Qualities of great college essays

How to write a great college essay

A great college essay should first and foremost serve the purpose for which you have written it. You must get admission in the course and college of your choice through your admission essay or entrance essay. A scholarship or competition essay should win the price or the scholarship award. A term paper or course work should earn the best marks in the class. A research paper like a dissertation or thesis should help you to come out of your course with flying colors. As the old aphorism goes, “The proof of the pudding is in eating”!

Easier said than done! But don’t worry, quality essay help and dissertation help are not hard to get. Let us start on a positive note. It is easy to guess what a bad essay is. Let us leave it in this post. The following qualities distinguish a great college essay from a run of the mill essay.

Strict compliance with instructions

Admissions authorities always give specific instructions, detailing what they expect from an admission or entrance essay. You can find them in the admission brochures or announcements.

Likewise, your faculty will usually provide the description of the topic and assessment criteria along with detailed instructions regarding format, structure, citations and reference. They may give you printed papers in this regard or may publish the details in the departmental web site.

Scholarship or contest announcements usually refer to detailed list of instructions.

Stick to these instructions. Any “originality” in this regard is sure recipe for pushing your essay behind.

Quality standard

Check with your class mates or seniors to get copies of a few highly rated term papers or college course work. Sometimes these may be available in the college or departmental website or college library. Likewise most scholarship sites, admission sites or competition sites usually publish the highly rated essays of the past few years. Study them carefully. Even if you cannot surpass them, try to match them at least.

Context sensitive

Understand the context of the topic. Never veer far off the target. Do not “spin”.

Originality

The powers that be have very sophisticated plagiarism detectors. Do not try to give pirated material. Leave alone the possible legal consequences, you will definitely end up making a very bad mark. The minute they brand you, you can forget the glory of producing a great college essay.

Quality research

Spare no pains in gathering the required data. Sometimes the teacher might have indicated a few recommended sources. Concentrate on them more to impress them.

Good layout and execution

This blog has already covered the most desirable aspects of a great college essay like clarity of thought, language skills and structure. There is no point in repeating them once again.