Example: Smith, J. (2020). Understanding Psychology. Penguin Books.
These examples clearly show how to format citations correctly in both styles. Attention to details like punctuation, italicisation, and the order of information is essential, as these can vary significantly between APA and Harvard. Learning from these examples and immediately citing your papers correctly may be challenging. In that case, there's essay writing help always available to support education recipients with assignments. With expert guidance, you will save time and comply with academic demands.
Some referencing styles have become more common in certain subjects than others due to the different nature of the academic disciplines. APA referencing is used in the social sciences, such as psychology, sociology, and education. It is popular in the social sciences because recent research and findings are vital. In a subject such as psychology, where findings can change rapidly, pointing to the latest studies can enhance your argument, as it indicates that you know what is currently being discussed in your field.
Considering APA vs. Harvard referencing, it's important to note that each style reflects the values and practices of its respective academic field. Harvard referencing tends to be used in the humanities—literature, history, cultural studies—and specific scientific disciplines. It is more flexible and enables the author to annotate more source types. This style allows for a more flexible approach that can accommodate various source types, which is particularly beneficial when analysing a wide range of materials, from classic literature to contemporary articles.
Let's examine the most common mistakes students make when using APA and Harvard styles and learn tips from experts on how to avoid them:
1. Incorrect In-text Citations: Students may mix the punctuation in in-text citations. For example, they may use APA’s format when using Harvard or incorrectly place a comma in Harvard citations.
Tip: In APA, the author’s last name is followed by the year and a comma (e.g., Smith, 2020, p. 15). In Harvard, there’s no punctuation between the author and the year, and the page number follows a colon (e.g., Smith 2020:15).
2. Inconsistent Capitalisation: Learners may capitalise titles incorrectly, such as capitalising every word in the title.
Advice: In APA and Harvard, we capitalise only the first word of the title, subtitle, and proper nouns.
3. Incorrect Reference List Formatting: Students often confuse the formatting of the reference list. They may fail to use hanging indentation in APA or use the wrong order in Harvard.
Recommendation: In APA, use hanging indentation and centre the title References in bold. In Harvard, entries are aligned left with no indentation, and the title References is not bolded.
4. Misplacing Page Numbers: Education recipients often incorrectly format page numbers by adding extra spaces or using incorrect punctuation.
Note: In APA, page numbers should follow "pp." and use an en dash without spaces (e.g., pp. 55–56). In Harvard, place page numbers after a colon with no spaces (e.g., :111 or :19–20).
Is Harvard referencing the same as APA, and how distinguish between the two styles? If you have these problems, check your citation style guide, use a research paper writing service , or maintain a list of all your sources as you research. Use these strategies to navigate the complexities of academic writing more effectively and reduce the likelihood of errors.
Learning how to reference is one of the most important academic skills. It means you acknowledge the contribution of others and know how to support your argument, enhancing its credibility. Referencing your sources correctly and avoiding the accidental plagiarism of others’ work can also significantly impact your grades. Many learners wonder, “Is APA and Harvard the same?” and often make common referencing mistakes that can lead to confusion. If you have trouble with paper formatting, do not hesitate to ask for help. Academic writing support from experts can help polish your work and ensure you meet educational standards.
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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Effects of Social Media — Navigating Social Media as College Students
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Published: Sep 20, 2024
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The benefits of social media, the dark side of social media, striking a balance.
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Primack, B. A. (n.d.). Social Media Use and Perceived Social Isolation Among Young Adults in the U.S. Emotion, 17(6), 1026–1032. DOI: 10.1037/emo0000525Hobson, K. (n.d.). The Social Media Paradox: Are We Really More Connected? [...]
Turkle, Sherry. 'Connected, but Alone?' TED Talk, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019.Jacobson, Rae. 'The Effect of Social Media on Teenagers' Mental Health.' Child Mind Institute, 2019
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Extracurriculars.
Applicants to the Honors College at Oregon State University will need to respond to one essay prompt, as well as four short-response questions with a limit of 100 words each. Any time you’re applying to a more selective program within the university as a whole, you want to make sure your strengths come across fully, and the essays are a fantastic opportunity to contextualize your more objective achievements like grades, awards, and so on.
Want to know how your profile stacks up at Oregon State? Calculate your chances of acceptance for free right now!
Honors college applicants.
Prompt 1: Choose a specific connection that you consider interesting or unique; describe and explain the connection and its parts and why that connection is meaningful or significant. You can choose from activities, academic subjects, concepts, natural or human phenomena, etc. Write an original essay that clearly and completely addresses the prompt above in 450-500 words in order for your Honors College application to be considered. Making connections and drawing insights from those connections is a central part of the Honors College experience. (450-500 words)
Short Answer Prompts: Please address your experience in each category below, keeping in mind how you could contribute to the future community of excellence at OSU. Respond to all four questions and limit answers to 100 words per question.
Describe a significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to address this challenge. include whether you turned to anyone in facing the challenge, the role the person played, and what you learned about yourself. (100 words), osu remains committed to creating an inclusive environment and dismantling systems that perpetuate discrimination at various levels. how, specifically, will you contribute to furthering this commitment (100 words), articulate the goals you have established for yourself and your efforts to accomplish these. give at least one specific example that demonstrates your work ethic/diligence. (100 words), honors college applicants, prompt 1, choose a specific connection that you consider interesting or unique; describe and explain the connection and its parts and why that connection is meaningful or significant. you can choose from activities, academic subjects, concepts, natural or human phenomena, etc., write an original essay that clearly and completely addresses the prompt above in 450-500 words in order for your honors college application to be considered. making connections and drawing insights from those connections is a central part of the honors college experience. (450-500 words).
This prompt invites you to explore a specific connection between two or more things that you find interesting or meaningful. Your goal should be to demonstrate your ability to think creatively and across disciplines, and draw insights from seemingly disparate ideas.
This is also a great opportunity to show off your unique way of looking at the world. The key to a strong response is to not only describe the connection, but also delve into why it’s significant to you.
The broadness of this prompt may seem overwhelming, but take a breath! Here are some questions to help get you thinking about what you might write about.
You can use these questions to generate a list of possible topics. We recommend shooting for 5-10–especially for this kind of nuanced prompt, giving yourself more options means you can compare and contrast them, to determine which is truly the strongest. When you’re ready to narrow down your initial list, think about the following considerations.
First, your topic should be specific and unique. Talking about how art and science connect is not a strong choice, because art and science are each huge fields, and lots of students see some overlap between them.
A much stronger choice would be writing about how looking at cells under a microscope gave you a much deeper appreciation for the forms and colors of abstract art. Take advantage of the space given to you – with up to 500 words, you have the room to lay out complex connections. In fact, Oregon State tells you directly that’s exactly what they want you to do!
You’ll also want to pick a connection that you have a personal link to. The point of any college essay is to show the admissions committee more about who you are, not just tell them about something you care about. For the above example, the intersection between microbiology and abstract art could be used to show the author’s attention to detail, love of research, and/or open-mindedness about different art forms.
Finally, you want to hint at how this connection you see will allow you to make positive contributions to the Honors College. Oregon State isn’t expecting you to have the next four years fully planned out, but showing that you’ve already thought about how this aspect of your identity would be an asset to the Honors College community is often the thing that takes an essay from good to great.
This may sound like a lot to keep track of, but if you take your brainstorming seriously, incorporating all of these elements can happen quite naturally. Let’s look at some hypothetical student topics that would make strong responses for this prompt.
As you refine your choice of topic, remember that you’ll need to provide specific examples of your points, so make sure you’ll be able to do so. Note that all of the above examples reference particular moments in the student’s life that illustrate how they first made this connection, and why it became so meaningful to them.
Describing what learning the piano was like for you is far more effective than just stating “I had always seen math and music as separate fields, but when I learned the piano, that changed.” Instead, you could say something like:
“My fingers flew across the black and white keys, trying desperately to keep up with Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. For weeks now, every time I started getting close to the third movement, I would make a mistake I couldn’t recover from. As my left hand slipped, that familiar frustration started crackling in my chest.
But then, in a fraction of a second, my math lesson from the previous day popped into my head: sometimes, a sequence of numbers doesn’t follow the pattern you expect. This time, rather than giving up, I added a quick series of notes which aren’t in the sheet music, but would connect my mistake to the next measure.”
By immersing us fully in this moment alongside them, the student allows us to see exactly how they think, and ensures that they will stand out even from other students who might be exploring a related topic.
With just 100 words, you’ll need to choose your topics for these next four prompts carefully, to ensure you’re able to clearly communicate what you want to say even in such a short space. To start, this one focuses on your unique interests and creativity, so you’ll want to select a topic that demonstrates your out-of-the-box thinking.
Your brainstorming for the prompt above could actually come in handy here. Although you don’t want to write about the same thing, as repeating yourself wastes your precious space, you could potentially write about one of the other options you were considering.
Alternatively, you could ask yourself the following questions, to kick off your brainstorming:
Regardless of which topic you choose, you’ll want to explain what it is quickly, in around twenty words, so that you can spend the bulk of the response explaining what this particular interest says about who you are more broadly. You’ll also want to use specific, anchoring details to make your essay come alive for your readers–describing your creativity in a creative way can take the essay to the next level.
Let’s look at an example of what a strong response might look like.
“Last summer, fascinated by sustainable architecture, I built a small model home using recycled materials. I researched eco-friendly construction techniques, such as repurposing materials, and implemented those ideas in my model by using worn out dishrags as insulation and plastic bottle caps as roof shingles. I tested my model by leaving it outside in a rainstorm, and was thrilled when not a single drop got through! This project not only deepened my understanding of sustainable practices, but also pushed me to be attentive to detail and see function rather than solely form.”
This example is specific in showing the student’s creativity–it doesn’t just mention the recycled model home project, but also gives details about particular materials they repurposed. We can see that they have a deep knowledge of architectural practices and sustainable design, and an appreciation for both the beauty and necessity of building.
Hopefully, this essay demonstrates that even in just 100 words, you can seamlessly incorporate many elements, to craft a response that makes a genuine impact on your reader.
To respond to this prompt, you may want to check out our Overcoming Challenges essay breakdown, as this is an example of that archetype. This supplement, however, is only 100 words, so the response will have to be much shorter than your typical Overcoming Challenges essay. As a result, you’ll want to focus on just the most important aspects of this kind of prompt.
Helpfully, the basic structure your response should take is laid out in the prompt itself: you should describe an important challenge you’ve faced, the way that you handled this problem, and who or what might have helped you through it. Then, you should reflect on how you might have grown or learned about the world and yourself through this process.
Given the abbreviated length, you should spend around twenty words describing the problem, forty to fifty describing your response and the resources you used, and the last twenty to thirty words reflecting on the broader impact this challenge and resolution had on you. Note that these are just approximations–every response will be different, but if you’re struggling to stay within the count, this is a good blueprint.
Before you start worrying too much about length, though, here are some guiding questions to help you come up with an appropriate problem to write about.
Make sure to pick something that you can effectively unpack in 100 words. This is a very short response, so you probably won’t be able to do justice to a long and involved story, even if it was deeply meaningful to you. You still want to pick something significant to you, of course–if you don’t really care about this problem, the admissions committee won’t either–but the problem should be relatively straightforward.
That said, you want to avoid cliché topics like moving to a new place, suffering a sports injury, or working through a difficult class. While you don’t need to find something that admissions officers have absolutely never seen before, as that’s practically impossible, there are some topics that are just too overused.
Here are some examples of experiences that could work well:
If your story is not as unique as you might like, that’s okay. Try to find an angle that’s particular to you, or reflect on the experience in a way that demonstrates your unique worldview, values, and personality. There’s no one way to stand out from the crowd, but you want to make sure you incorporate something that shows admissions officers what you have to offer that nobody else does.
After selecting your story, try to pick a few key details to make your account compelling and anchored in something real. You don’t have a ton of room, but even saying something like “The hallway rang with a mix of languages, from Spanish to Korean to Arabic,” rather than “When I arrived at the school, I heard a lot of different languages,” goes a long way.
This prompt asks you to reflect on your personal experiences, beliefs, and values, and explain how you will actively contribute to making OSU more inclusive. To get started, you’ll want to identify a moment or experience where you actively worked towards inclusivity, to demonstrate your personal investment in diversity.
To brainstorm, consider when diverse experiences, identities, or perspectives have made a difference in your own life, or in the lives of those close to you. You don’t have to have created the environment that made this mingling possible yourself, so long as you still learned what a positive diverse environment looks like, and took away lessons that you could bring to Oregon State with you.
While describing past experiences is important, you want to do that relatively quickly, as the real key to this essay is explaining how you will work to embrace diversity on Oregon State’s campus. You’ll want to reflect on what your past experiences taught you about how to make a community more inclusive, and how you plan to put those lessons into action. As always, specificity is crucial, to show that diversity is a genuine value of yours.
Let’s look at some hypothetical examples of what a strong response might include.
Each of these students has a specific vision for how they will show up for underrepresented students at Oregon State. Even if you haven’t had a chance to do activism work in high school, or don’t have a super specific plan for what you hope to do in college yet, that’s okay–just write about a past experience that taught you about diversity, and how those lessons will guide your future on Oregon State’s campus.
Here, the qualities you want to demonstrate are your capacity for hard work, dedication, and attention to detail. You’ll also want to showcase a goal you’ve set yourself, to show how those qualities are going to help you grow and develop in college.
First, you’ll want to pick a clear, focused goal. Something like “become a better writer” is a worthy goal, but it’s also one where measuring progress is hard, and one without a clear point at which you could say you’ve “accomplished” it.
Reading the classics for a better understanding of technique, writing 500 words every day for a month, or submitting a piece of work for publication are more specific ways of articulating the same idea as this vague goal.
Your goal should also be relatively ambitious. Choosing something like getting better at chores, or achieving a high score in a video game, may not be taken seriously by an admissions committee. On the other hand, choosing something drastic, like becoming the president of the United States or winning a Nobel Peace Prize, will also come across as disingenuous, so make sure you aim for the middle ground.
The best essay will focus on a goal that is achievable, but also demonstrates that you have confidence and self-motivation, and are eager to employ those traits in service of what matters most to you. You should also be able to cite concrete steps you’ve already taken that prove you’re currently working towards your goal. Your essay might even show grit and perseverance if you’ve overcome setbacks or worked through hardship in pursuit of your goal.
Covering all these bases might sound overwhelming, so let’s look at an example of an essay that puts all these things together.
“Growing up without much money didn’t just mean going without the 64 pack of crayons. It meant that when I came home after school, my parents were too busy to help me with homework. As a high schooler, I wanted to give others the support I hadn’t had, so I co-founded a free tutoring program at the library for low-income students. Managing volunteers and developing lesson plans while doing my own work has required strong organization skills and the sacrifice of free time, but my efforts have helped over 30 students improve their grades, which is more than worth it.”
This student clearly tells us about how their background shapes their goals: feeling lost academically inspired them to help prevent others from feeling that way. They then explain a step they’ve already taken–starting a tutoring program–that shows they’re willing to put their money where their mouth is, so to speak. They come across as empathetic, altruistic, and genuinely appreciative of education and the opportunities it provides, and they also clearly place a high value on equity.
Whatever story you tell, choose something that showcases your best qualities, your capacity for growth and reflection, and, of course, your readiness to work hard to achieve your dreams.
Do you want feedback on your Oregon State University essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.
Need feedback faster? Get a free, nearly-instantaneous essay review from Sage, our AI tutor and advisor. Sage will rate your essay, give you suggestions for improvement, and summarize what admissions officers would take away from your writing. Use these tools to improve your chances of acceptance to your dream school!
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10 Successful Harvard Application Essays | 2021 Our new 2022 version is up now! Our 2022 edition is sponsored by HS2 Academy—a premier college counseling company that has helped thousands of ...
In my complete analysis, I'll take you through my Common Application, Harvard supplemental application, personal statements and essays, extracurricular activities, teachers' letters of recommendation, counselor recommendation, complete high school transcript, and more. I'll also give you in-depth commentary on every part of my application.
Prompt 1: Harvard has long recognized the importance of enrolling a diverse student body. How will the life experiences that shape who you are today enable you to contribute to Harvard? (150 words) Prompt 2: Describe a time when you strongly disagreed with someone about an idea or issue.
Harvard University Supplemental Essay Option: Books Read During the Last Twelve Months AUTHOR 1. Reading Frankenstein in ninth grade changed my relationship to classic literature. In Frankenstein, I found characters and issues that resonate in a modern context, and I began to explore the literary canon outside of the classroom.During tenth grade, I picked up Jane Eyre and fell in love with the ...
For example, a fake Facebook page created by an unknown schoolmate with my birthday listed as September 11th, 2001. ... Successful Harvard Essay: 'When Life Doesn't Gives You Lemons ...
Check out our updated list of 10 Harvard application essays below from students who made it in, and hear from expert college consultants about what made these work. sponsored by Sophia's Essay
Successful Harvard Essays. These are successful college essays of students that were accepted to Harvard University. Use them to see what it takes to get into Harvard and other top schools and get inspiration for your own Common App essay, supplements, and short answers. These successful Harvard essays include Common App essays, Harvard ...
Harvard Essays Examples . One of the most important parts of the college application process is the essay section. Especially when you're looking at applying to Harvard, or any of the Ivy League schools, your essays need to stand out.Looking at Harvard essays examples can help give you an idea of Harvard essays that worked and stood out to the admissions team.
Harvard University Essay Example. Harvard University is a highly-selective school, so it's important to write strong essays to help your application stand out. In this post, we'll share an essay a real student has submitted to Harvard. (Names and identifying information have been changed, but all other details are preserved).
Some applications ask that you write an essay that draws on more personal reflections. These essays, sometimes called Personal Statements, are an opportunity to show the selection committee who you are as a person: your story, your values, your interests, and why you—and not your peer with a similar resume—are a perfect fit for this opportunity. These narrative essays allow you to really ...
How to Write Harvard Supplemental Essay #3. Briefly describe any of your extracurricular activities, employment experience, travel, or family responsibilities that have shaped who you are. (10-200 words) This is your classic 150-word extracurricular essay.
Harvard College. University Hall Cambridge, MA 02138. ... In your essay you might elaborate on your family experiences in a wide variety of ways that can illuminate your character and personal qualities, including the positive aspects of your family life. Education ... For example, a student can gain a great deal from helping his or her family ...
Prompt 4: Harvard and Your Future. This Harvard essay prompt is pretty self-explanatory: it wants you to discuss how you intend to use your education at Harvard after you graduate—so in a future job or career, in grad school, in a particular research field, etc.
Harvard's Extracurricular Essay: Harvard's Prompt #2: "Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences." To start, when choosing which activity or experience to write about, think about something that you are passionate about and have put in significant effort into. It should also be something that has had ...
Here are a couple of resources to help you understand what kind of students get accepted and gain insights into what makes their applications stand out: 1. Essays: Many websites, blogs, and articles showcase successful college essays from Harvard applicants. Remember that your essay should be unique and personal to your own experiences, so use ...
Part 4: 2024-2025 Harvard supplemental essays (examples included) (Note: While this section covers Harvard's admissions essays specifically, we encourage you to view additional successful college essay examples.) Acing the supplemental essays is a crucial part of your child's strategy to get into Harvard.
Harvard College Writing Center. Schedule an appointment; Tutoring; Writing Resources expand_more. Overview; Strategies for Essay Writing; Brief Guides to Writing in the Disciplines; Writing Advice: The Barker Underground Blog; Meet the staff; Contact/Employment; Breadcrumbs.
Unlike the rest of your application, which primarily consists of filling in boxes, the personal essay gives you the freedom to essentially write about whatever you want. No rules! Show who you are! Which sounds pretty cool, until you're sitting there looking at a blank Word document. While the personal essay is a great opportunity to infuse ...
First-years recount the agony and the ecstasy. Late nights. Discarded drafts. That one great idea. Most high school seniors would agree that the admissions essay is the hardest part of a college application. The Gazette asked first-year students to reflect on theirs — the writing, the inspiration, the hand-wringing — and the lessons learned.
4. Harvard Model United Nations: An annual international relations simulation for university students to gain a better understanding of the global political landscape. 5. Harvard Robotics Club: A student-run organization that provides resources and mentorship to students interested in designing, building, and programming robots and robotic systems.
Harvard College Writing Center 5 Asking Analytical Questions When you write an essay for a course you are taking, you are being asked not only to create a product (the essay) but, more importantly, to go through a process of thinking more deeply about a question or problem related to the course. By writing about a
Format Paperback. ISBN 9780451417619. The Largest Collection of Successful College Application Essays Available in One Volume These are the essays that helped their authors gain admission to Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley, Pomona, and other outstanding schools—followed by invaluable comments by experts in admissions, placement, and ...
The college essay (officially your "personal statement," at least at Harvard) was the most intimidating part of my application process--because, by the beginning of my senior year, it was the only thing I had any real control over. Think about it this way: by the time you hit the summer before you apply to college, most of your application ...
Since Harvard University asks applicants to pen five (5) essays of 100 words or fewer, the key to writing compelling responses to the prompts is threefold. First, brevity is integral to a winning response. Never use two words where one word will do. Second, give yourself plenty of time to reflect and brainstorm before drafting.
For example, they may use APA's format when using Harvard or incorrectly place a comma in Harvard citations. Tip: In APA, the author's last name is followed by the year and a comma (e.g., Smith, 2020, p. 15). In Harvard, there's no punctuation between the author and the year, and the page number follows a colon (e.g., Smith 2020:15). 2.
Social media has become an integral part of our lives as college students. From connecting with friends and sharing updates to accessing information and joining virtual communities, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have transformed the way we interact and navigate the digital world.
Honors College Applicants Prompt 1: Choose a specific connection that you consider interesting or unique; describe and explain the connection and its parts and why that connection is meaningful or significant. You can choose from activities, academic subjects, concepts, natural or human phenomena, etc. Write an original essay that clearly and completely addresses the prompt above in 450-500 ...