Proofreading and revising your college application essay — or even essays you might write for class — are important parts of the writing process. I use three strategies when I’m reviewing my own writing. First, read the piece backwards so you won’t be tempted to see what you meant to write instead of what you actually wrote. Second, read the piece out loud to yourself. Third, find a friend or family member and read the piece out loud to them. You’ll catch new things and they’ll be a second set of ears to hear things you might have missed!

Recap: College Essay Revisions, Edits & Proofreading

Plan, write, revise, and edit your college essay using this checklist, and you’ll be able to submit an engaging, precise, and polished final product. These items ensure the entire process of revisions is implemented in an even-keeled manner.

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The Often Overlooked But Completely Essential Last Step to Your College Applications

Before clicking “submit” on your college essays and applications, there’s one essential final step: proofreading.

After spending hours or even days working on college applications, it can be tempting to skip this part. Don’t! You want your applications and essays to represent your absolute best work and make a positive impression on admissions officers.

In this article, we’ll share five methods along with helpful tips for proofreading your college essays and applications. Follow this advice and you’ll be sure to put your best foot forward.

Why Proofread?

Spelling and grammar errors stick out on a college application and are sure to make a negative impression on the admissions team.

Not only do such errors make admissions officers question your academic ability, but they also raise questions about your work ethic and commitment. Not taking the time to proofread documents that will directly impact your future is a red flag.

And remember: Spellcheck does not catch everything. Specifically, spellcheck often will not recognize:

• Homonyms (e.g. week and weak)
• Misspelled names
• Incorrect verb tenses
• Usage errors
• Repetition (excessively using the same word or phrase)
• Subtle grammatical errors

In fact, spellcheck sometimes suggests changes that are actually incorrect . Don’t leave your future in the hands of a computer. Use the five methods below to thoroughly proofread your work.

1. Use a checklist.

Follow a proofreading checklist to ensure you check your essays and applications for a wide variety of potential problems.

Start by checking for the following on all parts of your application:

• Spelling/typos
• Correct word usage (e.g. affect vs. effect)
• Proper punctuation (commas, periods, quotation marks, parentheses, semicolons, question marks, etc.)
• Capitalization
• Subject-verb agreement
• Consistent verb tenses
• Run-on sentences or sentence fragments
• Missing or unnecessary words

As you proofread your essay, you should also ensure that:

• Your essay is on topic (and stays on topic).
• Your thoughts are clearly organized and make sense.
• The essay is written in your own unique voice and avoids clichés.
• You’ve used a mix of short and long sentences.
• You’ve abided by the word count and followed any other instructions from the college.

In addition, make sure that you’ve spelled the college’s name right! You’d be surprised how often admissions officers encounter this issue, and it certainly isn’t a good look. Even worse, students sometimes use the wrong college’s name. Don’t let this be you.

Must read:  5 College Essay Topics You Should Never, Ever Write About

2. Let it sit.

Stare at any piece of writing too long and it becomes challenging to evaluate it from a fresh perspective. Save your work, wait a day or two, and then revisit it. It’s very likely you’ll discover errors or areas that could be improved.

Of course, this isn’t possible if you wait until the last minute to start on your college applications. So, here’s an important piece of advice: Don’t wait until the last minute . If you start early, you can take all the time you need to produce a polished, impressive, and competitive final product.

Plus, starting early is one key way to reduce the anxiety of college application season .

3. Read it aloud.

Errors can be difficult to see on the page, especially when it comes to your own writing. Since you probably know what you meant to write, your brain often fills in this information, leaving you oblivious to your mistakes.

Avoid this dilemma by reading your essays and applications aloud. This makes it easier to hear errors in your sentences. Missing words, incorrect words, and grammatical mistakes “sound wrong,” making them more noticeable.

You may recognize places where you haven’t transitioned smoothly between ideas or have used sentences that are too long or confusing. Repetitiveness also stands out when you read aloud.

Finally, does your writing sound like you? You want your application and essay to capture the essence of who you are, and reading them aloud can help you determine if you’ve achieved this goal.

As you read aloud, we recommend working from a printed copy of your essay and/or application. If you find errors or places you’d like to revisit later, mark them with a pen or pencil.

4. Read it backwards.

Similarly, reading your work backwards can help you spot issues you might skim over otherwise. This strategy won’t help you find big picture problems with an essay (like organization, flow, or clarity), but it will help you identify spelling and grammar errors.

To focus on spelling, read backwards one word at a time. Punctuation, content, and grammar won’t make sense in this context, forcing your brain to concentrate solely on spelling.

If you want to proofread for grammar and punctuation, read backwards sentence by sentence. You can also circle every punctuation mark, forcing yourself to look closely at each one.

5. Get a second — and third — opinion.

To get truly fresh eyes on your work, you’ll need to consult with trusted friends, family members, or teachers. If your English teacher is willing, ask him or her to look at your essay and provide feedback. It’s best to do this before college application season is in full swing, since your teacher may be overloaded with writing recommendation letters.

Have at least one other person look over your application. For your essay, we recommend two or even three additional readers. These readers may be aware of grammar rules or writing best practices that you haven’t yet mastered. If there are specific areas of your essay that you’re unsure about, point these out to your readers. If not, ask them to provide general feedback on content, spelling, and grammar.

You can also ask friends and family members if the essay represents your personality. On a related note, take the advice of others into account, but don’t lose your voice. Admissions officers want to get to know you through your application and essay. This won’t be possible if you get too much direction from others.

After you’ve listened to feedback and made changes, read through your essay and application one final time before submitting. Read slowly and carefully. Check the spelling of the college’s name once more for good measure. When you’re completely satisfied with all aspects of your application, it’s time to submit.

The Bottom Line

Applying to college is a competitive endeavor. Your goal is to secure one of the limited seats available at the school of your choice, and submitting work that’s peppered with errors will hinder your chances.

So, take the time to proofread carefully and thoroughly. Use a checklist. Read multiple times, read aloud, and even read backwards. Then ask for feedback from a few other people before reading one final time.

These five proofreading methods may sound tedious, but they will ensure that you avoid letting embarrassing errors escape you. After following the proofreading process described here, you’ll be able to submit your application and essay with confidence.

Author: Jason Patel

Jason Patel is the founder of Transizion, a college counseling and career services company that provides mentorship and consulting on college applications, college essays, resumes, cover letters, interviews, and finding jobs and internships. Jason’s work has been cited in The Washington Post, BBC, NBC News, Forbes, Fast Company, Bustle, Inc., Fox Business, and other great outlets. Transizion donates a portion of profits to underserved students and veterans in of college prep and career development assistance.

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6 Proofreading Habits for Your College Essay and Beyond

David Querusio

Assistant Director, NYU Admissions

**This article was first published in December 2019 and has been updated and republished.

You know when you rewatch yourself back in a video or hear an audio recording of your voice and can’t help but cringe? Well, rereading your writing often has the same effect—that uncomfortable feeling of “do I really sound like that?” This pang of embarrassment has always been the hardest part of proofreading my writing, especially for more personal essays. You can imagine, then, how much trouble I had with writing and rewriting my Common Application essay back when I was applying to schools. Each time I dove back into edit, I became overwhelmed and instead ended up in a procrastination rabbit hole.

In the admissions process, proofreading your college essays is essential. Even the smallest grammatical error or incorrect word choice affects how the committee views your writing. That’s why developing strong proofreading habits is necessary. Below, here are some tips and tricks for making proofreading part of your writing routine.

1) Find a quiet place to read your essay aloud to yourself.

Find a place with zero distractions and read your words aloud, as if practicing a speech. This calls attention to simple errors that otherwise go unnoticed. It also helps you figure out a pacing for your essay. After you read aloud and pinpoint what you need to fix, block out distractions. My strategy? Put my phone on airplane mode and fire up some “ lofi beats to relax/study to .”

2) Have everyone and anyone look over the essay.

English teachers are an especially great resource for you as you complete your essays. Guidance counselors are also experts at knowing what colleges are looking for, so ask for their help! Of course, your friends can also give feedback about voice (see our next point) to make sure the essay sounds like you.

3) Keep your voice consistent.

This next tip is an important follow-up to the previous one; having people look over your essay is important, but be sure their feedback doesn’t overshadow your own voice. It jars the admissions committee when an essay starts with one writing style and ends in an entirely different tone. Make sure you can be heard throughout the whole essay!

4) Say as much in as few words as possible.

Challenge yourself to capture big ideas in concise statements. The word count is there for a reason. Effective writers can say a lot with a little. Don’t be afraid to cut down on unnecessary extra sentences or adjectives that don’t contribute to the overarching goal of your essay.

There are even a number of apps ( some for purchase , some free ) that can help guide you through this process—see what other resources you can find!

5) Use active voice.

Keep your writing as active as possible. The admissions committee reviews many, many essays—you want your writing to keep readers invested in what you have to say! Simple shifts from passive to active voice instantly make your writing more sophisticated and engaging.

6) Trust your instincts.

At the end of the day, the college essay is supposed to be about you. Ask yourself what you want to convey to the committee and make sure that feeling is captured by your writing. What do you want us to take away from you after we finish reading? What excites you? Proofreading with these questions in mind will make your writing much more successful and relatable.

Of course, these tips are just the beginning. The only way to know what proofreading methods work best for you is trial and error—so get writing!

David Querusio is an Assistant Director with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at NYU. He especially loves sharing stories of how NYU students think outside of the box to define their own academic paths. When he’s not on the road meeting with students or in grad class at NYU Steinhardt, he can be found searching the city for the best cup of coffee.

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College Fair 101: Tips for a Great Conversation with Your Admissions Rep

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Proofreading your College Admissions Essays

Proofreading your college admissions essays is an important often undervalued step in the college application process. Whether you are wrapping up the last details for your Early Admissions application, or prepping for a Regular Decision submission, performing one last thorough scour of what you have down on the page is a crucial step before pressing that submit button. While we are confident you have all been toiling away by the light of your computers, debating the use of different adjectives, and scanning your essays for errant commas, we have a few last tips to help ensure you catch any tiny mistakes and submit the most polished essay possible.

• Employ spelling and grammar checks.  Use the tools that are available to you, dear students. We hope that your drafting process has taken place, not within the Common Application’s unreliable text box, but rather within a trusty document on a word processing program like Microsoft Word. If not, transfer that puppy over right now and take advantage of the inherent spelling and grammar check tools. While these mechanisms are not foolproof, they will help you get a cursory survey of unrecognized grammar errors. Let your smartypants computer lead the way.
• When in doubt, look up the rule.  So you don’t know which one is grammatically correct: “doctor’s office” or “doctors’ office.” Luckily for you, you live in the age of the Internet, where grammar snobs and language obsessives spend their free time expounding upon just this kind of minutiae for the benefit of the lost grammatical souls of the world. If you are unsure about the spelling or usage of even a single word, it is always best to double-check it on the World Wide Web. However, do keep in mind, this is the Internet we’re consulting. Be sure to confirm grammar rules via multiple, reliable sources before you implement any suggestions from friendly wordsmithing “experts.”
• Let mom and dad take a peek.  We know for some of you, your parents have been involved in the essay process all along. You folks can skip this step. For others who requested that their parents remain more distanced from the process, showing parents a final draft can be a little tricky. It is your college application, not your parents’, after all; and no one has more to say than a parent scanning his/her beloved child’s attempt to synthesize a crucial life moment or lifelong aspiration in 650 words. Still, no one in the world knows you better than your mom and pops, and no one will be more invested in your overall success than the people who raised you. Show parents your essay with confidence. Let them find any random mistakes that escaped your gaze. Listen to what they have to say, take helpful advice, and ultimately, stick to your guns and submit the essay you believe in.
• Do not show ninety of your closest friends your final draft.  Also refrain from showing your (admittedly, very smart) Aunt Suzy, your next-door neighbor who fancies herself an editor, and the family dog, who once ate your homework and now thinks he can read. The old adage of “ask a million people and you will get a million opinions” is absolutely true. Also true is that a million opinions swirling around in your noggin two days before your application is due will drive you absolutely insane. Instead, channel the opinion that is most important: Your own. Read over your essay. Love it. Believe in it. Trust yourself.
• Put it to bed.  Once you have run through your final review checklist, save your document. Copy and paste the final essay into the Common App text box, and adjust spacing as necessary. Make sure there are returned spaces between your paragraphs. Take the application all the way through to the “Print Preview” step so you can check to make sure all proper formatting is reflected, save your application and go to sleep. Tomorrow morning, wake up and read the essay once more with a fresh brain. Don’t. Change. A. Thing. Revel in the glory of your hard work. Press send, and get yourself a cookie. You are on your way.

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Common App Essay

Common app essay generator.

If you are a student, you would know that essay writing can sometimes be something exciting or something difficult. You may often want to ask your professors as to why they would force you to learn how to do  free writing  essays . The reason for that is to understand and to know the importance and the use for these free essays . 

6+ Common App Essay Examples

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4. Common App Essay Worksheet in PDF

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What Is a Common Application Essay?

A common application essay  also called an admission essay is an essay with a purpose. A written essay made by an applicant who is hoping to get the permission they are asking for. Application essays are mostly common with students who wish to be admitted to the school of their choice.

How to Make an Application Essay

Now you may want to ask yourself, is an application essay easy to compose? What goes in an application essay? How is it different from a personal statement ? Here are steps to guide you to making your application essay.

Step 1: Check the Instructions

Always make sure that you read the instructions to your application essay . Before you start writing your application essay, read the instructions. This is important because the instructions tell you what you should write, what to write and how many paragraphs you need to write.

Step 2: Draft Your Work

Drafting your work before writing the final piece would help you smooth out your ideas. It would also help you find what you are intending to write out. Drafting your work will also help you save a lot of time having to write and erase and write again.

Step 3: Stick to What Is Being Asked

If you are being asked to write an essay about you and why you want to be admitted to this school or university, that is where you begin. Avoid having to write something that is not true or not relevant to your essay. Too much flowery language would only make your essay confusing. Stick to general words.

Step 4: Proofread Your Essay

Let someone else proofread your essay. Let them see if your tone in your essay is professional or polite. If it so happens your essay lacks something, go back to the last tip and rewrite your essay if you have any spare time.

Why is an application essay needed?

Your application essay is a way for people to get to know you as the candidate. Your essay is your key to applying for college or for work. This is the school or the company’s way of seeing if you are what they are looking for or you are the student they need for their school.

What are the other types of essays?

The other types of essays are: descriptive essay , narrative essay, college essay , comparative essay , argumentative essay , persuasive essay , and many more.

Do I need to let someone proofread my essay?

Yes. It is best to let someone proofread your essay before sending it. This way you are able to see what you need to add and what you need to take out.

What skills do I need to add in my essay?

If they are asking for the skills you have based on a job, list the ones that are appropriate for the job you are applying for.

Application essays are sometimes taken for granted by students who find essay writing a gruesome task. But what they forget to remember is that it is still as important to know how to write one. Often than not, application essays are most commonly used by students applying for a scholarship, a course or even a school. These types of audiences would often look at how an applicant writes their essay. So it is always important to remember how to write an application essay. Because you may never know when you are going to need it.

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Ross Douthat

What i’d assign to today’s college students.

By Ross Douthat

Opinion Columnist

My weekend column used this season of campus protest as an opportunity to discuss the evolution of Columbia’s core curriculum, whose readings on contemporary politics, I argued, usefully distill the core of contemporary progressivism while leaving a great deal else by the wayside.

I included some examples of ideas and writers that the present Columbia syllabus leaves out, but I wanted to give a little more attention to the question of what a supplement to the progressive approach would look like. If you were trying to bring a great-books program all the way up to the present and you wanted to widen the ideological aperture beyond Columbia’s progressive focus, what would you have your students read?

One answer is that the very idea of being up-to-date is a mistake because readings oriented explicitly to the present are everywhere in education and the point of a core curriculum is to stand a little bit apart, to connect you to the riches of the past — riches that have been sifted in a way that just isn’t possible with the publications and arguments of the past few generations.

I have some sympathy with this idea: If I were designing a core humanities program for high school students (not that I’ve ever thought about this or anything), my strong impulse would be to just hit “stop” at World War II or 1965 and decline to make any judgment on what will be remembered as the great books of the recent past and present.

But Columbia’s core curriculum, while very much a great-books program in its execution, has also carried, since its inception in 1919, a mandate to address “ the insistent problems of the present .” So one can criticize the ideological narrowness of the contemporary readings while still recognizing that the syllabus is trying to fulfill its academic mandate, not betray it.

Here, then, are four attempts at fulfilling that mandate but with a wider lens. I’m presenting these as potential modules, packaged similarly to the way the current Columbia curriculum packages its modern readings under “anticolonialism,” “race, gender and sexuality” and “climate and futures.” Note that I’m imagining these as supplements to those existing modules; if I were drawing up a complete syllabus, it would include more socialist and feminist and anticolonial perspectives. And obviously if tomorrow Columbia decided to supplement its syllabus along these lines, it could choose (or excerpt from) only a few of the books and essays I’ve listed; I’m just trying to show the range that each module might include.

The Secular and the Sacred

Harvey Cox, “The Secular City”; Philip Rieff, “The Triumph of the Therapeutic”; Tom Wolfe, “The ‘Me’ Decade and the Third Great Awakening”; Christopher Lasch, “The Culture of Narcissism”; Richard John Neuhaus, “The Naked Public Square”; Charles Taylor, “A Secular Age.”

Technology and Its Discontents

C.S. Lewis, “The Abolition of Man”; C.P. Snow, “The Two Cultures”; Marshall McLuhan, “Understanding Media”; Neil Postman, “Amusing Ourselves to Death”; Jaron Lanier, “You Are Not a Gadget”; Sherry Turkle, “Alone Together.”

After the Cold War

Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History?”; Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?”

Community, Solidarity, Inequality

Robert Nisbet, “The Quest for Community”; Michael Young, “The Rise of the Meritocracy”; Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone”; my colleague David Brooks, “Bobos in Paradise”; Lasch, “The Revolt of the Elites.”

You’ll notice that each of these modules includes conservative-leaning writers but none of them are titled “conservatism.” In my column, I mentioned the dearth of representation for the most important nonprogressive political ideologies, meaning especially modern conservatism and neoliberalism, and you could imagine explicitly building a module around that lacuna — with, say, Friedrich Hayek paired with James Burnham or Milton Friedman with Roger Scruton. But I think if you’re trying to grasp the world through a few key texts, it’s better to come at political ideas a bit more from the side, via figures who are less associated with a specific ideology or team. Fukuyama, for example, isn’t exactly an ideologist of neoliberalism, but if you read “The End of History?” (just the original essay , not necessarily the book), you’ll have a pretty good grasp of what the neoliberal era meant.

Finally, I am under no illusions that the Columbia core curriculum or any other attempt at a collegiate canon is actually the place where progressive orthodoxy is forged or soon-to-be protesters discover their ideological beliefs. The Columbia syllabus is interesting as a manifestation of a worldview, not as its origination; the point of origination is much more likely to be what future Ivy Leaguers are assigned in high school and what they’re given by the ambient culture, which could mean anything from social justice extracurriculars to TikTok discourse to young adult fiction.

So if you asked me what I would assign to readers in their late teenage years, generally, to challenge (or at least complicate) progressive groupthink, I might not even start with any of the texts listed above. Instead, I might try to assemble a list of narrative works, mostly novels and some nonfiction, not all of which would be aesthetically notable enough to fit into Columbia’s “literature humanities” syllabus but all of which would help broaden a too-narrow ideological picture of the world.

Here’s one such list, suitable for an enterprising high school senior or college freshman: Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World”; Lewis, “That Hideous Strength”; Joan Didion, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” and “The White Album”; Ralph Ellison, “Invisible Man”; V.S. Naipaul, “A Bend in the River”; Wolfe, “Radical Chic” and “The Bonfire of the Vanities”; Philip Roth, “American Pastoral”; Michel Houellebecq, “The Elementary Particles”; P.D. James, “The Children of Men.”

That’s enough for now. Get back to me when your favorite students are caught up.

Dwight Garner reads an enfant terrible .

Dan Hitchens attends a disco at the cathedral .

Leah Libresco Sargeant contemplates Schrödinger’s persons.

Stanley Fish advises college administrators.

Ross Barkan and Freddie deBoer consider the uses of book publishing.

Jamie McGregor Smith cannot make me love brutalist church architecture.

This Week in Decadence

— Eric Goldman, “ Generative A.I. Is Doomed ” Santa Clara University (April 25)

It might be impossible to imagine today, but 1990s regulators often took a deferential and generally hands-off approach to the new technology. This stance was fueled by prevailing concerns that overly aggressive regulatory responses could distort or harm the emergence of this important innovation. As Congress said in 1996, its policy was “to preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that presently exists for the internet and other interactive computer services, unfettered by federal or state regulation.” It was a remarkable and exceptional phase of regulator humility. In the mid-1990s, regulators could not anticipate or predict all of the internet’s uses that have emerged over the last three decades — or how those developments have benefited society. Had regulators hard-coded their limited and myopic 1990s conceptions of the internet into law, the internet never could have achieved those outcomes, and I think the world would be poorer for it. But mid-1990s regulators frequently admitted their myopia and unusually chose regulatory forbearance. Generative A.I. will not get a similar reception from regulators. Regulators are intervening now, acting on their unenlightened 2020s conceptions of what generative A.I. does. Because we can’t anticipate what generative A.I. is capable of and how new innovative uses will emerge over time, the interventions taking place today will unavoidably restrict generative A.I.’s potential upside.

Ross Douthat has been an Opinion columnist for The Times since 2009. He is the author, most recently, of “The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery.” @ DouthatNYT • Facebook