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College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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Essay Editor

Essay Editing Service Available 24/7

Writing assignment is a usual thing at college. Students get loads of paperwork that needs to be completed in the best way possible. Your text should be mistake-free and unique.

To complete this task and get an excellent grade, you can either place an order for someone to write your paper, or complete it yourself using editing tools to make it perfect.

Essaytools.com is one of the services that provides essay editor online. Thousands of students tend to use it and clear their paper of grammar, punctuation, spelling and stylistic mistakes. The software is especially useful for those who speak English as a second language.

If you’ve been working on your academic article all day long, and you are too tired to proofread it, the program will scan an essay and provide an instant report within seconds.

Essay Editor Online

Our website is useful not only for students, but also for everyone who works with texts. Freelance writers, businesspeople, those who deal with law documents, etc. – all use our essay editing service. It helps make a text flawless in terms of grammar and style.

The online editor has a lot of benefits.

• Available 24/7. Use it whenever you want.
• Immediate report on mistakes.
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• You learn how to write it right, etc.

Essays can be of different styles and are written for different purposes. For instance, students are expected to deliver academic papers and thus have to use proper language, sentence structure, tenses, etc. The editor will correct everything and provide you with better suggestions.

Our essay editor software has upgraded thesaurus. Consulting a thesaurus can offer an alternative vocabulary to use in your essay.

If you want to be in the A-team of your class, make sure you have conducted not only a thorough research, but also checked and proofread every single sentence of your paper. Editing is an essential part of the writing process, once you properly deal with it, be sure to get the highest reward.

Essaytools.com: How It Works

The online software we provide is easy. Learn once how it works and use this service on a regular basis.

The majority of our clients comprise high school, college, and university students, freelance writers, bloggers, etc. These people write academic papers, entertaining posts and so on on the regular basis.

Writing a text is one thing, while editing and proofreading is another. Once you complete a writing assignment, you are too tired to review it. Copy your text and paste it on our website.

The program will scan the paper, detecting all mistakes. It takes several seconds, depending on the length of the text. The report will pop up immediately after scanning is finished.

Essay editor online highlights all parts of an essay that should be corrected. It also provide explanation why a sentence should be written in one way, and not the other. In addition, it improves vocabulary by suggesting numerous synonyms, etc.

Use our editing tool whenever you feel tired of writing and need an edited paper in the tightest time frame.

Video Instruction

Online Essay Editing Program: Enhance Quality of Your Paper

Essaytools.com offers a great variety of editing tools for students who have just started learning English, and professional freelance writers who need quick paper check to meet deadlines. Our services have proven to be among the most popular ones.

Our team does its best to enhance the quality of our services. Online essay editing program can not only showmisspelled words or incorrect sentence structures, but also provide users with solid explanation. The program also offers an extended list of vocabulary to replace repeating words.

Essay Editing Website: Available 24/7

Essaytools.com is an online essay editing website available 24/7 worldwide. Our clients come from different countries and use our services to enhance various writing assignments. Students and freelance writers choose us for simplicity and immediate feedback. When you have a tight deadline, every single minute matters.

Copy your paper and check it with the best editing software available nowadays. In case you have questions or want to learn more about our online services, contact our support team. We are ready to provide help anytime.

Learn how to write impeccable essays with some help from Essaytools.com. We guarantee your paper will be 100% free of plagiarism.

What is more, it will look original and authentic. Our software will correct every single typo and make a paper look like it was written by a native speaker.

5 responses to “Essay Editor”

This is a great tool for a newbie or those who still do not know how an essay is built. It would be great if you at least knew what an essay consists of, so it would be easier to understand what is what in this editor. But it will be understandable anyway.

If you do not quite know how to write an essay, this essay editor is right for the people like you. And like me, because I still can’t write an essay on my own without mistakes. And here you got everything you need to do it in the right way.

To compile an essay you have to fill in every box with appropriate text. You can add new boxes. It depends on what exactly you want to add, an argument, a source, an introduction, etc. Most important is that they will go in the order that is needed.

I can’t stand writing essay, really. You have to put arguments in the right order, and I always mess up with it. When you have an online essay editor like this, your student life becomes much easier. You just put in the text, and it orders everything as needed.

I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you design this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz reply as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to know where u got this from.

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An Acquired Taste

After going on hormone replacement therapies, my taste began to change — but that effect wasn’t purely biological

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On my last trip to the Burbank Costco, I felt like I finally perfected my optimum shopping route. First, the personal care section for Kirkland-brand minoxidil, then a pallet of Diet Coke; last, a quick weave through the snack aisles in search of a 30-pack of “snacking nuts,” individually portioned packages of salted peanuts, cashews, and almonds. I had started consuming nuts at an unprompted, voracious daily rate, getting through a 30-pack in two weeks or less. I wasn’t sure what brought it on, after a lifetime of feeling pretty much nothing about nuts one way or the other. But I took a picture of the three pounds of snacking nuts in my cart and texted it to a friend anyway, with the message: “epic white guy snack . ”

I’ve been taking testosterone for two and a half years. Testosterone has broadened my jaw and receded my hairline, like my dad’s and my brother’s. My body is long-torsoed and my legs have newly muscular calves, a build that the men in my family call having “Lamberty legs.” Before I started hormone replacement therapy — before I was “a guy” — I never really cared about nuts (yes, you can laugh). Now well into my medical transition, I’ve found that my tastes have changed. Nuts are now my favorite snack, my go-to food. I’m at Target and Trader Joe’s every week looking for my next nut, where, in the aisles next to suburban dads who look more like me than not, I feel a kind of belonging.

Beyond the joke I won’t be able to escape here, nuts have become symbolic of a particular kind of masculinity for me. Both the seemingly biological change in my taste buds and my cultural associations with nuts have me evaluating my own gender expression, connecting the Midwestern men of my upbringing to the guy I’m creating. Standing in that Costco aisle, in relaxed-fit Lee jeans with a Gold Star membership and a value-pack of nuts in my cart, I recognized myself, for one of the first times I can remember, as a man.

When I began my medical transition, every doctor I met with took great pains to warn me about the changes my body would go through on testosterone. I had the top five side effects down pat after my second appointment: facial hair, lowering voice, bottom growth, fat redistribution, male-pattern baldness. I was excited about these changes. I wanted to grow an ugly little mustache. I wanted an expressive, deep voice. Those things came, in time, but what was never mentioned in my endocrinology appointments were the more nebulous experiences that occur when taking testosterone. My libido became almost unmanageable. I cried much less. And, it seems, my taste began to change.

When I noticed my taste buds reacting in new ways to nuts, something I’d eaten many times before to no major effect, it seemed like a straightforward hypothesis: My taste changed as a result of starting testosterone. As any good trans person would do, I took to Reddit, where I found hundreds of posts on the topic. “I used to really like spicy food, but I can’t stand it anymore.” “Does anyone else PERMANENTLY crave cold, smooth things like ice cream or pudding??” It seemed to be a common trans experience, yet with no through line between gender or taste or hormone introduced.

During a typical, cisgender puberty, hormonal changes affect one’s sense of taste to an extent. Infants are born with around 30,000 taste buds that dull and diminish over time, perhaps explaining why bitter foods become more palatable in the teen years. A sex-based explanation of taste is more complicated, and often contradictory. A recent study stated that women are more frequently identified as “supertasters,” or people who are genetically more sensitive to bitter tastes, but men report higher sensitivity to sweet and sour foods across the board. The study also stated that “taste preference, detection ability, and response to tastants have gender differences. However, the exact nature of these sex differences remains undetermined.”

There certainly aren’t any comprehensive studies on transgender taste buds over time. There’s still little known about the longer-term effects of transgender hormone replacement therapies (HRT), besides, for example, the hit list of masculinizing traits I saw during my first year on T. An article in a 2016 edition of Translational Andrology and Urology sums it up: Studies on the long-term health of transgender people taking HRT “have small patient numbers, short or medium-term follow-up, and very few of the patients studied are over the age of 65,” leaving your average trans Googler with anecdote-driven web forums. Social ostracism, institutional mistreatment, a lack of vocabulary around and access to gender-affirming care and an ultimately low life expectancy — there are clear cultural reasons why trans people have a minimal presence in contemporary medical literature. And few long-term studies on the effects of trans HRT doesn’t mean hormone therapy is dangerous or inadvisable (it clearly hasn’t stopped me); thousands of Americans, cis and trans alike, regularly take hormones to safe, well-documented effects.

At the same time, there’s a tendency for trans people to inventory our lives pre-transition in search of latent gender confusion, incidents that we can point to and say definitively yes, this is who I’ve been the whole time, testosterone or spironolactone side effects be damned. But much like one’s taste is impacted by factors like “ cognitive restraint, attitudes toward foods, nutritional knowledge, social influence, and culture-based exposure ,” so, too, is my gender expression. Was I born this way? Kind of yes, and kind of no. I love cashews now in a way I never did before regularly taking testosterone; I love their smooth unctuousness, the new luxuriousness of salt and oil on my palate. Maybe that’s a function of the medication. But beyond that, starting my medical transition has given me a new lived experience. Now that I move through the world differently — as a man — I relate to food differently. I relate to it as a man.

I can argue that nuts are associated with masculinity. Baseball games, sports bars, break rooms — I’ve mostly understood nuts as a foodstuff for the working man, fast and satisfying. Flavor and pleasure are usually second to fuel and efficiency when it comes to nutrient- and energy-dense nuts. Again, there’s limited evidence suggesting that after puberty, cisgender men’s palates lean salty , which could explain a broad masculine love for nuts. There are further studies claiming cisgender men’s sexual function may benefit from daily nut consumption — maybe there’s something there. These disparate facts and settings add up, in my mind, to a generally masculine positioning. When I listened to a recent episode of the podcast How Long Gone in which hosts Chris Black and Jason Stewart raved about the nut medley offered at a hotel in Sydney, I found myself earnestly relating. I felt like I had learned about a secret guy thing , something I was finally in on.

When I eat Sriracha almonds or honey-roasted peanuts, I mostly think about my dad, born in Wisconsin and raised in South Dakota. I think about growing up in Minnesota, and the strange omnipresence of nuts. Peanut shells paving the floors of Wisconsin dive bars. Cheeks full of sunflower seeds at Minnesota Twins games. My brother dipping into a huge bag of almonds after a workout. All of my uncles, no matter whose house, having a big-ass tin of Planters peanuts in the pantry.

I came of age around a masculine modality that was joyful, communal. Between four uncles and 14 cousins, family parties in Sioux Falls were rowdy and jocular. My uncles were always generous with their time, with their homes, with cases of Busch Light. Rough-hewn. Sturdy stock. They taught me how to play cribbage and shoot a bottle cap across a room with my fingers. The men in my family were the kind of people I wanted to be: aspirationally masculine, imbuing Combos and home-brewed beer and peanuts with significance. My dad would sometimes just have nuts and a couple cheese sticks as a late lunch, which never made sense to me; post-transition, I find myself doing the same.

It’s a chicken-and-egg question I think about near-daily: Where does the biology of my transness end, and where does the emotional, cultural experience brought about by my transition begin? Can I attribute any change in how I move through the world to weekly testosterone injections alone? Taking testosterone to change my physical appearance and biological responses was the first step in my transition: baseline physiological, HRT the variable, and my pre-transition self the control group. But my transness, my masculinity, didn’t begin with my first dose of testosterone. HRT merely caused physical changes that allowed me to engage with my masculinity in entirely new ways. Testosterone affected what I look and sound like, and it maybe affected my sense of taste, but fully realizing the guy I want to be is more alchemical than purely biological.

Making the connection between an innocuous cashew and my particular blue-collar, Midwestern masculine influences made me feel like a part of something I always desperately wanted to be a part of. It’s not really about the cashews themselves, a value-neutral food. It’s about the men surrounding them. It’s about the thrill I get when I enjoy what I’m eating, then realize the broader context of it all. I’ve wondered if my newfound relationship with nuts as I continue to take testosterone is at all similar to what cis men experience during puberty: an exhilarating boil of hormones creating the conditions for crafting the masculinity of one’s dreams.

Thirty-pack of snacking nuts in tow, I went to the Costco self-checkout. I showed my membership card to the clerk. It was the last piece of identification I hadn’t updated with my new name and photo. The clerk looked at my out-of-date card, then me, and said, “Is she here with you? The owner of the membership?”

I did a little “Oh, that’s me, I — you know, I’m —” I wondered what the clerk thought. I wondered if she’d had this kind of thing happen before, if she saw what was in my cart and what it might all say about me. Were these the Costco purchases of a man? She didn’t really seem to care, and I was grateful for it. She waved me through the line. I proceeded through the self check-out, I grabbed my nuts, and I left.

AC Lamberty is a writer and filmmaker from the Midwest, now based in Los Angeles. Beck Deresse is a Black, queer illustrator who loves Brussels sprouts.

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Election latest: Dropped Tory candidate vows to 'clear name' - as Badenoch hits back at Doctor Who star

A former Tory candidate who was dropped for betting on the date of the election has vowed to clear his name, as more police officers also become embroiled in the ongoing scandal. Meanwhile, minister Kemi Badenoch has found herself in a war of words with Doctor Who star David Tennant.

Tuesday 25 June 2024 16:40, UK

• General Election 2024
• More police officers accused of betting on election date
• Tory candidate dropped over scandal vows to 'clear my name'
• Badenoch hits back at Doctor Who star
• Reform drops in new poll after Farage's Putin comments
• Starmer says children 'worried' about possible move into No 10
• Live reporting by Faith Ridler and (earlier)  Tim Baker

Election essentials

• Manifesto pledges: Alliance | Conservatives | DUP | Greens | Labour | Lib Dems | Plaid | Reform | SNP | Sinn Fein | Workers
• Trackers:  Who's leading polls? | Is PM keeping promises?
• Campaign Heritage: Memorable moments from elections gone by
• Follow Sky's politics podcasts: Electoral Dysfunction | Politics At Jack And Sam's
• Read more:  Who is standing down? | Key seats to watch | What counts as voter ID? | Check if your constituency is changing | Guide to election lingo | Sky's election night plans

Wales is a Labour heartland, but it's clearly in the sights of other parties during this election campaign.

Reform UK even launched its manifesto in a town in the south of the country, Merthyr Tydfil.

Although Wales has its own parliament and makes most of its own decisions, they still elect MPs who stand in Westminster.

Sky's Wales reporter Tomos Evans explains how the cost of living, steel industry and nuclear energy will be key issues for voters.

Our live poll tracker collates the results of opinion surveys carried out by all the main polling organisations - and allows you to see how the political parties are performing in the run-up to the general election.

It shows a drop in support in recent days for Labour and the Tories - with a jump for Reform and the Liberal Democrats.

Read more about the tracker here .

Last night, actor David Tennant urged Kemi Badenoch - the minister for women and equalities - to "shut up" as he accepted the celebrity ally accolade at the British LGBT Awards.

Accepting the trophy, the Doctor Who star said "we shouldn't live in a world" where "acknowledging everyone has the right to be who they want to be" should merit an award.

But "until we wake up, and Kemi Badenoch doesn't exist any more", he said he was happy to receive it.

"I don't wish ill of her - I just wish she would shut up," he said of Ms Badenoch.

He went on to say Pride is a "family affair" for him, adding: "We have skin in the game."

But Ms Badenoch has now responded to his comments, saying: "I will not be silenced by men who prioritise applause from Stonewall over the safety of women and girls."

Posting on X, she described him as a "rich, lefty, white male celebrity who can't see the optics of attacking the only black woman in government by calling publicly for my existence to end".

"Tennant is one of Labour's celebrity supporters," she added. "This is an early example of what life will be like if they win."

By Alix Culbertson , political reporter

The Conservatives have withdrawn support for two candidates who are being investigated over placing election bets.

There are strict rules around gambling.

Section 42 of the Gambling Act 2005 deals with cheating and says a person commits an offence if they cheat at gambling or do "anything for the purpose of enabling or assisting another person to cheat at gambling".

It adds: "It is immaterial whether a person who cheats improves his changes of winning anything, or wins anything."

Cheating is defined as an "actual or attempted deception or interference in connection with the process by which gambling is conducted, or a real or virtual game, race or other event or process to which gambling relates".

Someone found guilty of cheating at gambling can be imprisoned for a maximum of two years and/or fined, or six months in prison for a lesser offence.

Betting with insider knowledge is also not allowed as an MP, with the MPs' code of conduct prohibiting members from "causing significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the house".

Craig Williams, who has been dropped by the Tories as a candidate over betting on the election timing, said he had "committed an error of judgement, not an offence".

He insisted: "I intend to clear my name".

In a video statement shared on X, the candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr said he "remains on the ballot paper" for the election on 4 July.

After being dropped by the Conservative Party, Mr Williams will likely stand as an independent candidate in the constituency.

"I committed an error of judgement, not an offence, and I want to reiterate my apology directly to you," he says.

"I am co-operating with the routine inquiries for the Gambling Commission and I intend to clear my name."

Mr Williams is one of two Conservative candidates the party has withdrawn support for in the wake of the scandal, the other being Bristol North West hopeful Laura Saunders.

A Conservative Party spokesperson said: "As a result of ongoing internal enquiries, we have concluded that we can no longer support Craig Williams or Laura Saunders as parliamentary candidates at the forthcoming general election. 

"We have checked with the Gambling Commission that this decision does not compromise the investigation that they are conducting, which is rightly independent and ongoing."

The other candidates in Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr are:

• Jeremy Brignell-Thorp, Green Party
• Oliver Lewis, Reform UK
• Glyn Preston, Lib Dems
• Elwyn Vaughan, Plaid Cymru
• Steve Witherden, Labour

And those standing in Bristol North West are:

• Caroline Gooch, Lib Dems
• Darren Jones, Labour
• Scarlett O'Connor, Reform UK
• Mary Page, Green Party
• Ben Smith, SDP

A new voter intention poll, carried out by JL Partners, suggests Reform might be falling back in support.

The pollsters asked 2,005 adults in Britain for their opinion between Friday last week and yesterday.

It was on Friday that Reform leader Nigel Farage said the West had "provoked" Vladimir Putin into invading Ukraine - a move that was condemned widely across much of the UK political spectrum.

The results show Reform support down three percentage points compared to the week before, sitting at 15%.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, are up two points and Labour are up one.

JL Partners never showed Reform as having more support than the Tories, as some pollsters have done.

By Tom Cheshire , online campaign correspondent

There are two ways to reach voters online: pay for your adverts to end up in front of them - or produce content yourself that gets attention.

Throughout the election, we've been tracking the first of those. Labour have been the big digital spenders, with the Conservatives second, and then everyone else a very distant third.

But throwing money at it doesn't necessarily fix the attention problem. 

And some of those spending the least are getting the most interactions, with the Reform UK party doing by far the best.

Reform is also seeing the most page growth, with 32,000 new followers.

The Conservative Party by comparison has seen much slower growth, just 0.08%. 

That's only 596 more people clicking follow over the course of the election, speaking to a spluttering campaign.

The Gambling Commission has sent information on five more Metropolitan Police officers to the force over the election betting scandal.

They are alleged to have placed bets relating to the timing of the general election.

One officer - who was a member of the prime minister's protection detail - was placed on restricted duties last week.

Sky News reported that additional officers were being considered as part of the investigation.

The officer who was put on restricted duties last week was also arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office.

In a statement released in the past few moments, the Met said it remains the case that just one officer is under criminal investigation.

The force said: "We have, however, been passed information from the Gambling Commission alleging that five further officers have placed bets related to the timing of the election.

"The officers are based on the Royalty and Specialist Command, the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command and the Central West Basic Command Unit. None of them work in a close protection role.

"Decisions on whether they will be subject to any restrictions will be taken in due course."

As we reported this morning, Hollywood star Idris Elba has joined the Labour leader at an event on knife crime.

The actor has been vocal about the issue, and the party has today announced its plans for a crackdown - including a review of how blades are sold online.

Elba has since posted a video on Instagram revealing details of his conversations with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

They had a "very important" meeting with campaign organisations and victims' families to discuss "what we need to do as a country to fight this".

The Wire star added: "It was non-political, and I'm making that clear because this is a societal issue.

"But as someone that might be taking the hot seat, it was really important to hear what he had to say about his plans.

"He listened. He listened to what the organisations had to say."

Elba said he was at the event "as a concerned parent, concerned citizen", and stressed the need for "cross-party" cooperation.

"We are trying to get both sides of the political agenda to look at this, because it's something that affects all of our society," he added.

Away from the campaign, we've brought you pictures today of the Japanese emperor and empress enjoying a state visit to the UK.

It's day one of a three-day trip - and its timing is indeed unusual.

During the entire 70-year reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II, the country never hosted state visits during election campaigns.

As recently as 2017, a planned trip by Spain's King Felipe VI was quickly rescheduled after then prime minister Theresa May called a snap poll.

This one has still gone ahead, with Rishi Sunak and some of his top ministers taking part in the pomp and ceremony.

But Buckingham Palace did say the trip had been "slightly adapted".

Missing elements appear to be the usual Downing Street talks with the prime minister, the visitor's speech to the Palace of Westminster, and meetings with opposition leaders.

However, Labour's Sir Keir Starmer is expected to join Mr Sunak at a state banquet this evening.

A Japanese foreign ministry official said the emperor and empress's visit would not be a political one, and it was hoped it would forge "friendly relations across generations" between Japan's imperial family and the British royal family.

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