A Personal Touch on Scholarship Essays
The scholarship essay’s purpose is to answer the question posed in a manner that portrays the author through personal touches unique to that student’s paper. While it may seem a simple task to write a response to a question, injecting a bit of your personality into your writings is not always so easy. Many applicants suffer from the belief that the essay is merely an example of how well you write and how you compose your response to the question. While the scholarship selection committee certainly does not want a poorly written paper, the main objective of the essay is to gain insight into the applicant. After all, up until now, the application has consisted of merely filling in blanks and providing general statements. The essay is the first glimpse into the individuality of the student.
What’s the Question?
Some essay questions are very general or broad, asking questions about why you think you deserve to win the scholarship or what person or event has influenced your personality or your future goals. Other questions are much more specific and tailored to the purpose of the organization, particularly if the scholarship is for students pursuing a specified degree or major. More personalized questions, like the former mentioned, are easier to write distinctively, especially if you genuinely express your feelings and motivations. More specialized questions, like the latter, are more difficult to inject with a sense of your personality and require a lot of thought. Always try to include a little bit of your personality in your writing without completely disregarding the question or getting off topic.
Who’s the Sponsor?
Important to your essay answer is also information about the organization sponsoring the scholarship. It helps to know a bit about what the organization does, why it was founded and what its mission and goals are. It is more likely than not that the organization is seeking a student who understands the mission of the organization and whose own goals and ambitions in their education and future correlates with the goals of the organization. Remember, to, that the scholarship selection committee is likely to be made up of judges who are members of the organization and who will be looking for applicants with qualities similar to that of the organization. Having some background information on the organization can also help you to understand the purpose of the essay question and help you understand what type of a response the selection committee may be looking for.
Revise and Modify
After writing your essay keeping these tips in mind, don’t forego the resources available to you in making your paper the best it can be. Writing an essay and sending it in without reading it over or making revisions is probably not going to win you the scholarship. A good essay takes time and patience, and requires many revisions and critiques. Ask an English teacher, writing specialist or a parent to review your essay and comment on it. The more people you can have read your essay and give you feedback, the better. You don’t have to accept all the advice offered, but a third party perspective can pick out mistakes and give suggestions you may have overlooked or not previously thought of. Revise and modify your essay as many times as is necessary until you feel you have a paper that answers the question and injects a little bit of your personality and style into it. Remember, the scholarship committee wants to know about you and this is your chance to give them some insight.