Capturing the Right Tone of your College Essay
by Molly R.
At IvyBoost, we know how important college essays are because they display something more than just test scores and grades: They share your story. One way to tell your story and to present yourself authentically is make sure that you’re writing in the right tone.
When it comes to creating a memorable and effective college essay, use a conversational and courteous tone. Imagine you are telling the story to your favorite teacher or sports coach. An overly formal tone will appear too impersonal and an overly casual tone is unprofessional. Find the right tone by using relatable words and phrases, but not using colloquial words, like ‘cus’ and ‘wanna.’
The tone of your essay refers to both the language and the style of one’s writing. Tone is conveyed through word choice, sentence structure, and overall writing style. Keep these tips in mind when it comes to creating the right tone in your college essay:
- Use a professional, yet conversational tone. Your audience is not a friend. It’s an admission officer who wants to know more about you.
- Use everyday words. You don’t need to include impressive words from dictionary.com. If the words don’t sound conversational, you may come across as pretentious. Write words you know and use. Just be sure to spell out all the words.
- Be yourself and be authentic. As our other blogs have shared, it’s important to show who you are by using emotion. Be vulnerable. Admission’s Officers want to know YOU from your essay. They will be able to tell if a parent, friend, or AI wrote it.
Examples of capturing tone in sentences:
As you craft your college essay, be sure that you are paying attention to tone. Here are some examples of bad tones:
Too casual: During covid, everything sucked cus of all the problems. Racism is bad and IMO remote learning doesn’t work because I just played video games and went on tik tok and forgot about zooming in to class. (Tone is unprofessional).
Too formal: Due to the converging systemic challenges that were exacerbated during the COVID-19 health crisis, proximity to social engagements and academic mentoring in a virtual setting that allowed neurotransmitters to regulate and produce dopamine in a serotonergic manner was important. Remote learning proved challenging for many due to the lack of neurotransmitter switching in combination of the systemic and structural racism and grave health disparities. (Tone is way too formal)
Better option: Despite the terrible challenges during the pandemic, I inadvertently discovered an interest in coding. I spent a lot of time playing Minecraft with my friends. Because I enjoyed bonding virtually with my friends and being challenged by the game, I wondered if I could make my own puzzle. I ended up taking an online course in Java at the teen center and am now working on my first video game project.
IvyBoost essay mentors are here to help you refine your tone and support you all along your college essay writing experience.