Writing Fellowship Proposals and Essays

Think of your fellowship essays, for both national and Yale-only competitions, as part of a larger whole. They should complement, clarify, and enhance the other elements of your application (e.g., résumé, letters of recommendation).

Please refer to our handout "Writing a Fellowship Proposal" for some general advice and for some questions you should ask yourself to get your pen (or keyboard!) going.

Writing Resources

• College Writing Tutors and the Yale Writing Center
• Fellowship Programs advisers
• Fellowship Programs Graduate Affiliates
• Writing Personal Statements and Style for Students, both by Joe Schall
• Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr.
• Graduate Admission Essays: What Works, What Doesn't and Why, Donald Asher, Ten Speed Press.
• On Writing Well, William Zinsser, Harper and Row.
• Manual of Style, University of Chicago.