Great Grammar for Your College Essay 

Vocabulary:

·        Great big words don’t necessarily make for great essays.

·        Use a giant vocabulary words if they come naturally to you and you know exactly how to use them correctly.

·        Yes, they can tell if you’ve just looked up a word in a thesaurus.

 Show, Don’t Tell:

·        Instead of saying “I learned…” describe a situation when you demonstrated what you learned.

·        They will get your point without you using clichés or restating your conclusion over and over – use clichés sparingly.

 Mind Your Tone!:

·        Being conversational can help, but only to a point.

o       Don’t use slang, clichés, contractions

·        Only use a casual tone for describing dialogue or in a non-traditional essay form.

 Use Interesting Sentences:

·        Use different subjects at the beginning of each sentence (don’t repeat “I… I… I…” or “When… When…”, etc.)

 Use Interesting Verbs:

·        Focus on verbs and use as few adverbs adjectives as possible for the most vivid descriptions

·        DO NOT USE PASSIVE TENSE VERBS!

o       Passive tense verbs take the action out of verbs and dull their impact

§        A passive verb is: I had lived through the most difficult…

§        To make it active: I survived the most difficult time…

o       You can spot them by looking for a form of “to be” (i.e. am, is, are, was, were, been) and double check by verifying that the subject receives the action expressed by the verb (the subject is acted upon)

o       In an active verb, the subject does the acting upon something else

 Use Transitions:

·        Transition link paragraphs together and keep the essay “flowing”

·        Especially important in the final paragraph – will show how you arrived at your conclusion