The essays are the heart of fellowship applications. Selection committees read the essays for content as well as form: They want to know about your goals and plans, your personal background, and your motivation. They also want to know that you can organize your thoughts and communicate effectively in writing. 

Your essays need to be engaging, specific, and thoughtful. And they need to model principles of good writing.  Thus, organization, effective transitioning, and precise language are essential. The tips below will help you produce the kind of essays that will persuade a selection committee that they want to interview you and/or offer you a fellowship.

Essay writing tips

• Work on your opening. The opening sentence (and paragraph) of an essay functions like a fishhook: You want to grab your reader and make him or her pay attention. Your introduction must send the message: READ ME; DO NOT SKIM; DO NOT FALL ASLEEP; THIS LOOKS INTERESTING. Avoid platitudes. Do not begin essays with sentences such as “From the beginning of time human beings have been curious” or “In America, education is the key to success.”  These commonplace observations send the message: Fall asleep; skim this essay; forget this candidate.
• Be specific and concrete. Avoid abstractions and generalizations; use concrete details whenever possible. Rather than saying you are excited by policy issues, discuss a particular policy issue that interests you. Instead of saying that you are motivated, describe an instance that demonstrates your motivation.
• Never be satisfied with the first version of a sentence. Reject a vague word for a more precise one, substitute a strong verb for the weak one you thought of first, and choose one precise adjective in favor of a list of two or three. Vary your sentence structure from the standard subject-verb-object order. Look at each of your sentences and explain why it begins and ends where it does. Excellent writers revise their work extensively; the fruit of their labor is clear, fluid prose that sends a compelling message.
• Keep your audience and purpose in mind. Most fellowships have an audience of well-educated generalists. Do not make your project proposal so field-specific that it will be difficult for readers from different disciplines to understand and care about your work.   At the same time, do not be so vague that it lacks specificity. 
• Proofread!  Even if you feel that you have your essay memorized, make sure you read it over carefully before turning in the final copy. Try different proofreading techniques  such as reading the essay from the bottom up or reading it aloud. When you think it's perfect, ask someone else who edits well to read your essay. You do not want to be the Rhodes candidate with a typo in the first paragraph of his or her essay.

Writing resources at Brown

• Attend a workshop on writing project proposals and writing personal essays. The Dean of the College Office conduct such workships several times during the academic year as well as in the summer.
• Stop by 213 University Hall to read essays that successful fellowship applicants wrote.  We have binders of winning essays for several of the nationally competitive fellowships for which we advise especially the Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright and Truman. 
• Make an appointment with the Writing Center to go over drafts of your essays.
• Offices that support particular fellowships usually provide editorial support for writing the required essays.  Contact the office responsible for the particular fellowship(s) in which you are interested for more information.