A personal statement essay is among the most important things you have to prepare when you are going to apply for college, med school, law school, or graduate school. Your personal statement essay will partly measure your capability and suitability for the academic community you want to be a part of.
As one of the very important factors that could make or break your chances of getting admitted into your desired school, it is important that you write an attention-grabbing and technically clean personal statement essay. It is also important that you know the characteristics of a badly written essay so that you will be able to avoid the common mistakes that could lead to a poorly written personal statement. Below are some characteristics of a badly written sample personal statement essay.
* Too idealistic and vague
This common error can be seen in personal statements that claim to “create a big change in the society” using education without providing specific details that would make such statements achievable and believable. Without the concrete details that would support this type of statement, your desire to help will be seen as artificial and insincere. To make your personal statement essay effective, support it with concrete details.
* Use of highfalutin words
With the purpose of impressing the admission officers, many applicants use highfalutin words in their personal statement essays. This, however, creates an opposite effect. The use of big, polysyllabic, highfalutin words will make your personal statement essay sound detached and robotic. This will also give the admission officers the idea that your sole purpose of writing your admission essay is to impress them. You have to remember that when writing an effective personal statement or admission essay, the language you should use is conversational but at the same time not very informal.
