Steps to writing a scholarship essay
Read and understand the essay topic properly. Read between the lines. Give information about your background and personal experiences. Write about your leadership experiences and conflict resolutions. Your essay must directly address the target of the scholarship. Restate and reemphasize your points in your conclusion.
STEP 1
Read and understand the essay topic properly.
It is very important you understand the message the essay wants you to pass across. This is a step you should take before you even start writing the essay. Take time to explore a wide range of ideas the topic is presenting to you. Most essays ask you to write a statement of purpose or to a comprehensive information about yourself and why you deserve the scholarship. Sometimes you may be asked how you have handled a difficult period of life. Whichever topic you are asked to write about, understanding it keeps you in track. For example, if you are asked to write how you have handled a difficult time in your life, understand that they do not want you to convince them to feel sorry for you but rather how much you can stand the test of time and steps you took to get out of the mess. Do not go all emotional on them. Nobody wants to see that.
STEP 2
Give information about your background and personal experiences.
Your background tells your reader so much about you, so be careful about how much information you are letting out. This is not a biography remember but an account of why you are the most preferred candidate for the scholarship. Make sure you input necessary and captivating content in your first paragraph. While writing, imagine that you are selling yourself and that your first paragraph is your advertisement space. Impress the reader at first glance. You must include what makes you different from other candidates in this space and the leverage your background and experiences give you above others.
STEP 3
Write about your leadership and conflict resolution experiences.
No one wants to give a scholarship to someone who is not exceptional. You must convince your reader that you are more than what is written in your transcript and resume. People with leadership experiences are believed to be able to make better choices and handles situations effectively, so even though you have never been in that kind of position before, just paint the picture you would give if you were actually a leader and how you would handle a conflict. Let them view you as “mature” and intelligible.
STEP 4
Your essay must directly address the target of the scholarship.
Make sure that while you are telling the reader about yourself and why it is important you are awarded the scholarship, you are not digressing from the topic you were given. Also, all your interest must align with the purpose of the scholarship. For example, if you are applying for a scholarship space in an animal science field, you must make sure your essay portrays your love for the course and practical steps you have taken to learn more about it, without forgetting what you hope to do different if giving a chance. Always bring something new to the table.
STEP 5
Reemphasize your points in the conclusion.
This step has a way of making your reader see that you are not mincing words about why you deserve the scholarship opportunity. Put all your reasons into one big concluding phrase that does not sound like a repetition, but a convincing sentence. Let them know you mean all that you have written.
Conclusion
You can also include keywords while writing. You can quote a keynote speaker when talking about your leadership qualities like John. C. Maxwell. Also, if you are writing about your resolution qualities you can quote Nelson Mandela’s words. In all this, make sure do not have more than two quotes in your essay. Finally, do not open an essay with a quote. You want to impress the reader that you are capable and not that you are dictionary of quotes.
