Scholarship or admission essays are a special kind of academic writing. Their main goal is showing a commission your writing skill and various talents and persuading them to grant you with a right to attend a college or other educational establishment or getting a scholarship correspondingly. To learn how to write a scholarship essay you have to learn the main expectations for this paper, how to reflect on your life achievements and goals, etc.
Many students think this is easy. Every time universities say no to thousands of students, proving these compositions to be extremely difficult and crucial. The main difficulty concerning scholarship essays is their unpredictability. If you read through award-winning essays of the last years, you will not find many patterns. There is one that granted authors with scholarships. It is uniqueness. No matter if you use an essay writing site or write by yourself, be unique.
This is the first point to memorize – always adapt a scholarship paper to your reality, feelings, etc. Individuality always stands out. It is a good chance to catch attention.
Writing a Scholarship Essay: Topics and Structure
Picking a topic, if it is possible, is one of the most important steps. As a rule, topics for this paper type are not too specific: ‘the best day of my life’, ‘a person who influenced me most’, ‘my favorite book’, etc. An author who wants to get money and be successful needs to understand the deep meaning of these topics. Applying for something involves a deep understanding of realities and good prediction. Try to think beyond a topic.
To understand how to write a winning scholarship essay, consider where you send your application. If it is a business school, for instance, committee members want to see some words about leadership, achievements, etc. If it is a university, give examples of your scientific achievements.
There is no need to focus on the structure much, as in research papers. A primal structure must be followed, indeed. You have to divide a text into three parts – the introduction, body, and conclusion. An introduction is a part where you have to engage a reader and hook his attention. Try to find an unexpected (not shocking!) fact, promote a strong thesis statement or ask a rhetorical question. You will give an answer in the conclusion part. The body part is the most important chapter, where you have to show your writing skills.
All texts which won awards have a strong conclusion. Check all essay writing tips to finish your paper with the strongest argument. Here is a possible structure of your scholarship paper:
- Introduction – catch a reader’s attention, present your statement (10% of space)
- Body – the main part for your arguments, ideas, and examples (80% of space)
- Conclusion – the strongest argument and a summed up text (10% of space)
Scholarship Essay Writing Tips to Remember
To study how to write a scholarship essay, a student must memorize a lot of various regulations. There are some aspects that can drop your chances to get a scholarship to zero. Always check your grammar. The smallest mistake will spoil an impression. Even a perfectly composed paper has fewer chances than a grammatically clear one.
Another important aspect not all applicants remember about is plagiarism. Someone’s idea may seem great and save your paper. Manage to borrow it properly. Even if you are sure you have written everything by yourself, pay attention to anti-plagiarism software. During the final check no, one will mind tragic circumstances and your paper will be rejected.
People asking how to write a scholarship essay forget about initial requirements and criteria. Every organization places them. Years of practice show that many students forget about trivial details (margins, font size, styling, etc.) and spoil their chances.
To get a positive response to your scholarship text, try to understand what is expected. Read the suggested topic several times and highlight the keywords. Include them into your essay. Many great people are looking for a scholarship, but only those who match all requirements get it. Do not concentrate on your personality. Highlight your merits important for the audience.
There is another simple tip that helps. Make a powerful start. Imagine a person who checks thousands of texts. After reading a hundred papers there will be no desire to check others completely. Try to catch attention and make your essay interesting to read. Choose a strong quote. Follow this advice to get an opportunity for your scholarship essay.
What to Include in a Scholarship Essay?
To know how to write a winning scholarship essay, you need to understand what to write about. The first advice – do not create it unexpectedly. Years of dealing with scholarship papers gave birth to another essential rule – make a brief outline, a plan of your future writing. Develop it into a complete text step by step. Do not expect this essay type to be as long as a book. It is difficult to imagine, but a big scholarship can be won by 200-300 words. Do not go into unnecessary details. Scholarship essays can be divided into two groups – about leadership and about community impact. Here are some pieces of content you should include in the text:
- Your experience of showing leadership skills.
- How it influenced people surrounding you.
- What was the reason to show them?
- What conclusions could you make after applying the skills?
- How did you change your thoughts about the world, people, etc.?
Describing an impact to a local community can be more difficult, but more interesting:
- How your work for the community started.
- What was the main reason?
- How did it affect people around you?
- What did you learn from this activity?
- Are you going to improve your assistance in the future?
