Editing Graduate Essays

Proofreading A Winning Personal Statement

Nov 5, 2007 Timothy Dzurilla

The most important step to writing a winning personal statement for graduate school applications is the revising process.

Your graduate school application essay is as much about you and your fit into a program as it is about your ability to communicate effectively and clearly.

After you have done research on the schools you want to apply to, brainstormed ideas for your essay, and written the first couple of drafts, you will now need to put your application through a revision process.

Here are a few tips to help you revise your essay so that it will be the best possible version it can be.

Tips for Revising a Personal Statement

1. Walk away. After you have written your first draft, leave your essay alone for a few days. Chances are you have been doing the research and writing of this essay for a couple days. Give it a rest. Fresh eyes are best for editing your work.
2. Save generations. This is a document that you will revisit a couple times in your academic career. Make sure you save generations of your work so you can refer back to previous edits. By keeping copies of older versions, you are freer to chop up and delete more freely as well.
3. Share with the people you are asking for recommendations. The people you have asked for recommendations may even have asked you for a copy of your personal statement to help them write their recommendations. This is a great way to get some feedback on your essay from people who are familiar with your academic work.
4. Edit your peers' papers. Exchange personal statements with people you know who are going through the application process. Seeing how other people write will give you ideas while you get valuable feedback from people who know you personally. Find people you trust and you will get honest feedback about whether or not your personal statement reflects you and your passions.
5. Show your parents. Your parents may not be experts in your field, or even in anything academic, but they are experts in you. This is a great way to find out if your essay captures who you are.
6. Double check submission guidelines. Make sure you double, no, TRIPLE check the submission guides for each school you are applying to. They are going to be different for each one and you do not want your perfect essay to be left unread due to a minor technical error.

Good luck with your application process.

For more information and tips on writing a winning graduate application essay, check out:

Research a Graduate Essay

Ideas for a Graduate Essay

Writing a Graduate Essay

The copyright of the article Editing Graduate Essays in Universities is owned by Timothy Dzurilla. Permission to republish Editing Graduate Essays in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.