<p>can i do this for emphasis?</p>
<p>Italics are a regular convention in my opinion, while bolding is rather distasteful.</p>
<p>I would suggest that as a general rule, you don’t do anything on the common app essay that you wouldn’t do on an essay for your English class</p>
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<p>I agree with this advice.</p>
<p>@ jgraider, is that a strict rule, I have an interesting formatting idea for my common app essay, I want the text to form a certain shape (some news papers do this). Is that something I should strictly stay away from. I would of course include a normally formatted essay after my “unique” format. Do colleges just generally not like any special formatting.</p>
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<p>It’s not a rule at all, just a suggestion. If you want it to be in a certain shape, that could really stand out. I meant more don’t do anything crazy with the font or anything. My advice would just to be sure it’s easy to read if you do decide to get creative</p>
<p>thanks, I have been looking for some confirmation on that issue, I won’t do anything crazy but I will be creative. I don’t know if you know the answer to this, but when the essay is read by admissions, is it printed out or read on the computer.</p>
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<p>Actually, I’ve been wondering this too</p>
<p>Thought I’d pitch in my own two cents.</p>
<p>I personally try to avoid using italics or anything else like that. Using italics is like telling the reader “you’re not smart enough to find what’s important on your own”.</p>
<p>In general, try to stay away from using italics/bold letters. The only reason I had several sentences italicized in my own Common App essay was because they were words in a foreign language (but I added the English translation in normal font immediately afterwards).</p>
<p>Carefully chosen words and phrasing should convey emphasis</p>
<p>i’m italicizing a part of mine. it works really well in my essay’s case</p>