Who says that writing a personal statement is difficult? It can be challenging if you think about how you should make it attention-grabbing and interesting. However, if you follow the basics in personal statement writing, you won’t have as much difficulty writing a winning essay.
NJBMD’s Blog has a lot of things to share about writing a personal statement. Here are some great suggestions:
Start jotting down ideas
You need to list down the ideas that cross your mind. You can use them on your personal statement. Here’s how it is done:
Write down a list of words or phrases that describe you as an individual. You can certainly start anywhere with anything such as your “likes” and “dislikes,” your favorite activities, activities that you enjoy daily or do not enjoy, or persons that have strongly influenced you. This “idea” list need not be detailed but should be as descriptive or related to you as possible.
You have to choose the best and the most interesting ideas to include in your essay. You don’t have to write everything you have listed down, but choose those that would best describe who you are and what makes you a good candidate for school admission.
Write a personal statement outline
An outline will serve as your guide when you write your personal statement. According to the blog:
Outlines should be logical and should help your ideas from from one to the next as you present your evidence or data to support your original thesis or hypothesis. Most people mistakenly place too much information in their outline which makes their document difficult to understand after it is written. Your outline should be brief and should leave plenty of room for you to “flesh out” your evidence.
The outline will help you organize and arrange your ideas well. The outline would give your essay a clear direction and help ensure coherence, from the main ideas to sub-topics and details.
Take time to write your personal statement
Time is an important element for success in writing your personal statement. If you have a lot of time, you can still do research and several revisions.
Writing your personal statement is something that needs to take many drafts and many revisions. It’s a good idea to allow a minimum of five people (who know you well) to assist you in the editing of this document. If one or two of your personal statement readers are excellent writers, then you will be fortunate indeed.
You shouldn’t submit your first draft if you want your essay to stand out and give you better chances of making it to the priority list. According to this article:
Do not submit your first draft. You need to leave time to rewrite and revise. Start early and leave plenty of time.
Your personal statement can be polished to perfection if you just start writing your essay as early as possible. The first thing to do is to write your ideas down and make an outline. Remember, you need to start your preparation as early as possible.
