Writing a Statement
Writing a personal statement helps clarify your personal qualities and your goals. The essay must be concise, reveal the qualities that identify you and define a strong sense of purpose. Most personal statements have length constraints.
Begin with an exercise in free-writing
Recall the powerful experiences or memories in your life
Highlight occasions when you felt the greatest accomplishment or pride in yourself
Identify the qualities about yourself that are unique
Identify people who have impacted your personal goals and direction in life
Describe the experiences and stories behind the accomplishments on your resume
Reflect on how you have learned from these experiences
Use these stories to begin working on your personal statement. Undoubtedly, a pattern or theme will emerge from your free-writing exercise that will help you choose the moments that are the most significant to you as a person and to your direction in life.
Create a draft of your personal statement
Share the personal qualities of your identity, outlook and life experiences
Communicate how your goals were shaped by your experiences
Describe what led you to care or become passionate about your goals
Explain how you have prepared to meet these goals
Connect your goals to the scholarship opportunity and to the organization’s goals and vision
Be a good storyteller and allow the relevant details to seamlessly unfold before the reader
Incorporate anecdotes and images into your writing
Resist restating your resume with a cataloge of accomplishments
Create an essay within the required length or word constraints
Re-writing and editing
Every essay requires editing
Show your first draft to several readers
Allow enough time between your first draft and subsequent drafts to reflect on content and organization
Be critical; write and rewrite.
Keep separate versions, if you are not sure you want to omit something permanently.
Edit multiple times and with multiple readers.