UAB Writing Center
Writing the Fulbright
Scholarship Essays
University Writing Center
Jaclyn Wells
UAB Writing Center
Welcome
Thank you for joining us! Today’s workshop will provide
strategies and practice for writing the two essays required
by the Fulbright scholarship application:
• The personal statement
• The statement of grant purpose
These documents serve different purposes in your
application, but at the pre-writing stage, it can be useful to
think about them together. Today, we will discuss the
essays both as a package and as separate documents.
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Today’s Agenda
Today, we will:
• Review essay instructions
• Discuss differences between the two essays
• Look at examples
• Brainstorm ideas for your essays
By the end of today, you will have ideas for tackling these
essays. Your next steps will be to draft your essays and
bring them to a UWC tutor for feedback.
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Dissecting the Instructions
Let’s begin today with a fairly basic exercise:
• Carefully read the instructions for the statement of
grant purpose and personal statement (see handout).
• As you read, circle or underline any key words that
stand out in the instructions. These key words may
provide clues about the purpose of each essay.
• Consider how the key words compare and differ. What
is similar? What is different?
• Think about how you would explain each document to a
friend, in your own words.
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As you considered the instructions, you may have noticed
the following major differences in the two essays.
Statement of Grant Purpose
Personal Statement
• Focuses on the project
• Focuses on the individual
• Outlines
• Narrates
• Influenced by your
• Influenced by your
particular host country
• Two pages, single-spaced
• Looks toward the future
(particularly the project)
particular background
• One page, single-spaced
• Looks at the past (your
background and previous
experiences)
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Brainstorming: Personal Statement
Consider the following questions and list as many ideas as
come to you. Don’t filter yourself—this is only pre-writing.
• What details of your life have shaped it most? People? Places?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Events? Circumstances?
What obstacles have you had to overcome?
What educational, professional, or cultural opportunities have you
experienced?
What have been your life’s “turning points”?
What are your perspectives or philosophies?
What are your major goals?
What events in the news have most shaped your thinking?
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Sample Personal Statement
Read through the first sample personal statement. As you
read, mark the kinds of things you just brainstormed:
• Life details: people, places, events, circumstances
• Obstacles: economic, family, physical, educational
• Turning points
• Opportunities: educational, professional, cultural
• Personal characteristics
• Philosophies, perspectives
• Goals
• Events in the news
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Brainstorming: Grant Purpose
To brainstorm for the statement of grant purpose, we can
turn right to the directions themselves. The directions tell us
you should outline your proposed project’s who, what, etc.
Again, without filtering yourself, list your project’s:
• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How
(As best you can and as far as you now know).
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Sample Grant Purpose Statement
Read through the first sample statement of grant purpose.
This statement is written by the same student who wrote
the first sample personal narrative. As you read, mark the
kinds of things you just brainstormed, the project’s:
• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How
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Finding Your Larger Theme
You’ve listed ideas for your personal statement and your
grant purpose statement. Give yourself a few minutes now
to think about how it all fits together. Remember that you
are writing two separate documents, but you’re presenting
an overall picture of yourself and your project (and that
these two documents will be read together).
Look over both lists. For five minutes, freewrite about one
major question: What seems most important?
I’ll time you.
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General Style Tips
For specific help with editing, see a UWC tutor. Because
everyone struggles with different issues of style and
correctness, one-on-one help is always best.
You probably don’t need to hear that you need to proofread
carefully before submitting your application: Your essays
should be error-free. Some less obvious style tips include:
• Avoid clichés like the plague.
• Avoid overly emotional language.
• Use specific names for places and specific numbers for time.
• Use strong actors (nouns) and actions (verbs).
• Consider using the paramedic method to eliminate wordiness,
particularly for the statement of grant purpose.
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Tips and Other Resources
• The Purdue OWL offers many resources on writing
personal statements. Their “Top 10 Rules and Pitfalls”
might be particularly useful.
• Don’t forget to review (and re-review) the instructions on
the Fulbright website. The section on Academic
Application Components contains the description that we
looked at today of both essays.
• A number of websites offer sample essays. Sometimes,
looking at samples can be the best way to get your head
around what effective essays do and do not include. In
addition to the samples from Penn State provided today,
you can find sample essays online from Temple University
and Ohio Wesleyan University, among others.
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How the UWC Can Help
The University Writing Center provides free 30-minute
consultations. All UAB students can have up to two
consultations (or one 60-minute consultation) per week.
For scholarship writing, talking out ideas and getting
feedback are absolutely crucial. We can help you:
• Understand essay guidelines
• Brainstorm ideas
• Develop an outline
• Begin drafting
• Revise and edit
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Thank you!
Thank you for attending today’s workshop. Please see the
University Writing Center’s website to set up an
appointment. To get the latest information about our
services, follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
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www.uab.edu/writingcenter
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