Top Tips for Creating a Personal Statement - video transcript
Hi my name is Steve and I’m an Employability Advisor here at the University of Birmingham, and today we're going to be looking at personal statements for further study.
So today we're going to look at recognizing the audience for your statements, so that you can create content that meets their specific needs. We're going to look at how to structure a strong statements and also identify further resources that you might find helpful. Before you begin writing your statements, however, there are some things that you should consider.
Number one, how does this fit into my future plans? Why this course, and why this institution? Having a firm grasp on what makes the course and the institution unique amongst similar courses and similar institutions will help you provide a much stronger and more focused statements. You might want to ask do I have any relevant experience, do I meet the minimum requirements that one would need to study this course? And then also why does this subject interest me, because passion is a really important aspect of a personal statement.
So having a good understanding of why you're interested in in this particular subject is an absolute keystone to writing a strong statements. Put all of this together, imagine there's somebody from the course the admissions tutor, for instance, are standing in front of you, what are the reasons you'd give them for wanting to study that particular course if they were to be standing in front of you? Because this can really help you to focus upon the most important aspects of what you want to get out of this particular course, and area of study.
So who is your audience? Well they largely fit into two separate categories. Number one, there are admissions officers. Now these are often centralized within institutions, so what I mean by that is typically they don't really have any links to the specific course for which you wish to apply. They are going to be looking that you actually meet the minimum requirements to study the course. And if you meet all those requirements, your application will be passed on to the admissions tutor who is far more likely to be directly connected with your course. So they're going to be looking at your suitability and potential. They're going to want to know about your long term plans and how studying on that course will support it and further those aims. So a personal statements can often be called a supporting statements. Below, we have an example of the type of language used. So “approximately 5000 characters explaining why you were interested in studying on your chosen program”.
Now it's important to note that sometimes you'll have something quite broad that they might ask you, but sometimes they might phrase it in slightly different ways. And it might be phrased in one of the following ways. So, for instance, why do you want to undertake the program or research, what are your academic interests, why do you wish to study at our university, do you have any relevant work experience what are your career aspirations? They might phrase it in lots of different ways, but ultimately what you were trying to do with your personal statements is to provide evidence of the relevant skills experiences and ambitions that make you a particularly good fit for this specific course at this specific institution. For vocational courses, they often strict limits, so, for instance, in terms of teaching or law. So for teaching it has to be 47 lines or 4000 characters, whereas law via CAB it's, 10,000 characters so it can possibly be different from course the course, and institution to institution.
Now I’d just like to talk a little bit about structure. Your structure should fall into three main areas when it comes to a personal statement writing. Number one, your introduction, and this is where you want to grab the reader’s interest, create your personal hook. Then we have the content, which is going to take up around about 80% at least of the statement, and this is where you're going to evidence why you're such a great fit for their course and why their courses such a great fit for you. And then, to bring it full circle we're going to look at your closing statements and here you're going to summarize why this is the perfect or preferred next step for your career.
So, in terms of the introduction. You want to be short and focused and to the point you don't want to begin with a complete history of your interest in this subject keep your focus on why you want to study that subject at this particular institution on this course. And it should be really, really clear in the first paragraph, what you're applying for so do include the full name of the course and the institution. Also, you want to get across why you want to study the course so try this if you can to sum it up in one sentence again imagine if somebody from the course was standing in front of you. And they say tell me in 10 seconds why you want to study this course, what would you tell them and that can be that can help to form a good basis for the why of your introduction.
So now we have an example from a personal statements and I’m going to talk you through some good and some not so good elements of it. So, starting on the first line it's great that they mentioned, they want to study an MA in Publishing they are very specific there. And they go on to say that it will give them the opportunity to learn and develop, and this is great, but here we note that they say skills that would help me to pursue a career in the publishing industry. Now there is area here in which they can improve this is an opportunity to highlight some specific skills that they wish to gain and add in specifics like this, shows that you have a firm understanding of what the course offers can help you to stand out. They then go on to mention the name of the institution, and that was a range of modules both theoretical and practical again this is great, because it shows, they have an understanding of the different elements of the course they even go on to specify a specific module in e-publishing, which is really, really good again it's showing that we have specific knowledge. But then we fall into another area here where it could be improved again they say it will give me the opportunity to learn skills, but they don't say which skills. This again is an area where they could be more specific and help them stand out.
Now we're going to talk a little bit about the content for your personal statements. We like to break it down into what we call the four P's and the first of which are person and place. So number one, why are you right for the course and then, secondly, why this institution. And these two things are going to be closely interconnected, all the way through your personal statements, so if you find yourself writing a paragraph about your suitability and perhaps your skills and experiences always try to link them back to specific elements of the course. And then, when you're writing about the institution and why it appeals to you, linking back specifically to your unique interests and ambitions don't just tell them about why they're wonderful. Make it as specific as possible, to you, you don't want to just be needlessly flattering them and telling them how wonderful they are. Pick specific elements of what appeals to you and tell them why. And these could, for instance, be unique course aspects staff specialisms some unique support or the resources that are available or the post graduate community within the departments. It might not be any of those it might be something very specific to the course for which you apply, but it should be something that you can link back to yourself, your own interests, motivations or career plans.
Now, in terms of the next up, we have preparation and passion. So, in terms of preparation, you want to show them that you are prepared for the course so you're going to want to highlight relevant modules or maybe your dissertation skills maybe research technical lab or practical, it's all going to depend on the type of course for which you're applying. And then any experience, and this could be professional voluntary or through your studies. Throughout your entire statements you want to be showing that you are passionate about this area of study. And the course and it's really important that you do your research, so think about your use of language throughout. But you can also show your passion, through your understanding of the sector industry demonstrated a long term interest or maybe you're a member of a relevant society. But when it comes to your content in the main body of your statements each paragraph should have a clear and distinct subject you could summarize in a sentence. So resist the urge to start a paragraph talking about one thing and then move on to something else entirely.
Secondly, you want to order topics, according to what your audience will most care about so you don't want to structure your statement in chronological order, starting with the beginning of your interest in the subject and then you'll GCSEs and then you’re A-levels and then your undergraduate degree for instance. Think about it more than terms of what would you want to tell them about first if they were in front of you, and what would you want to tell them about second and then third and fourth and fifth etc., by doing this, you will not only get their attention immediately, but keep it. And when you are talking about examples from your relevant experiences keep them short and supportive and focused. Then, finally, at the end of the statement you're going to have a closing statement. And with this, much like you introduction stay focused and highlight what you'd like to achieve by the end of the course. Be concise and remember to really emphasize that commitment to the course and subject area and just ensure that you maintain that positivity this is your last chance to show them your enthusiasm and passion.
So when it comes to academic statements just to recap, you want to show an awareness of course content modules you might like to take, for instance. You might also want to highlight modules from your undergraduate studies or relevant reading you've done, perhaps. You might want to highlight sector experience, maybe an internship you've done transferable skills, really, really emphasizing those longer term career goals and how this course would fit into them and also knowledge of the university and the departments.
When it comes to professional statements, for instance I mentioned for law teaching earlier, you want to show that you're committed to a vocational path. You want to show insight and understanding the rewards and challenges of that vocational path you want to show an awareness and evidence and skills and qualities required, as well as drawing upon a range of examples from your experiences. You also want to reflect upon what you've learned from said experiences, but much like academic statements what you're really trying to do throughout is to show why you specifically have a great fit for this path that you've chosen. In terms of tone and style you want to minimize essay style language. Keep your sentences short and succinct. You don't want to be writing sentences, for instance, that are 2,3,4 sentences long. If you find that's the case it's often better to break them into fewer shorter sentences. You want to avoid waffling and what do I mean by that what I mean is that every sentence should add relevant information. Every sentence should give them another reason to want you on their course, it can be a good exercise once you've written your first draft to go through your statement line by line and ask yourself, could I make the same point but with fewer words?
You want to check your spelling and grammar and mind your language, essentially, it can be a great idea to ask a friend or a family member to read through your statement for you. Because it's far easier to pick up on grammar or language mistakes and somebody else's work can also be a great idea in order to check the flow of the piece to actually read your statement out loud or record yourself and then listen back to it. It can be a really good idea to print a copy of your statement and spell check it by hand for some reason I’m not entirely sure why it is actually easier to spot mistakes on printed documents.
Don't flatter without substance, like I mentioned earlier, don't just tell them how wonderful they are. Make links between what you think's impressive about them and why you personally find those things impressive and don't waste your word limit by repeating unnecessary information that you've already detailed in other parts of your larger application.
So when it comes to references normally two or three are requested and usually they're going to want a combination of both academics and employers. Whatever they asked for, make sure that you contact them as soon as possible. Thanks for bearing with me. But remember you are asking for their permission to be a reference basically so contact them as soon as possible with your request. And because, ultimately, they are doing you a favour so you want to give them as much time and information as possible, so that they can write you a really good reference in a timely manner.
Now we have some useful links, here we have some online articles from Prospects and Studential. We have some great websites for more vocational courses so for law and teacher training. And we also have further resources from Imperial College London, so if you'd like to visit any of these sites and just suggest pausing this video now, so you can take notes. And that brings us to the end of today's video, and so I do hope you found it useful.
I just like to highlight some of our other resources, so we have lots of other application resources on our website, we can offer you. Written application feedback for personal statements and other application documents and we'll get back to you within five working days. We offer 10 minutes application appointments every week we've on webinars on lots of different other areas of applications and their recruitment processes. We run half hour practice interviews every week, so if you get invited to interview for a further study course get in contact with us and we'd be happy to run an interview for you. We also have CV checker which will check your CV and give you feedback within seconds and ShortlistMe that allows you to practice for interviews online. And we offer all of this support in the years following your graduation.
I’d just like to say again, I hope you found this video useful and good luck with any applications, you have coming up have a great day.