Transfer essays - qx re appropriate vocabulary

<p>Have a question for Andale or anyone else who would like to weigh in:</p>

<p>I know that many places I have read about writing transfer essays say that you should refrain from using big or obscure words, I'm assuming so you don't sound like you're trying to hard or that you're pretentious. The problem is, whenever I write something for school or any "professional" setting I tend to use a varied vocabulary that may come off the wrong way. My writing on this site is obviously not an example of this but I consider myself a fairly accomplished writer among my peers, but again, I certainly don't want to come off the wrong way.</p>

<p>Should I dumb down the way I write for the sake of my transfer essay. I do understand that the way I write could perhaps be construed differently than I intend, but on the other hand, I don't really want to sacrifice my "voice" either.</p>

<p>Would appreciate any thought</p>

<p>Mod note: I moved this post from the Transfer 101 thread, as I think it is a separate topic which might be of interest to many
stone - here is my opinion (and it is only my opinion)</p>

<p>I do not think you should "dumb down" your essays to avoid "50-cent" words. If you tend to use words with very specific connotations of denotations, and that is a part of your natural style, I think you should stick with it.</p>

<p>What I have seen in essays that <em>is</em> a problem is what I would call Thesaurus Syndrome. An applicant writes an essay where it appears that s/he has gone to a thesaurus to replace as many words as possible with "fancier" words. Not only could that seem pretentious; it can be ineffectual. Worse, if the writer does not have an extremely good vocabulary or the writer has English as a second language, there is serious danger of choosing a word that is NOT a synonym in the given context.</p>

<p>Here are some probably absurd examples, but they prove the point, I hope.
Original sentence: "... you should refrain from using big or obscure words.... so you don't sound like you're trying too hard"...
Misguided Thesaurus Syndrome attempt to improve sentence:"...you should renounce from using vast or obscure words... so you don't sound like you're trying too unbreakable. The "improved" sentence is unnatural and the word choices are actually wrong - the replacement words might be interchangeable with the original in some contexts but not in the current context.</p>

<p>You should write in your own voice, for sure. Even so, it is possible that your essay might not come across as you wish. Often this happens with attempts at humor, but could happen for other reasons. The protection against that problem, imo, is to have someone (other than your fan club ;) ) read the essay and give you honest feedback. Could be a teacher, could be a parent (if they can be objective), could be someone here on cc. There are several parents who are willing to do this. You could PM me as I am one of those.</p>

<p>Thanks, great response. I guess that was pretty much what I suspected but it's good to have it affirmed.</p>