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Proofreading a college essay is a crucial step in the application process. A well-presented and proofread essay not only highlights your writing skills but also ensures you present yourself in a formal manner to admissions officers. This post is here to provide you with a comprehensive, guide on proofreading your essay to ensure that it is clear and concise!
Common App Essay Proofreading Tips
Reviewing the Content
Clarity: Ensure each paragraph supports the main topic of your essay. Remove any stray information that doesn’t contribute to the main point.
Focus and cohesion: Check that your essay is focused on the thesis statement that you outlined in your introduction and that all content flows smoothly between paragraphs. Use transitional phrases to link paragraphs and maintain the cohesiveness of the essay.
Link to the prompt: Double-check that your essay has addressed all parts of the prompt. Check that all provided examples are discussed in enough detail to give the reader a vivid description.
Organization and Structure
Topic sentence: Check that each paragraph has a clear topic sentence that highlights the main idea or theme that will be discussed in that paragraph.
Effective introduction and conclusion: Ensure that your introduction clearly outlines the context of your essay and has a clear hook and thesis statement. Ensure that your conclusion summarizes the main points made so far in the essay and reinforce the thesis statement without introducing new information. Examples of how to write a good introduction and conclusion can be found here and here.
Appropriate sentence structure: Check that your essay is free from run-on sentences as these distract from the point you are trying to convey. Additinally, you should also make sure there are no sentence fragments (i.e. sentences that are too short), as these do not allow ideas to be explained in depth. Too many sentence fragments may make an essay look unprofessional.
Grammar and Syntax
Subject-verb agreement: Make sure all subjects and verbs agree in number. For example, "The student writes..." is correct in the singular form while "The students write..." is correct in the plural form. Subjects and verbs should also agree in tense. For example, "The student writes..." in the present tense would become "The student wrote..." in the past tense.
Pronouns: Ensure that indirect and direct object pronouns are used correctly. For example, "She had given me this" is an unclear statement in itself. Before writing such a statement, it would be advisable to explain what the terms "she" and "this" are referring to.
Punctuation: Check that you have used apostrophes, commas, semicolons, colons, and dashes appropriately, as this can affect the clarity of your essay.
General Advice
Proofread on paper first: Although it may be convenient to use a spellchecker right from the beginning, it is advisable to print out a copy of your essay and proofread using a pen and paper first before using a spellchecker as this can help you focus better.
Use a spellchecker at the end: After you proofread your essay manually, it is also recommended to use a spellchecker to be sure that your essay is free from errors.
Read aloud: Try reading your essay out loud to catch any errors. You may subconsciously find that comma placement, sentence structure, etc. may be awkward while speaking the words out loud rather than just reading them from a paper or screen.
We hope that this guide has given you some useful tips on how to proofread your Common App essay. Good luck with your college applications!
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