For some unknown reason, it’s extremely hard to write or talk about yourself. Consider for a moment one of the questions most often askedby the interviewers. You know, the “Tell a story that illustrates your strongest quality”question. From the top of my mind, I would answer “When I was a kid I used to think that swing was a rocket that would take me to the moon if I swung high enough — so I guess it’s my vivid imagination?”
Luckily, you have more time to prepare and organize your written personal statement. Having said that, a personal statement is probably the hardest piece to create regardless of its use. You have to make sure that you have a gripping beginning, solid main part, and a punchy conclusion.Learning from examples is a good way to get familiar with different techniques and styles, so before you start writing, look for essays for sale online or get some free samples from your writing center.
Here is a list of useful tips that you should consider using while composing your own personal statement.
1. Ask yourself what must be on your statement
Personal statements are quite widespread. Their primary purpose is vetting big lists of candidates. This is an excellent possibility for a school, a company, or a person to learn more about you before seeing you face to face. That is why personal statements should be crafted for a particular occasion, highlighting qualities that a reader will be seeking out.
Often enough, they will ask you to answer a question or explore a controversial topic in your essay. However, sometimes there are no prompts. You will have to think which qualities are the key ones for the target school or position. Try to assess yourself honestly and chose sought-after skills and character traits that you possess or the ones that can compensate for the lack of them.
2. Outline your ideas before you start writing
After you have brainstormed your strongest qualities, try to think which situations illustrate them the best. Make a plan and outline what you need to say before you start composing. This step will help you to keep your ideas organized, and it will ensure that you will have a well-written and interesting statement.
Make sure to put the attention hook at the beginning of your essay that will catch the interest of your readers and will keep them in until they’ve read the whole thing through. An outline will also help you in keeping track of word count. Sometimes there are no defined limits. Still, it pays off to be succinct.Try to revisit your statement later and look for some words or sentences that you can trim down without undermining your statement’s purpose.
3. Talk to others
As I have already mentioned, sometimes it is extremely hard to think of your own best qualities, so have others do it for you!
Before you start composing, talk to your family and friends. Find out what they see as unique about you. Ask them if there is anything they want to say to you that would be useful, or what they think makes you stand out among other candidates. You may be pleasantly surprised to hear what they have to say.
4. Address holes that may show up
If you are composing a statement for academic purposes, clarify the things that may not align or match well together. For instance, if you did not do well on a couple of your classes, you most likely don’t have a stellar GPA. Still, you may have a high ACT/SAT score. In this case, when somebody is looking through your materials (e.g., transcript, test scores, and so forth) they may be confused by the mismatched information. Use your statement to clarify what was happening in your life, your mistakes, and errors, or how your attitude towards school has changed through the years.
5. Have another person proofread your composition
Poor language, bad sentence structure, and spelling mistakes are a sureway to have your application rejected. You should ask someone with strong proofreading skills to check your essay. Remember, any piece of writing should go through proofreading to be more accurate and consistent in terms of spelling, formatting, and grammar. Particularly, something as important for your future, as personal statement.
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