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Collected Advice on Writing Personal Essays

“You must demolish the work and start over. You can save some of the sentences, like bricks. It will be a miracle if you can save some of the paragraphs, no matter how excellent in themselves or hard-won.” Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

✓ The main "don't" here is to never specifically request scholarship money. In your statement, show your humanity, show that you're worthy of their investment. The thing that scholarship committees want to see is your passion and that you have goals and dreams and that you plan to achieve them no matter what. If they need to help you to do that, they won’t see you as a good investment. (Yes, you are selling yourself!)

✓ Make your intro catchy. Keep it short, maybe 2 or 3 lines.

✓ If you use an opening quote to, incorporate your quotation as the theme of your essay. Don't expect the quotation to speak for itself.

✓ Show your humanity. What did you really have to rise up out of? Be straight with them. Move yourself; inspire yourself; make yourself cry or laugh. If you are not moved and touched by your own self, then they won't be. The most fascinating scholarship essays I've read have just been to the point: "I used to think I was stupid. Etc, etc. And now I don't think that."

✓ Remember to make to tell the story about how you became who you are and came to have the goals you have. We all have experienced tragedy. Don’t just plead for sympathy. What makes you unique? What did you see for yourself?

✓ On the other hand, don't paint this rosy picture that makes you out to be some superhuman being who can weather all storms. Show your humanity. What sets you on fire? What makes your life worthwhile? What are you made of? What gives you life?

✓ On that same note, avoid using "I realized," because it's like there are some magical forces out there that suddenly show you the truth. What did you have to reach, see, and get to in yourself to know certain things were true about you? If you're stuck or don't remember, then freewrite about it.

✓ If this is a personal statement (and there're no other questions tied to it), be very clear about the past, present, future. What happened to bring you here, what are you doing now, and what will you do?

✓ You don't need to use your whole life story.

✓ But you are telling us a story. Don’t think of it as an essay. Be creative, have fun, let your story unfold; give me something to keep me reading until the end of the essay. Have a hook, climax, resolution (versus an intro, body, conclusion of a traditional essay).

✓ Be straight with them.

✓ Overwhelmed? Don't be. You can do this. If you're stuck, freewrite; put it away.

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