<p>^^ Agree there. </p>
<p>OP, if you haven’t seen this before, it makes for good reading: [How</a> To Write A College Essay | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/how-to-write-a-college-essay]How”>How To Write A College Essay | MIT Admissions)</p>
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<p>How would you like to be an admissions officer and have to turn the dictionary for each application?</p>
<p>A lot of high school students have this misconception that using big words makes them sound smart. Outside of Academic Writing, which contrary to popular belief, an admissions essay is not, big words make you sound forced, unnatural, and pretentious.</p>
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<p>You forgot the most important one…</p>
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This.</p>
<p>10 char</p>
<p>I’m not really a writing expert, but I have a couple of writing (fiction) awards and I think that some of the same ideas of creative writing apply to application essay writing.
Long words aren’t bad; Long words that are strange, out-of-context and obviously shoved in from a thesaurus are bad. Whichever word conveys your meaning most clearly and most vividly is the best one, regardless of length.
Consider:
“I stimulated the conniption of my maternal overseer with my unscrupulous destruction of the imported tupperware.”
“Red as the Chinese flag, Mom unleashed her epic anger when she learned I’d broken the dishes!”
I mean, what the heck? The first one is confusing and doesn’t say much. Meanwhile, the second one has a nice description, simple language and a touch of humor.
Again, a long word isn’t always bad:
“My piano teacher rambled.”
“Every week, my piano teacher pontificated (to weary ears) on the subtleties of Schumann, the joys of Joplin, the miracles of Mendelssohn!”
There are a couple of big words in that second example, but they convey the idea better.
A good writer will use the best words with the best meanings for the best contexts.</p>
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<p>Better: “Every week, my piano teacher rambled on about the subtleties of Schumann, the joys of Joplin, or the miracles of Mendelssohn.”</p>
<p>Simple words + good conversational structure = better essay</p>
<p>The essay is essentially a written interview. Use conversation, not formality.</p>
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<p>I think big words, if you’re going to use them at all, work best in sentences that sound sort of droll/vaguely sarcastic. Here the big words are used as a way of mocking the attitude of the piano teacher.
“Epic” as an adjective should probably be avoided, though…it was a popular a couple years ago and now it’s the linguistic equivalent of an overplayed song.</p>
<p>“Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.”
Winston Churchill
Churchill wrote and spoke to move his audience. Anglosaxon words are not only shorter but more forceful than French and Latin words. Think ‘walk’ versus ‘ambulate’. The King James version of the bible which was to be read aloud to the common man has a fraction of the words used by Shakespeare who was writing for effect and to be clever.</p>
<p>I believe that colleges only wish to read essays written by incoming students in the simplest words that would easily be understood by the reader. This would make the applicants feel comfortable in doing the the writing requirement and like a burden to them.</p>
<p>^ Uhhhh …</p>
<p>whadjusay?</p>
<p>The original poster has at least two major grammatical errors in his or her post, including a run on sentence. This, combined, with the use of the word “censorius,” gives an impression of trying to cover up deficiencies in training by using big words. Much better to get the grammar right and use “critical” instead.</p>
<p>I am surprised that noone has mentioned “Strunk and White,” which is, in my opinion, the best guide to writing ever written. The advice there is to ONLY use big words when necessary to the meaning. Think Hemingway.</p>
<p>Using a Thesaurus to plug in words will simply result in appearing pretentious. There are nuances to meaning, subtle differences between words, that will get overlooked, if you try too hard to insert big words. You will end up seeming silly, at best.</p>
<p>I think that how you use language in an essay- even aside from content- shows a lot of about character. If I were an admissions officer, Halcyonheather, you are in…</p>
<p>The application season is a time for students to reflect on their lives, where they have been and where they want to go. Every single one of my 3 children wrote about a childhood theme, and they did fine with admissions. Just as you don’t need to use big words in an essay, you don’t need to write about world peace or curing cancer.</p>
<p>Finally, here is a definition of “censorius”: “Addicted to censure; apt to blame or condemn; severe in making remarks on others, or on their writings or manners.” The word has a connotation of unnecessary severity, and almost implies a character defect.</p>
<p>Actually, this discussion of language for college-application essays has made me think most of Wordsworth’s preface to the 1800 edition of his Lyrical Ballads. (See, I told you all I used to be an English teacher!) </p>
<p>Knowing that the first edition of Lyrical Ballads had been controversial, and had been criticized by some for using language that wasn’t lofty enough, Wordsworth said that his goal in the Lyrical Ballads had been “to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible in a selection of language really used by men, and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect; and, further, and above all, to make these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them, truly though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature” (empahasis added). Four really fine objectives for a college essay:</p>
<ol>
<li>to select an incident from ordinary life;</li>
<li>to express it in straightforward language;</li>
<li>to express it, nevertheless, in a way that is imaginative, novel or distinctively yours;</li>
<li>to make the telling interesting by tying the story to some basic truth about yourself, humanity or the universe.</li>
</ol>
<p>This doesn’t mean the language should be vulgar. Wordsworth was sensitive to the charge that the language of his poetry had been too coarse, and he advocated that when poets use “a selection of language really used by men,” it should be “adopted (purified indeed from what appear to be its real defects, from all lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust).”</p>
<p>I don’t mean to suggest, and I don’t think that Wordsworth meant to suggest, that a writer should never use a long or uncommon word. They can adorn your writing, but they shouldn’t be the construction material of your writing. Later in the Preface, Wordsworth says (I’ll paraphrase him this time) that the language of the best good poetry differs only occasionally from the language of good prose, and that, effectively, no good poem can be all poetry. Such a poem would be (and this is not Wordsworth’s analogy) like eating a whole bowl of frosting.</p>
<p>To put it another way: if fifty years ago Martin Luther King, Jr., had stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his “I am presently possessed of a reverie” speech, would we have marked its anniversary last week?</p>
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<p>Oops, proofreading error. Strike “the best,” and make that “the language of good poetry differs only occasionally from the language of good prose…”</p>
<p>Kind of embarrassing to do what while you’re pontificating about what makes for good writing.</p>
<p>why basic vocabulary?
here is why:
it’s a quote. Why are you here? (after professor asks a students to go out of classroom)</p>
<p>Reply:
“Instruments that record analyze summarize organize debate and explain information which are illustrative non-illustrative hardbound paperback jacketed non-jacketed with forward introduction, table of contents, index that are indented for the enlightenment, understanding enrichment enhancement and education of the human brain thru sensory root of vision… sometimes touch”</p>
<p>Teacher: What are you talking about?</p>
<p>Student: Books. sir, books.</p>
<p>:D</p>
<p>why complicate things? Keep it simple. Because simplicity isn’t simple 
.</p>
<p>If the vocabulary is too elaborate, that could raise a red flag - at least for undergraduate admissions. That could indicate that the essay may have been heavily edited by third parties. For PhD admissions, it wouldn’t raise a red flag to my eyes, though.</p>
<p>Personally I think college essay is suppose to be a true reflection of you not something you pull out of the blue. This include vocabulary (but of course “slang” english wouldn’t be ideal). It’s definitely not likely that you remember big words unless you use them often. Other people (as I seen in my HS honor english class and now in college simply use (on Office Word) “type word: ‘same’, right click, synonyms>, and a list of above basic vocabulary show up.”
Not ruling out that they don’t know any stronger words but it they did that on paper we’re looking at what people consider “10th grade writing”. But even now in college, I am barely seeing the use of bigger words. Most vocabulary seems basic or slightly above to me.</p>
<p>drexter: I soo got your reference.
Anyway, using incredibly flowering words will show people your arrogance. There was a guy who graduated last year. He used the most pretentious words in everyday and many people in my school disliked him because of this.</p>
<p>One other comment: I have helped a number of students with their essays, in what I call a “nondirective” manner, for which I received training 30 years ago. The single biggest problem I see is that everyone is trying to be “unique”, which may mean big words, or may mean incredibly contrived essays that attempt to show creativity and imagination- and fail, big time. </p>
<p>So the advice to write straightforwardly and let your self shine through without trying too hard is excellent, as is the list provided by Sikorsky.</p>
<p>Application essays aren’t about your knowledge of the thesaurus. They’re about expressing your personality, and most people don’t use long, complicated words in everyday speech.</p>