How to maintain Original Voice in MBA Application Essays?

A common mistake that several Essay reviewers do is to over analyze the sentence structure, and edit sentences in such a way that the message is conveyed more succinctly. During the first iteration, this process might not be harmful for the essay, but when the reviewer completes the 2nd or 3rd iteration, the voice of the author will get lost.

With MBA Application Essays, word limit is an important consideration during editing. However, for applicants, tone of the essay and originality of the voice differentiates them from other applicants. Maintaining this fine balance is tricky but it is achievable.

1) Setting the Right Expectations

Depending on the services that you opt and the expectations that you set, editing can mean two things: Simple Edit and Comprehensive Edit.

In Simple Edits, the expectation from the reviewer is that the essay requires little structural changes but more basic edits like checking for capitalization, grammar, wordiness, spelling, punctuation, fonts, and use of abbreviations.

In Comprehensive Edits, in addition to simple edits, the reviewer is actively looking for confusing usage, overuse of jargons, insensitivity towards any community, religion, or race, and the sequence of information presented in the essay.

MBA Applicants should look for services that offer comprehensive edits, as we are often unable to review our own work in an unbiased manner, especially for tone and intent.

2) Power of Comments

Instead of editing the sentence right away, insert comments during comprehensive edits. In MS Word, it is easy to insert such comments:

a) Select the Text in the essay
b) On the Insert Menu, Click Comment
c) Insert Valid Comments

For some reviewers, inserting virtual comments might not be a process that they enjoy. Allow them to take the print out, and review the essay - line by line, and insert comments at appropriate locations. Often actual ink on a paper seems to convey the message more strongly than comments with a word processor. Let the reviewer follow the process that she finds comfortable.

3) Best Practices for Comments

The difference between accepting the changes suggested by the reviewer and rejecting them without evaluating the value of the comment depends on the tone of the comment. Therefore, ensure that the reviewer understands the context of the essays. MBA applicants should avoid reviewing their essays through General Essay reviewers. To offer comprehensive edits, the reviewer should be aware of Business School’s expectations, and at least have some experience working on MBA Application Essays.

Here are some best practices for Comments

a) Ask Specific Questions

Instead of “Why it is here?”, the comment should be “Do you have to mention childhood experience for this essay?”

b) Look for Quantifiable Results

One important aspect of MBA Application essays is your ability to put across quantifiable results. Reviewers should look closely into the numbers, and question the assumptions made for the calculation.

c) Finding Biases

This is one domain where the reviewer can offer great service. It is impossible to spot out your own biases in an essay. A reviewer will be able to pick this up. Biases in itself are not bad, and if you take a position, biases are bound to emerge. It should not hint in any way, prejudices against a race, country, or religion.

d) Intent

With essays, the applicant is persuading the AdCom. The best essays do not explicitly sell their candidacy. It includes experiences, events, and motivations to convey the intent. The ability to convey this intent depends on the use of words and clarity of thoughts. For writers, it is impossible to review intent for their own work; for a reviewer the first read will reveal the intent.

For any confusing part, the reviewer should raise the appropriate question like “Will the AdCom understand that your failure to score 680 in first GMAT attempt motivated you to take Quant courses?”

4) Live Feedback

Before showing the reviewed work to the applicant, the reviewer should sit with the applicant and offer a live feedback on what she understood from the essay. Grammatical mistakes, and other structural inconsistencies can be rectified, but lack of clarity cannot be easily corrected. The applicants should hear the reviewer carefully, and find inconsistencies between what she intended and what the reviewer understood.

After listening to the feedback, the applicant should read the review notes. There might be instances where the reviewer has completely missed what the applicant had intended. But with the live feedback and review comments, applicants will have a completely reviewed essay.