Essay writing for a specific assignment like a college or university admissions essay can often feel quite different and more pressurised than the experience of writing a normal weekly essay.

For one thing, there is a lot more running on the success of your essay writing than there usually would be; the chance of a place to study at a top college or university creates much higher stakes than a simple grade or mark out of fifty.

And of course, when writing a college or university admissions essay you are likely to feel under pressure to demonstrate the whole scope and range of your writing skills and your capacity for intellectual exploration and debate.

So how do you complete that admissions essay in a way that shows you off to the very best of your ability without appearing too contrived or over the top? Follow these top tips to university or college application success.

Admissions essay tone

When writing an admissions essay, it is essential to hit the correct tone. This will essentially be dictated by the question, and the sort of assignment the academic institution has requested. Be sure to read the instructions or question with a fine toothcomb. If an argument is called for, it is important to acknowledge this with a strong, confident tone, clearly demonstrating your ability to debate an issue and to make a controlled and convincing case.

If the admissions requirements call for a more philosophical or investigatory essay however, it is important not to strike too emphatic a tone, but instead to exhibit your ability to consider all sides of a topic fairly and impartially before eventually deducing the most convincing argument.

A strong admissions essay argument

It is one thing to write a university or college admissions essay with a strong, impressive argument, but quite another to use essay writing methods and skills to demonstrate and emphasise its structure.

There are several techniques by which you can really make your argument stand out and your thought process shine, getting started with a strong structure to give it the best possible foundation and a clear layout reflective of your different points and ideas. So make sure that you start with a thought-provoking introduction to approach the topic in an insightful and intellectually stimulating way, introducing the issues and ideas at hand and giving a sense of what the rest of your essay will contain.

To really make your different ideas stand out from one another and to highlight the all-important links and cohesion between them, it is important to start a new paragraph throughout the essay for each new idea, and to keep the ideological points clearly in the sections where they belong. In addition, it is advisable to use signpost sentences and carefully picked ordering vocabulary (firstly secondly, finally etc.) to clarify and promote a smooth flow of your argument from one section of your essay writing to the next.

How to show off your academic potential

It is common for admissions essays to centre on an ambivalent or particularly open-ended question and it is important to realise that this is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your ability to think for yourself, to shape your own argument and to create an exciting and broad-minded piece of writing.

Try not to follow the standard, tried-and-tested essay writing techniques that every student has been writing throughout their school life and will churn out again for their admissions essay. The standard five paragraph essay or a dry pros and cons debate might be a successful essay structure but it doesn't have the 'oomph' to make you stand out from the crowd. Try to keep in mind that admissions staff read thousands of these essays each year and they are looking for a spark of originality to catch their imagination.

However, it is important not to resort to a gimmicky attention-grabbing stunt that creates a flash in the pan but actually demonstrates no real academic depth however. Rather, your interests are best served by thinking about how to frame a traditional question in a different and exciting way, or how to design an innovative and original structure for a 'for and against' style essay. This can be successfully achieved by adding in new sections you may not previously have tackled, such as a paragraph completely turning the argument on its head, or an extra element that considers impact and projection for each scenario.

In addition you can showcase your academic potential in your admissions essay very cleverly by thinking about the sort of intellectual writing you would be expected to produce if you were to win a place at the institution you want to attend. You would probably have to conduct research, so why not carry out your own survey or experiment and include your findings in your admissions essay? You could find yourself interviewing writers or witnesses, or researching and producing a literature review in a college essay, so why not prove how serious you are about your application by giving it a go in your admissions piece?

The combination of innovation and enthusiasm with new ideas and a fresh perspective is the strongest way to launch your application, by presenting yourself as a strong, original and hard-working individual who doesn't shy away from independent research or doing a little extra leg work.

Good luck with your applications!