In this lesson we are going to focus on developing a personal statement. Think of a personal statement as your written story. It is a story that outlines the skills and background that you have that make you an ideal candidate for a position. The personal statement gives the reviewing committee a glimpse of who you are and how you may fit into their program. It is your first opportunity to demonstrate who you are and the amazing qualities you bring!
Review the Required Resources thoroughly BEFORE going through the Graded Activities. Please be aware of the due dates associated with this lesson.
Required Resources
Definition of a Personal Statement
(Estimated time to complete: 5 minutes)
A personal statement can be referred to in many different ways: personal essay, reflective essay, statement of purpose, or narrative. Regardless of what it is referred to as, personal statements often play an integral role in achieving your academic and career goals. View the document Definition of a Personal Statement for further explanation of the personal statement.
The Three Types of Prompts
(Estimated time to complete: 2 minutes)
There are generally three types of prompts (i.e., questions) used to guide how to draft a personal statement:
- An open question: Tell us about yourself.
- A specific question: Why do you want to join our program?
- A list of questions: What are some experiences that have helped to prepare you for your career? What are your short-term and long-term goals? What are your strengths and weaknesses or areas needing improvement?
However, there are other examples of personal statement questions. It is very important that when drafting your personal statement ensure you respond to prompts provided.
Enjoy the Process
(Estimated time to complete: 10 minutes)
It is important to not wait until the last minute to begin working on your personal statement as a great personal statement is an outcome of time and a reflective process. View personal statements – finding a formula (4:45 minutes) for a general overview of the process of writing a personal statement.
More specifically the personal statement process goes as follows:
(The process of writing a personal statement)
Each of these steps has been outlined below.
(Step 1 of the personal statement writing process)
In step 1, the focus is to prepare. You need to ensure that you demonstrate a clear understanding of the program, the audience, and/or the career path. This may mean you need to do some homework finding out information. The world wide web is an excellent resource that you can use! You will also need to do some personal reflection on your skills, background, and personal goals. The Purdue OWL: Writing a Personal statement page has a section on questions to ask yourself before you write that can be very useful in this process. When doing your reflection to these questions write down your thoughts as this can give you a jump start on writing your personal statement. These reflective questions often align with the specific prompts provided for the personal statement.
(Step 2 of the personal statement writing process)
In step 2, our attention now is on organizing your story and developing your plan (aka your outline). You want to ensure that your personal statement provides the hiring committee a complete personal story that is connected from beginning to end. For example, your personal statement should have a purpose that is connected to your career goals. Your career goals should be connected to your academic background and previous accomplishments. And finally, all of this should be aligned with how the program fits into your career goals and why that program is an excellent fit for you. You can use the notes that you jotted down from your reflection in step 1 as a starting point.
In addition, you want to ensure that you are crafting a story that is relevant to the position you are applying to. For example, if applying to attend a graduate program in early childhood nutrition you will want to craft a story that is relevant to early childhood nutrition. It is also important that you craft a positive and exciting story! You want reviewers to be excited about you!
(Step 3 of the personal statement writing process)
In step 3, we start to draft our personal statement. When drafting your personal statement ensure that is has a purpose, it addresses the why, and it is personal to you. Avoid the use of cliches or metaphors such as ‘from a young age’, ‘since I was a child’, ‘I’ve always been fascinated by’, ‘I have a thirst for knowledge’, ‘the world we live in today’, or ‘winning the big game.’ The same holds true for quotations. Reviewers want to know what YOU think not what others think. You will also want to be as specific as possible. You want to show, not tell, the selection committee. For example, stating I have a 4.0 GPA shows the selection committee your academic standing vs stating I have an impressive academic record. When drafting read through it several times. Reading out loud can be very helpful too! You will also want to give it others to read (peers, relatives, instructors, supervisors, etc). Students at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa can also take advantage of the Writing Center and ask for feedback on their personal statement from a writing consultant. Do not worry about getting it right the first time!
(Step 4 of the personal statement writing process)
Step 4 is when you start to polish your personal statement. In this step you are revising your personal statement based on the feedback you get from others. You will also be re-examining the content to ensure that every paragraph has a main idea that relates to the statements overall purpose. One approach that you can use is to create a reverse outline. A reverse outline forces you to state in one, brief sentence the main idea from every paragraph. After completing, you can evaluate your reverse outline to verify that all of the main ideas connect with your overall purpose. Keep in mind that this step will take time to complete.
(Step 5 of the personal statement writing process)
The final part of the process is step 5 when you do your final editing. In this step you want to ensure that there are no grammatical errors. You also want to ensure that your personal statement is not too “wordy” by looking for words used repeatedly and for excessive adjectives. One example is instead of stating that I often have to wait at a remote, poorly-lit bus station on hot, humid, early mornings joined by only a few other isolated souls to go to work just state that My enthusiasm for the job makes waking up early and catching the bus worthwhile. In this step make sure to pay attention to page/word limitations. Keep in mind that 1000 words is equivalent to 2 pages single space.
Important Points To Remember
(Estimated time to complete:8 minutes)
When drafting your personal statement please remember these important points:
- Great writing is a process, do not expect your first draft to be your best draft!
- Make sure to ask for feedback
- Edit thoroughly as grammatical errors will not be looked upon positively
- Use clear and consistent language
- Follow instructions
- If prompts (e.g., questions such as Tell us about yourself or Why are you applying to this program?) are provided make sure you address them in your statement
- Follow page length or word count recommendations
- Be honest
The Purdue Online Writing Lab has some excellent information on this topic including general advice on Writing a Personal statement and the Top 10 Rules and Pitfalls.
This lesson was adapted from the resources provided by the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Writing Center.