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.
  
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  - 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.
  
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  - 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.
  
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  - 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.
  
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  - 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!
  
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  - 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.)
  
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  - 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.