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Accepted.com Odds 'N Ends
In This Issue:
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What's New at Accepted.com |
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What's New at Accepted.com
What's New at Accepted.com
Comprehensive Help with Your Round 2 MBA Applications: Save up
to $100
Save money by starting work on your Round 2 applications NOW.
Purchase our comprehensive services by Nov. 30, 2006 and take
advantage of these deals:
Don't let time slip through your fingers. Before you know it,
you'll be facing both the holidays and a time crunch with the R2
deadlines. Now you can save money, get comprehensive, professional
consulting and editing assistance, and start your essays early enough
to submit your best.
Featured Ebook: Save on:
Write Your Way
to a Fellowship Match
How can you distinguish
yourself in the competitive subspecialty match process? Cyd Foote and I tell you
how in this successor to our best-selling Write Your Way to a
Residency Match. In it you'll learn:
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16 steps to an exceptional
personal statement.
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7 mistakes to avoid.
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Tips for targeting
programs
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5 criteria for choosing
recommenders.
Write Your Way to a Fellowship Match is Accepted's featured
ebook for November. You can get it at 20% off, this month only.
Do the College Application Essays Drive You and Your Family
Crazy?
Don't let them. Read Sheila Bender's new ebook,
Don't Let Writing
the College Application Essays Drive You and Your Family Crazy. In it
Sheila teaches you:
- The 6-step process for writing application essays.
- The appropriate and constructive role for parents.
- 3 Tips for approaching this year's Common Application essays.
- How to choose a topic for your essay.
- 8 patterns of thought that create great essays.
- And much more.
Beautiful B-School Photo
Contest
I have long advocated school visits as a great way to learn about
a school, its culture, and its student life. They also provide you
with invaluable insights you can use to show your fit with the program
in your essays and interviews.
Now you can have even more fun while visiting, especially if you're an
amateur photographer yearning to be recognized for your artistic
brilliance -- or just your nice photo. Compete in the
Beautiful
B-School Photo Contest for lots of prizes and a chance to show your
photo to the world!
For additional information and contest rules,
please visit our
Beautiful
B-School Photo Contest Rules.
Don't Miss the Admissions Chatter!
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Columbia
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Linda Meehan |
Nov. 1 |
10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/
5:00 PM GMT |
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CMU Tepper
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Laurie Stewart |
Nov. 9 |
10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT
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Michigan |
Soojin Kwon Koh & Jim Hayes |
Nov. 13 |
10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT |
Happy Thanksgiving!
If
you would like to sign up for automatic chat reminders, please visit our
chat subscription
page.
And
of course, last month's chats have generated must-read transcripts
Blog Posts of Interest
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Essay Tip |
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Tightening Language
Want to know what I look for when I read an essay that tells a good
story, but is 20-30% over the essay guideline or word limit? It needs
editing, not major surgery. I don't really want to cut content, but I
must cut verbiage. I look for clues, signs of lazy writing. These quirky
writing tics tell me I can edit without taking away from the story line
or changing the writer's voice.
- Passive voice. I harp on this a lot, but flipping a
sentence from passive to active cuts words and usually creates more
readable, active sentences. And you want to be active in your
application essays! For example:
The project was completed by my team. (7 words)
My team completed the project. (5 words.)
- "To be" verbs. The verb "to be" has a legitimate place in
written English, but it is frequently abused. Whenever I see a "to be"
verb ("is," "are," "was," "were," "being"), my delete
finger gets twitchy. I start looking for ways to condense.
- This is the X that did Y. For example:
"This was the strategy that we pursued." (7 words)
"We pursued this strategy (4 words).
- Using noun forms of roots instead of verb forms. For
example:
"I came to the conclusion ..." (5 words) "I made the decision ..." (4
words)
"I concluded..." (2 words) "I decided..." (2 words)
- I am able to trim words when I cut "am able to."
"I was able to run the marathon..." (7 words)
"I ran the marathon." (4 words).
- Lots of independent and simple clauses. You can frequently
combine them and shorten the text. For example:
"My mom is a fantastic cook and has lots of event planning experience.
She helped me prepare for the fundraiser." (20 words)
"My mom, a fantastic cook and experienced event planner, helped me
prepare for the fundraiser. (15 words).
When you see these lazy writing fingerprints, check if editing will
distort the essay's meaning. If not, it's DELETE time.
If you want a professional editing job that saves you time and
cleans up your writing while maintaining your voice and content,
please check out Accepted.com's
personal statement and application
essay editing.
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Resume Tip |
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If You Are Preparing a Resume for a Transition, Beware of Muddying
the Message
Are you seeking a new job involving broader, higher-level
responsibilities than you have yet undertaken, or applying to MBA or law
programs from a technical background? You probably need to update your
resume. If you're coming from a specialized background, beware of
muddying your message by mingling too much technical detail with
business-related information and accomplishments. When seeking a
position that focuses more on management, problem solving, and strategy
than on the technical qualifications of your specialization, communicate
your technical expertise swiftly and succinctly. Provide more detail in
the points that demonstrate your understanding of the business context
and the accomplishments that impact the overall venture.
In essence, this involves some "letting go." You are proud - rightly so
- of your accomplishments in your field. They've become part of your
professional identity. But to move on, you must let those details go -
at least in your resume. Rather than spotlighting your development of a
highly successful application platform, for example, show how your
understanding of the system's potential market impact drove your
conceptualization of the product.
If you're targeting a business or management position that will directly
employ your technical expertise, say IT product manager, the principle
still applies. However, add a bit more technical detail - enough to
convey your qualification for the position - but maintain the
pre-eminence of the business message.
Your resume will be most effective if it has a clear focus, and that
means making the decision to emphasize one thing over another. Trying to
"balance" technical and business messages equally will only muddle your
message. Impressive as your technical accomplishments may be, their
intricacies will probably make your potential employer's eyes glaze
over. On the other hand, she'll be thrilled to read about how your
initiative to obtain more extensive customer feedback contributed to the
successful market impact of the new technical application while also
prompting a more rigorous internal development process.
By Cindy Tokumitsu
Editor/Writer, Accepted.com
Member, The Professional Association of Resume Writers
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Our Services
Writing a personal statement is a tough challenge. A former
client, an NBC journalist with over twenty years of experience
in the field, once said that his personal statement "was the
toughest thing I ever had to write." He sought our help.
Shouldn't you?
Accepted.com's editors are here to help you write your best
essays -- eloquent, compelling essays that distinguish you from
the competition and transform you from a transcript and test
score into a competitive applicant and unique individual.
Check us out. Complete information on our services, including
prices, testimonials, and information about our top-notch
professional staff, can be found at
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If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at
info@accepted.com or 310-815-9553.
We look forward to serving you.
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