Personal Statement - Stories with technique, strategy, and skill

"To read a writers is for me not merely to get an idea of what she says, but to go off with her and travel in her company"

Yesterday you read from a selection of student models that all took different approaches to writing the personal statement.

Today, you will meet in groups to share what you have read, and provide your group members with what those approaches look like. Please make sure to annotate and mark the text.

These are not the only ways to approach your personal statements. They are simply some examples.

With your group, ask each other the following questions (though you can ask more than just these). You do not have to write anything down, simply discuss:

• Can you give us a brief summary of your personal statement?
• What was the writer's purpose in writing the essay they did?
• What are some of it's strengths? Weaknesses? Can you give textual evidence?
• What are some powerful sentences in the essay that we should hear?
• How can we apply techniques from this personal statement to our own?

With the remaining time, reflect in your Writer's Notebook about the strategies you could adapt and why they are effective.  

 

Or begin to write your own PS with some imitations and techniques from the examples we have seen.

Try a technique: Dialogue, flashback, reflection, a description