Essay Editing Tip

November 19, 2009

I usually keep a sharp focus on the GMAT on this site, but I wanted to share a quick digression that is applicable to your application essays.

Typos and grammatical errors are embarrassing, and you are probably already taking many steps to avoid them. In a perfect world, you'd finish a draft a few weeks early, come back to it several days later, spellcheck it, re-read it several times, and have friends read it as well.

I've discovered a great way (for me, anyway) to catch my own mistakes without having to wait so long.

Change the font. Simple, huh? If you've been staring at Microsoft Word for a long time, every sentence in your essay starts to look familiar. Part of the reason that it's beneficial to come back several days later is that, by then, the essay looks fresh. You can accomplish the same thing with a drastic font change.

Specifically, I recommend finding the most different font possible, changing (probably increasing) the font size, and maybe even making the text bold. You want your essay to be clear and readable, but also unfamiliar.

About the author: Jeff Sackmann is a GMAT tutor based in New York City. He has created many resources for GMAT preparation, including the popular Total GMAT Math and Total GMAT Verbal, as well as 1,800 practice GMAT math questions.

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