Personal Statements, by Dr. Bill Swinford
The law school personal statement is your chance to demonstrate your
unique qualifications for
and commitment to law by discussing those experiences, people, and
events that influenced your
decision to become an attorney or prepared you to enter the field.
That's a lot to accomplish--especially in the typical two pages allowed for your personal statement. You can find the key to success by focusing on a few illustrative incidents as opposed to giving a superficial overview. Remember: Detail, specificity, and concrete examples will make your essay distinctive and interesting. Generalities and platitudes that could apply to every other law school applicant will bore. If you use them, you'll just blur into one of the crowd.
Following "Ten Do's and Don'ts for Your Personal Statement" will help
you write a compelling,
focused essay, one that will transform you from a collection of numbers
and classes into an
interesting human being.
The Do's
1. Unite your essay and give it direction with a theme or thesis. The thesis is the main point you want to communicate.
2. Before you begin writing, choose what you want to discuss and the order in which you want to discuss it.
3. Use concrete examples from your life experience to support your thesis and distinguish yourself from other applicants.
4. Write about what interests you, excites you. That's what the admissions staff wants to read.
5. Start your essay with an attention-grabbing lead--an anecdote, quote, question, or engaging description of a scene.
6. End your essay with a conclusion that refers back to the lead and restates your thesis.
7. Revise your essay at least three times.
8. In addition to your editing, ask someone else to critique your personal statement for you.
9. Proofread your personal statement by reading it out loud or reading it into a tape recorder and playing back the tape.
10. Write clearly, succinctly.
The Don'ts
1. Don't include information that doesn't support your thesis.
2. Don't start your essay with I was born in...," or My parents came from..."
3. Don't write an autobiography, itinerary, or résumé in prose.
4. Don't try to be a clown (but gentle humor is OK).
5. Don't be afraid to start over if the essay just isn't working or doesn't answer the essay question.
6. Don't try to impress your reader with your vocabulary.
7. Don't rely exclusively on your computer to check your spelling.
8. Don't provide a collection of generic statements and platitudes.
9. Don't give mealy-mouthed, weak excuses for your GPA or test scores.
10. Don't make things up.
Ten Tips for Better Writing
1. Express yourself in positive language. Say what is, not what is not.
2. Use transitions between paragraphs. Transitions tie one paragraph to the next.
A transition can be a word, like later, furthermore, additionally, or moreover; a phrase like After this incident...; or an entire sentence.
If you are writing about Topic A and now want to discuss Topic B, you can begin the new paragraph with a transition such as "Like (or unlike) Topic A, Topic B..."
3. Vary your sentence structure. It's boring to see subject, verb, object all the time. Mix simple, complex, and compound sentences.
4. Understand the words you write. You write to communicate, not to impress the admissions staff with your vocabulary. When you choose a word that means something other than what you intend, you neither communicate nor impress. You do convey the wrong message or convince the admissions officer that you are inarticulate.
5. Look up synonyms in a thesaurus when you use the same word repeatedly. After the DELETE key, the thesaurus is your best friend. As long as you follow Tip 4, using one will make your writing more interesting.
6. Be succinct. Compare:
During my sophomore and junior years, there was significant development of my maturity and markedly improved self-discipline towards school work.
During my sophomore and junior years, I matured and my self-discipline improved tremendously.
The first example takes many more words to give the same information. The admissions officers are swamped; they do not want to spend more time than necessary reading your essay. Say what you have to say in as few words as possible.
Tips 7, 8, and 9 will help you to implement this suggestion.
7. Make every word count. Do not repeat yourself. Each sentence and every word should state something new.
8. Avoid qualifiers such as rather, quite, somewhat, probably, possibly, etc.
You might improve your writing somewhat if you sometimes try to follow this suggestion.
The example contains nonsense. Deleting unnecessary qualifiers will strengthen your writing 1000%. Equivocating reveals a lack of confidence. If you do not believe what you write, why should the admissions officer?
9. Use the active voice. Compare:
The application was sent by the student. Passive voice
The student sent the application. Active voice
They both communicate the same information. The active voice, however, is more concise; it specifies who is performing the action and what is the object. The passive voice is wordier and frequently less clear.
10. Read and reread Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B.
White. Containing basic rules of grammar, punctuation, composition, and
style, this indispensable classic is available in paperback and is only
eighty-five pages long.
Back to the Top
One way to think about this is to consider that there are, generally,
two types of conversations human beings have with one another. The first
type is known as "small talk": what classes you are taking, where you are
from, what activities you are involved in, blah, blah, blah. We can basically
have these conversations with anyone. They are rather mindless and
when you leave them, you remember little, if anything, about the person
with whom you have spoken. Thus, everyone with whom you have such conversations
seems alike.
The second type of conversation is one in which you, as a unique person, bring something different and interesting to the conversation. It involves information that only you can provide to someone else. It is information that will hold someone's interest and make you a memorable acquaintance. Your personal statement must reflect this second type of conversation in order to be effective.
In addition to wanting to get to know you personally, the law school admissions staffs look to your statement for other clues about your ability to be a productive law student.
Here are the criteria which are necessary to an effective statement:
1. Conscientiousness - You must show that you can follow instructions. Each statement must cover the specific parameters established by the particular law school to which it will be sent. Do not try to write the "one size fits all" statement, sending the same version to every school.
2. Maturity- Mature people are able to reflect on their past experiences and develop an understanding of who they are. Personal statements should rise not from hollow platitudes, but from serious reflective thought about who you are and what you want to accomplish in life.
3. Honesty - You should not be afraid to admit human frailty. Your shortcomings are also a part of who you are. Mature people are not arrogant about their strengths nor defensive about their weaknesses.
4. Sincerity - Simply put, you should not provide excrement. Be honest about your feelings, your experiences, and your goals. In addition, do not try to put on a show by using fancy words or legal phrases. Do not sound as though you swallowed a thesaurus or law dictionary.
5. Seriousness - You should avoid anything that appears silly. Humor has its place and a small amount of self-deprecation can be an effective tool in a statement, but there is a very fine line between humor and silliness. Do not cross that line. When in doubt, avoid trying to be funny. Most people are not nearly as clever as they think they are.
6. Focus - The personal statement should reflect a conscious choice of one or two important themes on which to concentrate. Do not overwhelm the statement with a broad collection of thoughts at the expense of focus.
7. Specificity- The statement should discuss specific experiences and achievements.
8. Brevity - The statement should be two pages and no more (unless the school specifically asks for more).
9. Communication skills - Be sure that your statement is clear, well-written, and concise. Also, be absolutely sure that it has no misspelled words or grammatical errors.
10. Lack of repetition- The personal statement is not a time for regurgitating your grade transcript or your activities. The law school can get that information elsewhere in your application.
11. An understanding of the legal system - If some experience has given you insight into the legal profession or the law more generally, make sure the law school knows that.
12. An understanding of the connection between your goals and the particular law school - Why did you choose to apply to a particular school? Discuss that in your statement.
Do not spend your time discussing your concept of justice or the greatness of the Bill of Rights or the problems of the legal system or your desire to change the world. Also avoid talking about your "keen interest in the law" or how the law "is so fascinating". Most applicants write about those things, so your writing about them makes you just like everybody else.
You should not talk about your activities in various organizations and leadership positions. Because most people applying to law school will have undertaken the same kinds of activities, there is nothing distinctive about that. However, if there is a specific organization or activity or experience which has sincerely shaped you or been particularly important to you, you should certainly discuss it.
All this is not easy to do in two pages, but that is precisely the point. The reason law schools ask you to write this short statement is because your ability to do so effectively will indicate your capacity to handle the difficult mental challenges of a legal education.
Finally, HAVE SOMEONE ELSE READ AND CRITIQUE YOUR PERSONAL STATEMENT
(PREFERABLY SOMEONE WITH SOME LEVEL OF EXPERTISE IN
WRITING IN GENERAL AND/OR WRITING PERSONAL STATEMENTS IN PARTICULAR).