Personal Statements For Graduate Programs (Page 3 of 4) in pdf

gender and narrative form in Victorian literature.”

In all likelihood, if this applicant had indicated an interest in Victorian literature,

Professor Fascinating herself would be reading this statement. Only the fourth sentence

would indicate to her that the applicant really knows something about her work, and

gives her the means to put the rest of the essay—and the rest of the application—in some

sort of context.

Plan to write multiple drafts, and leave yourself as much time as possible. There are

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many different possibilities for how to organize your statement, but it may take a while to

find the structure that works best for you. Prepare for the brutal task of having to cut

some of even your most beautifully crafted sentences and paragraphs; your essay needs to

cohere, and it needs to be fairly short. Your job is to come up with the best of all possible

statements, which may mean writing and rewriting several entirely different versions.

Proof obsessively for grammar, sentence, and paragraph structure, and word choice.

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Humanities professors want their graduate students to know how to write and edit.

Indeed, graduate students in the humanities are frequently charged with the department’s

teaching of writing to undergraduates. They will notice and be unimpressed by typos,

passive constructions, and needlessly complex language. Beware of importing chunks of

text from one essay into another: the faculty at Hotshot U. won’t be impressed if you tell

them how delighted you’d be to be accepted at Nearly Ivy U.

Ask your advisor, professors, TAs, and peers to read and comment on your statement

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well before the application deadline. If you’re a Duke student, bring your statement to the

Writing Studio at any stage of the process. It’s important to make sure that at least one of

your readers is familiar with the conventions of your field and, preferably, with the

application process for graduate programs as well.

If possible, you should have a close-to-final draft of your statement ready in time to

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submit to professors who have agreed to write you letters of recommendation. Their

letters will be better the more they know about you and your interests, and their

comments on your essay will help you revise and polish.

Don’t be afraid to contact the directors of the programs to which you are applying with

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any questions about what they’re looking for.

Helpful links

“A Purposeless Statement?” In this Chronicle for Higher Education article, an M.F.A. candidate

in creative nonfiction investigates the purpose of “purpose statements.”

Purdue’s Online Writing Lab provides additional questions to ask and steps to take, advice from

admissions officers from several universities, and excerpts from successful application essays in a

variety of disciplines.

The Duke English Department offers the most detailed online, publicly available advice for

writing a personal statement—and for applying to PhD programs in English more generally—of

Personal Statements For Graduate Programs Page 3