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	Essay Help Desk
	Lesson One: Tackling the Question  Lesson Two: Brainstorming a Topic  Lesson Three: Structure and Outline   Lesson Four: Style and Tone Select One: Sentence Variety Word Choice Verb Tense Transitions Essay Clichˇs Lesson Five: Intros and Conclusions Lesson Six: Editing and Revising

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Introduction

Over the years, our editors have seen some amazing stories become dreadfully boring and some ridiculously dry topics transform into an exciting read. The culprit (or hero): writing style. Witness the advice of some admissions officers:

Use a conversational style and easy-to-understand language to project a genuine, relaxed image.

Make sure that your essay is readable. Don’t make us work. Give your essay momentum-make sure that the parts work together and move to a point, carrying the reader along.

Don’t bore us. More often it is the monotonous style, and not the subject matter, that makes these essays dull.

A large majority of the corrections made by our editors fall into one of five categories: sentence variety, word choice, verb tense, transitions and essay clichés. If you weren’t paying attention in English class, here’s a refresher!

Select One:

• Sentence Variety

• Word Choice

• Verb Tense

• Transitions

• Essay Clichés

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