Common Essay Do's and Don't's for Scholarships

College Dos and Don'ts
General Recommendations
Do
DO convey a positive message overall. Cynicism, bitterness, and resentment will not score points with admissions committees.
DO strive for depth, not breadth. Rather than trying to cover several events, experiences, or ideas, focus on one, and explore and describe it in depth, providing illustrative details and meaningful insights.
DO start writing the section with which you feel most comfortable. There is no law that says you must start with the opening paragraph and continue in sequence. Eventually, the various sections will come together.
DO avoid careless grammatical errors. This sounds simple, but so many people — including professional writers — fail to do this.
DO proofread your essay several times for spelling and typographical errors. If you have it, you may want to run the spelling checker of your computer's word processing program, but do not rely on it. Consult a dictionary for any words you even vaguely suspect may be misspelled. Make sure every proper name is spelled correctly, down to the diacritical marks on foreign names, and the name of every organization, institution, and company is written properly. You never know what a reader will notice!
Don't
DON'T try to accomplish too much in your essay. Less is more.
DON'T write an essay that any one of a thousand other applicants could write, because they probably will. If you think the admission committee might receive even one other essay like yours, rewrite it.
DON'T expect or even attempt to write the perfect essay in one sitting. Write something, edit it, put it aside, and return to it later. Good writing is the product of careful and constant rewriting.
Before You Write
Do
DO read some good writing, including admissions essays by other students and essays by authors whose work you admire. Take note of how they draw in a reader and tell a story.
DO engage in some serious brainstorming with your family and friends.
Subject Matter
Do
DO be interesting, but more importantly, be yourself. Convey your genuine thoughts and feelings.
DO be confident that your experiences are exciting enough to commit to print. It is the depth of character you convey, not the intensity of your topic, that matters; some of the most successful essays are written about the most mundane of things and events.
Don't
DON'T rehash what the reader already knows about you; do not reiterate accomplishments or activities that are already mentioned elsewhere in your application.
DON'T try to summarize your entire life's accomplishments. Your essay will end up reading more like a superficial laundry list than a meaningful personal statement.
DON'T write anything that might embarrass the reader or make him or her feel uncomfortable. The reader is neither your therapist, your confessor, nor your close friend.
DON'T try to write a scholarly or overly important-sounding essay. An essay showing off your knowledge of — rather than your passion for — a particular academic subject tells the reader nothing about you as a person. The reader will suspect, at worst, that your essay is actually a recycled term paper.
Opening Sentences
Do
DO be a little mysterious at the beginning of your essay to grab your reader's attention. But also be sure to resolve any initial uncertainties so that you do not leave your reader hanging.
DO take your cue from good essayists who know how to capture an audience's interest right from the start. One possible opener is a trivial observation that anyone can relate to but would never think to mention in an essay. Jerry Seinfeld built a career on this skill.
Don't
DON'T rely too heavily on quotations for your opening sentences. This technique can be effective, but it can also sound tired and cliched. You are generally better off filling your essay with your own words.
Conclusions
Do
DO provide closure; give the reader the sense that you have come full circle. You should think of the conclusion as a bookend for your essay.
Don't
DON'T repeat or sum up your points in any way.
DON'T introduce a new idea that does not directly relate to previous themes or that requires further explanation.
Word Choice
Do
DO use clear, concise language, and standard English vocabulary.
DO use a natural, informal conversational tone-not as informal as colloquial speech, but less formal than the tone of an academic assignment.
Don't
DON'T use slang or currently popular buzz phrases if you can avoid it.
DON'T use overly academic or intellectual vocabulary, especially if you are not completely familiar or comfortable with it. You will not impress the reader and you may end up sounding pompous and pretentious.
DON'T start too many sentences with the word "I."
DON'T overuse such vague words as "situation" and "experience."
Stylistic Devices
Do
DO use analogies, metaphors, and similes to help convey your message, but do not overdo them.
DO use humor where appropriate, but never overuse it or use it flippantly.
DO use dialogue, but make sure it helps illustrate your point or make your narrative come to life.
Don't
DON'T fill your essay generic images and descriptions.
DON'T tell the reader, "I am a unique and interesting person." Instead, let the reader glean this indirectly from your unique and interesting essay. In other words, show, don't tell.
Grammar
Do
DO try to use the active voice instead of the passive voice — e.g. use "Our staff completed the newspaper in record time" instead of "The newspaper was completed in record time."
DO maintain parallel sentence structure.
DO review your punctuation. Pay special attention to your use of semicolons, colons, commas, hyphens, and dashes.
Don't
DON'T switch back and forth between verb tenses.

DO
DON’T
Topic
Talk about what matters to you
Give serious thought to what you are going to write about
Talk with people about your topic
Write about a topic that you know very little or nothing about
Worry about what topics admissions officers want to read about – write what you know and love
Forget to put your own personal stamp on your topic Style
Be honest and be yourself!
Use formal English, but not too formal
Stay away from clichés and commonly used expressions
Tell a story only you can tell
Try to force your essay to be funny or overly dramatic
Try to be clever in unproductive ways
Just recreate your activities and awards list
Brag or put down others
Forget to show the admissions officers who you are Drafts & Grammar
Let others read your writing!
Work on your essay for more than a week and do multiple drafts
Cut out unnecessary words and phrases
Turn in your 1st draft
Write like you talk
Rely on a thesaurus too much Aesthetics
Be neat
Type your essay on the computer or typewriter
Use single spacing
Make sure that the essay fits in the allotted space
Use font that is too big or small
Handwrite your essay
Attach extra pages
Turn in anything smeared, blurred, or messy

The Twelve Dos and Don’ts of Essay Writing by RYAN HICKEY on DECEMBER 21, 2012

This December has been a big month for the number 12. To continue in the spirit of 12/12/12 and even that beloved (or possibly, vehemently hated) holiday tune, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” today EssayEdge presents to you, ” The Twelve Dos and Don’ts of Essay Writing.” Enjoy!
12. DO give yourself time. Two weeks is ideal, but twelve days would work too. Even if you’re only a day or two away from your deadline, starting now is always better than starting later.
11. DON’T plagiarize. Using someone else’s work will kill your chance of admission.
10. DO be honest. Trying to make a four-week internship that you spent mainly answering phones sound like you were the CEO of a Fortune 500 firm for a year won’t improve your standing in the eyes of the admissions committee.
9. DON’T exceed the length limit. Admissions officers have heard every excuse in the book for why a particular applicant desperately needs 700 words when the maximum specified was 500. The simple fact is that there is never a good reason to go over, and doing so will reflect poorly on you.
8. DO be descriptive. The easiest way to do this is by using active verbs and dynamic nouns. “The red car stopped directly in front of my friend,” is nothing compared to, “The Ferrari squealed to a halt inches from Steve’s face,” and both use the exact same number of words.
7. DON’T write a resume in essay form. If your essay or statement reads like a narrative listing of your various courses, clubs, jobs, and accomplishments over the past several years, it isn’t serving its intended purpose.
6. DO respond to the prompt. It’s amazing how many applicants write essays that, while generally solid, aren’t actually relevant to the prompt at hand. If the prompt asks a specific question (or several), make sure your essay provides an answer.
5. DON’T use cliches or overuse idioms. This one should be a piece of cake, like taking candy from a baby.
4. DO take breaks. Writing comes in fits and starts. If you feel like you’re making good progress, then by all means continue. If you’re stuck with a nasty case of writer’s block, though, the best cure is often a nap, some exercise, a movie, or anything else that takes your mind off the essay for a while.
3. DON’T rely on spell check. Automatic functions in programs like Microsoft Word are helpful tools, but they’re not infallible. Mistakes can make it though unchecked. See?
2. DO have someone else review your work. Whether a close friend, parent, teacher, counselor, or professional, having someone else read through your essay will give you valuable feedback. Sometimes it takes a new perspective to spot problem areas that you would otherwise miss.
1. DON’T completely stress out. Yes, this is important, and yes, it takes a lot of work, but it’s not the end of the world. Make sure you still find time for relaxation and the things that are important in your life.
2.

Top 10 Scholarship Do's and Don'ts
By Gen and Kelly Tanabe authors of The Ultimate Scholarship Book and winners of more than $100,000 in scholarships.
Scholarship judges may spend just a few precious minutes or even seconds reviewing your scholarship application. With such a finite amount of time to make a lasting impression on these important decision makers, it's crucial that you make the most of this opportunity. If not, your application may be on the fast track to the circular file. To help, here are the Top 10 Scholarship Do's and Don'ts that you must know to increase your chances of winning.
1 Top 10 Scholarship Do's
2 Get friendly with your own neighborhood. Take a look around yourself, and you're likely to find some of the best scholarships. Your community is one of the biggest sources of scholarships. Local businesses, service organizations, city governments and even politicians often offer scholarships for students. Find out about these kinds of awards by contacting your local chamber of commerce and by reading your community newspaper.
3 Choose quality over quantity. Unless you plan to make applying for scholarships your fulltime occupation, you'll need to prioritize which scholarships to apply for. Instead of trying to apply to as many scholarships as possible, try to apply to the scholarships that best fit you.
4 Understand the purpose of the scholarship. Every scholarship has a reason for its existence. Scholarships may be designed to encourage students to enter a specific career field, to reward students who contribute to their communities or to help underserved students enter higher education. Whatever the purpose of the scholarship is, it's important for you to understand why it exists. Then use this information to guide how you write your scholarship application. For example, if you are applying for a scholarship that is based on volunteer work, then focus on how you have served the community in your application rather than any of your other achievements.
5 Follow the directions. From your first game of Simon Says, you learned how to follow directions. And yet, when students apply for scholarships and thousands of dollars are at stake, many do not do this. It's simple. Include all the information and forms requested, and answer every question.
6 Write an essay that demonstrates why you should win. If you think of the scholarship application as your first handshake when meeting a person, then the scholarship essay is like your first conversation. It gives the scholarship judges a sense of who you are and what's important to you. As you're writing your essay, it's important to make a case for why you deserve to win. Think about what skills and qualities the scholarship judges seek and then describe how you match them.
7 Get feedback from editors. You can't write a strong scholarship essay in a vacuum, and editors are the best people to help. Friends, teacher and even parents can make great editors.
8 Proofread. No matter how strong of an applicant you are, it would be difficult for a scholarship judge to overlook spelling or grammatical errors. Proofread your application and essays yourself, and have your editors do the same.
9 Practice for interviews. Some scholarships require an interview, and the best way to stand out in this forum is to practice. Ask a friend or parent to do a mock interview with you to prepare for the real thing.
10 Ask your parents for help. Mom and Dad are capable of doing more than write the tuition check. They can help you find scholarships, keep track of deadlines and give you feedback on your applications and essays.
11 Brag a little about yourself. No one else is going to do it for you so you'll need to let your best self shine through in your scholarship applications.

1 Top 10 Scholarship Don'ts
2 1. Don't overlook your college financial aid officer or guidance counselor. Cozy up to these two people to get the scoop on awards from your college or high school and for local students. Helping students pay for college is their job, and you should take advantage of the knowledge they've accumulated.
3 2. Don't ignore the Internet. Fire up the computer, and use free web-based scholarship searches like ours (link to Financialaid.com scholarship search) to find more scholarships.
4 3. Don't ignore small awards. When there are scholarships worth tens of thousands of dollars, you might think you shouldn't bother with the small potato awards. The truth is that a $1,000 scholarship is $1,000 less that you will spend, and even if it doesn't make a significant dent in your tuition, it can buy your books.
5 4. Don't think that you have to be an academic or athletic superstar to win. There are scholarships based on leadership, art, music, theatre, cheerleading, public service and more.
6 5. Don't be a victim of a scholarship scam. Never pay for a scholarship search, to apply for a scholarship or for a listing of awards. You can find scholarships on your own for free, and scholarships are designed to not cost anything to apply.
7 6. Don't use the shotgun approach. It can be tempting to send the same application and essay to every scholarship competition, but this would be a mistake. Remember that all organizations that give away scholarships have different selection criteria. This means that the same application won't work for all of them.
8 7. Don't forget to answer the question in your essay. There's a reason why the scholarship organizations provide the essay questions. They want to know your answer. An essay can be very well-written, but if it doesn't answer the question asked, then it's not going to win.
9 8. Don't wait until the last minute. You may think that you do your best work on the day before the deadline at 3 a.m., but if you review your work you'll probably see that you don't. Take the pressure off, and allow yourself more time to complete an application.
10 9. Don't turn in an application that is incomplete. Scholarship organizations receive far more applicants than they can support. Don't give them a reason to take you out of the running for not having a complete application, something that many organizations do.
11 10. Don't think that it's impossible for you to win. Every student who has won a scholarship has thought this. And guess what? They won, and you can, too.

Top 10 Do’s and Don’ts for your personal statement or scholarship essay:
1 DO: Make sure your essay is absolutely perfect in spelling and grammar.
2 DO: Write an engaging and coherent essay.
3 DO: Be positive and concentrate on your strengths. If you must discuss something negative, focus on what you learned and how that applies to your future.
4 DO: Include concrete examples to illustrate your main points and show your strengths.
5 DO: Type your essay and have someone else proofread, such as English faculty in the Writing Center (Technology Center, T217).
6 DO: Read the directions carefully. Follow any formatting guidelines exactly.
7 DON'T: Go overboard in details about yourself or a particular point. Keep your writing succinct and relevant to the question(s) asked.
8 DON'T: Write a list of activities, awards or accomplishments. Choose the ones that are most important and share the most relevant information about you.
9 DON'T: Try to be funny. You don't want to take the risk they won't get the joke.
10 DON'T: Write what you think the committee wants to hear.

8 Tips for Writing a Killer Scholarship Essay
With many scholarship application deadlines around the corner (including the FRCC Foundation Scholarship), now seems a perfect time to offer tips for writing a compelling scholarship essay, which can mean the difference between getting a scholarship and not.
I sat down with Ryan McCoy of the FRCC Foundation to get some of his dos and don’ts on scholarship essay writing. Here are a few of his top suggestions:
1. Follow directions.
Amazingly, too many students ignore the essay question(s) being asked on the application, Ryan says. The FRCC Scholarship application is quite simple, and applicants are requested to write one essay—the answer to which determines what types of scholarships one might be eligible for. It asks three questions:
Why should the Foundation invest in you?
What are your academic and professional goals? After achieving your academic goals, how will you give back to the community?
Pretty simple. So should you go into extreme detail about your childhood? Probably not.
2. Be concise. Be clear.
“Sometimes we find that students jump around a lot in their essays,” says Ryan. “Whatever you do, try not to ramble. Have a clear and concise argument on why you’re a deserving student.” In other words, make your point quickly. And do it well.
3. Make sure the essay stands alone, but don’t include every detail.
Another big mistake Ryan sees often is students who assume the reader knows their life story. His advice: “Think like a journalist: When you read a newspaper article, it assumes you don’t know anything about that topic,” Ryan says. “The same goes with your scholarship essay. Assume the reader knows nothing about you.”
But don’t go into extreme detail. If an essay offers up too much personal history, it might be hard to follow (and of course, too long). “You want the essay to be easy to read,” says Ryan. “The reviewer should have a sense of who you are after reading it, but should not be confused or overwhelmed.”
As a writer, grammar geek, and someone who has written a lot about getting into (and succeeding in) college, I have a few tips of my own:
4. Plan it out.
Remember those tedious outlines for essays in high school English class? Dust off your notes and plan out your essay carefully, devising a clear structure that conveys a central point or theme. This outline will help you stay organized in delivering your key message and not stray off topic.
5. Don’t rush.
That essay you wrote this morning might not look as great two days from now. Take a stab at a first draft, then set it aside for a day, a week, whatever you can afford. Reviewing it with fresh eyes will give you new insight into how it comes across. Mistakes will pop off the page in a way they didn’t when you read through it ten times the same day you wrote it.
6. Have someone else read it.
Get a teacher, a boss, or even a friend to read your essay and offer their feedback. Does the essay capture who you are? Your journey? Does it make sense? Is it clear and concise?
7. Read it out loud.
I’ve suggested this before in my post on learning to write better, but you’ll no doubt catch a mistake or two when you read something out loud. Don’t send off an essay that is sloppy or has grammar or punctuation errors. Is that really the impression you want to give people who are making a decision on whether or not to award you money?
8. Make it yours.
Before you write a word, spend time thinking about the question being asked. Brainstorm. Some scholarship applications might pose a very specific question, such as “Please tell us about a significant experience that has had a big impact on your life.” Other colleges may ask more general questions, such as “What are your academic and personal goals.” Whatever the question, make your answer personal. Write it from your heart. And don’t try to second-guess the person reading it by writing what you think they’d like to hear.
If you’re struggling with a scholarship essay, what do you find most challenging in the writing process? If you’ve successfully written a killer essay, what tips do you have?

Skip These 6 Scholarship Essay Errors
By MICHELLE SHOWALTER
December 16, 2010 RSS Feed Print
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We've all heard the news reports: Tuition is skyrocketing and students are leaving college with tens of thousands of dollars in loan debt. Just the thought can be enough to make any high school grad consider flipping burgers for a living instead of earning a degree.
But don't give up hope. There are plenty of generous people out there, funding numerous scholarships, and all you have to do is apply. Before you even think about opening up a Word doc, though, consider these mistakes that could get your essay—and your free money hopes—trashed.
[Learn about the best value colleges that give big scholarships.]
1. Rushed writing: You may work great under pressure, but no one is at his or her best when rushed and stressed. Start your application early and give yourself plenty of time to brainstorm ideas. Use school breaks or write your essays the summer before you start applying, so you're not preoccupied with homework, sports, and school activities.
2. Not knowing your audience: Once you have a stack of scholarship apps in front of you, take some time to get to know the organizations that are sponsoring the scholarships. Check out their websites and pay attention to their vision, history, and programs. Then think about ways you can make your essay appeal to their missions, or at least avoid offending them. And make sure you follow the directions. Don't write a 700-word single-spaced essay if it calls for 500 words, double spaced.
[Read the do's and don'ts for finding scholarships.]
3. Choosing a vanilla topic: Most scholarship applications aren't going to accept your YouTube videos in place of a written essay, but you can still stand out. It starts with picking a topic that's unique and interesting but that still answers the question. "What I learned on my summer vacation" has been done before. (Tip: try doing an online search on "popular scholarship essay topics." Then you'll know which ones to avoid.)
4. Uncreative writing: Use imagery to draw your reader in. Instead of beginning an essay with: "My father inspires me because he puts his life on the line serving as a Chicago police officer," consider an opening like this: "Every day at 5 a.m. sharp, Dad rolls quietly out of bed, polishes his badge until it shines, carefully buckles on his gun belt, and signs on as a police officer for the city of Chicago. My mother starts her day saying a prayer that Dad will come home safely."
5. Using "text speak": While getting to the point is almost always a good thing, that doesn't mean you can shorten words using "text speak." I'm sure most of you know the difference between the proper way to write a text vs. an essay, but believe it or not, text speak has been slipping into college application and scholarship essays. Though you probably won't accidentally write an entire essay in text, if you're constantly working your Blackberry thumbs, you may have to steer away from your instinct to use "thru" instead of "through" or to drop in an "IMO."
6. Unpolished and unproofed: Before you run spell-check or start looking for proper punctuation, make sure your essay shines. Are your phrases eloquent and intelligent, without sounding like you chose all your words from a thesaurus? Does your essay paint a picture for the reader? Will the reader care about—but not pity—you? Read your essay aloud and ensure it makes sense. Most high schools have writing centers where you can get advice for your essay—take advantage of them. To catch spelling errors or misplaced commas, read your essay backward. E-mail your essay to your parents and trusted advisers. A fresh set of eyes can prevent a big mistake.
Michelle Showalter joined Scholarship America in 2007 and is an alumna of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.