a personal statement writing workshop

a personal statement writing workshop

The Art of Crafting a Compelling Personal Statement: A Practical Guide

1. Introduction to Personal Statements

The personal statement is arguably one of the most important parts of your application. For many schools, colleges, and organizations, the personal statement represents an untimed, unfiltered look at who you are, what you value, and why you want to pursue further education or a specific career. The importance of this letter or essay cannot be overstated. A poorly executed personal statement is likely an application killer. A boring, dry personal statement really leaves no explanation as to why you might be a good fit and leaves little impression with the committee. It is likely that an audience of writing professionals will quickly see through unoriginal text. If the audience deals with personal statements most, they are going to catch any hint of plagiarism.

In recent years, the personal statement has grown beyond the traditional application for various professional and academic programs. Offered as a writing requirement by colleges and program coordinators, the personal statement admits you the rare opportunity to have your voice heard. In an era of impersonal messaging, where your every communication can be subject to public scrutiny, it’s no wonder that more and more individuals, from a variety of professional and cultural backgrounds, are working on personal statements. The professional personal statement fills multiple purposes. In the case of students who are applying to schools, it is often a chance to show the recruiters why you are a good fit, even if (on paper and in testing) you don’t meet their other requirements. It is not unusual for students to boast about the accomplishment, character, and potential.

2. Understanding the Purpose and Audience

Purpose & Audience: Crafting your statement for who’s reading it

In crafting a personal statement, the first thing you ought to concern yourself with is the document’s purpose. Are you going to be submitting it with college or grad school applications? To apply for a job or internship? For scholarship consideration? The answer to this question makes all the difference in terms of what kind of content you should include and the general tone you should use.

Rest assured, you will likely need to draft more than one personal statement in the course of your academic or professional career—one that goes to potential employers, one that you send to admission committees, one that goes to scholarship boards, etc. While it can be helpful to have a “master” personal statement to pull from, simply sending the same statement to each of these groups is not a good approach. Each reader has a distinct set of interests and expectations that will dictate what they hope to see in your document and what they’re looking for from you.

So who are they, exactly? How can you figure out what they want? By conducting an audience analysis, of course! Think about the organization to which you are applying or by which you are employed and the values and experiences that they are placing a premium on when evaluating candidates. These are the elements you will want to emphasize in your personal statement. There’s only one of you—let your readers know why that’s a good thing!

3. Structuring Your Personal Statement

As mentioned, the Association of American Medical Colleges Guide (AAMC guide) offers good advice on ideal content to include in the personal statement. Thinking through the content, however, might be easier if one has a sense of structure first. So before I offer suggestions relating to content and craft, I’d like to propose a basic outline that might provide a good starting point: statement as introduction, body, conclusion. More specifically, one might want to consider introducing with a narrative, establishing the focus of the personal statement early, focusing the majority of the paper on accomplishments compatible with your newfound interest, and ending energetically.

It is a false dichotomy to say that content or delivery is more important in an entrance or fellowship application piece. Both are equally important, and neither can stand alone. Great prose cannot shore up a weak idea, and wonderful content cannot lend weight to an incoherent or incomprehensible narrative. Good application writing reads well, is structured well, and, most importantly, is crafted and digested with the reviewers’ time and attention in mind. Having a single main idea coherent throughout the body with examples is optimal. Many students feel that if they must discuss numerous experiences, they should write numerous thematically similar essays, and that readers will understand that the writer is a bundle of great attributes, expressed differently in different situations (yet every essay comes to the same conclusion!). This technique does not work. Identifying a few central themes or important events and weaving them throughout the personal statement is optimal.

4. Crafting a Compelling Narrative

“Show, Don’t Tell.” The adage summons the idea that a narrative, with specific, concrete details and evocative scenes, can engage the reader more than a firsthand account of the thoughts and feelings of the writer. It can be harder to write about one’s self indirectly through experience, but it can also be more powerful for readers, who can draw their own conclusions without feeling as if the writer themselves is attempting persuasion. Now, these two goals—writing about experience meaningfully and appealing to a reader—come together in personal voice. By tying storytelling more directly effective in the personal statement to decisions about connecting your experiences with your readers, it becomes easier to keep the essay focused. Answers to questions like “Whose stories and which stories do I most want to tell?” can help you to keep focus and limit material for your personal statement.

Exercises: One Device to Think About What to Include: The Six Ws—Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How—can be a helpful analytical tool for events from your past. Try asking each question of an event, to see whether anything particularly compelling emerges from the answers. Trying news-writing inverted pyramid analysis. “Just the facts, ma’am.” The idea of the inverted pyramid is that the most important and compelling details are included in the first sentence or paragraph of a story. In a personal statement, we often have longer anecdotes or stories to tell, but, like everything, you can start the story time with a paragraph of summary. In your personal statement, you may want to begin your story with a brief paragraph to set the scene before starting your relevant, intriguing story. After drafting this summary paragraph, go into great detail—tell the story. Then evaluate: what is most important about this story? What should the reader understand about your character or perceptions of the world to which the story speaks? Where can you cut details that you love to make space for this reader understanding? Can you move the story paragraph up to your opening?

5. Editing and Refining Your Personal Statement

The editing or “refining” stage can make or break your personal statement. What are the qualities that put a reviewer off your application? A lack in conciseness, coherence, clarity, and credibility. You can avoid these pitfalls by using the following four-pronged strategy: Write clearly, then edit for conciseness and coherence. Finally, edit while reading specifically for credibility.

How to edit your personal statement: 1. Invest in a little bit of time away from your essay so that you can gain insight. 2. Reread your draft and mark any passages that strike you as unclear. Can you explain them in a clearer, more straightforward manner without making it longer? 3. Reread your draft with a critical eye on the flow. Does the story hold together logically? Would a sub-heading or transitional phrase here or there make a huge difference? 4. Reread your draft twice through, once with an eye on your personal connection to your theme and once with an eye on your intended career. Be honest: have you shown the qualities and experience that will make you an excellent candidate? If you aren’t sure, show it to a friend and ask for an honest critique.

Common errors in personal statements: – Failing to answer the prompt or questions asked – Relying exclusively on cliches – Writing what you think the admissions committee wants to read – Including information that won’t have any relevance to the admissions process – Saying that you’re better than other candidates without providing a reason – Using flowery, figurative language that doesn’t enhance the message in the statement

You could opt for a change in formulation or transition to make your essay clearer and to connect it with your main idea or point. At this stage, also refocus on your statement’s intended career or professional goal. Proofreading Technique: It is important to proofread carefully and recognize that your spell-checker may not find all the spelling and grammar errors that may exist. Make sure to read and reread your statement to find any errors that might affect your credibility. Spelling mistakes can make it appear as if you haven’t put a lot of effort into your application. If you’re not a strong writer, make friends with your college or post-bac students who excel in this arena. Ask them, in exchange for future readings on their personal statement drafts or a bottle of their favorite beverage, to spend an hour for grammar and punctuation.