What kind of tips are in the book? The book includes tips simply about all aspects of the application process: tips simply about writing style, content that committees love and content they hate, content you should avoid and mistakes that wish get your essay discarded quickly. There are besides many tips simply about how to improve and preserve the appearance of your essay; tips simply about email submissions; tips simply about things NOT to include in your essay, and tips on how to avoid those ever-present spelling, synchronic linguistics and punctuation mistakes. There are even as tips simply about once to send in your essay, and tips simply about what kind of teachers you should choose to help you. Here are 10 sample scholarship essay tips from the book:
7. Use high-quality paper. You can get 50 sheets of high-quality paper at OfficeMax or Wal-Mart for about $3, and it does a big difference in the appearance of your essay. It doesn't dog-ear, wrinkle or crease nearly as easily as copy paper or another standard printer paper.
12. If your essay has a page limit, insert your name and contact information in the header or footer to save space. Galore scholarships limit your essay to a page or two, and quite often writers wish take up five (sometimes double-spaced) lines with their name, address, email address, and another information. Once space is at a premium, use the header or footer function of Microsoft Word, Works, Word Perfect or any program you use. This function lets you squeeze your name up into the margin area, wherever your essay wouldn't be appearance anyway. That way, you can squeeze in an extra paragraph if you need to.
23. Go easy on the slang, yo. Every generation uses a great deal of slang, but it's normally not the same slang the previous generation used. And it's most likely that the committee evaluating your essay isn't from your generation. One recent applier mused simply about his football career and "leaping for a pick and taking it straight to the house." If you watch Sportscenter, you cognize he meant he intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown. But guess how galore of our committee members watch Sportscenter? Not many.
27. Don't knock your peers. For a lot of our applicants, once they're trying to show the committee how hard-working they are, they end up derogative their peers piece devising the point. We get a lot of statements like: "While the another kids in my class were out (partying, horsing around, having fun)...I was (studying, working two jobs, caring for my younger siblings)." Most writers don't realize this, but drawing these comparisons does you sound a little uppity. It's better to simply mention what you do, and drop the "While my classmates were out..." part. We already cognize what several of the another kids are doing in their off-time: We see them street sport down the road, loitering at restaurants and preening at the mall. But we besides cognize that those are mostly normal things that teenagers do, and implying that you're superior to them does you look a little silly. Don't talk simply about others; talk simply about you.
