This document summarizes a workshop about graduate scholarships. The workshop covers how to write effective scholarship applications, additional writing resources, and information about available scholarships. It provides tips for crafting strong CVs, research proposals, and letters of recommendation. The document emphasizes preparing well-written application materials, seeking feedback, and highlighting the importance and impact of one's research. Additional resources like university supports and books on navigating graduate school are also mentioned.

1. Graduate Scholarship Workshop
Dr. Jared Secord (he/his)
Student Success Centre
jaredjohn.secord@ucalgary.ca

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◂ The University of Calgary is located on the traditional territories
of the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which
includes the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprising the Siksika,
Piikani, and Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and
the Stoney Nakoda (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley
First Nations). The City of Calgary is also home to Métis Nation
of Alberta, Region III.
Territorial Acknowledgement

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Objective
I’ve been asked to offer a 1.5-hour workshop about
graduate scholarships:
- how to write an effective scholarship.
- additional resources for writing support.
- information on availability of scholarships.

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What I can help with, One of Two
• I regularly advise students who are applying for
admission to graduate or professional school.
• I am also part of review committees at the university
for various scholarships, including the Rhodes.
• I have reviewed proposals and/or manuscripts for
SSHRC and academic/university presses.

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What I can help with, Two of Two
• I have some knowledge of graduate scholarships, and
personal experience applying for various awards and
fellowships, including to SSHRC at the Master’s and
Doctoral level.
• I don’t have encyclopedic familiarity with all graduate
scholarships that may be available or relevant to all
graduate and professional school programs.

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Outline
• Graduate school
• CVs
• Research Proposals
• Letters of Recommendation
• Finding Scholarships
• Resources that can help you

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Poll questions
Please visit www.menti.com and enter the code 7899
2107.
I have three quick questions for you to answer there.
- the third question is also a spot where you can
pose questions that I can try to answer at the end
of the workshop.

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Graduate School

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Graduate School: Insecurities and
Imposter Syndrome
• Graduate school is hard. It brings out feelings of being
inadequate, making us feel like imposters.
• These sorts of feelings can sometimes be motivating. But
they can also make us isolate ourselves with our
insecurities.
• My own experiences in graduate school were hindered
by my insecurities and perfectionistic tendencies.

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Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
• Graduate school doesn’t have to be a solitary experience.
• Don’t buy into the myth that academics are solitary geniuses.
• Find people to help you achieve your goals.
• Writing doesn’t need to be “perfect” before it gets shared with
someone else.
• Writing an application is a lot easier if you are working
with a template/model of a successful application, and if
you have a supportive community around you.

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CVs

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General Tips about a CV
• A CV should be written with the review committee in
mind:
• People who are busy and who often will have a
limited time to look at it.
• People who will be looking at your CV in a pile of
dozens, hundreds, or thousands of other CVs.
• People who will skim the CV first to decide if they
will want to read it more closely.

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Writing a Successful CV
• Find examples of CVs from other people in your field
• People at the same level as you, but also people at
higher levels.
• Ask people to share CVs if you can’t find good
examples within your field online.
• Learn about normal CV conventions in your field
• Order of sections, what is included, what isn’t
included.

14. Styles and Appearances
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• Stick to 12 font size (please don’t go smaller)
• Traditional Fonts (Times New Roman; Arial)
• Use bolding, italics, all CAPS, underline
• Please note that Microsoft Word won’t check the spelling of words in all
CAPS.
• Use lines to separate heading/section
• ½ - 1-inch margins
• Balance white space and text

15. Do Not
Use exact dates, just month and
year (and maybe just year)
Include a photo or graphics
Use acronyms (U of C vs CPR?)
Include high school, unless it is
required
Use tables – difficult to edit

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Lacking experience?
• If you lack experience in a particular area, don’t call attention to it, or make
excuses about it on the CV.
• Use the CV to show the review committee what you have accomplished,
emphasizing your impact.
• Quantifiable details matter (how much scholarship or research funding,
how much research experience, etc.).
• But try to avoid a CV that inspires a “too long, didn’t read” response from the
review committee.
• Not every activity or item requires a long description, or any description.

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Research Proposals

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Getting Started: A Template
Karen Kelsky’s foolproof research proposal
template:
http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/07/05/dr-
karens-foolproof-grant-template/
“effective grant-writing, like all other
professional academic writing, is at its root
completely formulaic.”
(A version of the template will be shared
with you.)

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Using a Template
Basic components of a research proposal are pretty standard.
There may be differences in standards between fields.
Be sure to follow specific instructions and guidelines.
The document I will share has a template of the basic
components.
Complete the individual components, and then put what you’ve written
together into a complete draft of the proposal.

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The Importance of Audience
• A fundamental issue to consider before writing your proposal is the audience that will
be reading and assessing it.
• This will typically be clear from the instructions and guidelines that go with the
proposal.
• Sometimes you will be writing for a general, educated audience, rather than for
specialists in your field. This will often be true for applications to SSHRC, NSERC, CIHR.
• This will mean avoiding or explaining technical language and abbreviations that
you will want to use.
• The less specialized your audience will be, the more you will need to demonstrate the
significance of your project.

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Defining a Research Question
• Good questions develop over time by working with your materials and evidence.
• Literature, experimental data, interviews, observations, etc.
• Make a list of the ideas and questions, big and small, that occur to you as you work
with your data/evidence/results.
• Does the question pass the “so what” test?
• Why does it matter?
• It’s not enough simply to say that no one has answered the question before.
• Is the question one that you can plausibly hope to answer in the time that you have
to spend on the research project?

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The Literature Review – One of Two
• Literature reviews can often seem daunting.
• You really do need to read widely across scholarship on your topic.
• But, realistically, the literature review you write will focus mostly on a smaller body
of recent scholarship that you deem most important.
• Depending on your field, give yourself a cutoff date for the age of scholarship
that you are going to discuss.
• If you have already published relevant work, it is often appropriate to cite and
discuss this.
• Figure out which journals and publishers matter most in your field.
• Impact factors, citation counts, reputation.
• Ask other people in your field if you’re not sure.

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The Literature Review – Two of Two
The key point in the literature review is identifying the gap in existing scholarship that
you are trying to fill.
This will help to establish the importance of your work.

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Methodology/Methods
This section will not provide a full description of the research you are doing so someone
can repeat the experiments you are doing.
It will simply show that you have a plan for what you are doing, that you have
anticipated likely problems, and have the expertise to do the work.
In some fields, the methodology may simply involve what sorts of literature and
scholarship you will be reading, with emphasis on the languages and the types of
theory with which you are familiar.

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Abstract
Write this last, after everything else is done.
Read examples of successful proposal abstracts.
Template
Beginning: identify the problem/question that you are addressing, and the impact of
your work.
Middle: explain your methods and/or the steps in your argumentation.
End: Return to the impact in the last sentence.
Style
Short sentences, succinct and punchy.

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General Tips – One of Two
Figure out what matters in your field.
There are going to be deal-breakers and red flags in every field. Some of these will
apply to all fields (e.g. not following directions for the proposal; an incomplete or
out-of-date bibliography and literature review). But others will be specific to your
field.
Don’t isolate yourself and your work process.
Seek out readers, and more experienced people in your field who can provide good
advice.
Don’t take criticism personally.
Helpful feedback and criticism will be directed towards the proposal you have
written, rather than you as a person.

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General Tips – Two of Two
Proofread and edit.
Get people you know to read it.
Sloppy writing makes a proposal less convincing and less successful.
Stick with the word count and the page count.
Don’t submit a document that is substantially longer than what is asked for.
This will never impress readers and reviewers. It may often be an automatic deal breaker.
Learn from previous proposals that you have submitted.
If a previous proposal was rejected, address the feedback and criticism that you received.
Keep copies of rejected proposals. You can often reuse substantial parts of them in future
applications.
Sometimes proposals are rejected simply because of the nature of the competition, not
because the proposal was poor.

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Letters of Recommendation

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Letters of Recommendation
• Letters of Recommendation are the part of an application that you will have the least
amount of control over.
• Stating the obvious: in many cases, the letter will be confidential, so you will
never get to see it or know exactly what someone is saying about you.
• But you can still have some influence over what your letters will look like.
• Your goal should be to have people who write letters that support you without
reservations.
• You want to provide, explicitly or implicitly, evidence and examples that the
person writing you the letter can use and discuss.

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Finding Referees
• In graduate school, finding people to write you letters should start to get easier than
in undergraduate school.
• In research programs, your primary supervisor will be a key person.
• You can also try to cultivate connections with other faculty members in your
department or program.
• A letter that talks about your work in other areas, including teaching, can be a
significant asset.

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Helping your referees write a good letter
• Experienced faculty members will have already written hundreds of letters of
recommendation, so they will likely need little help or guidance from you.
• Simply try to give them clear and concise information about what the letter should
emphasize, what exactly it is for, and when and how it needs to be submitted.
• Even creating a short list of examples that you can share with a referee can be
helpful.
• Spreadsheets and calendar reminders can be a helpful tool.
• Some faculty members will need reminders to submit letters on time. Figure out a
way to make this work with them (polite email reminders, dropping by their office,
etc.).

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Following up
• Regardless of the outcome of your application, follow up with the people who wrote
you letters to let them know what happened, and what your next plans are.
• Be sure to thank and acknowledge your referees for their help and support.
• The best thanks you can provide are clear and timely details about what the letter is
for, and when and how it needs to be submitted.

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Finding Scholarships

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Finding relevant scholarships
• For specific advice about scholarships, keep connected with faculty, staff, and
students in your program/department.
• They will have the best information about scholarships and deadline; they
can also keep you informed about upcoming deadlines, including those that
may be specific to your department or program.

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Places to look
• Awards Database: https://iac01.ucalgary.ca/FGSA/Public/PublicHome.aspx
• Alberta Provincial Scholarships:
https://studentaid.alberta.ca/scholarships/?c=all
• For more detailed questions, contact your Graduate Program Administrator,
or gsaward@ucalgary.ca.

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Resources That Can Help You

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UCalgary Support for Scholarships
• https://grad.ucalgary.ca/awards/award-opportunities/graduate-award-
competition
• FGS Awards workshop
• Monday, November 28, 2022
• 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm (MT)
• One-on-one mentoring
• Graduate Leaders Circle mentoring and drop-in sessions for support

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Writing Support
• https://www.ucalgary.ca/student-services/student-success/writing-support
• One-on-one writing appointments with a tutor
• Grad Writing Community
• Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
• Mondays and Thursdays, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

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Academic Support
• https://ucalgary.ca/student-services/student-success/learning/graduate
• One-on-one appointments with an Academic Strategist or Academic
Development Specialist
• Book at https://elevate.ucalgary.ca/home.htm
• Select Student Success Centre, then Academic Success
• Then select Book by Appointment Type and “Graduate School and Award
Application Support.”

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Additional Resources
• Jessica McCrory Calarco, A Field Guide to
Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden
Curriculum (Princeton University Press,
2020).
• A helpful guide.
• Much of the advice is focused on
American schools, but still mostly
applicable for Canada.
• University library has an e-copy.

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Additional Resources
• Karen Kelsky, The Professor Is In:
The Essential Guide to Turning Your
Ph.D. Into a Job (Crown, 2015).
• More focused on people who may
want to pursue a career as a faculty
member.
• But lots of helpful information
about working with a supervisor
and navigating the culture of
graduate school.
• University library has an e-copy.

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Questions?
jaredjohn.secord@ucalgary.ca