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The only thing I remember from my english 101 class, (which was a very long time ago), was that we were instructed by the professor not to use, "folksy diction". His point essentially was that saying things like, "in today's modern society", or "it was a dark and stormy night" is generally considered shit.

So now I'm thinking of getting started on this personal statement, and I've been browsing these forums looking at statements posted by others, and almost every one of them starts of w/ something like, "i was lying naked in the alleyway as a drop of icy rain singed my tear soaked eyeball", or "as the snow fell quietly on that peaceful day, I realized my life was garbage" and so on.

Is this the format in which these kinds of things should be done?

I assume that adcomms are professionals, with alot of shit to do who as far as I can imagine have little to no interest in poetic nonsense of the sort described above. Am I wrong?

I feel like I would be more effective in communicating by way of direct address. I mean, do I have to do the whole, "I was sitting in the holding cell next to a rapist...." thing? Or can I speak candidly and directly?

I wrote mine in a more direct manner. I was a Business Management major in undergrad and they say the same thing for "business writing." I don't think there is anything wrong with it if you do it right. Might even set you apart by showing that you know who you are and why you're set on law school without narrating it. Just my opinion.

Be concise and engaging. You can leave Creative Writing 101 at the door.

smears wrote:Or can I speak candidly and directly?

Do this.

"The overhead lamp in my cell audibly flickered as I perused the TLS forums in search of an answer. As a constant buzz soon accompanied a finally luminous room, an inner light also turned on: I would not subject my personal statement to any cheap poetic nonsense."

.. could use it as an opportunity to be ironic with the whole thing lol

Personally, I enforced a strict word limit on my PS and I found myself editing out most of the flowery language and adjectives because they ended up being wasted space. I think I learned something about professional writing.

buck28 wrote:"The overhead lamp in my cell audibly flickered as I perused the TLS forums in search of an answer. As a constant buzz soon accompanied a finally luminous room, an inner light also turned on: I would not subject my personal statement to any cheap poetic nonsense."

.. could use it as an opportunity to be ironic with the whole thing lol

I'll wait till after I'm admitted to show them the full nature of my balls.

Also, thanks to everyone else for the quick replies.

buck28 wrote:"The overhead lamp in my cell audibly flickered as I perused the TLS forums in search of an answer. As a constant buzz soon accompanied a finally luminous room, an inner light also turned on: I would not subject my personal statement to any cheap poetic nonsense."

.. could use it as an opportunity to be ironic with the whole thing lol

If I had a 4.0 GPA to go with my 175, instead of my 3.0, I still wouldn't try an "ironic" personal statement. I hope nobody does this.

I hope that someone does try it, and I hope their app gets reviewed right before mine.

Remember that experienced adcomms have seen just about everything you can imagine to throw at them. Your clever rhetoric and hi-IQ vocabulary will not impress anyone, and might well annoy someone who has already read 10 similar essays that day. The best PS, in my opinion, sound authentic and also show that the writer is a thoughtful, self-aware individual. Definitely no need for drama.

If I had it my way I'd just do bullet points down a page w/ like 2 sentences each.

I started mine with .. "So, how about that pathetic personal statement you just read before this? Not to worry; I'll keep this short and simple."

This board needs a rep sytem.

Adjudicator wrote:

buck28 wrote:"The overhead lamp in my cell audibly flickered as I perused the TLS forums in search of an answer. As a constant buzz soon accompanied a finally luminous room, an inner light also turned on: I would not subject my personal statement to any cheap poetic nonsense."

.. could use it as an opportunity to be ironic with the whole thing lol

If I had a 4.0 GPA to go with my 175, instead of my 3.0, I still wouldn't try an "ironic" personal statement. I hope nobody does this.

Just a joke.

smears wrote:This board needs a rep sytem.

What are the criteria? same as USNews?

Nah. Some messsage boards have buttons you can click to approve or disapprove of each post, and you can look at little bars next to each person's name to determine who's shit is most worth reading.

BlueDiamond wrote:

smears wrote:This board needs a rep sytem.

What are the criteria? same as USNews?

Peer assessment: 25%
Assessment by mods: 15%
Time on TLS: 10%
Posts per day: 12.5%
Login rate per week: 2.5%
Number of times viewed (upon posting): 4%
Number of times viewed (nine months after posting): 14%
Grammar/syntax passing rate: 2%
Words per post: 11.25%
Quote-to-original-content ratio: 3%
Number of pixels in avatar: 0.75%

smears wrote:Nah. Some messsage boards have buttons you can click to approve or disapprove of each post, and you can look at little bars next to each person's name to determine who's shit is most worth reading.

Hm.. mine would be quite low.. with this post as an example

BlueDiamond wrote:

smears wrote:Nah. Some messsage boards have buttons you can click to approve or disapprove of each post, and you can look at little bars next to each person's name to determine who's shit is most worth reading.

Hm.. mine would be quite low.. with this post as an example

Nah, you'd get rep for helping answer questions about personal statements at least.