{"id":2253,"date":"2024-01-16T13:00:03","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/?p=2253"},"modified":"2024-01-16T13:10:25","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T13:10:25","slug":"personal-statements-the-dos-and-donts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/2024\/01\/16\/personal-statements-the-dos-and-donts\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal statements: the do\u2019s and don\u2019ts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2256\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/files\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1093929298-1.jpg\" alt=\"Student at a laptop working\" width=\"620\" height=\"421\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"NormalTextRun CommentHighlightClicked SCXW175083924 BCX0\">Whether it\u2019s<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun CommentHighlightClicked SCXW175083924 BCX0\">clich\u00e9<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun CommentHighlightClicked SCXW175083924 BCX0\">\u00a0line<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun CommentHighlightClicked SCXW175083924 BCX0\">s<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun CommentHighlightClicked SCXW175083924 BCX0\">, unrelated<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun CommentHighlightClicked SCXW175083924 BCX0\">quotation<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun CommentHighlightClicked SCXW175083924 BCX0\">s<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun CommentHighlightClicked SCXW175083924 BCX0\">\u00a0or <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun CommentHighlightClicked SCXW175083924 BCX0\">simply a <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun CommentHighlightClicked SCXW175083924 BCX0\">lack of <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun CommentHighlightClicked SCXW175083924 BCX0\">proof<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun CommentHighlightClicked SCXW175083924 BCX0\">reading <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun CommentHighlightClicked SCXW175083924 BCX0\">and editing, there are things that can really let your personal statement down. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>So before you get going, or as you\u2019re nearing your final draft, look over our checklist and get your writing gleaming.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do:\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Plan your statement before you write it. Use the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/2022\/12\/09\/how-to-structure-your-personal-statement\/\"><u>structure on our personal statement blog<\/u><\/a> and jot down your ideas under each paragraph before you get to work.<\/li>\n<li>Think about things you&#8217;ve participated in where you&#8217;ve learned something. This could be school\/college related such as working on a group project where you felt your communication skills improved, or activities you do outside of school or college (sports, volunteering, other activities) where you&#8217;ve developed transferable skills such as solving unexpected problems, time management, empathy, or learning to work as part of a team.<\/li>\n<li>Ask friends, family and teachers to remind you of activities you&#8217;ve participated in. They might remember successes you\u2019ve forgotten about.<\/li>\n<li>Explain and evidence everything. It\u2019s easy to say you have a skill, but it&#8217;s better to demonstrate it with an example of when and how you\u2019ve used it.<\/li>\n<li>Print off your statement and proofread it for spelling and grammatical errors by reading it aloud. It&#8217;s unlikely that you&#8217;ll identify mistakes if you proofread your statement on a screen, especially as you&#8217;ve been looking at it for such a long time.<\/li>\n<li>Ask someone you trust to check it for you; a fresh pair of eyes always helps.<\/li>\n<li>If you&#8217;re applying for a joint honours degree, give equal time to each subject and try to find similarities that pull your writing together.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Include lists in your application. Focus on one or two points and discuss them in depth to show their relevance to your application.<\/li>\n<li>Use clich\u00e9 lines such as, \u2018I&#8217;ve always wanted to be a teacher\u2019. They&#8217;re overused and say little about your motivations or experiences.<\/li>\n<li>Use quotations unless they support your statements and have a real purpose.<\/li>\n<li>Be tempted to buy or copy a personal statement. Plagiarism software is very sophisticated and if you&#8217;re caught out, you won&#8217;t be offered a place.<\/li>\n<li>Use complicated language or make things up to sound impressive. Write in your natural style.<\/li>\n<li>Use \u2018I\u2019 too often when starting a new sentence. Try to vary your sentence structure to avoid repetition.<\/li>\n<li>Mention a particular university. Your statement will be sent to all five of your UCAS choice, so it must be unbiased. For example, if you&#8217;re referencing your attendance at a lecture or summer school, it\u2019s best to keep the university anonymous.<\/li>\n<li>Use your statement to explain any mitigating circumstances. Ask your tutor or teachers to include these in your reference.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Happy editing!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>This is a guest post written by the Content Officer at the University of Kent.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether it\u2019s clich\u00e9\u00a0lines, unrelated quotations\u00a0or simply a lack of proofreading and editing, there are things that can really let your personal statement down. So before &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/2024\/01\/16\/personal-statements-the-dos-and-donts\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40559,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[143728,9871],"tags":[8814,143848,34,143768,74],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2253"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2523,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253\/revisions\/2523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}