Wordiness is a guilty pleasure for publishers with little consequence unless we overindulge and lose our audience. In your case, wordiness will decide whether you fit the essay within the recommended word limit or you annoy the MBA Admissions team. Some MBA Online applications have systems in place to cut the excess words. The last minute edits just before uploading the essay can remove the core of your essay.
You can fight Wordiness in MBA Essays with the following techniques:
1) Two Sentence Rule
A technique, that we found effective in real time editing is the two-sentence rule; you write two sentences freely, pause for a moment, and then re-read the sentences. With this, you will immediately spot unnecessary phrases, words, and complex sentences. Editing is delayed just enough to distance yourself from your creation.
2) Look for Redundancies
The easiest wordiness fixes are redundancies in phrases, words, or expressions. If you had used a non-regular word, do not repeat them within a 2-paragraph radius. As readers, we remember in 100-word chunks. Once we grasp the concept in the paragraph, we refresh our memory and consume the next flow of words.
3) Make it Conversational
When we say, “make your essays more conversational,” most applicants edit and turn their essays into personal blog posts or overdo them with dialogues. What we mean by conversational is avoiding all the common phrases used in formal writing “with regard to,” “on a regular basis”, “at this point in time,” “in order to,” and the list goes on. You can replace these phrases with one word:
“With regard to” – about
“On a regular basis” – regularly
“At this point in time” – now
“In order to” - to
4) Three Preposition Guideline
We love and regularly use preposition in our articles. It gives us a certain rhythm and simplicity in writing, but MBA Application Essays require a different approach. The regular use of preposition can add up, and contribute 20-25% towards the word count. Avoid this by using the three-preposition rule; use up to three prepositions in a sentence.
To follow the rule, combine the prepositional phrases to adjective-noun format whenever possible.
‘I was part of the team’ to “I was a team member.”
On first edit, it gives the impression that the flow is getting affected but once you go through the whole editing process, you will understand why smaller sacrifices in the flow is essential for making the larger point about your candidacy.
5) Remove Past Tense Additives..
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