YC Alum: Help Me Get a YC Interview for winter 09

[voidfiles]

I am currently filling out a YC application. I trust my in person skills way more then my written communications. I believe in the power of written communication, and I try to get better at it everyday, but they are still weak. If I can just get in the room...

So do any YC alum have suggestions on how to get an interview? Do you think certain language works better. Do they appreciate sparse descriptions? Anything would be helpfull.

[tialys]

Proofread something once yourself and after that don't. Pass it along to any new set of eyes you can get and get a new perspective on it. Your eyes will fail you very quickly, so getting new people will make anything you write better by a large margin each time.

Edit: Not a YC alum, but I thought I'd leave a note anyway.

[cmos]

Here's a book (recommended by Clifford Stoll) that helps simplify the process of writing: "Write to the Point" by Bill Stott.

I'm not an alum either, but enjoy this group, at least the 'ask YC' questions and responses.

[chris_l]

It's probably more about your achievements (and your founding team's - you have a team, right?) and the understanding you show than how exactly you communicate these.

PS: And please help me get an interview too :)

[alaskamiller]

Just make something.

[voidfiles → alaskamiller]

I am making something. I am going to make it with or with out YC, but making something with YC would give me access to a new great group of people.

[alaskamiller → voidfiles]

I don't think that's true.

[falsestprophet]

You need to get your commas under control.

[wtrk → falsestprophet]

He used two commas in his post and they demarcated a parenthetical phrase.

[falsestprophet → wtrk]

They did not. "And I try to get better at it everyday," is not a parenthetical phrase. It is a parenthetical phrase and the conjunction "and."

His writing is both stylistically weak and grammatically incorrect. There is no good excuse for overreaching.