Writing an Impactful Personal Statement and Supplemental Essay
By Jennifer Joseph
Looking for resume writing and tutoring services that actually make a difference? We help professionals and students stand out with personalized support and strong communication skills. There’s an art and science to resume writing. HR departments receive hundreds of applications per job, and many are reviewed in under 30 seconds.
You are ready to write a Personal Statement and/or Supplemental Essay after documenting Common Application or specific school application(s) information and chosing the topic(s).
The Common and proprietary applications’ personal statements must be up to 650 words. Supplemental essays are typically shorter. Any essay that runs either far under or over the word count does not necessarily make for a better essay.
Read on for guidance on how to outline, write and edit a college essay.
Brain Dump and Outlining
The critical, main point is to document your thoughts in the beginning of the process. The format of your outline is the least important detail. Think of outlining as such: the details or chips all add up to the big idea or cookie. Your thoughts can be written in full or partial sentences.
Review the brain dump results and reorder the entries, remove some entries, and very likely add new entries. Continue making your outline more specific listed by each sub topic or paragraph keeping in mind your essay’s big idea. Your completed, detailed outline will help you create a cohesive personal statement or supplemental essay over a period of time.
Thesis Statement
Writing a thesis statement is a process and your first attempt won’t be a perfect sentence.
Rewrite and revise until the thesis statement is a solidly, well-written expression of your big idea and answers the statement: “My essay will be about _______.”
Writing
Admissions staff can easily tell whether the applicant put enough effort into writing the personal statement. Allow up to a month to write a rough draft. Write and edit your essay in pieces by paragraph(s) over a period of time determined by your essay due date.
The opening sentence of the opening paragraph should hook the reader. Make sure the last sentence of each paragraph has a transition sentence connecting to the next paragraph.
Be specific and detailed, vary your sentence structure, and avoid run-on sentences of 3-4 typed lines by adding additional punctuation. Furthermore, use a Thesaurus to avoid repeating words after 4 uses.
The Concluding Statement
The concluding statement restates the big, overarching idea from the thesis statement. The concluding statement tells your reader: I just told you about _______.
Writing a concluding statement is a process and your first attempt won’t be a perfect sentence. Rewrite and revise until the concluding statement is a well-written expression of your big idea.
Rewording the thesis statement can a helpful way to write a strong concluding statement.
Employing the process of writing will allow you to write a tightly-worded, strongly-voiced Personal Statement and/or Supplemental Essay guaranteed to command the attention of admissions staff at your desired university.
Let the writing begin! Read the next blog to learn about the editing process.
Writing an Impactful Personal Statement and Supplemental Essay
By Jennifer Joseph
Looking for resume writing and tutoring services that actually make a difference? We help professionals and students stand out with personalized support and strong communication skills. There’s an art and science to resume writing. HR departments receive hundreds of applications per job, and many are reviewed in under 30 seconds.
You are ready to write a Personal Statement and/or Supplemental Essay after documenting Common Application or specific school application(s) information and chosing the topic(s).
The Common and proprietary applications’ personal statements must be up to 650 words. Supplemental essays are typically shorter. Any essay that runs either far under or over the word count does not necessarily make for a better essay.
Read on for guidance on how to outline, write and edit a college essay.
Brain Dump and Outlining
The critical, main point is to document your thoughts in the beginning of the process. The format of your outline is the least important detail. Think of outlining as such: the details or chips all add up to the big idea or cookie. Your thoughts can be written in full or partial sentences.
Review the brain dump results and reorder the entries, remove some entries, and very likely add new entries. Continue making your outline more specific listed by each sub topic or paragraph keeping in mind your essay’s big idea. Your completed, detailed outline will help you create a cohesive personal statement or supplemental essay over a period of time.
Thesis Statement
Writing a thesis statement is a process and your first attempt won’t be a perfect sentence.
Rewrite and revise until the thesis statement is a solidly, well-written expression of your big idea and answers the statement: “My essay will be about _______.”
Writing
Admissions staff can easily tell whether the applicant put enough effort into writing the personal statement. Allow up to a month to write a rough draft. Write and edit your essay in pieces by paragraph(s) over a period of time determined by your essay due date.
The opening sentence of the opening paragraph should hook the reader. Make sure the last sentence of each paragraph has a transition sentence connecting to the next paragraph.
Be specific and detailed, vary your sentence structure, and avoid run-on sentences of 3-4 typed lines by adding additional punctuation. Furthermore, use a Thesaurus to avoid repeating words after 4 uses.
The Concluding Statement
The concluding statement restates the big, overarching idea from the thesis statement. The concluding statement tells your reader: I just told you about _______.
Writing a concluding statement is a process and your first attempt won’t be a perfect sentence. Rewrite and revise until the concluding statement is a well-written expression of your big idea.
Rewording the thesis statement can a helpful way to write a strong concluding statement.
Employing the process of writing will allow you to write a tightly-worded, strongly-voiced Personal Statement and/or Supplemental Essay guaranteed to command the attention of admissions staff at your desired university.
Let the writing begin! Read the next blog to learn about the editing process.
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