Many scholarship programs require the applicant to submit an essay that proves their worth of receiving a scholarship. These essays should not be taken lightly as many scholarship committees find that such papers provide a better perspective on the writer. Essay allows the committee to better understand the applicant.
Think of it almost as interview, as the information extracted from your paper can say a lot more than your application is capable of. When it comes to scholarship essay writing, there are 6 simple steps that can help you deliver a clear and concise paper that tells your story and sets you apart from the other applicants.
Step One: Read the Instructions
One of the most basic and important factors crafting great scholarship essays is to read the instructions carefully and be sure you understand them before ever beginning your writing. In order to properly write it, you need to understand what you are going to tell about. After reading the essay instructions, if you find that you are unclear about anything, you should contact someone at the scholarship organization to ask for clarification as any minor misunderstanding could potentially ruin your essay.
Step Two: Organize Your Thoughts With an Outline
Once you clearly understand the topic of your essay, it is time to put your thoughts to paper. The most effective method of doing this is through an outline. By clearly laying out your thoughts, you can better convey your ideas and motives to the committee. Outlines help to put the main points of what you’re going to say in the right order. Through heading and subheadings you can decide on the structure of the essay before you move on the first stage of the writing process – the rough draft.
Step Three: Prepare a Rough Draft
Now it is time to put all your preparation to use in the rough draft of your scholarship essay. At this point it is best to refer to your outline and expand on your subheadings. They are already the main points of your essay, so it is time to go into detail and compose the main body of your paper. At this stage of the writing process be sure you write as much as you can about your points. While it seems excessive, this is just the foundation for your final product and between now and then you will be fine tuning this essay.
Step Four: the First Revision
Now that you have completed your rough draft it is time to perform your first revision. While composing the draft of your scholarship essay, you should have included more details than you needed about your story and in this revision you can cut out the parts that you do not feel are as strong as the others. During your first revision exclude that pieces that you do not deem necessary and, in some cases, rewrite certain sections that aren’t clear and persuasive. Once you have completed your first revision, it is off to the next task!
Step Five: Have Someone Else Proofread
This step is a crucial part for creating the final version of your scholarship essay. While your writing may seem clear and convincing to you, that may not actually be the case. Remember, you were the one writing this paper, of course you understand it. By allowing another party to proofread your essay, you can add a fresh perspective on what you came up with and receive notes on how to improve it. So, applying that comments you will be able to submit the strongest paper possible.
Step Six: the Final Draft
After you have had someone else read your scholarship essay, you can make your final revision and complete your final draft. During the last revision you will fine tune the weaker parts to send an essay worth of being awarded a scholarship. Remember that your essay should be a solid paper that tells your story while staying focused on the topic provided by the scholarship committee. Anything you feel is not suitable enough for your essay, should be taken out now. If you are not confident in your paper, then it is not worthy of being submitted yet.
By following these 6 simple steps, you can produce a scholarship winning essay that sets you apart from all your competitors. Through careful research of instructions and presenting strong arguments you can perfectly convey who you are to the committee and prove that you deserve the scholarship. As long as you follow a clear plan, your road to successful writing of a properly composed essay is within your grasp.