How to write a winning scholarship essay - Gen Tanabe, Kelly Tanabe 2018

Originality
Essay writing workshop

For your essay to be a winner, it needs to be original. Remember that your essay will be among thousands of other essays that are being judged. If your essay does not stand out, it will be forgotten along with your chances of winning.

There are two ways to be original. The first is to find a unique topic.

Think about what makes you…well… you. What point of view or life experience can you share that is unique? One judge we know uses the “thumb test.” Place your thumb over your name at the top of the essay, and ask yourself if any of your classmates could have written this essay. If the answer is “yes” then it fails the thumb test and is probably not original.

Unfortunately, finding a unique topic is very difficult, and that leads us to the second way that you can be original. Instead of racking your brains to come up with a 100% original topic, take an ordinary topic and approach it in an original way. For example, if you were writing about how your mother is a role model you would not want to approach it in the same way that everyone else will. Many applicants will write about how their mothers taught them the importance of education or showed them how to persevere in the face of adversity. If your essay is going to have any chance of winning, it needs to be different from those written by other competitors. So spend some time thinking—not