Dr. Katherine Schmidt WOU Writing Center SCHOLARSHIP ESSAYS 101 Dr. Katherine Schmidt WOU Writing Center

What College Students Say

Recognize Your Task fact opinion observation response summary analysis

Deciphering Your Professors’ Directions Biology 101 Document the processes of your lab experiment in a one-page report. Political Science 101 Consider Merkley’s and Wyden’s work as senators. Who has effected more change and why? Psychology 101 Examine how your past shapes your present: (a) analyze your childhood, and (b) explain how it has shaped you into the adult you are today. English 101 Analyze Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.

150-Word Scholarship Essay Prompt: Describe a challenge or obstacle you faced in the last ten years. What did you learn about yourself from this experience?

Getting Started: Talk About Yourself value experiences and accomplishments that do not get listed on a resume talk to other people simply reflect: what moves you?

Next Step: Write to Discover freewrite timed writing remember: a first draft is never a last draft writing to learn versus writing to communicate

Content: Some Helpful Tips Choose a few key points to develop. Include concrete examples to illustrate your points. Avoid braggy generalizations; instead, describe a specific incident to show your strength(s). Think about including something that readers would remember, long after they’ve stopped reading. Have any books, classes, or philanthropic encounters profoundly shaped and/or shaken your outlook? Write from a positive perspective. Always consider how your essay might fit with everything else you will be submitting.

150-Word Scholarship Essay Prompt: Describe a personal accomplishment and the strengths and skills you used to achieve it.

150-Word Scholarship Essay Prompt: Explain your career aspirations and your educational plan to meet those goals.

After Drafting . . . Comes More Writing Revision is not editing.

The Myth

Closer to the Truth

Not linear—it’s recursive and messy. Reality Not linear—it’s recursive and messy.

After Drafting . . . Comes More Writing The best essays go through a series of revisions (10+ drafts). Get input from a number of sources: mentors, writing tutors, and friends.  Stay objective. Don’t fall madly in love with your first draft, if you’re serious about earning scholarship monies. People say that a picture equals a thousand words (yes, it’s cliché); however, reverse the idea as you read your essay: does your thousand words add up to one fabulous picture of you?

Levels of Revision

Levels of Revision

Levels of Revision

Last Step: Package Carefully Top swimmers and runners often win by a narrow margin—perhaps by only one tenth of one second. With this in mind, remember that execution of detail can also make or break your scholarship essay score. mixing up there and their: could this be a problem for your reader? what about the following? I think the experience sucked. The experience challenged me.

$1000 Tips Do not include excerpts from the dictionary—Webster is NOT worth quoting. Do not use contractions (don’t), exclamation marks (!), and ambiguous pronouns at the start of sentences (it, this, these). Do not write in second-person point of view (you) . . . ever. First-person POV (I), however, is completely expected. Edit as if each mistake will cost you $20. Take advantage of your resources: we want you to succeed.

Writing success is possible for you. Make time for writing. Make time for sharing. Make time for revising.