SCHOLARSHIP ESSAYS 101

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SCHOLARSHIP ESSAYS 101

• Dr. Katherine Schmidt
• WOU Writing Center

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What College Students Say
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Recognize Your Task

• fact opinion
• observation response
• summary analysis

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Deciphering Your Professors Directions

• Biology 101
• Document the processes of your lab experiment in
  a one-page report.
• Political Science 101
• Consider Merkleys and Wydens work as senators.
  Who has effected more change and why?
• Psychology 101
• Examine how your past shapes your present (a)
  analyze your childhood, and (b) explain how it
  has shaped you into the adult you are today.
• English 101
• Analyze Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter.

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150-Word Scholarship Essay

• Prompt
• Describe a challenge or obstacle you faced in
  the last ten years. What did you learn about
  yourself from this experience?

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Getting Started Talk About Yourself

• value experiences and accomplishments that do not
  get listed on a resume
• talk to other people
• simply reflect what moves you?

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Next Step Write to Discover

• freewrite
• timed writing
• remember a first draft is never a last draft
• writing to learn versus
• writing to communicate

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Content Some Helpful Tips

• Choose a few key points to develop.
• Include concrete examples to illustrate your
  points.
• Avoid braggy generalizations instead, describe a
  specific incident to show your strength(s).
• Think about including something that readers
  would remember, long after theyve stopped
  reading.
• Have any books, classes, or philanthropic
  encounters profoundly shaped and/or shaken your
  outlook?
• Write from a positive perspective.
• Always consider how your essay might fit with
  everything else you will be submitting.

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150-Word Scholarship Essay

• Prompt
• Describe a personal accomplishment and the
  strengths and skills you used to achieve it.

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150-Word Scholarship Essay

• Prompt
• Explain your career aspirations and your
  educational plan to meet those goals.

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After Drafting . . . Comes More Writing
Revision is not editing.
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The Myth
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Closer to the Truth
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Reality

• Not linearits recursive and messy.

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After Drafting . . . Comes More Writing

• The best essays go through a series of revisions
  (10 drafts). Get input from a number of sources
  mentors, writing tutors, and friends. 
• Stay objective. Dont fall madly in love with
  your first draft, if youre serious about earning
  scholarship monies.
• People say that a picture equals a thousand words
  (yes, its cliché) however, reverse the idea as
  you read your essay does your thousand words add
  up to one fabulous picture of you?

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Levels of Revision
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Levels of Revision
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Levels of Revision
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Last Step Package Carefully

• Top swimmers and runners often win by a narrow
  marginperhaps by only one tenth of one
  second. With this in mind, remember that
  execution of detail can also make or break your
  scholarship essay score.
• mixing up there and their
• could this be a problem for your reader?
• what about the following?
• I think the experience sucked.The experience
  challenged me.

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1000 Tips

• Do not include excerpts from the
  dictionaryWebster is NOT worth quoting.
• Do not use contractions (dont), exclamation
  marks (!), and ambiguous pronouns at the start of
  sentences (it, this, these).
• Do not write in second-person point of view (you)
  . . . ever. First-person POV (I), however, is
  completely expected.
• Edit as if each mistake will cost you 20.
• Take advantage of your resources we want you to
  succeed.

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Writing success is possible for you.

• Make time for writing. Make time for sharing.
  Make time for revising.