Just jump straight in with your first paragraph, an introduction is only going to take up some of your valuable word count. Its personal preference really, but personally I found a good place to start was to explain my interest for the subject and what I planned to do during and after taking the course. Just make sure you don't come off as too cliche with the 'I have been interested in *insert subject* since *Insert arbitrary time or meaningless event*'

Reply 5

Ezme39

19

Something that you've seen or done? - "I saw the...", "it..."
Mine was medicine, so I went straight in to saying that it was heartbreaking to watch a woman be given her cancer diagnosis

Reply 6

username1599987

12

Original post by charj98

im writing my personal statement for a marine biology course and im completely stuck on how to open it and do my first paragraph. help please

We're on the same boat ! (see what I did there lol) Kind of. Though I'm writing one for math.

Reply 7

chazwomaq

18

You could start with an interesting fact that shows a bit of knowledge on the subject. For example:

"More than 70% of the earth's surface is covered in water. Therefore to a first approximation, biology is the study of marine biology."

Or

"Life first evolved in the sea. And it remained there for 600 million years, sheltering from the lethal ultraviolet radiation that bathed the world above."

Then move into your personal bit.

Reply 8

ThaeyrynTheDwarf

6

Original post by charj98

im writing my personal statement for a marine biology course and im completely stuck on how to open it and do my first paragraph. help please

I'm going to be applying to an ecology course, so I have opened with the reason why, which is due to the number of endangered animals on the planet. So I have used and example of a recently extinct species, and how quickly that extinction occurred. Then I have said that I want to do the degree to help prevent headlines like this :smile:

Reply 9

jboy peace

1

It's probably best 4u 2find a sample of that online or ask your teachers for one, maybe samples if necessary.

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Reply 10

TVIO

12

I started with a sentence about what I thought my course was (computer science) and what that meant to me.

Reply 11

r_u_jelly

19

I want to do marine biology so that I can discover the creatures in the world's oceans, how they eat, reproduce and migrate. I want to help conserve these species so that they can be enjoyed for many generations.

:u:

Reply 12

r_u_jelly

19

Original post by chazwomaq

You could start with an interesting fact that shows a bit of knowledge on the subject. For example:

"More than 70% of the earth's surface is covered in water. Therefore to a first approximation, biology is the study of marine biology."

Or

"Life first evolved in the sea. And it remained there for 600 million years, sheltering from the lethal ultraviolet radiation that bathed the world above."

Then move into your personal bit.

I'm blown away here by these facts :fyi:

Where did you learn this stuff!

Reply 13

Absent Agent

21

Original post by charj98

im writing my personal statement for a marine biology course and im completely stuck on how to open it and do my first paragraph. help please

i can show you my personal statement if you want and you get get an idea of how to start it. didn't your school/college give you sample personal statements?

Reply 14

charj98

OP

Original post by chazwomaq

You could start with an interesting fact that shows a bit of knowledge on the subject. For example:

"More than 70% of the earth's surface is covered in water. Therefore to a first approximation, biology is the study of marine biology."

Or

"Life first evolved in the sea. And it remained there for 600 million years, sheltering from the lethal ultraviolet radiation that bathed the world above."

Then move into your personal bit.

thast what it hought starting with the % but my parent suggested not to

Reply 15

charj98

OP

Original post by Mehrdad jafari

i can show you my personal statement if you want and you get get an idea of how to start it. didn't your school/college give you sample personal statements?

that would be great! and yeh they did nut they all started with the ten things we were told not to so i was like the ****!

Reply 16

ummm

16

In mine I talked about why I respected the subject - it's implications and importance - and how that inspired me to pursue it at degree level.

Reply 17

A level sufferer

18

Look online and get ideas or use synonyms (that's what I done and it worked :smile:

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Reply 18

carrotstar

21

I suggest you type up the rest of your personal statement and go back to the beginning. You will find you get into a certain style of writing and things will flow much better. Try starting out by writing about your passion for the subject you wish to study. Even if it's not in a suitable format for a personal statement, you can rearrange it later. Also list useful words such as 'communication', 'development' and 'independent', which can be applied to what you've done.