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Writing a Personal Statement*
Personal Statements for Graduate Programs in the Humanities
The Personal Statement, or Statement of Purpose, is one of the most importantcomponents of an application for graduate study in the humanities. With interviews rareand campus visits expensive, this statement is your one chance to tell an admissionscommittee, in your own words, how and why you have decided to pursue a graduatedegree in a particular field and at a particular school.
Personal statements for humanities graduate programs differ from other types ofadmissions essays in some very significant ways. An applicant to medical school with ahigh GPA, strong test scores, and extensive research experience might try to presentherself in her personal statement as more than just a “science nerd”—as someone withimportant community ties, for example, or strong leadership potential—in order to roundout her application. For the humanities, however, the content of your statement shouldprimarily inform your readers about your academic background, interests, andaspirations, rather than extracurricular and professional experiences. This essay may bethe first occasion where you’ve been asked to write seriously about your own research.Your challenge is to do so in a way that sounds unique and professional at the same time.You can’t simply turn your resume or CV into a prose narrative and call it a day.
The committee wants to know if you are interested in and able to conceive of andcomplete a long yet incredibly in-depth and focused research project. Extracurricularactivities don’t carry any weight unless they directly speak to your ability to do researchand teach in your field. Humanities departments tend to be interested in seeing evidenceof how you think and write, rather than reading through a litany of papers you’ve writtenand courses you’ve taken. (All this information should be available somewhere else onthe application, after all.) Suffice it to say that a personal statement for a humanitiesprogram is a sensitive and tricky genre to master. So, be sure to take your time with it.
Questions to Ask
You need to have rough answers to the following questions in your head before youbegin applying to any graduate program in the humanities, let alone start writing yourpersonal statement.
You may love literature/music/cultural theory/art history, etc., but—given thelimited number of academic jobs in this field and the amount of money and time furtherstudy will require—why do you want to devote at least the next two, five, or eight yearsof your life to this subject?
Your phone rings; it’s your dream graduate program. They’re offering you a full rideon the spot; all you have to do is tell them—right now—what your research agenda lookslike. (You aren’t signing anything in blood here, and certainly your interests and goalswill change as you continue your studies, but you do want to demonstrate that you’ll
enter the program with a strong sense of direction and purpose, or at least an idea of whatthis kind of work entails.)
You don’t have two heads, twelve fingers, or—unless J.K. Rowling created you—adistinctive scar on your forehead that binds your destiny with that of the Dark Lord. Sowhat makes you different from other majors in your department and from other potentialapplicants to a graduate program in your field? More specifically, what about your workand ways of approaching your subject sets you apart from the masses?
Actions to Take
Read the prompt and make sure you respond to it. Different departments may askyou to respond to different questions in your personal statement.
“Why do you want to go to graduate school for that?” Turn this pesky and oft-repeated question to your advantage. Answer the question, out loud, as often and in asmany different ways as possible. Explain in detail how your research interests fit into thediscipline at large; why you think you’d be a particularly good match for the departmentto which you are applying; what issues and questions you believe are most pressing toyour field at present and why; etc.
Do your research. Find out as much as you can about the accomplishments ofprofessors in the departments you plan to apply to. Look at books and articles they’vewritten, and think carefully about how their work fits in with the kinds of questions youwant to ask. You’ll want to tailor your personal statement accordingly to eachdepartment; this does take some time and thought, but it’s worth it. Admissionscommittees want to make sure they choose applicants who are “good fits” for theprogram. All-around rock stars whose interests don’t match those of the faculty may beless likely to accept an offer of admission or to get as much out of the resources at hand ifthey do.
Reading up on what schools have to offer also allows you to invest your effortswhere they will count most. If you want to study a particular topic, author, or time period,and the department does not have professors willing to work with graduate students inthat area, you are better off choosing a different school. It is also important to rememberthat, as opposed to applying to college, the audience for your essay is the department, oreven a set of professors in your field, instead of the school.
Think about the differences among these four sentences:
1. “I am particularly interested in studying the history of the Victorian novel atHotshot University.”
2. “I am particularly interested in studying the history of the Victorian novel withProfessor Fascinating at Hotshot University.”
3. “Professor Fascinating’s work on Dickens and Eliot is of particular interest tome.”
4. “I am particularly interested in the ways in which Professor Fascinating’s studyof Dickens and Eliot challenges prevailing assumptions about the relationship betweengender 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 sentencewould indicate to her that the applicant really knows something about her work, andgives her the means to put the rest of the essay—and the rest of the application—in somesort of context.
Plan to write multiple drafts, and leave yourself as much time as possible. There aremany different possibilities for how to organize your statement, but it may take a while tofind the structure that works best for you. Prepare for the brutal task of having to cutsome of even your most beautifully crafted sentences and paragraphs; your essay needs tocohere, and it needs to be fairly short. Your job is to come up with the best of all possiblestatements, which may mean writing and rewriting several entirely different versions.
Proof obsessively for grammar, sentence, and paragraph structure, and word choice.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’steaching of writing to undergraduates. They will notice and be unimpressed by typos,passive constructions, and needlessly complex language. Beware of importing chunks oftext from one essay into another: the faculty at Hotshot U. won’t be impressed if you tellthem how delighted you’d be to be accepted at Nearly Ivy U.
Ask your advisor, professors, TAs, and peers to read and comment on yourstatement well before the application deadline. If you’re a Duke student, bring yourstatement to the Writing Studio at any stage of the process. It’s important to make surethat 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 tosubmit to professors who have agreed to write you letters of recommendation. Theirletters will be better the more they know about you and your interests, and theircomments on your essay will help you revise and polish.
Don’t be afraid to contact the directors of the programs to which you are applyingwith any questions about what they’re looking for.
Helpful Links
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/pw/p_perstate.html
Purdue’s Online Writing Lab provides additional questions to ask and steps to take;advice from admissions officers from several universities; and excerpts from successfulapplication essays
http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2006/12/2006121301c/careers.html
In this Chronicle for Higher Education article, an M.F.A. candidate in creativenonfiction investigates the purpose of “purpose statements.”http://www.duke.edu/web/english/graduate/applicationfaqs.htm
The Duke English Department offers detailed online, publicly available advice forwriting a personal statement (and for applying to PhD programs in English). Question 17on this FAQs page addresses how to write an effective personal statement. Keep in mindthat different departments (and different disciplines) may be looking for different things.http://info.gradsch.wisc.edu/admin/admissions/purpose.html
The University of Wisconsin-Madison developed this sample outline for a statement ofpurpose in conjunction with the University of California System. Applicants forhumanities programs may want to disregard this suggested structure, which threatens toturn your essay into a clunky restatement of information that could be found on a CV, butthe suggestions for content are potentially useful.http://www.essayedge.com/graduate/essayadvice/course
Essay Edge provides an “essay writing service” that is probably unethical (andexpensive!) to use, but their website has some great advice, as well as examples ofpersonal statements for a variety of professional schools and graduate fields.
*All information above found at: http://uwp.aas.duke.edu/wstudio
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发表于 2016-9-19 11:26:47
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