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Section 1 - Information at Your Fingertips: Local Sources
Section 2 - Scholarships and Grants: Providing the Best Matches and Opportunities to Win
Section 3 - Introductions, Letters, and Applications
Section 4 - Contacting the Scholarship Sources
Section 5 - You, the Essay Contestant
Section 6 - Writing the Essay
Section 7 - Following ( or not ) the Contest Rules
Section 8 - Interviews and Speech Presentation Information
WRITING THE ESSAY
Section 6
Of the required competitive aspects, your essay is the primary evaluative document scholarship committee will have to make their final decision. To help you in composing an unforgettable essay, these crucial steps are mandatory:
Brainstorming Scholarship essays can be extremely varied, often based on personal experiences: This generally requires a recounting of personal experience. The following will provide you with help and ideas in completing your personal essay:
Subject matter must be the cardinal force behind each essay, in which case you can expect to spend up to two weeks brainstorming ideas that often leads the more tenacious to rediscover subjects you might not have considered earlier.
While undertaking grant & scholarship searches, ask yourself two important questions: What are my achievements, and why do I consider them as such? Your accomplishments do not have to be commemorated or observed; they may be overcoming a learning disability to make honors, or overcoming a physical challenge to perform successfully on the athletic field, etc.
However, the most interesting essays often are based on what may have been trite accomplishments at the time but are crucial when placed in your life's context.
Fortunately or unfortunately, this holds especially true should the scholarship committee ultimately receive a list proclaiming your credentials. The kicker: Will any of your attributes, qualities, and skills set you apart from other contestants?
You can bet the farm that the judging committee will inquire as to how you developed a particular attribute. Was it a traumatic or uplifting life experience, or from such mundane sources as books, movies, works of art, etc?
Have these books, works of art, etc. influenced your life in a meaningful way? Why are they your favorites? What was the most difficult time in your life, and why? How did your perspective on life change because of the difficulty? Have you ever struggled with all your strength for something only to fail, or did you meet with success?
What made you successful: Did it involve a tremendous struggle ending in ignoble defeat? Did your response overcome defeat's weight? Disregarding a current or immediate challenge, if you had your choice, what would be your preference, and where would you indulge yourself in seeking it?
Of those alive and deceased, whom would you prefer the company of?
Questions of this nature should help determine whom and what you love beyond all others. Most of us have experienced epiphanies once our eyes were opened to facts and/or possibilities or ideas we have not been privy to before.
Determine your most consistent personality trait. Are your beliefs strong and unshakable or are they prone to change in the face of adversity, or when exposed to a new philosophy?
Finally, how would your friends begin to characterize you in an essay if they took it upon themselves to apply for this particular essay for you?
What have you achieved beyond the classroom walls: Does it demonstrate qualities sought by colleges and universities?
What are your most important extracurricular or community activities? Why did you join the activities, and why do you continue to contribute? Do you continue to contact them because they represent your dreams of the future?
If, after reading various sources including The Scholarship and Grant Guide ™, you still find that determining your essay topic remains elusive, you have found the scholarship and grant albatross that hangs invisibly about the necks of thousands upon thousands of student applicants.
Brainstorming, or the intellectual version of the foxhunt can be exhausting and difficult, requiring much more time than many students realize.
The topic, followed by logical development is difficult to achieve without continual practice. The essay must demonstrate to the judges your passion and zeal, the defining aspects of your personality.
If you are unable to convey these ideas you will no doubt fall into the one dimensional trap of writing about the incident while forgetting how this affected your personal attributes, courage, self-examination, sacrifice, etc.) and your essay will be deemed boring.
So, the formula is simple: Write the unique essay that supports the topic using personal experiences (traumatic, a personal challenge, etc.) and tell how it positively changed your characteristics or long-held views, conceptions about people, situations or circumstances.
Don't invent the experience and don't use another's: The only viable means is to have actually had the experience you are writing about in your essay. Be honest, for honesty's sake.
Unless you are an excellent writer, your best, most passionate writing will be about events that actually occurred. While you might be tempted to invent hardship, it's unnecessary. Write an essay about your life that demonstrates your personality.
Once you determine your topic, and you have ample time to write it, don't fall into the trap of trying to complete the essay at any cost. Once you become stressed, there is a definite correlation between increased levels of stress and declining essay productivity and quality.
Have fun with the brainstorming process; you may find facets of yourself that have lain dormant, or other traits that, once described by family, relatives or friends, generate a new level of importance you didn't realize.
Will a scholarship committee officer remember your topic after a week of reading scores of essays? What will the officer remember about your topic? What will the officer remember about you? What will your lasting impression be?
After evaluating your essay topics with the above criteria and asking for the free opinions of your teachers, colleagues, and friends, you should have at least 1 or 2 interesting essay topics. Consider the following guidelines below:
Your primary goal is to project your personal qualities, which is why some will deliberately focus on personal and family tragedies -- surviving poverty in Russia, ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, a mother's or father's suicide, a brother's death from cancer, or immigration to the States from Asia.
Essays of this type are a means to convey more detailed information about you and can be a great way to demonstrate how you've met with adversity and trials and subsequently overcome them.
Life is not fair, and because it isn't, if you were affected by a traumatic experience, that in itself will not win you a scholarship. You goal is to be remembered in the judge's eyes, not as a pitiful applicant, but as one who demonstrates impressive qualities under difficult circumstances and times.
This is the cardinal incentive for essays and, if followed, will consequently bring funds to you as the applicant. Remember, if you use the tragic experience solely as a means to magnify your personal traits, classify it as a poor essay and good luck in securing any type of recognition.
Another means of acquiring a suitable topic could be by using a 'buzzword', such as 'diversity'. As one of the largest campus buzzwords during the latter part of the 1990's and into the 21st century, it is being utilized by applicants as they are tempted to declare what makes them diverse in the eyes of the judges.
Simply stating what makes you diverse will not be viewed as the goose that lays the golden egg. As with the essay topic discussed above, your diversity classification (minority, physically handicapped, Martian, citizen of Sygnus Four) will not impress the judges.
Essays incorporating your diversity must subtly introduce it through the addressing of your personal qualities and the means used to overcome said stigma; social ostracism, blatant or subtle racism, etc. Your only diversity option: Explain bluntly (not obscenely) your personal qualities, interests, motivations, etc.
From this viewpoint, you must expand your essay to include how positively facing your diversity will promote that diversity through campus life, academics and upon graduation, society itself.
Regardless of your topic, mentioning any weakness is verboten, with one exception: If you do mention a weakness, you unconditionally must explain it to indicate how it was overcome.
Positive first impressions are crucial; explaining to the scholarship judge regarding drinking, drugs, partying, etc. can and will threaten your intent, objective. Besides, trying to explain a weakness in order to demonstrate how you overcame your obstacles is a long shot at best. Why admit to weakness when you can showcase your strengths instead?
Even seemingly boring topics can be made into exceptional scholarship essays if you use an innovative approach. In writing a memorable essay you need to bear in mind two goals:
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The need to persuade the scholarship officer that you are extremely worthy of receiving college assistance and... |
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The need to make the officer aware that you are more than a GPA and a standardized score, you are a real-life, intriguing personality. |
"ADDITIONAL HELP" AREAS WHEN SUFFERING FROM WRITER?S BLOCK Ask for Help...
From parents, friends, colleagues, etc. If you can't characterize yourself and your personality traits don't automatically leap to mind, ask your friends to write a list of your five best personality traits.
Ask your friends why they chose those particular traits and characteristics. If an image of your personality begins to emerge, what life experiences best illustrates these particular traits?
Consider your Childhood...
While scholarship and aid officers are not interested in reading about your childhood and are more interested in the last 2-4 years of your life, you might consider events of your childhood that inspired the interests you have today.
Interests that began in childhood may be the most defining parts of your life. If you experienced extreme poverty, the death of a loved one, immigration, etc., you might want to incorporate this into your scholarship essay.
Think back to your grammar and high school days for ideas. Analyze the reasons that influenced your interests. Were they due to the influences of daily life, from your upbringing, or from special events as vacations, etc?
Consider Role Models...
Those of you who are lucky enough to have a role model and aspire to become like that person, may want to incorporate a discussion of that person and the traits you admire about them into your scholarship or financial aid application essay.
Read Sample Scholarship Essays and Admissions Essays...
Before writing a poem, you would certainly read past poets. Before writing a book of philosophy, you would consider past philosophers. In the same way, we recommend reading sample application essays to understand what gives one an edge over another; how does a particular essay grab attention?
Before leaving this section, we have a basic essay format you may wish to incorporate. The introduction, which should be one paragraph if possible, should include your main idea or create a strong association with what your main idea will be.
This section is very important; as we state in the writing profession, this must be the 'hook' . In other words if your opening paragraph is not unique, or does not present an amazing fact, etc., you may fail to draw the evaluating official into the remainder of the essay.
Next is the body, and depending on the number of words permitted and the normal length of your paragraphs there should be between 3-5, or up to 10 or more (paragraphs) if your essay is 1000 to 1,500 words. Here you must logically and intelligently support your hook by providing your essay's main idea, or, if the hook made an association, explain the main idea, then support it.
The first two parts of your essay may be brilliant, but if your conclusion has the word 'conclusion' in it, your essay has just expired. You must restate your main idea so it is presented in a manner consistent with the entire essay and lead it into your conclusion.
The length is normally a paragraph… but there can be exceptions. If your essay is a thousand words, you must adjust to the basic outline accordingly, 500 to 750 words, even 250 word essays are very possible. Become a word economist by trying to use one word where you have three without losing the meaning but actually improving it.
Just be sure to READ, READ, READ as many essays as you can before you begin your effort.
Final Essay Checklist:
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Re-write your essay until you feel you've accomplished what you set out to do. Many writers will do between three to five partial re-writes before they are satisfied. Do not forget one simple trick…put the essay away for two days and move on to another. When you come back to it, both good and bad points should be much easier to spot. Proofread your essay as many times as it takes to make it represent your best effort.
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Have at least three people whose opinion you trust and know will not hesitate to point out your mistakes read and critique your essay. This may be a little difficult at first, especially if they find more areas for improvement than you pictured. Again, from a writer's viewpoint this is a NO BRAINER. If people did not tell you your mistakes for fear of hurting your feelings, how could you improve when you're constantly repeating the same mistakes? You need to recognize your weaknesses so you can turn them into strengths.
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Follow the basic outline on introduction, body and conclusion so that every paragraph provides support for your main theme, from beginning to end.
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Be sure to be yourself, by conveying your enthusiasm and honesty within the essay.
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Follow the guidelines exactly -- double spaced, the proper margins, word limit, printed on quality paper -- if you did not, guess what… 'circular file fodder'.
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Finally, if you feel it's your best effort, relax: It's now out of your hands.
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In closing, once again: READ, READ AND THEN READ SOME MORE EXAMPLES OF GOOD AND POOR ESSAYS. This method alone should enable you to bring together the necessary information to create a great essay.
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