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Personal statement format

hello,

I know this might sound like a silly question, but with the limit of only 47 lines on our personal statements, do you think it would be sensible to delete any line spaces between separate paragraphs? This would enable me to get a few more things in that I want to say.

Thanks!

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No. No. No. No. No. NEVER get rid of your line spaces. You can fit more than enough into your allotted space.
Reply 2
Avatar for silk192
silk192
14
no....it would make it look unprofessional and messy....leave the spaces and try and get rid of any waffles
I really don't think it's a good idea. No one needs more than 40-odd lines to write a decent personal statement - if you're writing 47 lines of solid text or more, you're either horrendously overqualified or you're waffling. You can post your personal statement in the confidential PS helper forum (i.e. here) for a review by our team of helpers, if you like. Read the FAQ - there's no risk of anyone stealing your statement or anything. :smile:
Do you mean not have any paragraphs? If so, I'm pretty sure they don't count as lines. Otherwise if you mean filling up as much of a line as possible, thats a good idea.. but actually quite hard when you get around to it:wink:
Reply 5
Avatar for charlyc3
charlyc3
no way! I tried that and it looks awful. I don't think anyone wants to see one big chunk of writing. Would put anyone straight off your PS...
Reply 6
Avatar for ExRx123
ExRx123
17
Oh dear, mine's 5 lines over in that case. I have no idea what to delete though :frown:
Reply 7
Avatar for jabed786
jabed786
15
hello,

I know this might sound like a silly question, but with the limit of only 47 lines on our personal statements, do you think it would be sensible to delete any line spaces between separate paragraphs? This would enable me to get a few more things in that I want to say.

Thanks!
Reply With Quote

I personally wouldnt but if you have a really good point, then cut two separate lines off or get rid of any waffling
no you're kidding me! paragraph space thingys, without any words on them, actually count as lines???
El Mariachi
Oh dear, mine's 5 lines over in that case. I have no idea what to delete though :frown:

Yeah me too :frown:
Reply 10
Avatar for Arianwen
Arianwen
6
Well, I didn't, and it seemed fine to me. I had paragraphs, just not spaces between them. Then again, we'll see whether I get any offers. :P
I got rid of them to keep it in the line limit. I got offers from all my unis. It didn't look attractive, but it wasn't horrendous either. Everyone here's just blowing it out of proportion. It's not as bad as they make it sound. So long as it does actually have paragraphs in it, the lack of a line space doesn't matter.
Reply 12
Avatar for JoeJBB
JoeJBB
13
Yep I haven't left any blank lines between paragraphs. I don't think admissions tutors mind that much tbh; they know that UCAS won't let you indent lines, so just accept it.
Reply 13
Avatar for Tom
Tom
15
I usually advise people it's fine to do. The UCAS form removes extra white space anyway so unis are fairly used to seeing PSs turn up as blocks of text. It doesn't look pretty, but deliberately wasting several lines of space you could use for content just to make it look nice seems very silly to me. If your paragraph structure is clear, even without spaces it should be fairly obvious where they begin and end anyway :wink:
Reply 14
Avatar for Echolife
Echolife
15
Tom
I usually advise people it's fine to do. The UCAS form removes extra white space anyway so unis are fairly used to seeing PSs turn up as blocks of text. It doesn't look pretty, but deliberately wasting several lines of space you could use for content just to make it look nice seems very silly to me. If your paragraph structure is clear, even without spaces it should be fairly obvious where they begin and end anyway :wink:


That's what I decided to do in the end. :smile:
How can anyone go severely over 47 lines when writing a personal statement? Remember everyone that it's not how much you write, it's the quality of your writing that counts. It sounds like some people need to learn to phrase things in a more consice, to-the-point manner. Be succinct in everything you write.
Reply 16
Avatar for Ed.
Ed.
17
I did it like this, when writing the PS
( ---------------)That way it is technically a
new paragraph but doesn't waste lines.
Ed.
I did it like this, when writing the PS
( ---------------)That way it is technically a
new paragraph but doesn't waste lines.


And doesn't work because the UCAS system trims off all extraneous lead-in spaces.

I think it is a significant issue (not leaving blank lines between paragraphs, I mean) and have spoken to quite a few admissions tutors who have all said that they hate to see another block of text that is difficult for them to read and gives no clues about statement structure.

I therefore always strongly advise people to include them. Presentation is very important, not just in terms of the look, but in terms of how the message is received and if you think it doesn't matter your are, quite honestly, completely wrong. It is far better to have properly signalled paragraphs and miss out a fact or two (or more likely a piece of waffle) than it is to send in a difficult-to-read slab of text crammed full of material.

The PS helpers were shown a presentation from a university a day or two ago which made a similar point, so at least one university is so concerned about the matter that it has mentioned it in a presentation it gives to applicants.

I believe that most of TSR's PS helpers will give similar advice (as you can see above), though Tom clearly disagrees.

And don't forget that the UCAS form is quite narrow and makes the slab-of-text effect even worse.
Good bloke
And doesn't work because the UCAS system trims off all extraneous lead-in spaces.

I think it is a significant issue (not leaving blank lines between paragraphs, I mean) and have spoken to quite a few admissions tutors who have all said that they hate to see another block of text that is difficult for them to read and gives no clues about statement structure.

I therefore always strongly advise people to include them. Presentation is very important, not just in terms of the look, but in terms of how the message is received and if you think it doesn't matter your are, quite honestly, completely wrong. It is far better to have properly signalled paragraphs and miss out a fact or two (or more likely a piece of waffle) than it is to send in a difficult-to-read slab of text crammed full of material.

The PS helpers were shown a presentation from a university a day or two ago which made a similar point, so at least one university is so concerned about the matter that it has mentioned it in a presentation it gives to applicants.

I believe that most of TSR's PS helpers will give similar advice (as you can see above), though Tom clearly disagrees.

And don't forget that the UCAS form is quite narrow and makes the slab-of-text effect even worse.


Huh:confused:

The PS helper Tom said above that once you paste your personal statement over to UCAS all the white space will be removed.

Is that the case?
If it is how will the admissions tutor know where your paragraph ends?
History Rocks
Huh:confused:

The PS helper Tom said above that once you paste your personal statement over to UCAS all the white space will be removed.

Is that the case?
If it is how will the admissions tutor know where your paragraph ends?


He meant space in the form of double spaces, lead-in spaces and indentations. Extra lines are left in.

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