Scholarship Essay Tips

In this post, I would like to elaborate the little things that you should do and not do when writing your scholarship essay. These tips come from my own experience when reviewing other people’s scholarship essay.

Here you go.

Repost from Source

source: https://edubirdie.com/blog/illustration-essay

1. Scholarship essay is a formal writing.

Scholarship essay is a formal writing. Yes, absolutely, so please treat it like the real formal writing you should have. Here are the common errors I found:

Using short forms, such as: I’m, that’s, you’re, there’re, can’t, etc.
This should be avoided at all costs. Always write the full terms, for example: I am, that is, you are, there are, cannot, etc. (etc. is still formal btw.)

Not having the full terms when using an abbreviation the first time around.
~Bad example: ~
I want to take the DCA course because it is a great course. DCA will teach me how I can become a good petroleum engineer.

What is DCA?
How do you assume everyone knows what DCA is?

Because you do not know who and from which background the reviewer (selection committee) of your essay will be, therefore always use the full terms first, explain what you write, do not make people confused with jargons or abbreviations that only certain people know. They (the selection committee) can come from any background, they can be from social science background, or engineering, or maybe business, etc. Thus, never assume everyone knows what you are talking about. Make it easy to read by everyone, regardless what their background is.

~ what you should do instead~
I want to take the Digital Core Analysis (DCA) course because it is a great course. DCA will prepare me in becoming a great petroleum engineer in the future by studying the sliced core sample.

Notice that I wrote the full terms with its abbreviation the first time I use it and then just its abbreviation on the second time I call it.

2.a. Be aware of the language spelling.

If you are applying for a scholarship to study in Australia, use Australian or British spelling. If you are applying for scholarships to study in UK, use British spelling. For scholarship essay to study in Europe, try to use British (first priority) or American spelling. For any other scholarship essay, use American spelling. Ensure that you have consistency in terms of choosing which spelling that you want to use.

For example:

This is the scholarship essay question number 3 for AAS (Australia Awards Scholarship) application.
How have you contributed to solving a challenge and to implementing change or reform? (Be specific and include: what aspect/s of your leadership knowledge, skills and practice you consider to be well established and effective; which people or organisations you worked with to solve the problem; and what creative methods were used.)*:

Notice that the word organisation is using Australian or British spelling format. So, ensure to use proper spelling throughout your essay.

Common words to distinguish British and American spelling:

British – American
programme – program
utilise – utilize
colour – color

Read more about it here.

2.b. Always use deductive style.
People in developed countries use deductive style in terms of writing, the way of thinking, and so on. So, in writing your essay, please answer the question at the beginning of your paragraph or the story before explaining it in details with examples. You can also emphasis your main idea by the end of the story if necessary in the conclusion.

Do not put the main idea at the end of the paragraph or at the end of your story because you’ll lose your reader’s attention with nothing near answering the question from the beginning until the end of your paragraphs.

I’ve learnt this when I was a student at pre-departure training or English for Academic Purposes at IALF Jakarta, provided by AAS (Australia Awards Scholarship)

3. Try to really understand the essay question or instructions before writing your essay.

This is really important. You will not have a good essay unless you fully understand what the question asks. Do not miss any points or components that the question might have asked you. Some questions can be pretty long. So, be careful in reading it. Try to read it over and over again to completely understand what the question really is.

4. Do not use translator and then just leave it like it is.
If you feel like your english skills are not good enough, especially in writing, it is OK to use a translator. However, do not just stop there. Make sure to reread the results of the translation and try to comprehend and make your essay natural (not word-by-word translation). Because technology is great, but it does not necessarily guarantee a high quality of translation, especially for your scholarship essay.

5. Start writing early.
Writing a scholarship essay might take some times. It can be weeks, it can be a month or two. Therefore, always try to start writing early. Even before the application is open. Because usually the scholarship essay question are the same every year. Therefore, you know what the questions are and you can start writing anytime.

6. Research, research and research
Research about what you want to discuss in your essay. Do not know what to write? Maybe looking at examples of other people writing can also be a good start. You can just google it. For example, you want to apply for the Australia Awards Scholarship (AAS) and therefore you want to read some AAS example essays. Just google: ‘AAS essay example’. There will be tonnes of essay example that you can find. You can also go to essayforum.com and then just search AAS essay on the search box and you will have a lot of examples of AAS essay to read. Don’t forget to also read the comments or feedback of the essay from other people to know if the essay is a good one or not. From there, you will have some insights on how you can structure or design your essay so that your scholarship essay can stand out from the crowd and you will be chosen for the next step of the selection process, which is the interview. Or maybe you are applying for the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD) programme, whereas most of its application do not require any interview. Then, if you can present your best scholarship essay, you will have higher chances to be selected as the awardee.

7. Revise your Essay
Remember, it might take some times for you to complete your essay. Because you need to do a lot of revision so that you can have better and better and better essay until you can have the best essay that you will submit for your scholarship application.

8. Proof read your essay first before asking someone else to proof read or review your essay.
If you want someone else to read your essay, please proof-read your essay first, you can also use grammarly.com to help you correct unnecessary mistakes such as grammar errors, spelling mistakes and so on. Because you need to act as if your reviewer (the person that you ask to review your essay) is the selection committee that will read your essay. Hence, please present the best essay that you can have.
If you want me to review your essay, send it in word-format to: fatma(dot)janna(dot)utp(at)gmail(dot)com or this link.
You can also write your essay on a google doc and then just send me the link of the file to my email. Make sure to make the link for other people to be able to edit your file.
Please read the whole tips of writing your best scholarship essay on this page when writing your essay. And then when you feel like yo

u already have your best essay, then you can send it to me for a review. Yes, it is for free. Remember to put ‘essay’ word in your email subject and which scholarship you want to apply with that essay and also the questions or general instructions in writing the essay. Please understand that I have limited time to review people’s essays, thus do not expect me to reply your email soon. It might take a few days or so until I can reply your email with the reviewed essay.