Well, we've reached the conclusion of this 10-part series on the law school personal statement--and now I get to talk about my favorite topic when it comes to this ever-important element of your law school application: FEAR.Whether we like to admit it or not, a huge component of applying to law school is fear. Students come to me with a great variety of things that scare them, among them:Taking the LSAT Studying for the LSAT Asking for recommendations Choosing the right law school Whether their GPA is high enough What their chances of acceptance areAnd yes: … [Read more...]

The most important part of writing a personal statement is, funnily enough, sitting down and actually writing it. However, the second most important part is not writing.Yup, you heard right: As important as writing your personal statement is, the one thing you can do to make your writing stronger is taking a step back once you have completed a draft, and giving your writing (and your brain) some time to settle down. Why is that? Distance is good. By giving yourself at least a day between writing and revisions, you are letting your brain reset itself. This will let you see grammatical and … [Read more...]

Once you've written your first draft and you've had a chance to step away from it for at least day, it's time to edit. Typically, you will follow this write-step away-edit process a few times through a few drafts until you're fully satisfied with your essay and the way you've told your story.Now, saying you're going to edit your essay is the easy part. The hard part is figuring out exactly how to edit and what you should be looking for. Whenever I'm editing an essay, these are the seven areas to which I pay attention. Spelling The spellchecker on your word processing software will be a … [Read more...]

If you're anything like me, the last thing you want to do when you're writing something (be it an essay, a short story, a novel, or a grocery list) is show it to someone else and have them critique it. After all, you've put a little bit of yourself into this piece of writing (well, maybe not if it's a grocery list), and the one thing you don't want to hear is criticism, even if it is constructive.However, when it comes to your personal statement, having others read it before you consider it finalized is probably one of most important things you can do.Why? Because, eventually, other … [Read more...]

Once you've self-edited and had others read and give feedback on your essay, you're pretty much on the home stretch. If your essay has made it this far, then you're approximately 95% done and only one thing remains to be done before you can close the book on writing it and get ready to submit it along with your applications: proofing.In a sense, proofing and editing are much the same--you're looking for typos, bloopers, and erroneous use of language.However, proofing is not as intense as editing, because you're no longer looking for plot holes, reading for cohesiveness, or checking … [Read more...]

Although all components of a law school application are important, I believe that the most important one is the personal statement. To that end, I've decided to write a series explaining some of the pivotal points you should keep in mind as you prepare to write your law school application personal statement.We'll start off with today with something I find most law school applicants don't even think about: the personal statement timeline. While many applicants consider the personal statement to be one of the hardest parts of applying to law school (second only to preparing for and taking … [Read more...]

Howdy! Welcome to the second installment in a ten-part series on writing your law school application personal statement. Last week we started off by talking about the importance of giving yourself as much as time as possible when writing your essay.Today, we'll discuss the second most important thing you should do: Planning out your writing.Don't underestimate the importance of brainstorming and outlining--particularly outlining. Brainstoming is easy enough: you start off with a broad idea of what you'd like to write about, and then perform what I call a "brain dump," letting every … [Read more...]

In a previous post, I mentioned the importance of putting the person in the personal statement. Although I didn't go into great detail about it then, I'd like to do so now.Although scheduling the time to write and carefully planning your personal statement are both very important to the success of the essay as a whole, it is almost guaranteed that the statement will ultimately be a flop unless the most key ingredient is added to the mix: YOU. … [Read more...]

A personal statement is only as powerful as the story it tells, and the story is only as powerful as the details that comprise it.In this installment of "Writing Your Personal Statement," I'll talk about something that's just as important as getting personal: Getting specific.Once again, I'll call your attention to what a personal statement ultimately is: It is your on-paper interview with the Admissions Committee of the schools to which you're applying. And, again, I'll call your attention to what the statement should be doing: It should be talking about you. However, understanding … [Read more...]

Variety is the spice of life--and, as it turns out, it's the spice of personal statements, too. Variety in how you write and approach your personal statement is just as important as the topic you write about.There are six key ways in which variety should make its way into your personal statement: Vocabulary Many editors warn against using "10-cent" or "fancy" words where a simpler term would do. To a degree, I agree with them--you shouldn't over-complicate your prose simply for the sake of trying to show of your large vocabulary or attempting to sound "smart." However, there are … [Read more...]

This blog is brought to you by admissions expert and founder of Pen and Chisel LLC, Eileen Conner. After years of working to improve your academic writing, you’re totally prepared to tackle the task of writing a convincing law school personal statement. Or are you?Actually, the personal statement is substantially different from the typical research paper taught in college. As such, it can present surprising challenges to even the most accomplished academic writer.Let’s take a look at some of the differences between these two types of essay.Length One obvious difference between … [Read more...]