About Written Word
Written Word College Consulting is rooted in the belief that any student, regardless of background or life experience, can write a strong and persuasive college essay.
Our goal is to help your child find the story they want to tell — whether it’s getting cut from a baseball team or dealing with the toll of a family member’s addiction — then guide them in structuring the outline of their story, organizing the details, and refining the grammar, punctuation and flow before submission.
In today’s world, it’s tempting to outsource college essays to artificial intelligence. At Written Word, we highly discourage this for two reasons. First, admissions officers are not looking for polish alone; they seek self-awareness, curiosity, insight, and there is no app that can thread these together in your son or daughter’s own voice. These professionals are uniquely trained to see the difference between human and machine, and they recognize it immediately. Second, in a very stressful application process, writing the personal statement is the fun part! Truly. This is your student’s rare chance to go beyond the scores and grades to tell the people at the school of your dreams about them. This is their stop and smell the flowers moment. Take advantage of it.
About Johanna
Johanna Cox Moran is the founder of, and lead editor at Written Word College Consulting. For more than 25 years, she has helped students shape authentic personal statements — work that began at age 19, when a friend’s mom (a college counselor at a Connecticut boarding school) entrusted her with reviewing student essays. She has not gone a year since without helping at least one (and usually many more) students through this important and personal academic journey.
Johanna’s professional background spans journalism, publishing, and strategic communications. She has held writing and editing roles at The Economist, ELLE, L2 Consulting, and Keybridge Communications. She also spent more than a decade as a China analyst in the private defense sector, where clarity, precision, and disciplined writing were paramount.
Johanna holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Brown University and a Master’s in International Security Studies from Georgetown University. She lives in Frederick, Maryland, with her husband, independent journalist Terry Moran, and their three children.
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