In September 2015, The EPA found Volkswagen Cars sold in the US with suppression software that hid emissions above the unsafe mark. Over 4,00,000 cars in the US were installed with the cheating device. After the news had broken, whenever I saw a VW car, I began making assumptions about the owner of the car. He must be a cheat. See how the mind works. Brand association is strong.
When editing essays, I find myself making negative judgment whenever I see:
1) Estimation Error
Errors in project estimation with cost, revenue, and impact as a team member are some of the common ones. The first question that comes to my mind when I see discrepancy is, “what is the data source.” A simple search on the revenue of the company will take us to the company website if it is multinational. For start-ups, the information will not be easily available. But reviewers can make a guess based on the products, the size of the market, the number of years in the market and the niche where the company is operating.
Numbers ring suspicion only when the quotes touch Billions or hundreds of millions. The other extreme also brings the question – how impactful was the applicant if he has only contributed hundred thousand dollars for a 3-month project. Unless you have worked on projects that earned in millions (over $1 million), quoting revenues in hundreds of thousands ($), especially for someone working in Asia, after converting their Yen, Yuan or Rupee to dollars, would not be a good idea.
A better strategy would be to use a metric - Project Revenue to Company Revenue ratio, when listing the most impactful projects, and list only the project that has the largest number.
2) Location Error
For narrative effect, applicants mistakenly use continents for countries, cite the wrong city, cite a city in a different country, or misrepresent distance when offering background information on the reach of the project. The first impression about American applicants is – she has not traveled outside the US, apart from that one summer in Africa, posing a smile for the UN foods program or the ‘shovel pose’ for building the village in Haiti.
Many applicants assume that one summer outside the states is enough. Some form of travel is always better than nothing, but mistakes in citing location will destroy your credibility. Any clever analysis after that wrong statement will never compensate the loss of trust. Underline all the locations in your essay and check again, before uploading your essay.
3) Contextual Error
A contextual error is tough to spot if the reviewer does not have experience or expertise in the area. Most common errors in context come from incomplete, inconsistent, or irrelevant information that doesn’t convey a complete picture of the circumstances under which you achieved the goals or failed to do so. The primary reason is the linearity of the narrative. Most applicants for top MBA programs have a logical disposition. The narrative follows their thought process. Covering all bases is left out in favor of fitting the story to the word-limit. Don’t overdo the background information part. Use pillaring technique to cover the bases while keeping the narrative interesting.
Communication between two Doctors, Lawyers, Software Engineers, Financial consultants or Investment Bankers might seem alien, for the third-party with no experience in the respective field, but that doesn’t mean the interaction is invalid. Understanding the awareness and knowledge of the essay reviewer will help you add more information, or avoid jargons. Some jargons have become mainstream that you don’t need to offer any additional context. An independent review will iron out the jargons that are yet to find total acceptance in the admission team.
4) Naming Errors
If you want to hook the reviewer until the end of the 500-word, “Why MBA,” or, “Why you are a good fit” essay, you have to move the attention away from “me,” and to the support system in your project or life. A common mistake although minor one I have seen is introducing more than one person from the same gender in one paragraph, and referring them in the next line using, “he”, or “she”.
Reviewers are trying to process information about the narrative, your profile, motivation, and post-MBA goals. Make it a point to use the name of the person again if necessary instead of using pronouns when there are two persons of the same gender. I know that repetition is not the best way to construct your essay but any effort that improves the fluency of the narrative will reflect well on your thought process. Another approach is to separate the two persons into two different paragraphs strategically.
5) Perspective Error
The conclusion of an essay or the learning experience is mostly summarized in an insight or a perspective. I read a book on culture and found a well-known author attributing the shabby way his hotel room was switched at will without notifying him as part of the Japanese culture. “If the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail” never found more meaning in those pages. Not all your life experiences can be turned into tales of trials & tribulations or a journey of the leader. Some events have no particular meaning. They were you doing work to get that paycheck. Don’t be fooled by the process of “Essay Writing” and spin any and every event as stories for your essay. The reviewer can see the spin from a mile away.
Shortlist relevant life events and create an IMPACT Table. We have shown how in Winning MBA Essay Guide.
Submit your Essay here and let us spot a few of the five errors. You will be surprised at the assumptions that you made while narrating an event.