<p>Or is it too offensive?</p>
<p>I feel like this word just has so much power and captures the emotions that I was feeling at the time. And I mean screwed as in.. in deep trouble, not in the other way haha. </p>
<p>Just wondering what your opinions are since many people my age, like myself, do not believe that this is a bad word.</p>
<p>I strongly suggest that you use another word because to many adults, “screwed” has a sexual connotation that you wouldn’t want linked to your essay.</p>
<p>Agree with NSM. Your essay is not going to be read and judged by someone your age. The reader may well not mind, but why take that chance?</p>
<p>My daughter started hers with “Screw” and got into her first-choice school Early Decision.</p>
<p>However, it may have mattered that “Screw” was the first word of a quotation, with which she started her essay. So it wasn’t her saying it, it was a person involved in the local controversy that was the subject of her essay who said it.</p>
<p>It depends on the essay and, perhaps to some extent, the school.</p>
<p>Is this a school you feel really confident you will get accepted to? Then, perhaps it makes sense to play it a little more conservative.</p>
<p>If it’s a big reach and you need to knock 'em dead with a risky “gonzo journalism” essay, then what do you have to lose?</p>
<p>I don’t want to “just say no” because you might have the most entertaining, provocative college essay ever written and a one word sentence “Screwed.” might be the perfect way to start it. I will say that most college essays written by most 18 year old high school seniors are not in that category.</p>
<p>re #4, “Screw up your courage to the sticking point”? :)</p>
<p>OP, I would try to find another word that fits the situation. “Screwed” is not a very specific word, and rather than being powerful I’d say it has a raunchy, humorous connotation. Alternatives, depending on the situation, might include trapped, exposed, betrayed, or ruined, just to cite a few. If raunchy humor is what you are aiming at, that’s another matter, of course.</p>
<p>Consolation: The essay (in response to Common App prompt #2) was on a heated controversy in our community about whether it was acceptable to use a huge church as a venue for public high school graduations instead of the much smaller (but unquestionably secular) facility customarily used for this purpose. </p>
<p>The quote, from someone who supported the use of the church because it meant that there would be no limit on the number of guests that each graduating senior could invite, went something like this: “Screw the Constitution. I want all of my grandparents to be able to come to my graduation.” The essay went on to support the opposite view, concluding that the use of the church was unacceptable because it violated the principle of separation of church and state and because it made non-Christian members of the community, including the author of the essay, feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.</p>
<p>Given the context, I don’t think that the use of “Screw” was all that shocking. In fact, I encouraged my daughter to use the quote to liven up what was otherwise a rather dry essay.</p>
<p>To the OP…the fact that you are questioning the use of this word in your essay makes me say…don’t use it. Since you have some doubts, switch words.</p>
<p>The use of off-color language as a device to startle the reader is something that, to adults, comes off as classically adolescent. As writers gain in maturity, they often use such language in order to craft the personality of a character or add a rare jolt of intensity to a statement - strategies which require a great deal of skill. But less mature writers frequently think that if a little of something is effective, a lot of it should be even better. Kind of like the difference between a skilled chef who adds a pinch of sugar to a dish in order to develop a subtle edge and a kid who eats sugar cubes.</p>
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<p>Arguably, this could be advantageous. It demonstrates that the essay was actually written by the adolescent who’s applying to college, rather than by a parent, college counselor, or other adult.</p>
<p>You can have the same impact, without the possible downside, with a one word sentence of the same meaning:
Shattered.
Busted.
Crushed.</p>
<p>You get the idea.</p>
<p>But I agree, it all depends on the rest of the essay. In particular, the next several words and sentences after that opening.</p>
<p>“Arguably, this could be advantageous. It demonstrates that the essay was actually written by the adolescent who’s applying to college, rather than by a parent, college counselor, or other adult.”</p>
<p>I don’t think that college admissions officers are so desperate to find students who’ve written their own essays that the college admissions officers would view favorably an essay that starts with what some adults would consider profanity. I think admissions officers would be more likely to view the applicant as having poor judgment and a limited vocabulary.</p>
<p>Good point by Marian. Essays do need to reflect your voice, whatever that truly is at this stage. And Eternalallure, I’m making no assumption that your use of “screwed” would necessarily reflect the adolescent tone. You may, even at this sage, be a highly skilled writer capable of subtlety; you’ll need to make the judgment about how it comes across.</p>
<p>Would you use that word in a college paper to be read by PhD holder? No. Pick another word- looking up words to strengthen your essay will make you all a better and stronger writer. I agree with NSM’s comment that if you can’t break yourself out of using colloquial words, you’re only showing that you have limited vocabulary, which would then be a poor reflection of your SAT scores and English grades…</p>
<p>The only context in which I can imagine the word “screwed” starting a college essay is if there’s a screwdriver in the next sentence.</p>
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<p>Again, I’m not advocating the use of the word “screwed”. However, I think anyone whose application essays sound like a college paper is likely to be “screwed” when acceptance letters arrive. I can’t imagine a worse way to write a college application essay. Specifically, looking up big words in thesaurus will NOT strengthen a college essay, but will instead have exactly the opposite effect.</p>
<p>Good application essays are all about telling a story that pulls the reader into your world in some way, inviting him to get to know you.</p>
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<p>Hard to give a good answer out of context. Well, it is easy to say “no” but it is also possible that the word “screwed” could lead off a wonderful essay. </p>
<p>Personally, I am the type of reader that can get sort of “stuck” on an inappropriate opening and it could adversely affect my feelings toward the entire essay which of course would be a bad thing. To me the word has many negative connotations such as whiny, feeling sorry for yourself and paranoid.</p>
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<p>I don’t know. </p>
<p>One of the big annual traditions at Swarthmore (and other colleges) is the “Screw” dance or “Screw Your Roommate” dance. The name refers not to a physical act, but how your roommate may feel when finding out who you picked as their blind date or how embarrassing the costume you are required to wear may be:</p>
<p>[Swarthmore</a> College | Student Life | Screw Your Roomate](<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/x12279.xml]Swarthmore”>Screw Your Roomate :: Campus Life :: Swarthmore College)
<a href=“http://daily.swarthmore.edu/static/uploads/screw/screw3.JPG[/url]”>http://daily.swarthmore.edu/static/uploads/screw/screw3.JPG</a></p>
<p>I can envision a creative and fun “Why Swarthmore?” essay written around the tradition of Screw Your Roommate. For example, an essay that plays off a parent’s reaction to seeing “Screw Your Roomate” on the calendar of events.</p>
<p>In similar vein, I could see a very effective essay about reacting to seeing the sidewalk chalkings during “Coming Out Week”, which is timed to coincide with the height of student/parent prospect visits.</p>
<p>Most students should just play it safe and avoid that kind of language. Most can’t write well enough to pull it off. I hate, however, to give a blanket rule that forces somebody to change a great, creative, and interesting college application essay.</p>
<p>Some alternatives with more or less the same colloquialism, minus the sexual connotation:
Toast.
Wiped.
Done for.
Done. (could be followed with, Stick a fork in me, I’m done.)
What now? or, Now what?
SOL. (caution, there’s still a swearing connotation in this one.)
geek_son suggests just, “In deep trouble.” He also suggests his personal catchphrase: “Roasted on a spit.”</p>
<p>I’d say don’t use it. Let’s play the synonym game again and–be honest–what is the most accurate synonym for screwed? Yep, f*^ked. Would you start with that? I didn’t think so.</p>
![http://daily.swarthmore.edu/static/uploads/screw/screw3.JPG[/url]](http://daily.swarthmore.edu/static/uploads/screw/screw3.JPG%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
