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

Passion
Essay writing workshop

As a student you have written a lot of essays. And let’s be honest—most were probably on topics you didn’t care much about. You might be tempted to approach the scholarship essay in the same way that you did when writing about the Roman Aqueducts, but this would be a tragic mistake. The last common feature of all winning essays is that they are written on subjects about which the author is truly passionate.

It is very difficult to fake passion for a subject. (Just try to be excited throughout your Uncle Larry’s hourlong slideshow of his tonsil operation.) But when you are genuinely enthusiastic about something it does not take much effort for that energy to naturally show through in your writing. Therefore, when you are choosing a topic, be sure it is something you truly care about and are interested in. Without even trying, you will find that your sentences convey an excitement that the reader can almost feel.

When you read the examples in the next chapter, you will quickly see that the writers all cared deeply for their topics.