EASYUNI Ultimate University Guide 2013 Issue 6 | Page 56

F INANC ING YOUR STUDY

Things You Need
To Consider When
Writing Your Essay

Know your audience
There are unique criteria that must be
met in every essay to help determine
a winner. One way to know your
essay reviewer is by following and
adhering to the guidelines. Sometimes
the guidelines explain the purpose of
the question. If you don’t stick to the
guidelines, you will give the scholarship
panel a negative impression, one that
says you can’t or won’t follow rules.
Take note of the requirements and
focus on them.
Also bear in mind that your scholarship
essay reviewer prefers sincere opinions
and supporting reasons than to have
a “say nothing” essay where the
writer takes no stance on the topic.
The reviewer may not agree with the
opinions of students, but with specific
and detailed arguments, a clearly stated
point on the topic will win out over a
middle-of-the-road method anytime. Be
unique in your approach and don’t be
afraid to take a stance.

Make your essay personal and
passionate
Whenever possible, you should
include appropriate situations or
events from your own life when
writing scholarship essays. As in the
above tip, an essay reviewer may or
may not be able to connect with what
the students experienced, but he or
she will not be able to dispute them.
Personal stories, sincerely shared,

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easyuni Guide 2015

Issue 6

will have a personal effect on the
student. How these factors shape
the student is a matter of opinion for
the student, not fact, and therefore
individual experiences make excellent
supporting evidence for the opinions
and thoughts expressed in the essay.
When writing scholarship essays, always
give concrete illustrations to support
your claims and opinions, exemplifying
your points with personal experience.
For instance, if you state that one of
your best qualities is management, give
an example where you exercised that
quality. In the same way, a question
about serving humanity should not
be responded to with a fuzzy “I like
assisting others and feel that it is
important”, but should also consist of
particular instances where you have
assisted others.
And, please don’t exaggerate and don’t
overstress the truth as this can harm
your scholarship essay. Some evaluators
are specialists in knowing when a
student exaggerates, and insincerity
will cause you to lose a scholarship you
might otherwise have won. Just be
sincere and honest.

Avoid grammatical errors
Two things are evaluated in scholarship
essays and it is very important to bear
them in mind. The first is the style you
write in: your grammar and sentence
constructions, your punctuations,
etc. The second thing is the sincere
expression of ideas, thoughts, views and
opinions. It is crucial that you take the
time to evaluate and review your essay
for these things. Grammatical errors are
easily neglected in the writing process
because students mostly concentrate
more on content than their grammar,
and problems can result from this.

Get someone to proofread
your article
Many scholarship essays are treated like
any other regular class essay when it
shouldn’t be. Often, students write their
essays at the last minute and check it
themselves or worse, forget to check
for errors. They may not even show
their essays to their teachers or parents.
Bear in mind that the essay will earn
you more than US$10,000, so treat it as
something very important.
Ask an expert in the field, your teacher
or parents to review your essay. It helps

to have fresh pair of eyes looking at
what you’ve written. They can spot
errors you may have missed and
give helpful suggestions. This will
significantly increase your chances in
winning the scholarship. Ask for hints
and discuss the essay with them, but
don’t let them write or rewrite it.

Here are few other things you need
to watch for:
• Stay within the number of words for
the essay or competition. If the limit is
450-5