Friday, November 14, 2008

Essay Reviews

Hey Guys...
Once you start writing essays, you will realize that its really tough to answer the simple questions. I wont tell more as you will get to know for sure.
Tip:
Get reviews from someone (read somemany) ..
You should get your essays reviewed from a number of people. My mentor told me this and I read it in a book, that there are 5 kind of people, you should get your essays reviewed from:
1. Your really close friend who knows (almost) everything about you
2. Someone who knows everything about the application process (current student, alum or even co-applicant
3. Someone who doesn't know anything about Bschool application process
4. Someone who has good writing skills and who can point out grammatical mistakes and can help you rephrase some lines/language
5. mmmmmm... who was that..? I guess it was who doesn't know anything about you and your profession.

These people will help you look at your essay from different directions. The thing is when you are writing and reading the same thing for days or weeks, you tend to overlook a lot of things. So these people will question you and tell you about things which you cant exactly see.

So get a good review from some good reviewers.
I have got just a few reviewers and I would like to thank them, especially my mentor B-San. He has spent a lot of time with me, discussing things and re-reading my crude essays and helping me overhaul them. Thanks B-San. And thanks to other guys as well. I still need some more reviewers and if you think you are fit to be one, please do let me know ;)

Zai Jian ( m not sure how to pronounce this.. :) its Chinese )

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure what your mentor told u. But I go by this classification (mostly similar to yours):
1) The closest friend: who can tell whether u r projecting the right picture of ur personality. Smbody, who can point out "Hey, why don't u mention that incident?"

2)The BSchool guy: (Alum,current student)These are the guys who have been through the process; they know what it takes o succeed.

3)The Grammarian: Try getting in touch with your English school-teacher, your journalist aunt or may be your college-magazine student editor. They can point out errors of flow and grammar.

4)The colleague: Somebody who know you in professional capacity. (Your recommender may be one of the best choices for this.) You may choose to handover only the essays on professional topics to this person.(if you dont want to reveal your personal side to him.)

5) The Adcom Eye: Somebody who knows u only thru chats/mails. Whose only window to know u will be your essays. This is important as this will be the view the adcom will have to your candidature. (Of course, do ur homework on this person b4 u choose to handover ur essays to him.)

This surely is not a non-overlapping classification. Your best friend can be your colleague as well as a master of language. The B-school guy you get to pick may not know u first-hand and can serve the purpose of the adcom eye.

Final advice: Don't drown yourself in a sea of reviews. Different people will have different opinions, but your application is your story; it's your opinion that matters most. Make sure that u don't lose your voice that's coming out of ur essays. I, too, have used many reviewers for my Tuck and Darden essays and I know that I have ignored many,many of those review-comments because I felt that incorporating those may have affected the message I wanted to deliver.

McCoy said...

thanks missionmba.. :)