The rather simple and pristine realm of essays and essay writing is actually not devoid of disturbing trends. One such trend is the use of advanced computer software to grade typed essays - a trend that is set to continue given the Graduate Management Admision Council’s recent decision to use Vantage Learning’s computer-based essay scoring system to grade the Analytical Writing Assessment portion of the GMAT.

Although GMAC stresses that results given out through this system are comparable to results before the system was introduced, I’m not too sure about the ability of a computer to judge style and content. Understandably, the Analytical Writing Assessment component of the GMAT is compartmentalized enough that an advanced computer software package should be able to grasp the main ideas of a student’s essay and style. But errors in judgment can and will occur, and the worst part is that we will not be told anything about it. Heck, I’m not sure if the administrators would know anything about it either.

Of course, you could argue that grades given out by human essay scorers are not error-free either. Human essay scorers could very well take the easy way out when their individual workloads number in the thousands. That would mean giving high marks to long essays, multiple examples, and bombastic words, even if the overall package ends up mediocre. Computers, on the other hand, do not get tired, and will mark all essays based on the exact same criteria - ensuring that there’s no impartiality from different examiners.

So, it does seem that a computerized essay scoring system has its benefits. But whether the advantages from such a system outweigh the disadvantages, or whether the move is a profit-motivated or resulted-oriented one is unknown.

Most of us would have at least some experience in having to write good essays quickly. As such, I doubt there is any need for me to say that writing essays at high speed is a difficult task. Whether during examinations or competitions, writing essays quickly requires you to not only compose the content and style of the essay, but also manage your writing pace and the essay’s length.

In normal conditions, you have all the time in the world to plan the essay, research for examples, compose the content and tweak the style of the essay. But when it comes to limited-time conditions, e.g. 90 minutes for a 1000+ word non-fiction essay, you have only a set amount of time to plan and compose the content. You have no time (or rather, are not allowed) to do any research. And I’ll even go so far to say that only a fool (or a professional) would allocate time to style.

So, this means that you have to adjust the principles and techniques used in normal essay writing to high speed essay writing. Instead of taking half an hour (or even one hour) to create a detailed essay plan, you’ll have to make a concise essay plan in ten to fifteen minutes. You do not have the luxury of brainstorming for very long or writing out every idea that comes to mind. Short forms and symbols will have to be used, with any variant of shorthand a bonus (if you are sufficiently good at it).

Most importantly, you will have to think as you write. Many of the best high speed essay writers are able to write non-stop, fleshing out the elaborations and examples in their heads. Students weak at writing essays quickly are known to pause very often between sentences and paragraphs, and this weakness alone drains most of the time they have. Admittedly, writing non-stop is a skill in a class of its own, but there are ways to train yourself towards achieving it.

How? Seemingly simple really. On the content side, examples and details have to be learned in-depth, with most basic facts committed to memory. On the stylistic side, an oft-used vocabulary coupled with memorised idioms and quotes are necessary. Last but not least, practice, practice and practice. The more often you write quickly, the better you get at high speed essay writing. Therefore, if you stop writing essays quickly for weeks, expect your essay writing speed to fall.

Overall, writing essays quickly might seem to be something all too impossible. But like any other skill, it is one that can be tamed through consistent practice and review. And given that almost all examinations these days come with essay writing papers (e.g. General Paper for A-Levels, English Language for O-Levels, and university examinations), there will never be a shortage of avenues to both practice and display your prowess.

I am not sure I have seen a more creative use of essay competitions this year, but if I have, it couldn’t have been much better than this attempt to sell off a US$100,000 flower shop through an essay competition.

Anyway, the concept is simple. Each participant is to pay a US$100 entry fee, which will then entitle the participant to submit one essay to the owners of the flower shop. If your essay is selected as a winner, you will then be the new owner of the Dial-A-Flower shop - valued at around US$100,000.

The owners of the flower shop hope to attract at least 1,000 participants, which will then net them the value of the flower shop, i.e. US$100 x 1000 = US$100,000. So far, they have managed to get 50 participants.

Oh, yes. The title of the essay is: Why I want to own a flower shop.

[News via The Mercury News]

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In Part 1, we discussed the need to write Personal Statements as essays, and not as mere activity and achievement lists. We also talked about the need for originality and substance, rather than over-polished style, in writing a good Personal Statement. In this post, we will be looking at a couple of additional characteristics of (most) strong Personal Statements. Of course, there is really no set way of writing a Personal Statement, and thus, there are no fixed characteristics of good Personal Statements either. But there are certain patterns that occur among a large part of highly regarded Personal Statements, and two of them are:

1. Takeaways (What You Learnt)

   The people who will actually read your Personal Statement (e.g. admissions officers, Human Resource Dept. officers) are those that probably have a detailed listing of all your personal information, the activities you participated in and your achievements. So, repeating all this - in any form whatsoever - will not gain any points with them. What they will be looking for is what you learnt from your experiences. Through this, they believe that they will be able to judge your character, e.g. whether you are flexible and adaptable, or rigid and closed-minded.

   Generally, there are ways to fake these takeaways, but more often than not, they will be spotted as it is truly difficult to write about something you did not really experience or believe in.

2. Contributions (What You Gave)

   On the surface, many activities you will participate in will seem like one-sided affairs, where you are supposed to be the one receiving the benefits, e.g. school and competitions. Indeed, you are supposed to be learning from school, and gaining experience, reputation and prizes from competitions. But it is actually possible for you to contribute towards the success of these activities, thus advancing the arrangement into a two-way one. In fact, many of us do, but never bother writing about them in our Personal Statements. Consider the time when you debated on behalf of college and won. You would have brought prestige to your school and some measure of pride to your teachers and fellow students.

   Of course, you could fake your contributions. In fact, it should be easier than faking your takeaways since there are less people that write about their contributions to presumedly one-sided activities. But again, faked contributions tend to sound overly hackneyed, e.g. brought prestige, made someone happy, etc.

So, these are the two characteristics that, in my experience, are most often highlighted by guides on writing good Personal Statements. However, this does not mean that the rest of the characteristics are not as important. In fact, they could even be more important, but I will leave those for Part 3.