Proof Reading Personal Statements

[relentless11]

Hi all,

I have a question regarding personal statements. I'm trying to find people, facilties, etc to proof read it for me to see if it works from the med schools point of view.

Off hand i can only think of the health advisors at my school, but are there any others? From this site i found www.essayedge.com
which apparently is a paid service. How credible is this site? I don't want them to turn my work into something they manufacture for me since it is my personal statement afterall.

Any info about this would be truly appreciated...thanks in advanced!

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[bigbaubdi]

Health advisors are usually a good source but you may also want to ask English profs or friends who are English majors.

 

[Amy B]

You can take it to the English dept at your school and ask them to proof it for grammatical errors. Ask friends, and close prof and advisors to proof it for content.

 

[Super Rob]

I'll share what was offered to me a few months ago:

DO NOT have someone critique the content. It is YOUR personal statement, and no one else's. The committees are trying to figure out what is different and perhaps remarkable about you, as compared to the multitude of applicants they have to screen through. The more you allow others to have say in your essay, the more your essay will sound run of the mill... MANUFACTURED. Instead, have it be your voice and have it represent your motivation for heading toward a career in medicine.

That being said, I'd drop a copy of it off with someone who is a great writer (I am very fortunate to have a young friend who is both an entertaining and prolific writer, who was more than happy to take a look at my statement). Have em take out the red pen and really tear it apart and make suggestions on the grammar. Basically, the point is this exercise is to make sure your essay sounds like English when read aloud.

Lastly, you may want to let a few others read it JUST to make sure that you are not providing or omitting information that will hurt your chances of getting accepted somewhere (i.e. you may want a friend or professor to remind you to leave out the part about you wanting to strangle one of the patients you worked with or the part about all doctors being a bunch of lazy bumms... won't go over with the committee).

 

[Super Rob]

Originally posted by Super Rob
Basically, the point is this exercise is to make sure your essay sounds like English when read aloud.

case in point

 

[jlee9531]

i let a few of my friends from different majors read it and tell me what emotions and feelings they got from it...

any other comments or stuff they had or grammar corrections were obviously welcome .

if there was a point i was trying to get across i would ask them if they saw it and if they didnt then i would have to do a better job getting it across through words.

 

[relentless11]

From what i can see then, based on what you guys have said, the best way to handle this is to first, run this first draf through for any obvious gramatical errors that flew by me. Then throw it to people to see if they get what i'm saying in this thing, then if it works, i'm gonna throw it back to some more people to check for errors, and then back to another group of people to see if the meaning comes out great.

Good news is, there's lots of time. Anyway, thanks for the feedback, always appreciate it!

 

[Amy B]

Originally posted by Super Rob
I'll share what was offered to me a few months ago:

DO NOT have someone critique the content. It is YOUR personal statement, and no one else's. The committees are trying to figure out what is different and perhaps remarkable about you, as compared to the multitude of applicants they have to screen through. The more you allow others to have say in your essay, the more your essay will sound run of the mill... MANUFACTURED. Instead, have it be your voice and have it represent your motivation for heading toward a career in medicine.

I totally disagree. If your statement is unclear as to the reason you want to be a doctor, or if it doesn't sound like medicine is truely what you want to study, then you are better hearing that from a friend rather than through a rejection letter. I have helped numerous people with their statements. I don't change why they want to become doctors, I have just made sure the reasons stand out through their words.

When talking with a dean of admissions, she said the personal statement was one of the most important things they look at. She said you need to use the statement to get through to them as to why you want to be a doctor and why they should want to train you. If your statement is weak you are going to fight an uphill battle. She said she turns down applicants with high stats every year due to their personal statements.

 

[soonerpillow]

The past couple of years there has been a thread of SDNers volunteering to read personal statements. That thread should appear in a couple of months. I used it last year and I think it helped a lot.

I would also suggest volunteering on that thread. You'll get a good idea of what other people write and you'll be surprised how they all sound the same. Then you can use that to make yours different. I found this out too late.