Why Proofreading is the Most Important Thing for Your Scholarship Application
By Tom Jager
If you are applying for a scholarship, it means that money is an important consideration for you. It is nothing to be ashamed about because in 2013, approximately 1.8 million students used some kind of scholarship to get their education. The number of students in need of financial aid increases every year, so can you really afford the chances of missing the opportunity to get a scholarship?
If you have studied well enough to qualify for a scholarship, you have already made a lot of effort and might be hoping for a little break. You will get it, of course, but not until after you finished your scholarship application. This is an incredibly important document that needs to be perfect if you really wish to get some aid for education.
Why proofreading is important
Imagine this situation: A scholarship coordinator receives your application and starts to read it. Before your letter, he has read hundreds of applications where people tried to persuade him that they are the best to invest in. Maybe the reviewer already read 20 letters that day, or even more. All those application letters are at his desk, and he might not remember some of them at the end of the day. The reviewer will remember those that were impressively written and presented incredible stories of students. Also, he will surely remember the letters that had grammar mistakes in them–for different reasons.
Of course, you need to be among those students that impressed the board and whose letters were impressive enough to be remembered. Clearly, an essay with mistakes is not the way to go, because it will do nothing good for your reputation and destroy your chances of getting a scholarship.
How to avoid mistakes
There are many things you need to check before you submit your application. First and foremost, you have to make sure that everything is flawless. For example, remember that time when you wrote a research paper and thought it was already good enough, so you submitted it to the instructor? Well, forget about this approach, because an application essay is much more important for your future career than a research paper.
Just sit down and read it multiple times. Read it as many times as you need to be confident that everything is great. Look for specific mistakes in grammar, punctuation, word choice, sentence structure, and so on. During the process, you will definitely discover some mistakes, so make sure you correct them. Even if you are not sure about the use of a certain word, just replace it. It is better to be safe than sorry.
In addition to grammar and punctuation, you need to follow the instructions that were given to you by the educational institution. For example, you might be required to address some questions in the text or follow a particular format. The reviewers at the board will definitely appreciate it if you follow the instructions exactly as they expect. On the other hand, failure to meet their requirements will dramatically reduce your chances for a scholarship because it will show that you did not really pay attention to what is needed from you.
Online options
There are some great online proofreading options available for you. For example, After the Deadline is used by many to locate grammar, punctuation, and style errors and eliminate them from the text. It is an open source tool that is available as a free extension for popular browsers like Firefox and Chrome. Grammarly is another great option for cleaning text because it is effective at locating errors and offering some suggestions for overall improvement. Plus, it delivers a plagiarism check to make sure that your work is original, which is critically important in the academic world.
If you want a human proofreader to check your work, you might use Proessaywriting. It is a professional writing service that has experienced proofreaders who can pick up errors that a machine cannot locate. Given that human proofreaders are considered better than digital tools, you might actually be better off showing the text to a person who proofreads for a living.
Summary
The importance of having an error-free scholarship application essay cannot be overstated. Even one mistake can cost you highly valuable financial aid for your studies, so taking even the slightest risk is not really an option. Apply extra effort to make sure that your application will be the one that will get you a scholarship you need to pursue a degree.
Tom Jager is a professional blogger. He works at A-writer. He has a degree in Law and English Literature. Tom has written numerous articles/online journals. You can reach him at G+ or Facebook.
This article was shared with us by CollegeWeekLive.