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

2. What College Students Say

3. Recognize Your Task
fact opinion observation response summary analysis

4. 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.

5. 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?

6. 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?

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

8. 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.

9. 150-Word Scholarship Essay
Prompt:
Describe a personal accomplishment and the strengths and skills you used to achieve it.

10. 150-Word Scholarship Essay
Prompt:
Explain your career aspirations and your educational plan to meet those goals.

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

12. The Myth

13. Closer to the Truth

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

15. 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?

16. Levels of Revision

17. Levels of Revision

18. Levels of Revision

19. 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.

20. $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.

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