Don’t print your essay on a used piece of paper.

Hey, we told you this section was dedicated to the painfully obvious. We wouldn’t write about this stuff if it didn’t actually happen.

On occasion, we’ve had essays sent to us that were printed on the back side of personal letters, scratch paper, and other gently-used documents. In one case, the writer scrawled across the back of the essay in pen, “Written on Recycled Paper!” I guess the writer expected the committee to be impressed at her environmentally friendly approach, but it didn’t work that way. It just made her look too lazy to find a blank sheet of paper.