|
Paul Miller, majoring in electrical and computer engineering, relaxes while reading a book.
Every award requires a written essay-usually in one or both of two distinct genres. The first type, the "personal statement" or "intellectual autobiography," challenges students to discuss their lives. The second, which we might call the "proposal," asks you to describe and defend your academic project or intended course of study. Mastering both types of essay-writing will serve students well beyond the process of applying for scholarships and fellowships. A personal statement comprises a key element of professional-school applications, for example; knowing how to write a good proposal will prepare you to write documents such as grant applications and dissertation abstracts, if you continue to work in the academy. A few fundamentals
apply to both.
In approaching any kind of essay, much of the labor of writing an effective statement occurs before a single sentence is composed. Applicants must thoroughly digest the mission of the competition in which they are participating, if they are to understand the audience for whom they are writing. Students should avoid writing what they think the readers want to hear. Rather, you should aim to develop a rich understanding of the seminal concerns and fundamental goals of the granting agency, and consider how your life and work might relate to them.
The crucial opening paragraph should present a dense, cogent articulation of the main idea-whether the "main idea" accounts for the trajectory of the writer's intellectual life or encapsulates the intent of a proposed course of study. Exceptional application essays usually go through as many as twenty rounds of revision. Although very little from the first few drafts may survive in the final version, those drafts are never wasted effort: that initial work enables the student to discover what he or she is really trying to say. Remember that it may take pages and pages of writing to produce one good opening paragraph.
It may help to envision the personal statement in the mold of a biographical sketch of a historical figure whose intellectual breadth and commitment to the public good changed the world for the better. Nonetheless, the essay must be the writer's in feeling and tone-a snapshot of the forces and people that have changed you, the issues that currently move you, the direction you wish your life to take, and how the program for which you are applying will further those plans. The essay should be specific about life experiences (school, travel, friends, mentors, work experience, family) that led you to the interests you wish to pursue in your work, but it should not be excessively personal. The writer should avoid heartfelt but banal asseverations such as "I have always loved art" or "I have always felt a compassion for other people." Applicants should write in terms of what they think and what experiences led them to develop these thoughts. If you find yourself grappling with and explaining your feelings, you are on the wrong path.
If you manage to convey the impression that your life has led you inevitably to the project-if you tell a story, you will have succeeded- even if this means you have ironed out or diminished the zigzags along the way and papered over the moments of ambiguity and indecision. You should not think of "editing" your life in this fashion as being deceptive. You must remember that you are trying to persuade a granting agency attempting to discriminate between many high-quality applications that there is an exact match between your abilities, knowledge, and interests and the work you wish to pursue.
A proposal must explicitly link the contents and ambitions of a project with specific knowledge, training, skills, and interests. The applicant must demonstrate a thorough familiarity with the resources to be used during the course of work on the project. Whether this entails knowing people, detailing experience with libraries or archives, or exhibiting familiarity with social and ethnographic situations and conditions, this is an essential part of demonstrating that a project requires support (and travel if elsewhere relevant), and can be done within the frame of the fellowship or grant. It must be feasible; it must be doable.
Particularly when applying for graduate study, the proposal should be justified and framed in terms of the historiography of the scholarship in the field. A detailed familiarity with the relevant scholarship must be demonstrated, along with an explanation of the ways in which the proposed undertaking will either fill gaps in the record, or reverse or modify its conclusions. (Measures should be taken to avoid the language of arrogance: "No one has ever worked on this topic before." Chances are someone has, and you will want to show how your approach differs from or adds to existing scholarship.) The crystal-clear narration of an innovative project is the bedrock of success. If its timeliness or resonance with current socio-political, cultural, or economic concerns can be highlighted, this is always a plus. That is to say, if a proposal appears to be compelling and well-framed-one that is also ripe for doing right now-the proposal becomes even stronger.
Some Other Related Resources
|
