I have several ways of editing, depending on what is the reason for the length, as follows:</p>
<p>If I feel it makes a solid case and leads logically point-to-point, I’m reluctant to overthrow the logical flow. So I try to see if there’s any “froth” in the language use itself. I go through each sentence mercilessly, asking at each phrase, “so what” and if the phrase doesn’t prove itself by adding something new to the discussion, out it goes. </p>
<p>If the author offered an Example, somtimes it’s not necessary to offer it since the point was already made. INterestingly, there are times when the Example says it all, so the reiteration of the “point being made” can be reduced in length. The reader “got it” in other words, like Tom Cruise, “you got me with ‘hello’” so no need to elaborate.</p>
<p>Change a narrative to story or some dialgoue. Screenwriters do this all the time. Don’t tell it in the abstract, show it with a specifric; ground your point in the action. If a h.s. student wants to say, “I care deeply about the environment because I believe blah blah…” that passion might all come out just as well to say, “While spending the summer on a community recycling team…” Then the AdCom thinks, “ah she cares deeply about the environment.” Nuff said.</p>
<p>The hardest part is when it ALL seems so good. Then I have to chop out a whole subsection. Ouch. I try to pick the one that is the weakest, recognizing that it was good in the first place, but something has to “go” and I don’t want to disturb the rest of the text.
But then I have to smooth the new absence with a segue phrase or sentence so the logic still stands up for the entire piece.</p>
<p>I know it feels like conducting surgery on yourself to edit something wonderful, so I sympathize.</p>
<p>That said, As a minority voice, I have read on rare occasion from some who applied to elites with 800 words and got accepted, but I’d never risk it and you don’t know what else their application offered to excuse that length!</p>
<p>EDIT: If you agree and want to take out as much as 150 words here, first decide if you think the writing style is “tight” already. If so, then don’t fuss swith every line, instead seek out a subsection first. If you can let that subsection go, you won’t have to tear apart every other line of the essay.</p>
<p>Often, however, I do a little bit of each kind of editing. What I wrote above, as the “so what” test on each phrase, can actually come LAST in your sequence. That’s because it usually eliminates very few actual words in number; but it does make the piece sound crisper and smarter.</p>
<p>If you can’t do this surgery, ask an English teacher or someone to read and say, “if I had to cut out something, what could I eliminate?” A third party will see it right away.