 Hi there, this is Gabe Gossett with the Research and Writing Studio and in this brief video I'm going to be talking a little bit about scholarship essays and some tips and resources in terms of how you can approach the writing of those scholarship essays that you're going to be working on. I'll start out with some of the, you know, getting started stages in terms of a moving forward with it. And then from there, talk a little bit about the drafting process and then how to kind of finish it off and kind of make it the best product that you possibly can. So how do you get started? So presuming you've located a scholarship to apply to, you want to kind of make sure that you understand the assignment that you are being asked to work on. So what are the key words and phrases? What are the specific things that you're being asked to do? And depending on how big of a prompt you might be working with, it might be helpful to actually kind of underline those or circle them, highlight them. However, you might prefer to do it so that you have some of the key ideas that you might need to be working with because you might want to borrow them in your essay and you're going to want to check on that later to make sure that you've met all the requirements. Also, you're going to want to consider your audience. So how will they read this, you know, kind of put yourself in their shoes for a moment and how are you going to speak to their goals and values. And when it comes to something like this background research can help out. So this is not going to make sense for every scholarship essay, but there might be some situations where understanding, you know, the background for that particular type of scholarship, where it comes from, that can also be something that is useful to do. So you might look for some sources outside of the ones that are being provided on the page. And then you want to consider yourself. Why are you applying for this particular scholarship? So that kind of seems pretty straightforward. And the easy answer is typically for the money. And that kind of makes sense. But there can also be some other elements that you might be bringing in as well in terms of why you're applying for that particular scholarship. So now you want to get your ideas down. So much like an essay for a class, you will want to have a series of claims and you're going to be making those claims in your letter and you're going to want to basically get as many ideas listed out as possible as a starting point. It's okay to just, you know, make as many as possible things that you're not even going to be using later on. That's totally fine. It's easier to remove stuff than to work with something that's not there. And as part of this, this is one of the number one things that we see with scholarship essays that come into the research and writing studios that folks kind of sell themselves short. They'll say, oh, this experience that I had doesn't really count or it's not that important, or they'll kind of be so humble in the way that they deliver some of the statements that they're making that it comes across as basically selling yourself short of where it ought to be. So make sure that you are making accurate claims about yourself and so you don't want to be bombastic either, but you also don't want to undermine yourself. And as part of this, you really want to be specific. So coming up with some concrete terms and phrases that you're going to be using is going to be helpful. So saying something like I worked in a psychology lab is going to be, you know, only one thing, but that may not make you stand out in the sea of applicants that could be out there, or it may not help your reviewer really understand where you're coming from. But saying that you worked in a psychology lab on, say, something related to eating disorders where you were being mentored by a faculty member, things like that can be a little bit more helpful. Sort your ideas and then draft them. So now that you've got those ideas kind of in place, now you can move them around because they're outside of your head and you can see them and kind of work with them. And then that's where you can start thinking about the drafting stage. But before you get that, you got to remember that your objective here is to stand out in the crowd. So what, you know, think about, you know, what if you are one of many applicants? How are you going to stand out to those reviewers? How are they going to remember you? That's where those concrete phrases really kind of help because then they can kind of have some images and ideas of who you are. And how is this who you are going to come through as well? You know, if you just kind of sound like a generic person, then that that can be a disadvantage. Explain how the scholarship connects to the direction you want to go while also supporting the goals of the scholarship. So you don't entirely want to make it all about you, even though it is kind of all about you, you also want to make it about meeting the goals of what that scholarship was set up to do in the first place. And then one of the things that I like to recommend is before you get to that drafting stage, take a break. Seriously, step away. You know, give yourself a moment to kind of not be in the language that you're using and take a moment to kind of reset so that you can come back to it fresh. When you come back to it, you're going to be able to evaluate the ideas that you brainstormed a little bit better. Now, when you get into that drafting, it's fine to have a first bad draft. You don't have to have everything totally figured out. And writer's block can hit hard with any application letter. So that's a pretty normal thing to have happening. That's part of the reason why you want to list all those different ideas. But if it starts to feel confusing, take another break. Get a reader. And by that, it could also be somebody where you're just bouncing ideas off of them, having a conversation about it. And then also, if you feel like you have too much stuff that you're working with, weed what you don't need first and then check against the assignment or what's being asked of you and take out anything that doesn't help or is redundant. So if you can start to remove some content, then that's going to really help you in terms of working with that draft so that you're not kind of dragging around a bunch of extra language that you don't need. And then it's also important to consider editing and proofreading last. So it helps your brain in terms of maximizing the way that it's working on this letter to be doing different types of mental functions at different times. So if you're doing the editing and proofreading at the same time as revising or moving the content around, then you're basically asking your brain to start a series of different tasks and constantly changing gears, so to speak, as you're moving through it. So once you have your main ideas in place and you have that draft, then you can transition to refining the grammar and the wording. And a really great way to do this is to read the letter backwards one sentence at a time to help your brain focus on that grammar. If you are reading it from start to finish, then you're still tempted to focus on the ideas rather than the mechanics of the sentences. And then check about any stylistic expectations that you have of this, such as formatting, and all that can be worked on last. It's not the most important part, but it's something that you can make sure to get to at that last point. And then before you launch, go through a checklist. Check your letter against what is being asked for one last time. You put a lot of work into this, and it would really stink to let it be wasted if you missed something. And if you do miss something, keep in mind that in some cases, reviewers can't advance your application. It doesn't matter how awesome you are. They may not actually be able to do that based on the policies or criteria that they're using. Now, a few pro tips. Recommend saving your letter and sharing it as a PDF unless another format is called for. That way it's going to look exactly the way you want. If you share it as a Word file or something along those lines, it may interact with your reader's application in a way that it's just not the way that you want it to. And if you need a letter of support, it helps to connect and build on that letter of support. Or you can share your application letter with your reference before they write theirs. Or if your reference is asking you for a bullet list of items that you want them to address in their letter of support, then think about those bullet list items as things that you might be connecting to in your essay as well. Now, it's really important to connect with others along the way. Having more than one person read and provide feedback at any stage is really helpful. And the research and writing studio is basically that resource that is available where you have folks that have background on supporting this kind of writing. And we support it with scholarship essays, everything from that initial phase where you don't have any writing down, or where you're trying to figure out some of the contextual research all the way to the final product. So it's not something where you have to have that actual final draft in place. So in terms of options for connecting with us, we are normally open Monday through Thursday during the academic year 10 to 9, and Friday 10 to 5, and Sunday 5 to 9. And you can connect with us when we're all online through chat or Zoom live. We staff those during all those hours. And you can also send us a draft and we'll respond within 48 hours. So if that's your preferred way of getting feedback and we have two options, we can do a video response, or we can do a written response. We do default to doing video responses where we'll do a screencast of your essay and kind of talk through some strategies and approaches to it. One thing to keep in mind about our draft service is it's not an editing service. So we work with you on learning how to identify things that you might want to improve, but we're not going to go through and make the edits to your paper for you. And you can find these resources at library.ww.edu.rws.connect. That's where you can chat with us, Zoom with us, or send us a draft. And ultimately, I want to wish you luck on landing that scholarship.