编者按: Audience and Voice It's important to keep your audience in mind as your write your personal essay. While the admissions... Audience and Voice
It's important to keep your audience in mind as your write your personal essay. While the admissions committee appreciates creative essays, they also know all the tricks. After all, many of them have been reading thousands of applications for decades. So, make yourself stand out, but dont' write what you think the committee wants to hear. First of all, they've heard all that before. Second, they can see through your attempts to please. The most successful essays are those in which the author is honest and genuine. The best advice we can give you is simply to be yourself. That also means paying some attention to voice, or the personality behind your writing. You should not be afraid of using "I" in your personal statement. This essay should not be a dry, academic essay, but neither should it be one stand-up comic routine; instead, you should strive for a balance between the two. Admissions committees also complain that many students try excessively hard to create an entertaining voice or write what they deem sophisticated prose. Often, these attempts backfire, making the essay sound contrived and flowery. You can avoid these pitfalls simply by being yourself.
This handout was written with the help of Michael Nguyen.
译:
在写作申请信时,您一定要时刻记住是谁在阅读您的文章. 录取委员会当然欣赏那些有创造力的文章, 但是他们也了解所有的小伎俩. 毕竟, 他们中的许多人在过去的数十...