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thomasdodsonian
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Yup, while it should be grammatically sound, no need for optional essay to be pretty. Use concise, direct language. “A and B happened, so I did C.” Think more writing it as a short answer or an email rather than an “essay”.
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Agreed with the rest of the posts here, no problem at all to do this. However, I will say that you want to be cautious using the optional essay. You need to be sure that you don't come off as making excuses for weak areas in your application. It's fine if you have a legitimate reason to write the opitonal essay, but I see too many students using them lately as a catchall to explain away mistakes they've made.