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Advice for Writing Application Essays
Summary:
The resources in this section provide a general timeline for undergraduate applications. In this section you will also find more detailed information about each stage in the application process.
Advice for Writing Successful Application Essays
When you sit down to write your application essays, there is very little left that you can control. You should have already taken, or retaken, the SAT and ACT, your grades from your first three years of high school are set on your transcript, and your recommenders all have their impressions of you that are unlikely to change before the recommendation deadline. The only thing that left in your control is your writing for the application essay.
As with all things related to your college application, you will need to start drafting your application essay far ahead of the due date. In fact, you should move each school’s deadline up two weeks so that no unexpected events prevent you from completing and submitting your application. The reason that you need so much time to work on your essay is primarily because many schools will ask you to write about similar topics, but to do so in different ways. You will need enough time to draft essays that address each of these questions or prompts for each school to which you are applying.
Don't use boilerplate essays. That is, resist the urge to reuse the exact same essay for different schools if each of them is giving you a slightly different writing prompt. You can, of course, adapt the same essay for similar prompts. Many schools do allow you to use the Common Application essay for admission to several participating schools. For more information on the Common Application and to check which schools participate as members, click here.
Although using the Common Application does simplify the processes, make sure that you review each of the schools’ application requirements. as many of these same schools also request that you submit a second essay along with the Common Application essay. For instance, in addition to answering one of the standard Common Application questions, Amherst College asks that you write an additional essay responding to one of several quotations.
Before you can start writing your essay, you will need to begin by reading the prompts and questions carefully. Even the Common Application has six prompts that you can choose from. Don’t feel as though you must choose one immediately after reading them. You should ask yourself what sticks out the most for you after having read through them. Think about what is most salient for you.
Brainstorm by putting your thoughts on paper. You can free write (writing without stopping or censoring yourself), create word association maps (visually clustering concepts that you feel go together), or keep a journal over the course of several days so that you can collect your thoughts in one place. See the Purdue OWL's PowerPoint on “Finding your Focus” for more details on these strategies.
After you have generated several ideas, reflect on where you find the most intensity or excitement in what you were writing. If nothing jumps out at you, keep brainstorming or talk with others about some possible topics until something grabs you.
Once you know what want to write about, put a rough draft on paper. Don’t be afraid of stray thoughts if they lead you to something more interesting than you had set out to write. Just make sure that you eventually come to have a rough draft that is about one thing.
Look over your draft and check for the following.
- Your writing should be personal. After reading your essay, does it seem like anyone could have written this? Make sure that your essay captures who you are.
- You writing should show, not tell, through vivid language. Successful essays relate an experience or analyze a pattern from the writer’s life. It is not enough to make general claims about what impacted your decision to go to college, for instance; you must elaborate by including evidence that answers “how” and “why” when you make your claims.
It is important to note that admissions officers care as much about your structure, style, and insights as they do about your content. That is not meant to add an extra layer of anxiety to your writing process, but to highlight the fact that you don’t necessarily need to have something life-changing to write about in order to write a successful essay. As Dowhan, Dowhan and Kaufman note in Essays that Will Get You into College, “Personal does not have to mean heavy, emotional or even inspiring” (10). In fact, as the authors explain, students might over rely on the significant event that they write about to speak for itself and don’t “explain what it meant to them or give a solid example of how it changed them. In other words, they do not make it personal” (10).
Finally, your writing should be about a sustained topic. You must use vivid description with a purpose. What is it that you learned because of this experience? What message can you decipher from the series of events that you present? What led you to your conclusions?
Once you have completed your rough draft, put it away for a few days. Afterwards, read the question again and look through your essay. Ask yourself if the essay answers the prompt. Is it personal? Does it use vivid language? Is it focused on one topic? Rewrite whatever needs to be strengthened. This is a great time to have other people look through your draft and get their reaction. Make sure that you ask someone early, and that you trust this person’s judgment; they will be putting in a lot of time to help you, so don’t disregard anything that is inconvenient or that you don’t want to hear.
Again, giving yourself plenty of time to work on this essay is vital. You should have enough time to rewrite or restructure your essay based on the feedback that you have received. As you are drafting and revising, feel free to fix any mistakes that you catch in terms of spelling, grammar, and mechanics, but don’t spend too much time editing early on in the writing process. Working on lower-order concerns can give you the impression that the essay is ready to submit prematurely. Instead, use this time to strengthen the main points of your essay.

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General Writing
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The Writing Process
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Academic Writing
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Grammar
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Punctuation
- Punctuation Introduction
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Visual Rhetoric
- Visual Rhetoric Introduction
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- Analyzing Visual Documents
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Undergraduate Applications
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Graduate School Applications
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Research and Citation
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Conducting Research
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Using Research
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- Writing with Statistics
- Strategies for Fair Use
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- Paraphrase Exercises
- Avoiding Plagiarism
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- Formatting in Sociology (ASA Style)
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APA Style
- APA Style Introduction
- APA Overview and Workshop
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APA Formatting and Style Guide
- General Format
- In-Text Citations: The Basics
- In-Text Citations: Author/Authors
- Footnotes and Endnotes
- Reference List: Basic Rules
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- Types of APA Papers
- APA Stylistics: Avoiding Bias
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MLA Style
- MLA Style Introduction
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MLA Formatting and Style Guide
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- MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics
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Chicago Style
- CMOS Introduction
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CMOS Formatting and Style Guide
- Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition
- General Format
- Books
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- Interviews, Personal Communication
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Teacher and Tutor Resources
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Writing Instructors
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Writing Tutors
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Teaching Resources
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- Invention Presentation
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Preventing Plagiarism
- Preventing Plagiarism Introduction
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Contextualizing Plagiarism
- Contextualizing Plagiarism
- Truth or Consequences
- Handout: Truth or Consequences
- The Big Picture
- Authorship and Popular Plagiarism
- Copyright and Plagiarism
- Handout: Copyright and Plagiarism
- Collaborative Authorship
- Handout: Collaborative Authorship
- Defining Our Terms
- Class Plagiarism Policy
- Comparing Policies
- Handout: Comparing Policies
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Avoiding Plagiarism
- Avoiding Plagiarism
- Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting
- Peer Summarizing
- Anonymous Paraphrasing
- Paraphrasing from Media
- Handout: Paraphrasing from Media
- Using In-text Citations
- Handout: Using In-text Citations
- Quoting Others
- Handout: Quoting Others
- Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation in Context
- Handout: Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation in Context
- Translingual Writing
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Writing in the Engineering Classroom
- Why Include Writing in Engineering Courses?
- Using Bloom’s Taxonomy
- Types of Writing Assignments for Engineering Courses
- Conceptual Writing Prompts
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- Research Team
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Writing Instructors
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Subject-Specific Writing
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Professional, Technical Writing
- Professional, Technical Writing Introduction
- Workplace Writers
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- Parallel Structure
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- Tone in Business Writing
- HATS: A Design Procedure for Routine Business Documents
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- Grant Writing
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- Technical Reports & Report Abstracts
- White Papers
- Revision in Business Writing
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Writing in Literature
- Writing in Literature Introduction
- Literary Terms
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Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism
- Introduction to Literary Theory
- Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction
- Formalism
- Psychoanalytic Criticism
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- Reader-Response Criticism
- Structuralism and Semiotics
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- Writing About Fiction
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- Writing in Literature (Detailed Discussion)
- Writing About Poetry
- Image in Poetry
- Poetry: Close Reading
- Writing about World Literature
- Writing About Film: Terminology and Starting Prompts
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Writing in the Social Sciences
- Writing in the Social Sciences Introduction
- Social Work Literature Review Guidelines
- Writing in Psychology: Experimental Report Writing
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Writing in Engineering
- Engineering Project Documentation
- Writing in Engineering Introduction
- Writing Engineering Reports
- Handbook on Report Formats
- Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)
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INDOT Workshop Resources for Engineers
- Introduction
- Readability Presentation
- Readability Handout
- Paramedic Method Presentation
- Paramedic Method Handout
- Adjectives Presentation
- Adjectives Handout
- Intra-Paragraph Organization Presentation
- Intra-Paragraph Organization Handout
- Verb Use Presentation
- Verb Use Handout
- Macro Level Cohesion Presentation
- Macro Level Cohesion Handout
- Micro Level Cohesion Presentation
- Micro Level Cohesion Handout
- Concise Language Presentation
- Eliminating Unnecessary Words Handout
- Parallelism Handout
- Document Design Presentation
- Poster Design Handout
- Group Work Presentation
- Group Work Handout
- Writing Proposals Handout
- Annotated Sample Documents
- Mechanical Engineering Writing Enhancement Program
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Creative Writing
- Creative Writing Introduction
- Fiction Writing Basics
- Pattern and Variation in Poetry
- Pattern and Variation: Aural
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- Characters and Fiction Writing
- Poetry Writing
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Healthcare Writing
- Healthcare Writing Introduction
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- Patient Education Materials
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Writing as a Veterinary Technician
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- Patient Signalment, Client Information
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- Progress Notes
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- Legal Issues of Documentation
- Sample Care Plan Example
- Writing as a Professional Nurse
- Journalism and Journalistic Writing
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Writing in the Purdue SURF Program
- Writing in the Purdue SURF Program Introduction
- SURF Workshop Resources Introduction
- SURF Workshop Resources: Problem Statements
- SURF Workshop Resources: Designing Scientific Research Posters
- Writing in Art History
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Professional, Technical Writing
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Job Search Writing
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Preparing an Application
- Preparing an Application Introduction
- Tailoring Employment Documents For a Specific Audience
- Tips and Terms
- Writing the Personal Statement
- Job Skills Checklist
- Action Verbs to Describe Skills, Jobs, and Accomplishments in Employment Documents
- Example Employment Documents
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Job Search Letters
- Job Search Letters Introduction
- Letters Concerning Employment
- Model Letters for Various Purposes
- Cover Letters 1: Quick Tips
- Cover Letters 2: Preparing to Write a Cover Letter
- Cover Letters 3: Writing Your Cover Letter
- Cover Letters Workshop
- Academic Cover Letters
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Résumés and CVs
- Résumés and CVs Introduction
- Introduction
- Résumé Sections
- Using Two Pages or More
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- Résumé Design
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- Management Résumés
- Résumé Workshop
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- Video Résumés
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Preparing an Application
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English as a Second Language
- ESL Instructors, Tutors
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ESL Students
- ESL Students Introduction
- US Higher Education: A Local Introduction
- Tips for Writing in North American Colleges
- Plagiarism and ESL Writers
- Writing for Global Business Audiences: An Introduction
- Writing for an Indian Business Audience
- Writing for a Chinese Business Audience
- Understanding Writing Assignments
- Writing for a North American Business Audience
- Key Concepts for Writing in North American Colleges
- Audience Considerations for ESL Writers
- Combining Sentences
- Nominalizations and Subject Position
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Prepositions
- Prepositions
- Prepositions of Direction—To
- Prepositions of Direction—Onto
- Prepositions of Direction—Into
- Prepositions of Spatial Relationship—A
- Prepositions of Spatial Relationship—B
- Prepositions of Spatial Relationship—F-O
- Prepositions of Spatial Relationship—T-W
- Prepositions of Time, Place, and Introducing Objects
- Pronouns
- Punctuation
- Paraphrasing and Summary
- About the OWL
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