Guide to Writing Scholarship Essays

1. Don’t wait to get started. It’s going to take some time to put together your essays. You want to give yourself time to think them through and make edits as needed. Don’t submit a first draft because it’s never your best work.
2. Know your audience. Writing for your audience doesn’t mean you have to tell them what they want to hear. Instead, understand the tone they want and incorporate that into your essay’s personality and voice.
3. Read through and understand the prompts for the essay. Every scholarship essay assignment will have some sort of prompt. Whether they want you to talk about a time you overcame adversity or your favorite concert, the scholarship committee wants to get to know you and find out what sets you apart from other candidates. You can set yourself apart from the rest by using the same prompt—but spinning it in a way that suits you.
4. Choose a topic you’re passionate about or enjoy. No matter what you’re writing about, your enthusiasm (or lack thereof) will always come through in your writing. Don’t feel like you need to use exclamation points to feign excitement about a topic. Instead, write about something you genuinely care about or enjoy. Your passion will show in your writing, and your audience will feel it.
5. Know how long the essay needs to be. Every essay will have a word or character count requirement. Do your best to fit your essay within that window to keep the reader’s attention. Remember that most scholarships will have hundreds or thousands of applicants, so it’s essential that you don’t go over the maximum length. That being said, don’t cut it short. Try to get within 10% of your target before cutting short. Your word processor keeps track of your character and word counts, so you don’t have to find an online word counter.

6. Understand what the provider stands for. It’s nice to be relatable in your writing. One way to stand out and relate better to your audience is by knowing what they stand for. Is the scholarship provider a non-profit organization that works to rehabilitate injured animals? Is it a clothing company whose mission is to provide quality clothing at an affordable price? Find a way to naturally address their mission without sounding like you’re sucking up to the reader.
7. Write a strong introduction and conclusion. Don’t bore your readers. Grab their attention by writing a strong introduction that makes them want more. You can start with a brief anecdote relevant to the topic—or tease your position on the subject. However you decide to start your essay, keep it short and interesting. Be sure to end it on a high note with a strong conclusion, as well.
8. Pay attention to your structure. There’s a formula to writing an essay. Every essay needs an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. A properly structured essay will tell a story as each body paragraph builds on the previous one. Read through your essay after you’ve finished, and make sure it flows and builds to your conclusion.
9. Remember: show, don’t tell. The best way to tell a story is to show the reader what you’re talking about rather than telling them. While this might seem like an odd thing to do with words, it makes sense when you understand it. For example, don’t tell your reader that the character ran fast to the dinner table. That’s boring and tells only a small part of the story. Tell your reader that the character “was a blur as they raced to the dinner table to answer the call of their rumbly tummy.” Doesn’t that tell a much better story? Creative writing scholarships aren’t the only ones that will take note of how well you write.
10. Be positive, genuine, and professional. People like to feel good when they read. The best way to make your audience feel good while they read your essay is to be positive and genuine. Doesn’t it feel uncomfortable when you can tell somebody is being fake? The same is true when reading an essay. While it’s important to be genuine, you should also be professional. Don’t use slang, text talk, or emojis when writing your essay.

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11. Use an extra set of eyes. It’s nice to save time with your essays by editing them yourself—and you might be a little self-conscious about having another person read something you’ve written. Remember that even the best writers in the world will have somebody else review their work for them. Sometimes when editing our own work, we don’t see missing words, double words, or incorrect usage of homophones because we know what it’s supposed to say. Another set of eyes on your essay will help to catch typos and correct phrasing.
12. Feel free to edit and reuse your essays. It’s your essay, so feel free to use it again. Save yourself some time and effort by going through and making necessary changes to fit each specific scholarship application.

Writing a scholarship essay is a process that takes some time. After all, your scholarship is an investment in your future—so treat it as such. Our guide to writing scholarship essays should help you check all the boxes for your application. Don’t forget: once you’ve landed your college scholarship, you can save even more money by taking advantage of exclusive student deals on productivity software, which includes all the popular apps you need to make the grade.