A Step-by-Step Guide For Writing A Winning Scholarship Essay

The first scholarship program was established at Harvard University by Lady Anne Radcliffe Mowlson in 1643. Over the years, they have become popular and are a central element used to fund higher education.

The past few years have seen college costs getting quite expensive. Students have to find alternative ways for them to afford a college education. One of the best and more affordable ways is through winning a scholarship.

A scholarship is money awarded to students to help reduce their education costs. They are not required to repay this money. This funding comes from private organisations, colleges, or the government and can range from as little as $100 to more than $100,000.

Even though there are some requirements you might have to meet to apply for a scholarship, the only barrier between you and the scholarship might be writing an essay. How do you write a winning scholarship essay? 

Here is a step-by-step guide –

1. Understand All Requirements and Instructions

When handling assignments in school, you follow some requirements and instructions. Most scholarship essays also come with requirements and instructions. You should ensure that you have read and understood the requirements before writing and submitting your essay. You will find this step in every step-by-step scholarship writing guide.

For instance, a scholarship essay from one organisation might strictly require a maximum of 1,000 words. A different organisation might ask for between 800 and 1000 words. You should follow the instructions when writing your essay.

Ensure that you have read all emails from the organisation offering the scholarship. Visit their website to see if they have any instructions about their essays. You can also email them if you are not sure about the requirements or instructions.

If you do not follow the instructions, chances would be very high that your scholarship application would be rejected.

2. Identify Your Audience

When creating effective content, one of the things you need to think about is your audience. Similarly, you need to identify your audience before writing your scholarship essay. You should think beyond your professors.

A scholarship essay might be read by different people. These include a panel of professionals in certain subjects or fields, generally educated members of a college or organisation, or non-specialists brought in by the scholarship providers.

You, therefore, need to ensure that you have identified your scholarship essay audience if you want to be successful. 

You can do that by –

3. Understand Your Essay Question

Every essay comes with a question that you are required to answer. Even though this is the most basic thing in scholarship essays, it is the most difficult for most students. The first thing is to ensure that you have understood the essay question.

Most scholarship applicants fail because they start the writing process before studying the question they are supposed to answer. They find themselves writing about half or even more of the required word count before answering the essay question.

You can understand your essay question by following this guideline –

Check out Essay Writing course and see significant improvement in your writing ability and get that scholarship you want!

4. Start Brainstorming

Now that you have understood and simplified your scholarship essay question, you can start brainstorming to get ideas that can help you with answers. This is an essential step in the essay-writing process and might require you to write down several things.

For instance, you might have to write down your extracurricular activities and achievements. Do you have any certifications that might help you? You can also talk to friends and family members to find out the things they find outstanding about you.

However, you need to be careful, especially if you have many achievements or activities you have participated in over the last couple of years. This is because you might end up losing track and forgetting about the most important and impressive ones.

If your essay asks for one example among the many achievements that you have, then you need to choose the best. In addition, ensure that the achievement, experience, or certification you choose to use answers the question better than the others.

5. Create an Introduction

After following all the steps discussed above, you should be ready to start writing your scholarship essay. The introduction might seem challenging to get started with, but it is one of the most effective tips for reaching your audience and creating interest among them.

The best essay writers understand that their first sentence can separate them from all their competitors. This is the best way to ensure that the people reading your essay are interested and that they will have fun while reading your essay.

Avoid starting your essay with the obvious things. For instance, do not start by stating that you are applying for a scholarship. The essay readers have seen this line so many times. It just tells them that your essay is not different from all other poorly written essays.

In addition, try as much as you can to avoid starting the introduction with a quote. Many essay writers do this, and it might not go well with your essay readers. Finally, ensure that you have a statement that answers the question in the introduction.

6. Answer the Essay Question

Everything discussed above is supposed to guide you to this step and help you answer the question in detail. If you fail to handle this step carefully, then forget about winning the scholarship. This is an essential part of your essay.

How and what you say here will determine whether you will be the winner or not. When working on your essay’s body, you should forget about your vocabulary prowess or how good your resume is. Instead, ensure that you have a detailed answer to the essay’s question.

The question might be broad or tailored to a certain goal. No matter how it is, you should ensure that you have provided the essay readers with what they are looking for. You should avoid telling stories here. Instead, show that you know what you are writing about. In addition, show your achievements and try as much as you can to use an active voice.

7. Edit and Revise

This is one of the most challenging steps for most writers. You have spent a lot of time writing your winning scholarship essay but are now required to tear it up. It might be challenging to edit your essay, but if you understand what is required of you, it will be easy.

The first step when editing and revising your essay is rereading it. While rereading the essay, find out if it answers the question explicitly. If you have created content around the question, then you might have to rewrite your essay.

Ensure that you have read each sentence more than once. Does every sentence make sense to you? Is the flow of sentences in your essay good? Does every sentence relate to the topic preceding it? You can also read the essay aloud to identify any sentences that might not meet your requirements. If all these things fall in place, then your essay is good.

8. Proofread

You might be wondering about the difference between proofreading your essay and editing and revising. Well, these are two different steps. They are both necessary when writing a winning scholarship essay.

Imagine a situation where your essay is in the best overall position with another. You also share the same GPA as the writer of that essay. What do you think the essay readers are going to use to award one of you with the scholarship?

They will start looking for tiny mistakes such as typos. This is what makes proofreading an important step when writing a winning essay. Sometimes, you might not see these mistakes. Your brain might understand what you have written even when there are mistakes.

To avoid this, read your essay over and over again in different places. You can go to the coffee shop, or the park, or take a road trip to read your essay. This makes your brain think that it is reading something else, making it easy to identify mistakes. You can also ask someone else to read the essay in a bid to eliminate any mistakes. 

Most scholarships will ask applicants to write an essay as part of the process. They use these essays to evaluate the applicants and ensure that they award scholarships to the most deserving applicants. If you ever find yourself in such a situation and follow the guidelines discussed above, you can be assured of writing a winning scholarship essay.