Hello all. I am new here. I am curious as to whether or not it is wise to, in any way, acknowledge your audience (the admissions committee) in your personal statement. For example, explaining why you chose to write about a particular topic and/or saying something like "...yet that should not leave you to believe that..." I ask this question because as I read example statement after example statement I find that they all follow a similar pattern. Start with a dive into a personal event of some significance, explain its impact, connect it to law school. Done. Anyway, my first draft followed that theme closely and I am not happy with it. I would rather not blend in if it can be avoided. So then I am thinking about taking a more direct and conversational approach; treating the statement more like an interview and less like a narrative.
If anyone would like to comment on this strategy it would be greatly appreciated.
Acknowledging Your Audience Forum
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Re: Acknowledging Your Audience
A personal statement probably won't boost you but it can easily ding you. Don't do anything "cute" like writing in a different form like an interview. It is muuuch better to distinguish yourself with good writing. You know why all the formats look the same? because when you do it right, that model will produce a well written statement. Thats the way people were writing before all the coaching and all the help books and it eventually trickled down to people that write poorly, making the model seem crappy. Its just all about writing well.
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Re: Acknowledging Your Audience
Thanks for the comment. I did not mean by using an interview style that I would try anything cute. What I had in mind was a more direct format of answering the question "why do I want to go to law school" rather than telling a story and so forth. However, your main point, that the most important aspect of the personal statement is that it is well written, is taken.
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Re: Acknowledging Your Audience
Don't say "you" in the PS. It is still formal writing.AKenter wrote:Thanks for the comment. I did not mean by using an interview style that I would try anything cute. What I had in mind was a more direct format of answering the question "why do I want to go to law school" rather than telling a story and so forth. However, your main point, that the most important aspect of the personal statement is that it is well written, is taken.
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Re: Acknowledging Your Audience
It should be about something personal. I tied why I want to go to law school into it, which was quite easy. However, I made a second statement that said nothing about law school. It was more about perseverance and overcoming obstacles. The Why Law School? question really doesn't have to be answered. I hate seeing statements that are good statements and then somebody throws a random law school paragraph in at the end. Hopefully you're not doing that. It does help if it's well written.AKenter wrote:Thanks for the comment. I did not mean by using an interview style that I would try anything cute. What I had in mind was a more direct format of answering the question "why do I want to go to law school" rather than telling a story and so forth. However, your main point, that the most important aspect of the personal statement is that it is well written, is taken.
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