Help!! So for my commonapp personal statement, I had to omit most spaces between sentences so that I could use more words. Is that a big no and do you think it would influence the admission decision? The essay itself is really strong and being able to write more helped for that. Should I change it and try to just cut words instead?
What? No periods and no spaces???
You need to use proper punctuation and formatting so that your essay is easily comprehensible.
It someone gave me an essay to read without punctuation and spacing it would get discarded without reading.
Cut words.
Lol. No idea where you’re applying but the ability to effectively self edit is needed. Yes, it matters. That’s the opposite of running on, cramming in more words.
It’s a rookie error to think your writing needs to say everything possible.
Yes, I believe this would impact your chances at admission. Your essay is NOT “strong” if you use horrible punctuation. You have to figure out a way to cut words. How much over are you? Do you know someone (many a writing teacher, a counselor, or a parent with good writing skills) who can help you edit your essay? Often there are unnecessary words you can delete or ways you can rearrange sentences so that it still says the same thing but with less words/characters.
“Is that a big no…”
Thinking this through, this is a big NO.
You MUST make the breaks between sentences clear. You also MUST split things up appropriately into paragraphs.
The ability to write concisely is very valuable in life. They are judging as much or more on how you say it as on what you say.
“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”
— Blaise Pascal, mathematician and physicist.
At first I imagined that the writer had left two spaces after each period (as I do) and was getting rid of one. Agree that you can always get rid of a few words instead.
^ where did my extra space go? Looks like CC deletes it.
How exactly are you removing spaces between sentences? does your essay look like this?
Or do you mean that you’re using single space LINES, so that your essay should look like this:
But instead, you wrote it like this:
Edit!
You can make it shorter: Read it out aloud, have someone else read it too. Remove adjectives, use hyphenated words, change sentence structure, drop most if not all the “so”, “very” and “but”, …, add back spaces and periods.
Good luck.
I read somewhere that the two spaces between sentences is a big red flag that the essay was written by an adult and not a student. A current student would never put two spaces in after a sentence. They are just not taught that way now.
Main thing is, you just don’t need to write War & Peace. Don’t need every action or emotion detailed. No need to quote full sentences or conversations. Running on, endless details, etc, are distractions and can lead to rambling (a no-no.)
Remember: there’s beauty in precision. And, the editor’s mantra: Be Brutal.
All good, I fixed it and cut the words I needed to. Jeez you people don’t need to be aggressive about it. Appreciate those that kindly expressed their opinions. Thanks!
No, what I meant is sth like this:
Hello.My name is… (no space between hello and my)
^^Honestly, that looks wrong, like you don’t know proper formating or have no typing skills.
Have you ever seen A River Runs Through It? “Again, half as long.” “Again, shorter.” Edit, edit, edit.
Idonotthinkanyoneis beingaggressivehere.
This is very funny.
No, you cannot run words together with a period. For other readers, use at least basic punctuation and spacing, and no text-speak. These aren’t graded assignments, but some minimum standards are expected. And yes, trying to run words together shows an inability to self-edit. The 650 word count is plenty.
If you try to submit more words than the app allows, they simply won’t load and your essay will be cut off.