💡As you get closer to submitting your Common App, you should be making decent progress in finishing your essays. We’ve compiled a list of words and phrases you should avoid in your writing, be aware of these issues as you revise and edit your essay!

📌 BROAD & VAGUE CLAIMS

🚩Avoid general claims like “I want to help people” or “I want to create change”. Show how you intend to make a change or help others with specific goals or actions

WHY THIS MATTERS:

Having an action plan makes your claims more convincing and genuine. It shows that you are proactively working towards making these changes or helping others.

📌 COMPARATIVE PHRASING

🚩Avoid phrases like “Most people did x, but I did y” or “Most people failed at x, but I succeeded”

WHY THIS MATTERS:

Comparing yourself can make you sound very prideful or self-congratulatory, prioritizing the achievements of others over your own personal growth. If you are trying to emphasize something that makes you unique, try something like “Despite all of the challenges, I was driven to achieve x”

📌 PASSIVE VOICE

🚩Avoid passive phrasing like “The volunteer opportunity was taken by me” (object + verb + subject). Try something like: “I sought out a volunteer opportunity” instead.

WHY THIS MATTERS:

A passive voice makes it seem like things happened to you rather than you being the one who took the initiative. Passive voice includes forms of the “to be” verb (“were” “was” “is”) and might be hard to identify, so use Sups.ai‘s in-line editing feature to help you find instances where you might be using passive voice.

📌 VAGUE DESCRIPTORS

🚩Avoid words like “nice,” “good,” “interesting,” etc. Be specific when you describe things!

WHY THIS MATTERS:

These words don’t convey anything about you to the reader and can make the writing feel vague. Consider why something is nice/good/interesting and explain or use different wording.

📌 HYPERBOLE

🚩Avoid phrases like “I’m the best at x” or “I know everything about x”

WHY THIS MATTERS:

These kinds of exaggerations can make you come off as arrogant, ignorant, and closed-minded. You probably aren’t the best at something, and that’s ok! Show that you are willing to learn and grow.

🍀How you express yourself in your essay is critical, don’t let all your hard work in high school go to waste with unpolished writing. This is your chance to characterize and sell yourself to admissions officers, the most subtle elements within your writing play a role in your admissions decisions. Best of luck! ✨