I like to call Fall semester “fellowship season” because it seems like everyone is applying for funds to do research, attend conferences, and finance their studies. No matter your discipline, the amount you need, or the requirements of the application, there is one consistent convention:

The structure of your first paragraph.

Have you ever considered who reads your application? A handful of faculty members and scholars unfamiliar with the specificities of your topic and possibly, your discipline. They aren’t paid to assess your application nor the 50-100+ other submissions.

Have you ever wondered when reviewers read your application? They conduct their reviews whenever they can squeeze time in between their teaching, advising, researching, service activities, and of course, private life. They are exhausted when they sit down to review. If this was you, how would you go about making value judgements on a stack of fellowship applications; what would you be looking for?

Most reviewers first conduct an initial and swift review of all applications. Their goal is to whittle down the pile of applications to a manageable handful. Often, reviewers organize the applications into three piles: “Yes,” “Maybe,” and “No.” Your goal is to make it into that “Yes” pile.

From the minute the reviewer begins reading your application, they are trying to understand (1) what you are studying; (2) why your project matters as a contribution; and (3) the feasibility of your proposed next steps. In this first read-through, the reviewer is skimming most of your application, but they are closely reading your first paragraph.

Thus, your opening paragraph is your best chance to make a strong impression on the reviewer; it situates them within your scholarship and the importance of your study.

Having read many fellowship applications, we at the Writing Center know that most research proposals feature excellent projects. But we also know that the difference between a proposal that is funded and one that is not rests on three elements that must be present in your first paragraph: (1) your first paragraph must be clear enough that someone with no knowledge of the subject can understand it; (2) the information must be communicated quickly; and (3) the stakes of the project must be communicated effectively.

Below, we’ve included five major questions that your first paragraph must answer:

• What is the object of your study? (A text, a pathogen, a relationship, a situation, etc.)
• What do scholars in your field generally agree upon? Is there scholarship regarding your object of study? What do we know already?
• What is missing in the existing scholarship, what has existing scholarship gotten wrong, or what has existing scholarship failed to account for?
• How will your project fill that gap?
• What are the stakes of your study — the broader implications? In other words, why is it important to fill this gap in knowledge?

Here at the Writing Center, we strongly urge you to take a minute and answer each of these five questions. Feel free to take notes, write down phrases, or, if you prefer, jot down full sentences. You’ll find through this exercise that you are crafting a compelling and exciting first paragraph, one that succinctly and clearly lets your reviewer know what you propose to do. And by making the reviewer’s job easier, you’ll be securing for yourself a place in that “YES” pile!