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Before you read examples of real essays here the top 25 most
common essay writing mistakes. These are mistakes that students
commit every year and that have a disastrous effect on their
chances of getting admitted. Learn from their mistakes so
you don't commit any of these errors in your own essays. So
without further ado, we present to you our list of the 25
most common essay writing mistakes:
1. Not answering the question. It may seem like an
obvious mistake, but many applicants don't answer the question.
Or they answer part of the question but not all of it. If
you are asked about a time that you've been a leader and the
impact that your leadership had, don't just describe when
you've been a leader. Make sure you also address the impact
of your leadership. This is a mistake that many students make
when recycling their essays or using the same essay for one
school for another. If you do recycle your essays, edit them
carefully to make sure that they completely answer the questions
asked.
2. Showing that you know nothing about the school.
Business schools take pride in the fact that they each have
their own strengths. They want to see you address those strengths
and how you will benefit from them. While it can be tempting
to copy and paste your essays from one school to another,
you'll want to instead make sure that each essay addresses
the strengths of each school. Admission officers can tell
when your essays are so general that you have used them to
apply to multiple schools or haven't done your homework about
the strengths of their program. In at least one of your essays,
be sure that you show how the school's particular strengths
match your needs.
3. Parroting back what's on the website or brochure.
To try to show their knowledge about a particular business
school, some applicants go to the school's website or brochure
and copy text from them into their essays. Admission officers
are oftentimes the ones who write this material and it does
not impress them to see their own descriptions of their schools
in essays. You need to do your own research. Visiting a school
and talking to some of its students and faculty is critical.
By doing so you can include in your essays what you have learned
from sitting in on classes, interacting with students or observing
an activity. This kind of insight demonstrates that you have
taken the time to research the school and understand what
it has to offer you.
4. Assuming the persona of whom you think the school wants.
Some applicants try to be who they think the admission officers
want them to be. They may say that they want to go into a
field that they are not excited about, exaggerate strengths
that they think will impress the school or even try to flatter
the admission officers by declaring that their school is the
only one for them. Unless you mean it, the admission officers
will see through this hyperbole. It is better to reveal your
honest intentions, strengths and opinions. You will produce
more genuine and believable essays that will ultimately help
you get admitted.
5. Not revealing enough about you. The questions you
answer may be about your family, a figure you'd like to have
dinner with or international travel you've done. But the bottom
line is that the admission officers ask these questions as
a way to learn about you. So instead of writing an autobiography
of a historical figure or a detailed travelogue of the places
you've been, make sure the focus is still on you. If you were
writing about a historical figure you may write about what
you would want to learn from him or her and why this is important
to you. If you were writing about travel, you would want to
spend on how it has affected you versus your daily itinerary.
In other words, regardless of the question remember that the
essay is still about you.
6. Trying to be funny when you're not. It takes a
very skilled writer to write a humorous essay. If you're not
this type of writer your business school essay is not the
place to try to be. You can't miraculously change your writing
style overnight. Often your attempt at humor may appear trite
or plain silly. It's better to stick to your own style.
7. Going overboard with creativity. The business school
essay is not a creative writing project. While creativity
is not necessarily a bad thing, you should not make it the
focus of your writing style. The business school essay is
really business writing, which is more focused on content
and ideas rather than delivery. Don't sacrifice the clarity
and content of your essay in order to make it creative.
8. Failing to see your essays as part of the larger picture.
You can think of each of your essays as a chapter in a single
book. While each is important, it's also important how the
chapters go together to form the book. In other words, think
about the overall impression that your essays convey. Do they
provide a consistent picture of your accomplishments and goals?
While essays do not need to be closely tied to each other,
they should not be so divergent or contradictory that the
admission officer is confused about who you really are. Write
your essays with the understanding that they will be read
together along with the rest of your application.
9. Not knowing why you want to go to business school.
As you answer the essay questions, you will need to explain
why you want to earn an MBA and how you plan to use the degree
to advance your career. The more you understand your motivations
for earning the degree, the stronger your essays will be.
This is something that you need to think about and try to
tie into at least one of your essays. You don't need to have
every step of your future career worked out because admission
officers understand that a business school degree will help
you figure this out. But you do need to have some good reasons
about why you want an MBA at this point in your life.
10. Not showing a continuum from past to present.
In your essays, admission officers are looking for your story.
They want to see the past, present and glimpse of the future.
From your past, you should explain what you have studied or
learned from your employment to prepare you for a business
school education. From the present, you should describe why
you want an MBA. For the future, you should give some hint
at how you plan to apply your degree in your career plans.
These questions do not have to be answered in one essay. In
fact, you will probably choose to address each in a separate
essay. However, you should make sure that after reading all
of your essays you get a sense of each of these three important
parts of your life. In you are missing any of these parts,
there will be a hole in your story.
11. Forgetting to tie in your goals with the school.
It's important that you not only explain your career goals
but also elaborate on how the business school will help you
to achieve these goals. Admission officers want to see a connection
between their school and how it will help you meet your personal
and career goals. This helps them to see what you will gain
from attending their school.
12. Not writing about individual achievements. While
it's important to show that you can be a team player, it is
also important to define your individual accomplishments.
Some students only write about their accomplishments as a
part of a team but never address what they contributed as
an individual. This is a big mistake. If you are writing about
a group accomplishment, make sure to describe how you individually
contributed to the success of the group.
13. Writing a resume in paragraph form. Your essays
should be more than glorified resumes. In other words, don't
just list your accomplishments. Describe the importance of
them and what you have gained from the experiences. Analyze
and reflect on their value. Whether you have been a management
consultant or a chef, you need to explain how your work experience
fits into your path to an MBA and how you hope to apply your
experience in the future.
14. Failing to use good judgment. Your biggest setback
in life may have been when you didn't get chosen as the lead
in a high school drama production or when you were unfaithful
in a relationship, but these are not the kind of setbacks
that business schools need or care to know about. Ask yourself
if what you are writing is an appropriate subject for a business
school essay.
15. Not explaining what you have learned. More important
than your actual accomplishments is what you have gained from
them. This is the key piece of information that admission
officers want to know. As you're writing your essays, think
about what you have gotten out of the experience, how you
would approach a similar situation differently and how you
have applied your knowledge to other interactions.
Continue to part II
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