Making an essay sound like a teenager wrote it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is a strong writer with a classical education. She’s planning to major in English or History. Her writing is very mature and has a formal tone, and she prides her self on her large vocabulary. How can she give her application essay more of a teenager feel, so she isn’t accused of being her mother? Are their tools that measure the “age” of writing?

Is this a humble brag?

[Anonymous]

I think you're coming at this from the wrong side. I assume she has an English teacher as one of her recommendations? Can she flag for that teacher this concern, so that the teacher can include information in her letter of recommendation about her mature writing style?

[Anonymous]

I think you should let her write as she writes. It may be the very thing that makes her stand out the most.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is a strong writer with a classical education. She’s planning to major in English or History. Her writing is very mature and has a formal tone, and she prides her self on her large vocabulary. How can she give her application essay more of a teenager feel, so she isn’t accused of being her mother? Are their tools that measure the “age” of writing?

I’m going to be blunt and tell you that it is extremely unlikely that your child’s writing is so good that it will be a negative to her application. It is a great big world out there and there will be many many strong writers in the applicant pool. Tbh, it is way more likely that the reader will think overly formal/fancy writing is the sign of a pretentious and annoying person, so I would avoid that. Otherwise she will be just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you're coming at this from the wrong side. I assume she has an English teacher as one of her recommendations? Can she flag for that teacher this concern, so that the teacher can include information in her letter of recommendation about her mature writing style?

Omg please do not do this. The last thing you want to do is annoy her recommender right before she writes the letter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is a strong writer with a classical education. She’s planning to major in English or History. Her writing is very mature and has a formal tone, and she prides her self on her large vocabulary. How can she give her application essay more of a teenager feel, so she isn’t accused of being her mother? Are their tools that measure the “age” of writing?

I’m sorry, but this post sounds like Mom is actually going to be writing the essay and is making sure she can dumb it down a bit so they don’t catch on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She could try the Hemingway Editor, which will indicate grade level readability. Might just help flag overly complicated sentences. Fancy vocabulary doesn’t always sound smarter.

This is true.

Yes, and also more words are not better. "He descended down the curved staircase, his hand lightly grazing the bannister as his shoes tapped each step. Upon reaching the bottom of the wooden stairs, he gently turned left, into the handsomely furnished drawing room filled with morning sunlight." If none of that is germane to the story, consolidate and be direct. "He proceeded downstairs, to the well-lit drawing room."

You only fluff it out if you're absolutely desperate to reach a required word count.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fancy vocabulary doesn’t always sound smarter.

I think you mean "Resplendent verbosity does not necessarily give the receiver of said verbosity an exalted impression of the writer's interlocutory faculties"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She could try the Hemingway Editor, which will indicate grade level readability. Might just help flag overly complicated sentences. Fancy vocabulary doesn’t always sound smarter.

This is true.

Yes, and also more words are not better. "He descended down the curved staircase, his hand lightly grazing the bannister as his shoes tapped each step. Upon reaching the bottom of the wooden stairs, he gently turned left, into the handsomely furnished drawing room filled with morning sunlight." If none of that is germane to the story, consolidate and be direct. "He proceeded downstairs, to the well-lit drawing room."

You only fluff it out if you're absolutely desperate to reach a required word count.

This is a matter of taste. Plenty of popular classics are written in the former style.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She could try the Hemingway Editor, which will indicate grade level readability. Might just help flag overly complicated sentences. Fancy vocabulary doesn’t always sound smarter.

This is true.

Yes, and also more words are not better. "He descended down the curved staircase, his hand lightly grazing the bannister as his shoes tapped each step. Upon reaching the bottom of the wooden stairs, he gently turned left, into the handsomely furnished drawing room filled with morning sunlight." If none of that is germane to the story, consolidate and be direct. "He proceeded downstairs, to the well-lit drawing room."

You only fluff it out if you're absolutely desperate to reach a required word count.

This is a matter of taste. Plenty of popular classics are written in the former style.

Yes, but just because I enjoy Jane Austen doesn’t mean a 17-year-old’s student essay should sound like an 18th-century British author.