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Writing Your Way Into University
By
Elaine Millward
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This article is an essential
guide to how to edit the personal statement. In this
article Elaine Millward, encourages you to develop your
editing skills and get a perfect finished personal
statement.
Packed with advice and information, this article is
written for the vast numbers of students embarking on the
personal statement for the first time, she explains how to
use editing for your advantage.
This article has been written as a mini guide to writing
the personal statement. The Get Into Uni personal
statement writing guide contains systematic instructions
on the techniques to help increase the odds of your
application, however this article contains a short guide
to writing your way into university. For most potential
students there are some clear reasons why they wish to
embark on university. The single best reason is that the
subject area fascinates the reader. This article will
offer insight into how you should approach your personal
statement.
One of the typical complaints of Admission Officers is
that student personal statements all seem the same;
unfortunately, students normally read a number of sample
statements on the internet and automatically write a
typical personal statement from the range of available
sample personal statements found on websites. It is
important to put yourself in the shoes of the admissions
officer: why would your application be unique, how are you
different from the other candidates? Primarily you need to
decide how you will divide your personal statement into
digestible chucks. The most obvious way is to divide into
paragraphs of 100 words. If you aim for between 500 and
600 words at most, it will help your admission officer
when they have to read thousands of personal statements to
find the perfect student.
So let’s take a look at the way your personal statement
should be structured? If you spent, time analysing our
sample personal statements you will see that each
paragraph revolves around one particular incident or the
subject area of study. Although the personal statement
should logically flow from start to finish, none the less,
unlike a book with a distinctive story running through it
and building up to a climax, a personal statement is
episodic in style and content so that each paragraph
stands out.
In planning your paragraphs, you must give the admissions
officer a glow so they will wish to continue the next
section. To illustrate the structure, let’s take a look
at the typical personal statement organisation. The first
paragraph will need to be an exciting and dynamic
narrative to capture the readers attention, the subsequent
paragraphs should outline why you wish to study for your
particular field followed by a compelling powerful final
paragraph with strong action verbs to give your reader the
final push to admit you.
You may find it helpful to prepare a brief synopsis or
outline of the way you see your personal statement
developing. It doesn’t have to be very long or detailed
and, like most personal statements outlines, you do not
have to stick to it if, as you go along, you find a better
route for your journey. Keep it simple and let it serve
merely as a quick reminder of where you’re going. It
might run like this: First memory – seeing my new baby
brother in my mother’s arms. Nursing experience –
volunteer in residential nursing home. Visiting the baby
clinic – desires to become a midwife sufficed. Goals for
the future – career ambitions.
It is important to cover whatever period you intend to
include in your personal statement because time spent
planning your sequence and the method you feel happiest
with will undoubtedly make the actual writing that much
easier for you.
The biggest problem you will find is finding the topics of
discussion in your personal statement and selecting those
topics you want to use and which topics you wish to leave
out. Remember that with any form of writing you are
practicing the art form. Get Into Uni Oxford Educated
editors edit the personal statements for our customers. A
while ago, I was asked to take a critical look at a
personal statement which spanned the students life from
age two to eighteen and it made gripping reading but was
far too long and the student had not been selective enough
in the abundance of material she choose from. The word
count ran to 1,500 words – far too long for a personal
statement. The task of reducing your personal statement
can be enthusiastically undertaken but the problem is that
you need to look at your original brainstormed ideas to
organise your material for the selection process. The only
criterion you need to apply at this stage is this incident
of sufficient interest to the admission officer.
I hope that you agree a powerful beginning is of paramount
importance or we will quickly lose the Admission Officers
interest. Then, once having captured his or hers
attention, we have to make sure your personal statement
ending is dynamic and in the right place. Each paragraph
should be pleasing to the reader and you need to write a
natural conclusion. Chekhov once said that the essence of
good style is simplicity. The best advice is therefore, to
keep it simple.
Get Into Uni offers students personal statement editing
and tips on how you can get an edge over the competition
when applying for university. The website includes sample
personal statements, a free writing guide, and
End Note:
Your personal statement is crucial to your application.
Planning your personal statement is therefore your fist
step to success. Gain competitive advantage and order the
best editing service on the web.
Get Into Uni qualified professional writers will edit your
statement to perfection – ensuring your application is
noticed. We recognise that you are unique and, therefore,
you will receive customised advice from your personal
writer. Increase your chances today!
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