What is a Personal Statement?
A personal statement should emphasize key aspects of yourself that you wish to convey to the admissions team along with your application. Your resume and past work and school experience can paint a story for them, but this is an opportunity to highlight exactly what you want them to know about you. It is important to do your research and read their personal statement instructions thoroughly to make sure you are preparing something that meets the personal statement criteria, or else no essay tip included in this article will help.
Sometimes, your university will also ask for a Statement of Purpose. To understand the difference, check out the video below!
An Essay Tip (or Four) for Your MLIS Application
So you have decided on a school (or a few) that have all the criteria you desire and you are on to the application. However, aside from the resume, personal information, payment, and previous work or schooling experience, you are also (more than likely) expected to write an essay.
Essay Tip 1: Don’t Panic
It is important to understand that while you should have excellent grammer and structure to your essay (this is graduate school after all), you should focus more on the bigger picture of what is required. Is it a personal essay? A statement of purpose or intent? Do they just want to see how you write? Look into the instructions of what they are asking for, or do some research on the MLIS pages of the university’s website. Understanding exactly what they are looking for in your essay is going to be your top priority.
Essay Tip 2: Develop an Outline
Most essays are going to be somewhere between 500-1000 words or 1-2 pages. They are going to be small, so it will be important to establish your key points quickly and spend most of your essay discussing those key points. Most of these essays will have a 1-3-1 structure, or an introduction paragraph, 3 body paragraphs (or as many as you need for each key point), and one brief conclusion that ties your key points together. Since you have limited space, your introduction and conclusion should be kept to a few sentences at most, while the rest of your content should take the majority of the essay.
Essay Tip 3: Keep it “Business Casual”
Your essay is most likely a personal essay, so you are more than likely free to use personal pronouns like “I”. You should still be keeping your writing professional while doing this. Don’t use an overabundance of contractions or slang, and defintely don’t include profanities. Your personal story will get across without being too casual with your language. Ultimately, the admissions readers will be looking to see if you are a good fit for the program.
Essay Tip 4: Be Confident but Honest
It’s okay if you didn’t make groundbreaking research in your undergraduate experience. Everything can create an angle to speak from in a personal statement, even if they feel their life is boring. Get creative! But make sure everything you write is accurate. Integrity is one of the top values at any school, so being honest about your accomplishments and goals is a must.