I do not want to post my essay online, but I need a little advice.
Let’s say I have statement A.
Statement B is around 150 words below statement A.
In statement B i refer back to statement A in a manner that really reveals my voice. A couple of people that have read my essay, though, don’t know what I’m talking about when I make statement B.
If you were able to follow that… could I put in asterisks like this: (here is an example if above confused you).
I like Pie* (statement A)
blah blah blah blah
*You know what, I’m changing my mind about what I said earlier (statement B). Pie is gross …
I don’t want to delete statement B because it provides a perfect segue into my next sentence and, as stated above, reveals my personality.
It would be better to revise the essay in a way that makes it readable from start to finish without any confusion, without having to refer back to a previous part of it. You shouldn’t have to explicitly point out what you mean by a certain statement. The writing should stand on it’s own. And the AOs are reading many essays in one day, and probably won’t even go back to reread statement A.
Maybe ask an English teacher to look it over. Tell them what you are trying to get across, explain that your way of doing so has already confused previous readers, and ask if they have any ideas to make it clearer.
Looks like i will probably have to ask a teacher or advisor before it is completed, but I want to know what you guys think.
Bottom line: is putting an asterisk okay?
Regardless of if it is “legal” or not, you may very well be right @soontobecolleger and @bodangles
Although I am only using the reference as a cutesy transition, it may not be the best idea to make admissions officers waste time looking back?
I fear that asterisks are mainly used for footnotes. That’s the main problem I have with it… any other symbols or ways to make the statements stand out, if I want to try to keep it?
Nope, each paragraph need to stand alone, be understandable on its own. No fancy fonts, no 12 point type, no strange margins. Only Elle Wood gets to use pink scented stationary and still get into Harvard Law School. The rest of us need to be clear.
There is a reason business letters are all fairly uniform in 10 point type - you want to make it as easy for the reader as possible. If you need to restate something, restate it. If you make the reader search for the meaning, look at footnotes or attachments, you’ve lost him.