<p>I've always perceived the stereotypical essay as a deluge of flowery prose, constructed upon description without substance.</p>
<p>This style goes against everything I've been taught >.< I pride myself on my ability to write clean papers that simply get the point across. </p>
<p>Should I go with the flow and break out the thesaurus? Or should I stick to my guns and write in the voice that comes naturally to me?</p>
<p>It’s probably better to write naturally.</p>
<p>I think your question implies the answer.</p>
<p>write with your own voice</p>
<p>Write cleanly. The stereotypical essay is boring.</p>
<p>When one writes or tries to write in a style that does not come from within, it rarely succeeds. The artifice then gets in the way of the message, or misleads the reader by striking a discordant note, or worse – creates suspicion that an adult heavily edited the essay.</p>
<p>There are high school students, including on CC, who have an unusually sophisticated and mature style. But those people would have a consistency about their style that would be duplicated in their application, and would likely be a feature of their teacher recs as well. Their easy command of language indicates a gift for writing, or training in it.</p>
<p>Admissions officers only expect of candidates consistency and a thoughtful, uncontrived adolescent voice.</p>
<p>Break out the thesaurus? NO WAY. That’s the sure way to scream out: THIS ESSAY IS VERY CONTRIVED and is more a testament to my SAT-prep word studying than revealing anything profound or sincere about myself.</p>
<p>A great essay tutorial can be found here:
[Essays</a>, Admission Information, Undergraduate Admission, U.Va.](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/writingtheessay.html]Essays”>http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/writingtheessay.html)</p>
<p>A quote from it:</p>
<p>Too often, however students who want to avoid sounding generic with respect to form or content choose exactly the wrong remedy; they think that bigger topics - or bigger words - are better. But it is almost impossible, in 500 words, to write well about vast topics such as the death of a loved one (see excerpt: “the bad”). I am not advocating longer essays (just remember how many applications admissions officers need to read); I am advocating essays with a sharp focus that allows for detail. Detail is what differentiates one essay from another, one applicant from another.</p>
<p>Instead of detail, however, students try to impress us with big words. In trying to make a topic sound intellectual, students resort to the thesaurus and, as a result, end up sounding pretentious or at least insecure about using the voice they would use to describe an event to a friend. The student assumes that these “impressive” words intensify the experience for a reader rather than diminish it. Before students send off their essay, they should always read it aloud to someone who knows them well; let that person decide if an individual’s voice comes through.</p>
<p>i read my own essay and it lacks the flowery prose that other people have</p>
<p>mine just gets the point across too. Everybody keeps telling me to only show don’t tell</p>
<p>but i decided it’s best to just show and tell.</p>
<p>I’m also including to be verbs. What is life if we can’t be</p>
<p>Posts like this always make me worry about my writing style. I love words, especially big, useless ones (like aposiopesis!). I’d rather say “foment an insurrection” than “start a riot.” And I feel like my essays wouldn’t represent me if I didn’t write them in that manner. Is that okay?</p>
<p>^ It really depends. I know some pretentious psuedo-intellectuals that use big words wrong. It sounds like you use them right. Just be careful. A single misused word usually turns me off.</p>