Personal Statement

Personal Statement writing assignment

TASK 1

Question A • What is the adjective that best describes you? Tell a story that shows it.

Question B • What is the story that your parents always tell about you OR • What is the story of the day you were born?

Question C • When you were a little kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Why? Has it changed? If so, why?

Question D • Select one of my adjective-noun combinations and describe yourself by SHOWING not telling. You may, instead, create your own combination. The result may reflect positively on you or negatively. It does not matter. AdjectiveNoun fair friend satisfactory athlete fabulous writer bad citizen fascinating community member horrible student okay relative outstanding comedian superb sibling frustrating teammate

Task 2 • Select your answer to ONE of the questions above and write a paragraph. The paragraph must be written according to these directions:

Task 2, continued • Sentence 1 -- Begin with a singular common noun. • Sentence 2 -- Begin with an adjective. • Sentence 3 -- Begin with a phrase that tells when. • Sentence 4 -- Begin with a verb ending in -ing. • Sentence 5 -- Begin with a phrase that tells where. • Sentence 6 -- Begin with an interjection. • Sentence 7 -- Begin with an phrase that tells how. • Sentence 8 -- Begin with an adverb ending in -ly. • Sentence 9 -- Begin with prepositional phrase. • Sentence 10 -- Begin with a verb ending in -ed. (Yes, it will be awkward, but we will edit it later.)

Task 3 • By what adjective do you think your parents would describe you? Or, to open it up a bit, how would your parents describe you?

Task 3, cont. • Read the note from your parent. Does it surprise you? Are you not surprised? Why? Write a few sentences about your reaction.

Task 3, cont. • In paragraph form, do the following: • Explain why your parents would respond this way. • Tell a brief story about a time in which you exhibited this characteristic. • Explain why your own perception of yourself and your parents’ perception of you is similar or is different.

Task 4 • What adjective do you think your friends would use to describe you? • Or • How would your friends describe you?

Task 4, cont. • Write a paragraph that begins with one of these sentence starters and explains why your friends might think that. (The more specific the details, the better.) • Whereas _____ my friends, see me as…. • Similar to _____, my friends see me as…

Task 5 • Let’s build an essay out of this! • Between your first body paragraph (which will serve as your intro) and the one about your parents, you need to write a transition.

Task 5, cont. • For your conclusion, write about one or more of these questions. • What did you learn about yourself by this exploration • What is revealed about you by these similarities/differences? • How do these characteristics work together to create the complete or real “you” • How can you either • Learn from it to grow in the future? • Rely on these things on the future?

Task 6 • Run grammar- and spell-check on the essay • Double-space it, put it in Times New Roman 12-font, and print it (the whole thing – including the initial questions) • Give it to a classmate to edit for clarity (he edits only the essay) • Edit, reprint and give the whole thing to me. • If I wrote on any previous versions, please give those to me too.

When you’re finished… • If you have not yet typed your poem, please do so and give it to me. • REMEMBER: • Don’t type your name, my name, etc. on it. Write this in pencil after you print. • PLEASE title the poem

Personal Statement