Admissions Essay writing course

Lesson One: Tackling the Question Lesson Two: Brainstorming a Topic Lesson Three: Structure and Outline Lesson Four: Style and Tone Lesson Five: Intros and Conclusions Lesson Six: Editing and Revising

Application Essay Writing 101

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The application is a lifeless thing--a few sheets of paper and a few numbers.
The essay is the best way to breathe life into it. - Admissions Officer

Welcome to EssayEdge’s Admissions Essay writing course. After editing tens of thousands of admissions essays for applicants, we created the ultimate course for students seeking an extra edge in the ultra-competitive college and graduate school application process.
The course contains six lessons and over 100 pages of content. Each of the lessons should help you with a different portion of the essay. 
Enter the course by clicking a link below or to the left.

Lesson One: Tackling the Question

Question-specific strategies and samples of various types of  questions with comments by admissions officers:

• College
• Business School
• Law School
• Medical School

EssayEdge Extra: Who's reading my essay?

Lesson Two: Brainstorming and Selecting an Essay Topic

• Brainstorming worksheet
• Selecting a Topic: Do's and don'ts with comments by experienced admissions officers

EssayEdge Extra: One essay, multiple applications

Lesson Three: Structure and Outline

• Descriptions and examples of five popular essay structures
• Sample outline and essay
• Strategies and examples of short essays
• Templates, severe writer's block cure

Lesson Four: Style and Tone

• Sentence variety with exercise
• Word choice: Common pitfalls
• Transitions: Improving flow
• Verbs: Active voice vs. Passive voice

• Active or Passive? Verb quiz
• Making sentences active voice, an exercise

Essay cliches: Top 10 essay cliches 

EssayEdge Extra: Trimming the Fat - Reducing wordiness

Lesson Five: Introductions and Conclusions

• Descriptions, examples, and critiques of nine popular styles of introduction
• Conclusions: Do's and don'ts

EssayEdge Extra: No Introduction??!!

Lesson Six: Editing and Revising

• Paying attention to substance, structure, interest, and proofreading
• Actual essay gaffes (funny)
• Final steps

EssayEdge Extra: To title or not to title

From ESSAYS THAT WILL GET YOU INTO COLLEGE, by Amy Burnham, Daniel Kaufman, and Chris Dowhan.
Copyright 1998 by Dan Kaufman.  Reprinted by arrangement with Barron's Educational Series, Inc.