Open Spots - Writing Personal Statement From A to Z

Writing Personal Statement From A to Z

A: Attention Keep your reader’s attention. Don’t make the mistake to put your audience to sleep before they are able to understand where you are coming from and that you are indeed a great asset. Keep the attention from beginning to the end. This will make the reader more likely to want to know more about you.

Assumptions Never assume anything you take for granted. Think back in time when you didn’t receive a certain award. Did you know that this award even exists? If you think that this is something not commonly known you better explain so you won’t miss the point you are trying to convey to the reader.

B: Brainstorming Grab a cup of coffee and a notepad (yes your iphone would do it, as well) and relax. Maybe close your eyes and think back on all those years in med school. Have you ever encountered other people complimenting you on something you have done, a quality you have within you, something you had achieved which other people had been struggled with? These are the things that will make your personal statement different from all the other people. If you only have qualities that everybody else has -- your statement will never stand out.

C: Content This is definitely the biggest factor of your Personal Statement. You need to have good content to make it worth reading. If you don’t have anything to say you can’t sell yourself. So take your time to come up with some effective content you would like to convey to the reader of your application.

D: Details Details are the key for success. Always use details to make your facts look lively. Details will make your facts more conveying.

Discrepancies Don’t make the mistake to have discrepancies between your resume and personal statement. If you try to convince the reader that you are good with kids you should better have some backup in your resume that you indeed worked with a lot of kids. Remember, the same person who reads your resume will also read your Personal Statement.

E: English The matter of fact is that you are applying for a job here in the US. Therefore it is essential for you that you are writing your Personal Statement in good English -- even when you are of foreign nationality.

Evidence Always give appropriate evidence in whatever you say. Don’t just name your skills and experiences. Be specific and show that you are more than just words.

F: Focus This might be the hardest thing you will have to do when writing your Personal Statement. The focus is the main point you would like to make clear to your audience. This focus or theme should run like a red ribbon through your statement. Whether you would like the focus to be a value or an observation you have encountered -- make sure to have enough evidence for it to be the focus of your paper. If you can only fill one or two sentences about it -- it is most likely not your personal focus in life in the first place.

G: Grammar If you want to be working in one of the most educated field in society you should proof that you are at least proficient in the English language. If you are not an american citizen you might have a harder time with that. But there is help around if you feel that you don’t have what you need in order to grab that position you are looking for.

H: Help Ask for help if you get stuck. Asking for help is not a sign of resignation. You want this position badly. And when you feel that your writing skills won’t make your statement stand out in such a way that the program director can’t walk away from you, than you can always get professional help. OpenSpots.com offers such help. And we would be glad to help you -- although we hope that reading these tips will give you a better idea how to write this on your own.

I: I Beginning every sentence with “I” doesn’t sound professional. The reader already know that the Personal Statement (hence, Personal Statement) so don’t use that. It is also a poor writing skill when you can’t think about different approaches to write about yourself.

J: Jigsaw Puzzle Don’t make the mistake to have all that great information but make it up to the reader to see the whole picture. Put your resume is the right order for them so they don’t need to waste their time trying to see the real you.

K: Karaoke In Karaoke you are copying a person and/or song. But no matter how hard you try it is impossible to copy that person exactly. Don’t try to perform Karaoke in your Personal Statement. Instead be you. You are important enough to be talked about. There is no reason to copy somebody self. Be creative, Be You.

L: Lack of Flow Read your Personal Statement to yourself. Do you feel that every paragraph could be smoothly fit into the paragraph before or after? If you feel that you are writing 3 or four different, unrelated stories you might want start over. Being able to bring thoughts together is an indication how well you might be able to bring medical facts together to solve a problem.

M: Metaphors Metaphors can be great if you are using metaphors that are unique. If those look like you have copied them from a web than they won’t do you any good. Come up with your own metaphors and you will stand out. This will show the reader that you are a person who can look outside the box. And the best doctors are able to see outside the box.

N: Negative Language Positive language will make you shine. Negative language will make you less appealing. So even when you have gaps that can be seen as negative you will have to find a way to make this gap look as if it was just meant to be filled with XYZ

O: Opinions Ask people for opinions concerning your statement in all steps that are involved in writing an effective statement. Asked friends what characteristics they most like about you. Ask friends, who are great in the English language, to read over your resume.

P: Primary Goal The primary goal for writing an outstanding personal statement is being able to convince the program director that you are the piece they are missing. That you will be the one and only who will fill the slot in with great success.

Q: Quality At the end of writing your Personal Statement process you should be able to send out a high quality statement to the program director. The more time you allow yourself for writing and rewriting and rewriting will make it much easier for you to get your first or second choice. Poor quality statements will make it harder for you to stand out between all those applicants that are applying for the exact same position.

R: Research Research the position you are applying for. Each position has certain requirements. And only when you know those requirements you will be able to tailor your Personal Statement towards that position.

S: Structure Keep a good structure for your Personal Statement. Don’t write all over the place. Make it stand out by reading as if this is a constant flow of thoughts running down a little creek flowing with the tides. Don’t go back and forth and create unnecessary waves.

Skills Skills are important but if your only computer skills are working with Excel and words you might not want to mention that. This is an expected skill in modern society. But if you have skills that make you stand out from other applicants you should mention those.

Specialty Here is where you have to look back to your rotations and come up with some real reasons, beside “I really enjoyed rotation xyz”. Remember, if you wouldn’t enjoy the rotation -- why would you have decided to apply for a residency/ fellowship is this particular position. If you can come up with three or four good reasons to explain why you have chosen this specialty your desire to work in this particular field can be seen much better.

T: Time You have been in Med School for 4 year. Why do you think you can just jot down your personal statement in one or two hours. Start collecting thoughts that might be of interest. And then decide whether those ideas would represent you in the light you would like to be seen. If you think that those thoughts might represent you or might interfere with the new position in question -- do yourself a favor and start over.

Transition You will have a few points you would like to include in your Personal Statement. The big question is how can you bring them all together in the best possible way so that a nice flow of thought can be seen. This is where your focus comes into place. If you can get everything back to your focus you will have a much easier job to make your personal statement smooth and successful.

Tangible Details Instead of mentioning that you have taken on leadership roles you might want to elaborate this a little bit more by saying how many people who have lead and what the outcomes were. Everybody has to take on leadership roles but you want to convey why your leadership style is different/more effective.

U: Unnecessary Words Your Statement has word limits. Therefore, it is essential to make sure to use your words wisely. Unnecessary words show that you either don’t know how to write effective or that you didn’t know how to come up with the desired word count. Every word should be as strong as possible. Nobody cares about what you are thinking “I think…”. People want to know how you are acting. Remember, it counts what you can achieve and not what you are thinking you might want to achieve.

V: Volunteer work If you have done some volunteer work in the past you might want to mention this. People who do things for free to the society are known to be good for the society. If you only move your fingers to count the cash you receive due to the hand movement you have done -- than you might not really be an assess to the society. If this volunteer work can even be tied to your medical career -- the better.

W: Word Limit Make sure to know the word limit for your Personal Statement so you don’t overextend your welcome. These poor people have enough to read. So if they tell you that they only want to have between 250 and 500 words you won’t do yourself a favor going on and on for pages and pages.

X: Xerox Make multiple copies of your Personal Statement when going to the interview. You never know whether the interviewer has ever seen your resume and if he/she had read it , it doesn’t mean that he/she still knows what you had written. Remember, these people read a lot. So be prepared and have material available when needed.

Y: Yikes There are no-no’s you want to avoid. You might be a very political person but this won’t do you any good in the application process. In fact, it is better to stay away from any topic dealing with abortion, religion, and politics.

Z: Zen Don’t make the reader of your Personal Statement go into a Zen mood. You want the reader to be interested to find out what else to have to say.

Member Login

E-Mail Address:

Password:

Forgot Password My Profile
Sign Up

Resources

Sites of Interest