Personal Statements

Applying for an admission or scholarship to any national or international university requires a person to submit either filled hard copy or an online application form. Attaching certified documents, financial statement, English Proficiency test result and 3 recommendation letters are the pre-mandatory items to be submitted along with an application form. But the real problem occurs at the time, when a person is required to write a personal statement as a part of an application.

Personal statement is now a very common self-written document to be presented by a candidate for the assessment of his/her skills to the review committee. It is a binding item of an application of a good profile university. Even multi national companies ask for it from job seekers. If a person wants fund for research, effective personal statement can help grant authorities to consider your application. Unfortunately, not a single public or private university offers such courses for the students, from which they can learn writing an effective personal statement.

Personal Statement is sometimes called College or University Admission Essay or Statement of Purpose. It is a document, to be prepared by a person, who either seeks admission or scholarship. It is an opportunity to reflect your personality. Briefly, it describes you, your life, your goals and your future plans.

There are two types of Personal Statement. General and comprehensive statement is often prepared for standard medical or law schools. It gives you liberty to write whatever could expose you the best. Example, tell us about yourself and your goals or why do you want to do this course? The second type asks for the response to either specific or multiple questions. These are mostly prepared by the applicant applying to business, teaching, graduate schools/ organizations/agencies. It gives you less freedom, but still important to be thoughtful and persuasive. Example, tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you and how does it relate to the person you are?

Remember, personal statement is not like an ordinary college essay. It is the most formal document to be written by self. If you're determined to write a personal statement, then you need to be skilful in good grammar, strong vocabulary, sentence formation, paragraph formation, editing and summarizing skills, to write an effective piece.

The very first step to begin with is to read all the questions thoroughly to see if there are overlaps or similarities in the questions. Understand the questions and just focus on it. Once you are done with it, the next step is to brain storm the ideas. Reflect your thoughts and make a mind map out of it. Collect the points which come in your mind. It will eventually help you to compile a productive statement later. You can brain storm about your personal background; development of your interest in the field you applying for; your specific experiences that helped you explore and identify your career interest; any unique, distinctive, and/or impressive about you or your life story; about any work you did as an intern; your career goals; any special research, academic work, employment, volunteers experience, which you have performed so far; your strengths and weaknesses; any obstacles, which you encountered in your life; any unique skills that demonstrate the depth of your experience in the field, etc. All these refection will give you a rough data, which could be used to begin with your personal statement.

After collecting points, begin your formal statement. Do not give any heading to your statement. Keep in mind not to write in the third person and do not use the passive voice. Concentrate on your opening paragraph. This paragraph becomes the framework for the rest of the statement. It either grabs the reader's attention or loses it. Don't write more than 3-5 lines in your initial paragraph. Give your brief introduction and then turn towards the main questions. Use short sentences and avoid long ones. Don't discuss extra things in the opening. You can keep that aside for including in the following paragraphs.

Try to narrate your statement in the form of a story. Remember, if your statement is fresh, lively, and different, you'll be putting yourself ahead of the pack. After concluding your opening paragraph, begin answering the question/s asked in detail in the form of paragraphs. Do not form so many paragraphs. The best idea is to break your statement into paragraph, when new ideas start.

Forming statement require vigorous practice. Be specific and write about your experience/s and any problems you faced in your life in brief. Do not forget to add your achievements and career goals. Do lots of research about the particular organization or university applying for, and add some good about them in general. Give only logical examples and add some quotes to support your statement, where necessary

End your statement on a high note. Strong ending may leave the reader with a final positive image of you. You can summarize the whole essay. It is wise to end your statement with a conclusion that refers back to the lead and restates your topic.

Finally, review your statement and rephrase it again and again. If it exceeds the limit, summarize it and omit all unnecessary lines. Delete the repetitive sentences. Substitute high vocabulary with suitable synonym. Check for grammar and sentence formation. You can proof read the statement to correct any mistake or could make it re-check by your teacher.

Do not plagiarize any thing. If you have taken any point from any where, refer it, because plagiarize software could detect and you might get rejection instantly on doing such crime. Do not add humor or use slang language.

Try to use readable font size 12, Times New Roman and give line spacing of 1.5 after each line. Put your name and page number on each page.

Submit your final draft and wait for the good response from the selection committee. Your hard working will surely help you to garner the best result.