By Evan Bailyn

If your college admission essay were a cake, style would be the icing. Without organization, the cake would be a formless mass of dough; without grammar, the cake wouldn't look appetizing; without originality, the cake would be bland and tasteless; and without style, the cake wouldn't have that extra sweet touch.

A college admission essay doesn't need to have a distinctive style. But if it does have one, it is more likely to be successful. What exactly do I mean by style? The style of a college admission essay is the way it is written. It is the personality of the essay. For instance:

If your college admission essay opens with the line "Paris, in its immaculate splendor, is the apotheosis of perfection" then you have a gaudy, overblown style.

If your college admission essay opens with the line "I love eating ice cream on warm Spring days at the park" then you have an amiable, childlike style.

So how does one determine the style of one's college admission essay? Personally, I like to pretend that I am a teacher telling a story to a class of extremely interested students. I like to write in short sentences so the material won't be too much to digest. I also like to use fun, sparkly vocabulary words every now and then (note: fun words, not huge, multisyllabic words). To demonstrate what I mean, let's describe an old tree. Remember, there is a class of kids hanging on every word you say...

The tree at Grovsvenor's Park is massive and knobby, with spotty bark and a mysterious hole in its center.

Given that trees aren't the most exciting subject for an admission essay, I think the above sentence was charismatic enough to hold the class's attention. I poured on the adjectives, without injecting any awkward SAT words. You get more mileage out of interesting, easily-understood words like "knobby."

Continuing on:

No one ever knew how the hole got there; it just seemed to be a natural part of the tree. Though it was too small to stick your head into, there were rumors that it led to a massive treasure trove underground.

Are you starting to become interested? That's not just because of the mention of hidden treasure. It's because the writer has brought you into his neighborhood fantasy. Did you notice that? Probably not--that's because his style was even, assured, and believable. As a narrator, he did his job.

In your own college admission essay, you should do the same thing. Find your own style. Be eerie, or eccentric, or bad-ass. Be yourself. Write as if you're speaking, except with better grammar. Once you have your style down, just keep writing. As long as it's distinctly yours, and not the style of a famous author or favorite magazine, it's bound to catch the interest of the admissions office.

If you have any questions or are looking for assistance writing your own college admission essay, call me at 1-800-WRITE90.

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