How to Write an Effective Scholarship Essay
The scholarship application process, like the college application process itself, is a marathon that requires planning, organization and determination, along with talent and skill. When it comes to colleges, more than 10 is a lot of applications, and not really necessary if you pick the right schools. When it comes to scholarships … the more, the better. Knowing that, it would be easy to give up before you start. But the reward for resisting that temptation can be substantial. So let’s break down the process and get you on the road to scholarship success!
Get Organized
If you don’t know what you’re applying to, when it’s due, what the essay prompts and word-count limits are—you’re getting in your own way. I would create either a Google Sheet or a Trello Board to keep things in order (I’ve made you a simple sample you can grab at my Subscriber Hub). While you’re at it, you can grab my High School To Do board to better incorporate your scholarship work with the rest of your tasks. With deadlines sometimes a month or more in the future, scholarships often get pushed to the back burner. Keep a Scholarship list right on your To Do board so you don’t forget about them.
At the same time, feeling in control of your To Do lists—both knowing what scholarship work you have and what other work you have—will relax your creative muscles. It’s really hard to start writing when your internal timekeeper is constantly tapping your shoulder reminding you that you’re behind, or when you just can’t shake the nagging feeling that there’s something else more pressing you should be doing.
Read the Prompt
Now is when I’m going to get a little bit obvious—but I know from experience how often these steps are overlooked. Most scholarship essays ask you to respond to a really specific prompt. You don’t want to gloss over what they’re asking. Look closely at any background information they’re giving you as part of the prompt and then specifically at what they are asking. Don’t answer a related question. Don’t give an opinion if they’re asking for research, or research if they’re asking for an opinion. Does the question have more than one part?
Read carefully, so you don’t answer two out of the three questions well and then overlook one completely. If they’re looking for an informed opinion, make sure you’re informed! Obviously, do any required reading, but do any suggested reading, too. Highlight, take notes, or both while reading, mindful of the question or questions you’re going to be answering from this material. If there is any research expected in the prompt, do as much as you think you need—and then do a little bit more beyond that. Any effort to “stretch” inadequate research over a longer number of words will show.
Brainstorm
When you have a lot of writing to do, it’s tempting to jump into drafting, the sooner to finish! But if you skip the brainstorm, your piece is likely to be shallow. This is the part when you write down everything you already know, everything you think you know, every idea you have of how to answer the prompt, and every possible answer you might want to choose. If you’re writing a personal essay, give yourself a chance to consider different possible stories before committing to one. If you’re writing an opinion piece, brainstorm all of the possible reasons you might use to support your opinion. It might be that a great idea is waiting behind several ideas you think are dreadful, and if you don’t give yourself the writing space to explore, you’ll miss that one.
Organize
Assume that your brainstorm happened out of order. Most people believe their first draft is in reasonably good order when they write it, and most people are wrong. So second-guess each of your sentences—is this the next thing the reader needs to know? If it’s not, is the next thing already on your page somewhere else, or do you need to add it? Evaluate each paragraph—have you got a topic sentence that indicates to the reader what it’s going to be about? It really does matter—your reader wants to feel like they have a general idea where you are going next (unless there’s a very good reason for a dramatic reveal).
Read Out Loud
When your ideas are in order, read out loud for sentence fluency and flow. It should read easily, like you were going to use it as a speech. You want the reader to hear you smoothly in their head. This is also when you can evaluate how well the reader can hear your voice. The voice you’re aiming for might depend on the scholarship. A research-based piece might use a more academic-sounding voice, with no contractions and more vocabulary you learned expressly for the SAT. A personal essay should always sound personal, using contractions and more language that sounds like something you would use in your daily life. (That doesn’t mean you eschew all “fancy” language, it just means it has to sound authentic when you read it. Sometimes the “fancy” word—like “eschew” 😉 —really is the best choice for your meaning!)
Proofread
When you think it’s truly done, read your scholarship essay at least two separate times when you are fresh and haven’t read it recently. Final proofs require serious focus. You aren’t sloppy or careless—it is natural to overlook typos because your brain is trying to make your life as a reader more simple. As a reader, you need to understand what was meant, not fuss over typos—so your brain actually reads right past them. When you’re deliberately looking for them, read out loud (again!), slowly, word by word, so you notice any dropped words, misspellings, or missing punctuation.
Get to Work!
The steps sound simple when you break them down, don’t they? Get over to my Subscriber Hub and make your copy of the Scholarship Application Trello board. Start filling it with opportunities to earn money for your education, and get to work!
Photo by micheile .com on Unsplash
