How to make essays personal?

Question

I keep hearing that essays should be made personal.Any tips on making them appear personal?

ACNguy · Answer

You can't make anything "appear" to be personal. That simply contradicts itself. Any effort to fake it will come off as just that, fake. Simply sit down and start writing to answer the question. Don't worry about sentence structure, or rational logic or flow, just write. You'll be surprised at the number of good ideas that come out that you can then start building around. Once you build around those you'll have a full essay that is truly your personal thoughts and feelings. Once that's completed you can then start editing for content, cohesion, word choice, etc. However, don't over do the editting, the more hands you have touching and tearing it apart the less it becomes "yours" and again will come off as sterile and fake. Those are my opinions anyway.

swbluedevil · Answer

Just talk about YOUR experiences, goals, reasons for getting an MBA, etc. Don't write what you think the adcoms want to hear. Be genuine and your essays will be made personal.

Accepted.com · Answer

I agree with the previous posters, and I could probably also write a book on the topic. In fact, Paul Bodine, who responds to questions in the Accepted.com thread, has written a  book  in which he discusses this topic at length.

A large part my recent webinar " Roadmap to Bold & Brilliant MBA Essays " also dealt with this question. And there are many, many  MBA resources  at Accepted that touch on it.

A few succinct tips:
* Be specific to distinguish yourself from the many applicants in the same broad general categories as you.
* Provide anecdotal examples from your life experiences to support more general claims and statements. 
* Reflect on influential experiences and discuss what you learned from those experiences.

The mix of distinctive description of events unique to you with your own analysis of those events -- what led up to them and flowed from them -- will create essays that  ARE  personal. The appearance is not enough.

Best,
Linda Abraham

terp26 · Answer

agree with the above sentiments. Personal means just that. Don't be cliche. Be unique and interesting in telling your stories. Also definitely have 1 or 2 people proofread your essays. It is amazing how much garbage you think is interesting:)

garbus222 · Answer

Few ways... add scans of your fingerprints (apparently very personal) or lips (when wearing your personal lipstick); for Stern (for their "creative" essay) send something personal (wisdom tooth to combine personality without loosing "knowledge" message between the lines); use in your essays words "personal" and "personally"; add watermark (your personal photo) to your essays.?

More seriously - what did you think this means before you asked question here?

Class2012 · Answer

I thought there is something more than giving examples from your work/non-work life.

swbluedevil · Answer

Like what?

How to make essays personal?

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