<p>I’m a junior in high school, I haven’t read any books on the essay, and I haven’t written any practice essays. With that said, I go to one of the top high schools in the country, and took a class last semester where we talked a lot about writing essays. Make what you will of this.</p>
<p>My take on it is that there are a lot of ways to mess up the essay. If your writing doesn’t flow, it’s going to be bad. If your topic is boring or over-used (“I learned to accept death when my grandmother died,” “I learned what teamwork really went in the last 30 seconds of a crucial lacrosse game,” etc.), it’s going to be bad. Think of it this way: if I’m reading thousands of essays from people applying to my college, what is going to make me think “uch, not another one!”</p>
<p>When I’m really worried about a piece of writing of mine, here’s what I do:</p>
<ul>
<li>Write it.</li>
<li>Leave it alone for at least a day.</li>
<li>Edit it. Oftentimes, if you edit your essay immediately, you’ll know what you meant to say so nonsensical or poorly-written passages will make sense to you even though they still suck. Waiting a day ensures that confusing passages give you a “***” reaction.</li>
<li>Leave it alone again.</li>
<li>Read. It. Out. Loud. Not all good pieces of writing are going to sound brilliant out loud, but if you can’t help but laugh at how pretentious you sound, or if the speaking doesn’t flow together well, you’re probably in trouble. A lot of people here a voice saying the words they read in their head, so if something sounds bad to you out loud, it also may sound bad to college admissions officers.</li>
<li>Avoid confusing grammatical peculiarities. I make it a wrote to avoid using “effect” as a verb that means “cause” unless I know that the teacher who’s grading my essay realizes that. I’ve had countless people proof-reading my work comment on how “affect” was to verb, to which I made a mental note that most people don’t know obscure-yet-cool stuff about grammar.</li>
</ul>
<p>That’s how I write something that I’m really worried about; it’s probably how I’ll write my college app essay.</p>