Why "Be More Specific" Is Bad College Essay Feedback

Specificity is not decoration

Students often respond to "be more specific" by adding adjectives. That makes the sentence longer, not stronger. Specificity means evidence: a detail, action, sentence, object, or decision that actually proves the claim.

If the draft says "I became more confident," better feedback asks for the first sentence the student almost didn't say out loud.

The best feedback is attached to a line

A margin note should connect to the exact place where the draft loses power. Global feedback can be useful later, but a stuck student needs a next move right now.

Instead of "add detail," try "Who was there?" or "What changed the next time you did this?"

Questions protect voice

When adults rewrite sentences, the essay can end up cleaner and less personal at the same time. Questions force the student to supply the memory and the language, which is slower but is also the entire point.

That matters for admissions, but it matters for confidence too. A student should recognize the final essay as their own thinking, not a nicer version of somebody else's.

Where "be more specific" actually comes from

Nobody writes that note because they're lazy. They write it because they can sense something's missing and naming it precisely takes more work than flagging it. "Be more specific" is what a reader says when they felt the gap but didn't stop to ask why it's there.

A vague comment gives the writer little evidence that the reader spent time with the sentence. A real question costs the reader something. That's exactly why it's worth more.

So when you get this note, don't guess harder. Ask the person who wrote it what, specifically, they didn't believe.

Questions that work on almost any vague line

If nobody's around to give you feedback right now, you can ask yourself most of these directly. Pick the line that feels thinnest and run it through two or three questions.

• What did the room actually look like while this was happening?
• What's the exact sentence someone said, in their words, not your summary?
• What did you do in the next five minutes?
• What almost happened instead?
• If a friend read only this sentence, what would they still not know?

Applying this when you're revising alone

Most late-night revision happens without a reader in the room. Read the draft out loud, and mark the sentence where your own voice slows down or flattens out. That hesitation is usually the same gap a reader would flag as "vague," you're just catching it earlier.

Then stop and ask yourself one of the questions above about that exact sentence. Don't ask about the whole paragraph. One line. One question. One answer. Write it in plain language before you worry about making it sound good — it usually reads better than you think it will!