Five checks to run before you hit submit

The week before a deadline is not the week to start a new essay. It is the week to find the three things wrong with the one you have. Here are five checks, in the order I run them. None takes more than fifteen minutes.

1. Read it out loud, all the way through

Not in your head. Out loud, at normal speed, ideally to an empty room.

Your ear catches what your eye skips: the sentence you cannot get through in one breath, the word you used three times in a paragraph, the line that sounds like a brochure. Anywhere you stumble, the reader will too. Mark it and fix it after you finish, not during, so you hear the essay as a whole.

If you would be embarrassed to say a sentence to an adult across a table, it does not belong in the essay.

2. Cover the first paragraph

Put your hand over the opening and start reading from paragraph two. Does the essay still work?

For a surprising number of drafts, it works better. The first paragraph is often warm-up: a quote, a definition, a sweeping line about life, a sentence explaining what the essay is about to do. If the essay starts fine without it, cut it, and let the second paragraph be the first. The post on first sentences goes further on what a good opening actually does.

3. Find the last sentence that is about you

Read the ending. Now find the last sentence that describes something you did, saw, or said, as opposed to something you learned or believe.

If there are two or three sentences after it, they are probably restating the point. Readers do not need the point restated. Try ending on that last concrete sentence and see if it lands harder. It usually does.

4. Check the name

If the essay mentions a school by name, confirm it is the school you are sending it to. This sounds obvious and it is the single most common catastrophic error in the season. Search the document for every college name. Do the same for any program, professor, or club you name, and confirm they still exist.

Then check the obvious mechanics: the word count is under the limit in the application's own counter (not your word processor's), and the text pasted cleanly, without stray symbols where your apostrophes and dashes used to be. Paste it into the portal, then read the preview, not your draft.

5. Ask one person one question

Not "is this good?" That gets you either praise or a rewrite, and you have time for neither.

Give the essay to someone who knows you, and ask: does this sound like me? If they say yes, you are done. If they hesitate, ask which sentence. That sentence is the one to fix, and you will usually find it was written to impress somebody rather than to say something.

What not to do this week

Do not start over because a friend's essay sounds better. Do not let four people edit it in four directions. Do not add a second example to make it seem more complete. All three make an essay longer and less like you, and the week before the deadline is when they happen most.

If it is clear, specific, and sounds like you, it is ready. Submit it a day early, and go to sleep.

FAQ

How long before the deadline should I stop revising? Aim to have the essay finished three or four days before the deadline. That leaves time to run these checks and to submit a day early, which protects you if the portal is slow on deadline night.

Should I start a new essay the week before it is due? Almost never. A finished essay with small fixes nearly always beats a new draft written under pressure.

Who should read my essay before I submit? One person who knows you well, asked one question: does this sound like me? Too many readers this late tends to pull the essay in conflicting directions.

Does the word count in Google Docs match the application? Not always. Paste the essay into the application and check its counter, since that is the one that enforces the limit.

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