How to begin writing your personal statement

Beginning your personal statement can be the most frustrating step of the entire writing process because it is tough to know whether your first draft is headed in the right direction, or if you’re on your way to submitting a bland essay that won’t leave an admissions reader with any impression of who you are and why you stand out as an applicant.

A common mistake you should avoid before you begin writing your personal statement: Tapping out a quick first draft using whatever comes to mind, without giving much thought to the experiences in your life that make you unique.

That’s the wrong approach! You will end up feeling attached to your first draft, even if it’s lousy. You’ll try to reshape and re-sculpt a personal statement that was bad right from the start.

Here’s a BIG secret: It’s easiest to write your essay piece-by-piece, idea-by-idea BEFORE you write your first draft, or even an outline.

The best way to begin writing your personal statement is by first identifying the pieces and ideas that will be the persuasive forces driving your essay. I call these “Persuasion Components.”

Here are a few examples of Persuasion Components:

• An emotionally significant experience        
• A compelling story of a medically related experience        
• Confirmation of motivation

One cliched writing technique that is NOT a Persuasion Component: A bland chronological retelling of your life story. Boring! If you’ve had an interesting life, select one or two inspiring moments and

An action plan to get you started writing right now: Take ten minutes to write down a few stories or thoughts that match one of  Persuasion Components above.

To help narrow your focus: The best stories are about a single incident, or a moment in time that was significant for you.

Grab our 8 free personal statement samples here to see how other students used Persuasion Components to write personal statements that resonated with admissions readers.