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Essays best practices...

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kryzak
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[#permalink] Essays best practices...   23 Aug 2007, 22:28
I think there's a balance between readability and good essays. Once in a while you should throw in a complex sentence to show that you have sentence variety and can write complex sentences and not just "I have a dog. The dog died. I was sad." ;)

My 250 word essays were in the 35-45 range, which I think are good enough. I had to have some long sentences that listed all my accomplishments or concrete leadership examples in one sentence to save words.

But overall I agree with the readability thing and what ncprasad said and quoted. This is a great tool that I'll be using with "Elements of Style" to make my essays under the word limit AND readable!
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ncp
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[#permalink] Essays best practices...   24 Aug 2007, 00:51
I think I jinxed myself by saying that my HBS essays are under the word limit. All my essays were, until an hour ago. Just made a couple of edits and 2 of them are 15 and 25 over the limit.

:cry:
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kryzak
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Schools:UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA 2010
 Q51  V41
GPA: 3.9 - undergrad 3.6 - grad-EE
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[#permalink] Essays best practices...   24 Aug 2007, 01:07
heh, it's not over until the fat lady sings... or the fat adcom reads your essays... ;)
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aurobindo
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[#permalink] Essays best practices...   24 Aug 2007, 02:40
kryzak wrote:
heh, it's not over until the fat lady sings... or the fat adcom reads your essays... ;)


hey, I see 'tanford' in your Target schools beside ur avatar. Is it in Iceland? :P
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kryzak
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[#permalink] Essays best practices...   24 Aug 2007, 14:41
I can't figure out why it shows "tanford"... it says Stanford in my profile... Praet?
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Praetorian
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[#permalink] Essays best practices...   24 Aug 2007, 14:47
kryzak wrote:
I can't figure out why it shows "tanford"... it says Stanford in my profile... Praet?


Not sure. Let me check with the developer.
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dabots
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[#permalink] Essays best practices...   24 Aug 2007, 15:35
Praetorian wrote:
kryzak wrote:
I can't figure out why it shows "tanford"... it says Stanford in my profile... Praet?


Not sure. Let me check with the developer.

heh, that first letter cutoff problem has been here a while

i find it funny when HBS is listed first as BS
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Praetorian
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[#permalink] Essays best practices...   24 Aug 2007, 15:52
dabots wrote:
Praetorian wrote:
kryzak wrote:
I can't figure out why it shows "tanford"... it says Stanford in my profile... Praet?


Not sure. Let me check with the developer.

heh, that first letter cutoff problem has been here a while

i find it funny when HBS is listed first as BS


Your profile shows up fine. Its the inconsistency of the software that is a little puzzling.
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grad_mba
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[#permalink] Essays best practices...   24 Aug 2007, 15:54
ncprasad wrote:
grad_mba wrote:
Prasad ! An amazing tool and thanks a lot for sharing the info :)

cheers !!


You are not going to get away with just a thanks. Coffee and/or beer on you when we meet @ MIT.


Sure thing !
Reminds me, I havn booked a place to crash yet.
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kryzak
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[#permalink] Essays best practices...   24 Aug 2007, 15:58
Thank you Praet!
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vikramjit_01
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[#permalink] Essays best practices...   25 Aug 2007, 04:15
Maybe writing something like SStanford will help.
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kryzak
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[#permalink] Essays best practices...   25 Aug 2007, 09:45
I'll give that a try ;)
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sangoman
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[#permalink] Essays best practices...   28 Aug 2007, 03:29
Childish giggle of the day

"Fu*k you" gets a Flesch reading ease score of 77.91
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bigfernhead
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Re: Essays best practices... [#permalink] Essays best practices...   01 Jul 2009, 10:33
It's just strange that content has nothing to do with readibility.

Maybe Law stuff are just hard to read to begin with, and requires a certain level of intellect to understand it. No matter how much you break up the sentences, and "dumb it down", it will always be hard to understand, for some/most people.

Comics is easy because it's just people talking, and because the pictures help too! :-)

Anyway, fun tool.
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mba12tech
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Re: Essays best practices... [#permalink] Essays best practices...   02 Jul 2009, 05:25
That tool is pretty cool. I just tested a few of my essays and they were all between 46 and 48.
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bigfernhead
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Re: Essays best practices... [#permalink] Essays best practices...   02 Jul 2009, 06:16
I think that readability does not equate to better essays.

I know my essays are 50-60 in the readability scale, but I also know the content sucks. :-)

This should be used as a tool to guide you, but I think at the end, content is king.
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ripr
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Re: Essays best practices... [#permalink] Essays best practices...   10 Oct 2009, 02:27
bigfernhead wrote:
I think that readability does not equate to better essays.

I know my essays are 50-60 in the readability scale, but I also know the content sucks. :-)

This should be used as a tool to guide you, but I think at the end, content is king.


Same case here.My first drafts are being rated from 48 to 69.
But after reading the various threads here and reading my essays again, they look embarassing. :oops:

edit: Forgot to add, I had a meagre 4 in my AWA. So, 48-69 boosts my confidence at least :wink:
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rao
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Re: Essays best practices... [#permalink] Essays best practices...   12 Oct 2009, 15:25
Some essays alike MIT cover letter in 500 words are REAL PIA. I dont know if anybody can write it with 40+ score.
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highhopes
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Re: Essays best practices... [#permalink] Essays best practices...   12 Oct 2009, 16:14
Ha, this is interesting - I hadn't seen this thread before. All of mine were above fifty except my Kellogg goals essay which unfortunately didn't make the cut. Alas, I'd already submitted. I'll just have to trust that the Kellogg adcom can read at a college level :-D
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billyjeans
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Re: Essays best practices... [#permalink] Essays best practices...   12 Oct 2009, 16:39
highhopes wrote:
Ha, this is interesting - I hadn't seen this thread before. All of mine were above fifty except my Kellogg goals essay which unfortunately didn't make the cut. Alas, I'd already submitted. I'll just have to trust that the Kellogg adcom can read at a college level :-D


I follow the same trend. Ouch. I hope they can survive my first essay, which includes long and convoluted sentences.

And Kudos to this tool. It's amazing!
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Re: Essays best practices... [#permalink]
12 Oct 2009, 16:39
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