Me Share You

The best papers are those that have a purpose. They are more than random thoughts written on paper or trying to fill a paper with the words in order to get the necessary number for an assigned word count. Whether you are allowed to choose your own theme, or if you have strict guidelines, the best papers address one of three areas.

1. 1. Teach or help the reader to learn something

2. Be sure the reader finds something to enjoy

3. Persuade or move the reader

The best papers touch on one or more of these objectives, and follow some simple ideas. Bad college essays do not meet these objectives. The document may have structure, excellent spelling, and proper use of grammar, but if there is no purpose the document does not reach the goal.

Advise or teach the reader

Admission essays, academic essays, and scholarship essays often have the purpose of teaching the reader something. Admission essays often teach the reader about the author. Academic essays often have assigned topics, and scholarship essays are the same way. Your reader may already know about what you are about to tell them, but if you write as though they don't, you will have a great paper.

Give the reader something to like

Whether it is an admissions essay explaining your great and unique qualities or an academic essay about an assigned topic, leave the reader with something that pleases them about what you have written. In academic and scholarship essays, it is especially important to make the reader appreciate you. You can do this by tailoring your essay to things the institution values, explicitly following the directions, and match yourself to the values stated in the essay. In academic essays, make the reader appreciate whatever topic it is you are writing about. You can do this by doing adequate research and using great detail in your descriptions.

Motivate or persuade the reader

Another important purpose in many of the best college essays is to move or persuade the reader to do or feel something. If they are supposed to feel an emotion, you can use descriptive language to draw the feelings out of your reader. If the purpose is more to persuade, think of your paper as a 'call to action' that will be so powerful it will get your readers off the couch to follow your cause.

Follow the directions

Nothing irritates a teacher or admissions counselor more than reading a paper, only to find that the basic guidelines were not followed. The best college papers follow the instructions perfectly. Many admissions officers will not even consider papers that do not follow all directions. You can do this by showing that you did the reading, citing all your resources appropriately, and verifying your finished product against the directions to ensure you have completed the task.

Do not displease the reader

Great! You have a finished product! Now, make sure the essay does not contain any of the following problems that are sure to turn off the reader or hurt your chances of admission.

1. Unsupported claims - using words like "always" "never," all ", etc. is a sure way to make the document more dramatic than it should be.

2. Tone - don't talk down to the reader

3. Distractions - do not use lots of unnecessary punctuation marks like exclamation marks, emoticons and special characters.

4. Wordiness - don't write exceptionally long sentences or paragraphs because it will be hard for the reader to dissect what you are saying.