How to Write Great Essays

They sound pretentious
.
Remember, you are supposed to sound like you, not a
politician or chairman-of-the-board.
2.
They can sound ridiculous.
By using words that are not in your normal vocabu-
lary, you run the risk of using them incorrectly.
3.
They may appear as a tactic.
Your reader might think you are trying to add
weight with words because you are worried your essay isn’t well written, or that
your ideas aren’t worth reading.
Look at the following examples:
To the point:
I decided to keep it simple by packing only those things that I
could carry in one suitcase.
Thesaurized:
I determined to eschew obfuscation by packing only those things
that I could transport in one valise.
To the point:
In high school, I took my first accounting class and began to help
my mother with the accounting tasks of the business.
Thesaurized:
In secondary school I took my first accounting class and com-
menced to aid my mother with the accounting functions of the business.
To the point:
At my summer job, I had the chance to learn about Informa-
tion Technology as it relates to engineering.
Thesaurized:
At my place of summer employment, I had the fortuity to obtain
IT-related information as it pertains to the engineering field.
A WORD ABOUT PLAGIARISM
You are probably aware of the many Internet sites offering essays for sale, and sites
and books claiming they have “essays that work.” What you may not realize is that
teachers, administrators, and admissions committees know about them, too. In fact,
they can check suspicious essays against those found on the Internet and published
in books. Having even a phrase or two in common with one of these essays consti-
tutes plagiarism.
The advice is simple: write your own essay. Don’t even waste your time reading
other people’s essays looking for ideas. It is one thing to read to understand the process,
and another to read for ideas and words to take as your own.
The sample topics and excerpts in this chapter are included to show you how the
pieces of these essays (used as examples throughout the book) work when they are