WRITING THE ESSAY: SOUND ADVICE FROM AN EXPERT?----------------------------------------------------?Fast Food. That's what I think of when I try to draw an analogy with the process of reading application essays. ??The bad. Ninety percent of the applications I read contain what I call McEssays - usually five-paragraph essays that consist primarily of abstractions and unsupported generalization. They are technically correct in that they are organized and have the correct sentence structure and spelling, but they are boring. Sort of like a Big Mac. I have nothing against Big Macs, but the one I eat in Charlottesville is not going to be fundamentally different from the one I eat in Paris, Peoria or Palm Springs. I am not going to rage about the quality of a particular Big Mac.