<p>There are a lot of great writers here on CC sharing their essays; a lot of the ones I read seem to exhibit an almost poetic vibe to it. Such language in the essays is something that slightly distresses me. While I admit that language refinement shows the extra mile the applicant had striven through as the mark of effort and commitment to MIT, at the same time I wonder why I've not seen a lot of straightforward, no-BS, but interesting essays on CC. Of course, the best approach is to combine frankness and good language, but I always believed that a good writer writes simply, not decoratively.</p>
<p>This doesn't mean that I won't polish my language and fix grammatical issues. Of course I will, but I won't try to make every "word" "locution".</p>
<p>So my question:</p>
<p>I'm guessing a lot of people will answer "No, it doesn't matter" if I asked "Does language style matter?"</p>
<p>Thus, I will ask this instead:</p>
<p>Why do so many essays that I read seem to have come out from a creative writing class...?</p>
<p>(p.s. Well, in hindsight, I realize that I decorate my language as well...but just a bit...only a bit...)
(p.p.s. Actually I have no idea if Shakespeare's language is considered decorative for his time)
(p.p.p.s. No offense Shakespeare fans)
(p.p.p.p.s. As for where the "so many essays" come from, CC)</p>
<p>I believe Content > Language
But as always, language shapes the perception of a reader on what the writer’s personality might be. I think that’s why “Be yourself” when writing essays is important. However, I have a confirmation bias that there are more flowery essays than simple-worded essays. I kind of just need comfort, I guess.</p>
<p>I have the same approach. I HATE flowery language and I think a straightforward, well written essay is much better than a vague, overly decorated one. </p>
<p>I wrote my Harvard application like that and I just had an interview with an admission officer and she said she loved my essays. </p>
<p>Don’t force yourself to write like Shakespeare because very few people can and those who try and fail are super lame imho</p>
<p>I strongly believe they the style will even me more effective in showing who you are than the content of the essay itself.</p>
<p>When I will have to write my essays (I’m still a junior) I will make sure that they sound straightforward, not because it is better or anything of the kind, just because I’m very straightforward in real life. </p>
<p>Remember, besides the interview, the essays are the only way the admission officers will understand who you really are. What kind of style suits your personality best?</p>
<p>I am a college English teacher. I am still new to CC, so I have not seen a lot of essays posted here, and I have never PM’d anyone for an essay. But I can say this. A lot of the essays I have read are grotesquely overwritten, sacrificing clarity and specificity for abstract language that the writers do not fully understand.</p>
<p>The first rule of expository writing is to have something to say. The second is to communicate it efficiently, without requiring the reader to invest a lot of mental energy.</p>
<p>Flowery language can really get you in trouble if you aren’t careful.<br>
Every audience is different, but college adcoms tend to not like that.</p>
<p>I would get a book of successful college essays to see the style which is preferred.</p>
Well, I think the flowery ones are more likely to be posted (and my personal conjecture is that it’s because their authors are more likely to believe that they are Really Deep and Artistic). </p>
<p>I’m all for straightforward writing, personally – my writing ideal is to use exactly as many words as I need to make my point, and no more. </p>
<p>Interestingly, this is a stylistic difference that often persists, even in technical writing. Some people are really good at writing the “discussion” section of a scientific paper, which is allowed to contain fairly speculative material. Other people, like me, prefer to stick to just the facts, ma’am. (I edited a colleague’s grad school statement of purpose today, and I think I must have cut it by 10-15% just by attacking filler words.)</p>
<p>I feel more assured now that there are people like me who prefer clear-cut essays rather than artistic ones.
I really liked the language style of the MIT blogs because it is simply so fresh. I’m trying to write simply and freshly as well. Though I must say that my personality is not really “straightforward”, but out of the two choices, I prefer the straightforward choice. (I think it takes great technique to write simply yet profoundly as well!)</p>
<p>The only really poetic/artsy essay I wrote was for Chicago, which seemed to encourage it (I actually thought their prompts were very pseudo intellectual. If you want an applicant to merely showcase writing talent, say so. I still whored out my writing to get in, but the whole thing made me feel stupid) but most of my essays have been straightforward, easy to read, etc. I think it’s much better to write with a complex sentence structure rather than complex diction, and to do so with strong, short, Anglo words.</p>
<p>I was happy to write the MIT essays because they didn’t perpetuate the artsy BS that other prompts did. Perhaps the people who write genuine, heartfelt, more direct essays simply have the common sense to not let anonymous users on a college message board read their work :0 Also some of my essays were somewhat personal and I thought that using complicated language would distract from the overall purpose. It’s not that I can’t “articulate my inner thoughts, urges, and deepest ambitions to the arbitration inherently grounded in any sort of wholistic evaluation” but rather that writing in a flowery manner serves to create a voice that is both pretentious and also somewhat condescending. </p>
<p>I have read one friend’s essay and his fit essay fit your description pretty precisely, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings and say his style was self-inflating crap. I have also read robot-essays with seemingly no voice or connection to the actual author. I think the challenge is being able to craft a voice that is not overwhelming, but still quite present.</p>
<p>If, after reading your essay, the adcoms can only tell how well you can write, then you’ve hurt yourself. It’s one of the few chances you have for them to see/learn something about you. Make sure your “voice” comes through.</p>
<p>The essay I submitted to MIT was 1.5 pages long, hand written on a page of paper - torn out of a spiral-bound notebook.</p>