Academic essays do's & dont's

The key to success lies in focusing in each academic essay on a few illustrative incidents as opposed to giving a superficial overview. Remember that detail, specificity, and concrete examples will make your academic essay distinctive and interesting. Generalities and platitudes that could apply to every other business school applicant will bore. If you use the latter, you will just blend into the crowd.

Following Ten Do's and Don'ts for your academic essay will help you write compelling, focused academic essays that will transform you from a collection of numbers and classes into an interesting human being.

The do's of academic essays

• Unite your essay and give it direction with a theme or thesis. The thesis is the main point you want to communicate. Make sure in answers the question.
• Before you begin writing, choose what you want to discuss and the order in which you want to discuss it.
• Use concrete examples from your life experience to support your thesis and distinguish yourself from other applicants.
• Write about what interests you, excites you. That's what the admissions staff wants to read.
• Start your essay with an attention-grabbing lead: an anecdote, quote, surprising statement, question, or engaging description of a scene.
• End your essay with a conclusion that refers back to the lead and restates your thesis.
• Revise your essay at least three times.
• In addition to your editing, ask someone else to critique your personal statement for you.
• Proofread your essays by reading them out loud or reading it into a tape recorder and playing back the tape.
• Write clearly, succinctly.

The don'ts of academic essays

• Don't include information that doesn't support your thesis.
• Don't start your academic essay with "I was born in...," or "My parents came from..."
• Don't write an autobiography, itinerary, or resume in prose.
• Don't try to be a clown (but gentle humor is OK).
• Don't be afraid to start over if the essay just isn't working or doesn't answer the essay question.
• Don't try to impress your reader with your vocabulary.
• Don't rely exclusively on your computer to check your spelling.
• Don't provide a collection of generic statements and platitudes.
• Don't give mealy-mouthed, weak excuses for your GPA or test scores.
• Don't make things up.

Sales letters writing mistakes

Sales letters are an effective marketing tool, and the ability to write sales letters effectively can have a dramatic influence on the degree of response and the ultimate profit. However, there are several general mistakes and dangers sales letter writers often make. In this article we will focus on the legal dangers; remembering these simple rules will help you avoid problems with the law. So here are the …

Frequent sales letters mistakes

Frauds

Providing false information about the product (or service) price, performance, or quality are examples of fraud. False testimonies from people misrepresented as specialists in the field is also considered fraud. To be more precise, any statement in a sales letter is considered fraud if the recipient can prove that:

• it was made regarding a fact, rather than an opinion
• he or she was demanded by it
• he or she relied on it and was justified in doing so
• the statement was made with the attempt to deceive

Thousands of fraudulent sales letters hurtle around the United States every year. They range from self-improvement and get-rich-quick to charity appeals and business opportunities. Do not join trash, and only write true facts in your sales letters.

Promises

Remember that in many states, sales letters are considered legal contracts. In these states, any promise made in a sales letter must be fulfilled regardless of whether the recipient responded or not. Therefore, avoid making any promises or even implications about promises when writing sales letters.

Privacy

Avoid using someone’s private data in sales letters, including photos, names, and any personal background data might be considered invasion of privacy. Putting someone's photo in sales letters is a mistake, unless the person is a model or permitted placing the picture. You can't use anything you want in a sales letter; putting a photo or mentioning someone’s background (e.g. confinement, drunk driving, drug use) might also be considered invasion of privacy. Thus, be neutral; write or use information about others with care and vigilance to avoid lawsuit.

To sum up, know the laws of your area, and avoid these frequent dangers and mistakes in writing sales letters. Any of these mistakes could result in a problem with the law. Always be ethical when writing your sales letters. Ethics, care, candor, and quality product or idea are those things that would make your sales letter effective!

Resume writing tricks

The objective of a resume is to get the reader’s attraction to your strong points and to minimize your disadvantage without misrepresenting the facts. But in order to provide the best impression on the reader, you might want to omit some questionable points or information that may not be in your favor. Recruiters claim that around 40 percent of all resumes either exaggerate the candidate’s abilities and skills or do not include potentially damaging information, which means that many people turn to resume tricks, which are actually mistakes.

List of most frequent resume tricks

The most frequent resume tricks that candidates turn to are:

• claiming nonexistent educational credits. Sometimes candidates state that they earned a degree when they just attended a school but, actually, did not complete the required courses
• claiming to be engaged in his/her own business. This trick is used to cover the periods of unemployment. Very often a candidate asserts that he/she runs own business from a home office
• stretching periods of employment to cover gaps. This is another technique to conceal the true reasons for unemployment periods. Unemployment gaps raise many questions, and potential employees are not always willing to answer fully
• concealing reference to jobs that may cause embarrassment. A candidate would prefer to hide the fact of being fired from several jobs in a quick succession, as it will characterize him/her as a bad employee. To eliminate the gap, a candidate will stretch the dates of previous employments
• exaggerating experience and accomplishments. Sometimes candidates appropriate group project achievements to their own results
• stating to have worked for the companies that are out of business. Usually candidates with lack of working experience turn to this method to fill in a blank work experience section

Thus, when composing your resume, remember that experienced recruiters and human resource managers are aware of these frequent resume tricks, so be careful not to get into your own trap. It is very effective to present your strongest and most impressive points and to minimize shortcomings. But do not exaggerate or claim to have skills or expertise you do not have.