Congratulations on making a decision to apply for the Chevening Scholarship this year. Most of you by now are in the process of approaching people who can proofread your work. It is very possible that you might not succeed to get one person to look at your essay due to various factors. I would like therefore to share a few things with you in case you don’t get a proofreader.

1. Check your essays before you submit. You can use Grammarly to check your grammar. You can also use the ‘Read Aloud’ Option in Ms Word, to help you edit your essays.

2. I am sure that your essays have some examples. Make sure that you use the STAR(Situation Task Action Result) Model when writing your examples. You can find more information on the STAR model online.

3. Make sure that the entire application answers one question ‘Who are you?’ Make sure that you writeup focuses on you. Do not waste precious space by quoting documents and statistics that the review committee can always find online. Give them what they cannot find online, ‘You.’

4. Make sure that you communicate. Always assume that the person reading your essays is not an expert in your field. So, when writing make sure that a person who is not in your field is able to understand what you are writing about. Most importantly, they have to care about your work the same way that you do.

5. Make sure that you have a plan. When developing your career plan, make sure that you remember that it has to be Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time-bound (SMART).

6. By now you should have made contact with your referee’s to submit that reference letter. If you haven’t then you have to make that contact now. A phone call would be a good idea. Make sure that you have all the information that the referees need to develop that reference letter.

7. When you are stuck, before you contact any person, make sure that you visit the Frequently Asked Questions section on the Chevening Website. You will likely get accurate information on that page.