A written report by: Edison Tan
Are you struggling on how to start writing a Personal Statement? Well, I have been there too!
Just a few weeks before, I was instructed by Miss Sue, the principal of LAW, to write a Personal Statement of somewhere about 250 words for my LAW Internship application.
My first Personal Statement was indeed not a good one as the content was not what Miss Sue had asked for, but after using a set of guidelines given by Miss Sue, my Personal Statement became a whole lot better!
A good Personal Statement allows readers to understand the writer’s background to a certain length without having to meet them in person (a very handy thing to have when you need to impress someone), and below are the steps that I did in writing mine:
First, I started off with brainstorming some simple outline based on the question given.
- Topic of the writing
- Audience of this message
- Intention
- Goals that I hope to achieve on the readers
After identifying these key points of my Personal Statement, I proceeded with crafting my outline. I made sure to include my past achievement, present value and future beliefs in the outline I was making. I was also reminded to include my own strength and personalities to give reader a better idea of what kind of person I am, while also making sure that I only put in real information about myself.
This is an example of simple table that I created while writing:
Then, using the information similar to the template above, I began the actual writing process. I started off by creating the intro-like opening about myself to allow others to understand more about me and my personal values within a single paragraph.
Then, to boost the value of the first paragraph, I made effort to include my personality in my word choices and writing style. I also proceeded with talking about my future beliefs and things that I am trying to overcome to make my Personal Statement more personalised.
Finally, I gave my Personal Statement a final check before handing over to Miss Sue to make sure that it does not contain any typo. And that’s all for my Personal Statement!
For those who are curious: here is the Personal Statement I have completed for the assignment:
As mentioned earlier, knowing how to write a Personal Statement will go a long way in giving us a head start in seeking future opportunities. A well-written piece will not just make us look more confident and introspective (two very important qualities!) on paper, but would also help us in gaining a better clarity and conviction in what we are aiming for. Even when mentioning our personal challenges and shortcomings, a Personal Statement can still uplift the readers’ impression of ourselves (by making us look more human and authentic) when worded properly.
In short, a solid and robust Personal Statement is one of the most effective ways (if not the best) to demonstrate your written communication skills and create a good impression of yourself to your future employers and college admissions officers. Therefore, there is much to gain for yourself in learning how to write one well, which I hope you would find my sharing in this article useful when that time finally comes.
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