{"id":30784,"date":"2024-09-13T10:10:38","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T14:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=30784"},"modified":"2024-09-13T10:10:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T14:10:40","slug":"set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/","title":{"rendered":"Set the Tone Early, and Employ Active Verbs in Your MBA Application Essays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Any good journalist will tell you that the key to writing a good news story or opinion piece is to grab the reader\u2019s attention with the very first line. Many book authors employ this same tactic. Although only a small percentage of people have actually read Herman Melville\u2019s Moby Dick<\/em>, most know that the novel begins with three famous words: \u201cCall me Ishmael.\u201d A powerful first line can stick with readers long after they have finished reading something (and sometimes with those who have not<\/em> even read it!). For example, we all likely recognize the statement \u201cIt was a dark and stormy night,\u201d but few may know that it is the opening line of a book by an obscure writer (Paul Clifford<\/em> by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although beginning an essay with a very short introduction is the norm, sometimes a punchy opening line can capture a reader\u2019s attention in a useful way. Consider the differences between the following pairs of openers. Which line in each example better captures your attention?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 1: A \u201cWhy MBA?\u201d essay<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: \u201cAfter I graduate with my MBA, I want to work in the wine industry.\u201d
B: \u201cBlood runs in the veins of all humans, but wine also runs in mine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 2: A \u201cWhat are you most passionate about in life?\u201d essay<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: \u201cI enjoy nothing more than playing ice hockey.\u201d
B: \u201cAs soon as the nearby river freezes, I wake at 6 a.m. each day and join my teammates for a prework hockey scrimmage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No set formula exists for opening lines\u2014the possibilities are endless, and each opener depends on the context of the story being told. Nonetheless, our point is that you must carefully consider your opening line, because it will set the tone for your essay and determine whether your reader will want to read more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now let us examine the role of active verbs in your essays. Anyone who has ever written an email that has been misunderstood\u2014let alone an MBA application essay\u2014is no doubt aware of the subtleties of language and the nuances that can change a message\u2019s meaning. Indeed, you can enliven a basic sentence simply by choosing more active verbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, consider the verb \u201cearn.\u201d By using \u201cearn\u201d rather than a more passive verb in the following examples, we can alter the meaning and impact of each sentence. Suddenly, you<\/em> are in control. Suddenly, you<\/em> worked hard and, as a result, accomplished great things.

Passive\/poor example:<\/em> \u201cI was promoted from junior to senior analyst.\u201d
Active\/good example:<\/em> \u201cI earned a promotion from junior to senior analyst.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passive\/poor example:<\/em> \u201cAfter being awarded my MBA, I will be able to\u2026\u201d
Active\/good example:<\/em> \u201cAfter earning my MBA, I will be able to\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you have finished your application essays, review them to see how often you can replace certain words with \u201cearn\u201d or a similar verb\u2014such as \u201cachieve,\u201d \u201cgain,\u201d and \u201cattain\u201d\u2014that denotes action on your part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Any good journalist will tell you that the key to writing a good news story or opinion piece is to grab the reader\u2019s attention with the very first line. Many book authors employ this same tactic. Although only a small percentage of people have actually read Herman Melville\u2019s Moby Dick, most know that the novel … Read More  <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":36029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[119],"tags":[85,84],"class_list":["post-30784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays","tag-business-school-essay","tag-mba-application-essays"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEmploy Active Verbs in Your MBA Application Essays<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Although beginning your MBA application essays with a short introduction is the norm, a punchy opening line can capture a reader\u2019s attention.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Employ Active Verbs in Your MBA Application Essays\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Although beginning your MBA application essays with a short introduction is the norm, a punchy opening line can capture a reader\u2019s attention.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-13T14:10:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-13T14:10:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Set-the-Tone-Early-and-Employ-Active-Verbs-in-Your-MBA-Application-Essays.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Employ Active Verbs in Your MBA Application Essays","description":"Although beginning your MBA application essays with a short introduction is the norm, a punchy opening line can capture a reader\u2019s attention.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Employ Active Verbs in Your MBA Application Essays","og_description":"Although beginning your MBA application essays with a short introduction is the norm, a punchy opening line can capture a reader\u2019s attention.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2024-09-13T14:10:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-09-13T14:10:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":360,"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Set-the-Tone-Early-and-Employ-Active-Verbs-in-Your-MBA-Application-Essays.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/"},"author":{"name":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8239bb74f0e5086e58417043b2ff94c6"},"headline":"Set the Tone Early, and Employ Active Verbs in Your MBA Application Essays","datePublished":"2024-09-13T14:10:38+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-13T14:10:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/"},"wordCount":524,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Set-the-Tone-Early-and-Employ-Active-Verbs-in-Your-MBA-Application-Essays.png","keywords":["business school essay","MBA application essays"],"articleSection":["Essays"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/","name":"Employ Active Verbs in Your MBA Application Essays","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Set-the-Tone-Early-and-Employ-Active-Verbs-in-Your-MBA-Application-Essays.png","datePublished":"2024-09-13T14:10:38+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-13T14:10:40+00:00","description":"Although beginning your MBA application essays with a short introduction is the norm, a punchy opening line can capture a reader\u2019s attention.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Set-the-Tone-Early-and-Employ-Active-Verbs-in-Your-MBA-Application-Essays.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Set-the-Tone-Early-and-Employ-Active-Verbs-in-Your-MBA-Application-Essays.png","width":640,"height":360,"caption":"Set the Tone Early, and Employ Active Verbs in Your MBA Application Essays"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/set-the-tone-early-and-employ-active-verbs-in-your-mba-application-essays\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Set the Tone Early, and Employ Active Verbs in Your MBA Application Essays"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","description":"World's Leading MBA Admissions Consulting Firm","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"mbaMission","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"mbaMission"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8239bb74f0e5086e58417043b2ff94c6","name":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen","description":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen has been mbaMission\u2019s Writer\/Researcher since 2015. She is in charge of updating and revamping most of our publication materials, ranging from the extensive Insider\u2019s Guides series, the Interview Guides, and the International Program Guides to our shorter publications, including the HBS 2+2 and Deferred Admissions Guide and numerous blog posts.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/who-we-are\/team\/erika-vaatainen\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/erikavaatainen\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/author\/erika\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Set-the-Tone-Early-and-Employ-Active-Verbs-in-Your-MBA-Application-Essays.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}