Why College Essay Keywords Are Bogus: Part II
The most viewed blog post I've written was this post here about college essay keywords. So, I'd like to further explain why focusing on keywords for college essays is just not an effective strategy!
Look, I'm not one to knock a strategy that works—nor do I claim that I have the only answer or approach to great essay writing.
In fact, I met a college essay tutor a few years ago who had a great series of questions she asked students to help them choose and write about a topic.
Her fast-paced style of coaching didn't align with my style—and she wasn't aiming for the long-term gains and level of polished writing that I really prize in my own coaching. But it worked well for her, and I admired her ideas-focused paradigm.
That said, ANY TUTOR OR COACH who claims that college essay keywords are the tried-and-true way to creating powerful college application essays either:
➡️ does not know much about writing,
➡️ and/or is selling a quick n' easy strategy because it's, well, highly sellable!
If I were only trying to generate quick business and high content views, I might offer such a simple strategy myself. For better or worse, that's just not my style—and I see major problems in preaching any reductive strategy for writing that claims quick success.
Here are my objections to college essay keywords in particular:
⚠️ Implementing the same keywords leads to homogeneity—the exact opposite of what you want in a college application essay, which are all about uniqueness.
⚠️ Using college essay keywords highly increases the likelihood of creating just bad writing that implements a forced, clunky tone.
⚠️ Moreover, such a strategy draws the writer to the wrong point of focus.
What do I mean by "the wrong point of focus"?
When writing college essays, students need to FIRST and VERY INTENTIONALLY focus on voice and ideas; then organization; and finally, word choice, grammar, and sentence fluency.
If a student insists on using keywords, it should not be until this final polishing stage. Even then, however, students need to be very careful about not overdoing it.
My go-to, long-term, tried-and-true strategy prioritizes helping students express authentic voice…because voice is the quality that helps their essays stand out much more distinctly than the same keywords every other applicant is using!
I call my strategy the Messy Model, and you can get it for FREE at the button below.
When students invest time in the Messy Model, they achieve:
A more easeful writing process with less unnecessary (and unhelpful) pressure.
Outstanding college essays that get them into Stanford, UC Santa Barbara, Babson, Columbia, Northwestern, Sarah Lawrence, NYU, University of Pennsylvania, and many more!
An essay in their own voice, true to their own experience—in which they can take pride.
Long term writing skills they discover in the process of writing and revision—from expressing their voice to self-reflection to stronger grammar and sentence fluency.