What's in a Personal Statement

Preparing a personal statement can be extremely frustrating, challenging, and create writer's block. As difficult as it can be for some individuals to write down their ideas on paper, it is always more challenging to create sharp, witty, and innovative writing when it is about you. It's quite challenging to not have a subjective view when writing about you. However, that is the beauty of writing a personal statement. You are writing to inform others about your uniqueness in a particular experience, field, and characteristics or attributes.

You generally are writing a personal statement for college entrance, a scholarship essay, or often were asked to because you are going to be speaking at an event. Whatever the circumstances, you will want to write a good essay that provides information about your personal experiences and your life and how these contributed to the person that you are today. You might share how certain events in your life have prepared you for an attitude that you are seeking a job in, or how you have maintained your sense of priorities when people around you have lost theirs. All of these can help make up a personal statement.

If you struggle with writing a personal statement, you can always seek assistance from school guidance counselors or close friends or even English teachers that can help shed some light on your essay and provide essay writing help.

In determining what you want to share in your personal statement consider what you want the audience or reader to take away from your statement. Do you want to share with them specific skills? This might be important if you were applying to music or other talent oriented school.

Do you want to share with them specific career goals? This might help show the reader how focused you are and motivated to succeed in a particular field or industry. Be ready to back up your statement with examples of how you plan to be determined in this career plan through school.

You could explain specific hardships that you've dealt with in your life and how they have shaped you into the person that you currently are today, and how you foresee this to be a benefit to your life goals and priorities. This personal experience can be used to share your values and your goals.

In general, within a personal statement you are sharing something that you are incredibly passionate about. You want to share with the reader the essence of who you are and why you stand out from others. Obviously, if you are providing a speech, you have the opportunity to add in nuances and expression, which a reader on the other side of your essay will not have the luxury of. So, you must work more diligently with your words to create the same ease from your reader.

Your personal statement should reflect you who you are at the core '" whether you are sharing with them your values, interests, priorities, career goals, or a funny story '" you are providing them with a piece of the puzzle that makes up who you are. You want to leave the personal statement where the reader is excited to meet you in person. With the right topic, your passion will clearly stand out.