What You Want in an
Essay
- Fit With Criteria: Read these carefully. Many committee
members will go by exactly what you see in _The Harvard Guide
to Grants_ or its Harvard specific supplement. One applicant
will often win over another because of having a slightly better
fit with the stated criteria.
- Quality of Writing: Remember that committee members are
plowing through a stack of similar essays. Essays that are
painful to read, sloppy, or uninteresting won't win friends.
Worse, your reader might skim. Essays should therefore be
interesting, polished, and easy to follow. As for style: Use
your natural voice. Strained attempts to be poetic or erudite
flop.
- Personal Connection: If possible, illuminate the connection
of your proposal to your personal concerns. Reveal how your
proposal flows from who you are. (But watch out for sob stories
and dramatizing.) Ideally your reader will walk away not just
knowing things about you, but feeling familiar or close to
you. (Although the appearance of attempting to get buddy-buddy
will be repellent.) If there is absolutely no way to draw
the connection with your personal concerns, and the fellowship
requires an interview, don't worry. You'll have a chance then.
- Strength of Argument: Your argument, most generally put,
is that you should win because you will particularly benefit
from having relevant opportunity. Your job is to bring out
vividly the various reasons why this is the case. While you
write, think of your answers to the questions, "What
is special about what I stand to gain or contribute form having
this opportunity?" Without just plopping an answer down,
gear every part of your essay so that, along with each other
part, your answer becomes crystal clear and moving. Note:
it helps a lot if the benefit is not just to you personally.
Winners are often after something of greater importance, benefiting
personally along the way. (Also keep in mind how the fellowship
in question might differ from other sources of funding. If
other sources won't be of equal benefit to you, that strengthens
your claim to having *this* particular opportunity.)
Things You Can Do to Give Your Essay the
Qualities You Want
- Plan Well: When you devise your plan (remember: one that
fits well with the criteria), be sure that it is coherent
and feasible. Try to imagine as many of the details as possible,
even if you don't present them in your essay. This means really
"doing your homework," either about the academic
program you are proposing to enroll, or other non-academic
logistical details. For example, check the web, and make email
contacts (for instance, with professors with which you wish
to work). Good legwork shows that you are serious and willing
to work. It also makes reading the proposal more interesting.
- Don't worry that you are committing yourself to the details
of your plan. Everyone knows that things change. Mostly committee
members want to know two things. The first is whether the
proposed plan really is workable. (You won't benefit in the
desired way if the plan won't work). The second is whether
you are the kind of person that is able to come up with a
workable plan. (When things change, will this person respond
constructively?) You accomplish both of these things by presenting
a well thought out plan.
- Give Yourself Time: Planning well takes time. To write your
best, you should revise, revise, revise; then, revise again.
The revising process takes time. Talking out your ideas and
argument with people helps strengthen your case. Those conversations
and moments of inspiration need time. The catch is that most
people work best under pressure. Solution: put pressure on
yourself *early*. If you really want to win, a good essay
takes time!
- Don't Talk About Yourself: This is key for being interesting
to your reader. We often feel that we are, of course, the
most interesting thing to talk about. Your reader won't feel
the same way, since from the reader point of view, you are
just another applicant. So, the trick is to talk about *the
particular things* you are interested in (without dwelling
on the fact of your interest in it). You can bring up relevant
experiences or aspects of your past, but do this by speaking
interestingly about *them* (again, not simply the fact that
you had them). Be sure, then, not to write a mini-autobiography
(for example, where the crux is the moment where you changed
your concentration; who *hasn't* changed their concentration?).
Organize your essay around how all of the things you care
about or want to do fit together. Find a simple way of presenting
those connections, adding facts about your qualifications
or prior positions along the way. (Don't worry if you don't
mention some of your important activities or accomplishments.
If you've listed them on your resume, they won't go unnoticed.)
- Please understand: We overstate the case here somewhat.
As your reader is well aware, the essay *is* of course about
you. Don't write something abstract or academic. What is crucial
is *how* you present yourself. Your job is to *reveal* things
about yourself, as we said, by talking about the things that
interest you, or the experiences you've had. For example,
when you write about how, in the village you visited in the
third world, the women not only cared for their families,
but did much of the manual labor as well, your reader will
learn lots of things about you that you don't have to state.
This portrayal reveals, for instance, that you are someone
who is interested in the condition of women, and someone who
is sensitive enough to recognize the burdens of others. You
are writing about certain women; but in the context of your
statement of purpose, you are also writing, indirectly, about
yourself.
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