Bruce C. answered • 06/28/20
Retired Technical Writer and Analyst
Any of the tutors for writing or English would be a suitable reviewer of your college essay. You don't say what your topic is, but the very best reviewer would be a tutor with expertise on your topic, because that reviewer would better understand it and could catch errors that other reviewers might miss.
As an experienced technical editor, I find that I often need to review a document two or three times to completely edit it. That is because many documents contain grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors that are distracting, and I need to mark those up so that on the next read, I am no longer distracted by them. So if you could use a grammar/spell check function (WORD has them built in) and fix those errors before submitting it, then I could more easily focus on content, organization, word choice, etc.
Secondly, remember that you don't write college essays in the same way that you talk. I often find that young writers use the same informal language in their essays that they use when talking to their friends. That informal conversational style is usually not appropriate for college essays; your language, grammar, and sentence structure should be more formal. Eliminate any obvious slang, and eliminate any contractions (don't, isn't, etc.) - essays normally do not use contractions.
Next, look for passive sentence structure and, to the extent possible, revise these sentences to be active rather than passive. Active sentences are shorter and more interesting to read than passive sentences. In many essays, the passive sentences far outnumber the active ones, to the detriment of good writing. If you are not sure how passive sentences differ from active sentences, just goggle it and you will find a wealth of examples.
You might also review your essay - prior to submittal - for content that, while not actually incorrect, is typically indicative of sloppy writing. If you are in the habit of using "in order to," replace those occurrences with just "to." If you habitually start a sentence with "There are ..." then restructure the sentence to avoid using "there are ..." If you are starting sentences with "However," you should restructure the sentence so that the "however" falls in the middle of the sentence.
Then review your essay again, and note whether you tend to over-use a few words or phrases. Repeating the same words or phrases again and again tends to make an essay sound tedious, and varying your word / phrase choices makes it more interesting. So find alternative words or phrases to your top 3 or 4 over-worked ones, and I guarantee your essay will read better. Also, look at the length of your sentences, and pick out the 2 or 3 longest sentences and see if you can't break them up into shorter, more punchy sentences. Try to vary shorter sentences with longer sentences to the extent possible.
Finally, read your essay aloud. Listen to the cadence of the words, and make sure that your punctuation falls in line with how you want the essay to sound. If any of the grammar sounds suspect to you when you read it, then it probably needs some closer attention and perhaps some re-working.
If you do all of that for your editor, it will make their work more efficient and more effective.
Courtney W.
Bruce: great comment on the difference between conversational English and the written academic English. They are not the same thing! Thanks, CW06/28/20