We recommend not including any sentences that are longer than two lines in your essays. In this blog, we have a slightly informal tone (e.g. Your college application essay is a formal piece of writing. The following list will help you to recognize the informal and formal ways of saying the same thing. Tens of thousands of students use Prompt’s web application to help them write more compelling college essays and stay on task with Prompt’s college application to-do lists based on every application requirement for every school. Once you begin attending college, you will be expected to adhere to this sort of style throughout your academic and professional career—so it is best to learn early. In the second pair of sentences, the idea “did not think” is ambiguous, since it implies that “he” was not thinking about the baseball game at all! There are, in fact, many non-standard forms of English, including poetry, regional dialects, and even the ‘txtspk’ used in SMS messages and online. One quick thing, if you find yourself needing to take a break, consider playing a game like solitaire. When conducting research, you may need to think about potential conflicts of interest. You want your writing to be easily understood in a quick read-through—abstract language slows down the reader and makes your writing less succinct. Avoiding contractions (e.g. Write something closer to “I received the MVP award from my basketball team three years in a row,” which unquestionably demonstrates your achievement. If several of your sentences are saying the same thing, it will seem as though you were not capable of coming up with more material to write about. This is partly because we don’t have many friends and don’t want to lose the ones we have. Informal English: We use it with friends, children, and relatives. But we also know it’s a proofreading blog, so we try to stick to standard spelling and grammar (we don’t want to set a bad example, after all). If you use the word “not,” it must only be in cases of clear denial or antithesis. “In the fall” describes when the action will be performed, not when school is in session. Which of these is best will depend on the situation, but most native speakers know intuitively when to switch from one form of English to another. Compare these two sentences from the introduction of two college admissions essays: I have been in numerous leadership positions: president of the student council, treasurer of Latin club, and captain of the soccer team. Formal writing is often the most difficult to write, but the easiest to read due to the information being presented in a format that can stand alone without further clarification. You are trying to obtain and secure your reader’s trust; do not blow it by overstating your points. The formula for passive voice is (noun receiving action) + (action/verb) + (optional indirect object). If you use an obvious exaggeration, your reader will be on guard and begin to mistrust everything you say—including the rest of your self-reported qualifications. The active voice is considered to be more direct and clear. Staying in a relaxed, fresh state will produce your best ideas and writing. You can use it whether you know the person or not and whether the letter's recipient is a supervisor or a business acquaintance. It is much better to place “in the fall” closer to the verb that it modifies, “applying”—as shown in the second example—rather than after the prepositional phrase. Do not use any filler sentences. Neither should be found in a college application essay, so strike these from your writing entirely. The same is true when communicating with authority figures or other officials. This guid... Good news! Other features of formal written English include: It’s important to use standardised English when writing an essay, as it prevents confusion and demonstrates your ability to communicate effectively in an academic setting. It could help to think of it as like evening dress: something you save for special occasions, but not something you’d need every day.