Personal Statement
i_am_poem.docx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | docx |
ib_learner_poem.doc | |
File Size: | 26 kb |
File Type: | doc |
This is where you will tell about yourself. You want your reader to know who you are.
Through a personal statement, you introduce yourself to the audience ; it reflects your personality and intellect. It is important that you read each question carefully and make every effort to understand and respond to it with well-considered responses and in a persuasive enough manner to hold the reader’s interest.
1. Understand and Explain Yourself
One of the main problems when writing is that we fail to take a thorough and analytical look at ourselves and our purpose. The audience is looking for interesting, insightful, revealing, and non-generic writing that suggest you have successfully gone through a process of careful reflection and self-examination.
2. Set Yourself Apart
Your audience is looking for something PERSONAL and ANALYTICAL. This means sharing information you rarely share with others and assessing your life more critically than usual. This approach is key to a successful personal statement.
Exercise: In order to begin writing your personal statement – your story—you’ll need to answer some basic questions to prepare yourself.
Questions:
Be truthful and stick to the facts; yet, think of your personal statement in the terms of writing a story. You want to write something that is fresh, lively, and different. A personal statement MUST be MEMORABLE. Review your life very carefully (get help from family or friends if necessary) for experiences that reveal who you are.
Find an Angle
If you are like most people, your life story might well lack significant drama, so figuring out a way to make it interesting becomes the big challenge. Finding an angle is vital. Brainstorm for ideas that emphasize your exceptional qualities, goals, past performances.
Concentrate on Your Opening Paragraph
Keep in mind when composing your statement that the lead or OPENING PARAGRAPH IS generally the MOST IMPORTANT. Here you either GRAB the readers attention or lose it. If you are telling a story you will use this first paragraph to introduce the elements most relevant to that story—and the ones that will hold greatest interest for the reader.
Tell Who You Are
The audience needs to get a sense of who you are, what makes you tick, and how you are unique. They should be interested in you, eager to hear more, impressed that what you are saying to them is not what they have read a thousand times before.
Sometimes a personal statement can be perfectly well written in terms of language and grammar, but disastrous in lacking punch or impact and in being totally off the mark concerning what it chooses to present about you. Remember, what is most important about your personal statement is what you say and how you say it!
What do you like to do?
What is your favorite subject?
Who are your friends?
What is your favorite book?
What sports do you play?
What instrument do you play?
What should schools have more/less of?
What are you best at?
What do you struggle with?
Who do you live with?
What do you hope?
What do you wonder?
Through a personal statement, you introduce yourself to the audience ; it reflects your personality and intellect. It is important that you read each question carefully and make every effort to understand and respond to it with well-considered responses and in a persuasive enough manner to hold the reader’s interest.
1. Understand and Explain Yourself
One of the main problems when writing is that we fail to take a thorough and analytical look at ourselves and our purpose. The audience is looking for interesting, insightful, revealing, and non-generic writing that suggest you have successfully gone through a process of careful reflection and self-examination.
2. Set Yourself Apart
Your audience is looking for something PERSONAL and ANALYTICAL. This means sharing information you rarely share with others and assessing your life more critically than usual. This approach is key to a successful personal statement.
Exercise: In order to begin writing your personal statement – your story—you’ll need to answer some basic questions to prepare yourself.
Questions:
- What is special, unique, distinctive, or impressive about you or your life story? What details of your life (personal or family problems/ history, any genuinely notable accomplishments, people or events that have shaped you or influenced your goals) might help the audience better understand you?
- What have you learned (leadership, friendship, managing your time and work, values, for example), and how has it contributed to your personal growth?
- What are your goals?
- Are there any gaps or discrepancies in your academic record that you should explain (great grades and mediocre NWEA scores, for example), or a distinct improvement in your grade(s) if it was only average in the beginning?
- Have you had to overcome any unusual obstacles or hardships in your life, a what have you learned from it?
- What personal characteristic (integrity, compassion, persistence, for example) do you possess? How will/do these characteristics help you now? Is there a way to demonstrate or document that you have these characteristics?
- What skills (leadership, communicative, analytical, for example) do you possess?
Be truthful and stick to the facts; yet, think of your personal statement in the terms of writing a story. You want to write something that is fresh, lively, and different. A personal statement MUST be MEMORABLE. Review your life very carefully (get help from family or friends if necessary) for experiences that reveal who you are.
Find an Angle
If you are like most people, your life story might well lack significant drama, so figuring out a way to make it interesting becomes the big challenge. Finding an angle is vital. Brainstorm for ideas that emphasize your exceptional qualities, goals, past performances.
Concentrate on Your Opening Paragraph
Keep in mind when composing your statement that the lead or OPENING PARAGRAPH IS generally the MOST IMPORTANT. Here you either GRAB the readers attention or lose it. If you are telling a story you will use this first paragraph to introduce the elements most relevant to that story—and the ones that will hold greatest interest for the reader.
Tell Who You Are
The audience needs to get a sense of who you are, what makes you tick, and how you are unique. They should be interested in you, eager to hear more, impressed that what you are saying to them is not what they have read a thousand times before.
Sometimes a personal statement can be perfectly well written in terms of language and grammar, but disastrous in lacking punch or impact and in being totally off the mark concerning what it chooses to present about you. Remember, what is most important about your personal statement is what you say and how you say it!
What do you like to do?
What is your favorite subject?
Who are your friends?
What is your favorite book?
What sports do you play?
What instrument do you play?
What should schools have more/less of?
What are you best at?
What do you struggle with?
Who do you live with?
What do you hope?
What do you wonder?