To give an example:
Telling an admissions officer that you are concerned about homelessness will not come off as very sincere if you’ve never volunteered at a shelter or soup kitchen (or only spent a total of one or two shifts there), right?
A bad essay would hype those two shifts, offer up a cliched lesson learned, profess your love and concern for the destitute in hopes of convincing the college you’re a great person.
But if your extracurricular list says you volunteered 150+ hours each year all four years at that shelter, you don’t have to say you care. They’ll know because your actions spoke louder than your words.
A good essay would then highlight a moment or a task that was important to you or a shelter guest who made an impression on you. This would reveal aspects of your personality that may not be demonstrated elsewhere on the application, but happen to match what the college values or is looking for.
If you have to be “direct and blunt” that could still be okay. But do give careful thought as to what the rest of your application is not saying about you that needs to be said, and why it might not be clearly sending the message you want it to.