UCAS says we don't need line breaks in PS
I've heard from a number of sources (including TSR and my college) to put line breaks in between each paragraph of the personal statement on UCAS. This makes sense, otherwise the whole thing is going to look like one big block of text. However, reading the help page of UCAS Apply, I came across this:
View original
The implication of this, as far as I can tell, is that writing in Word using the Normal profile (which automatically line-breaks paragraphs) is an acceptable way of submitting a statement. Yet, when this is pasted in, the line breaks will disappear, and this tells us not to worry about it?!
I'm not sure who to believe here; obviously UCAS are something of an authority, but literally everyone else I've ever spoken to disagrees. Any thoughts?
If you prepared your personal statement using a word-processing package and pasted it into Apply, you may find that any paragraph spacing that you included is not displayed. Don't worry - your chosen universities and colleges will receive the original formatted version.
View original
The implication of this, as far as I can tell, is that writing in Word using the Normal profile (which automatically line-breaks paragraphs) is an acceptable way of submitting a statement. Yet, when this is pasted in, the line breaks will disappear, and this tells us not to worry about it?!
I'm not sure who to believe here; obviously UCAS are something of an authority, but literally everyone else I've ever spoken to disagrees. Any thoughts?
(edited 10 years ago)
Can you provide a link to the specific page, as I can't see this anywhere on the UCAS site.
As far as I am aware, the personal statement will appear to admissions staff exactly as it appears if you click preview. If there's no line spacing there, then there's no line spacing. To me, if this isn't the case, it makes the preview function a bit redundant as well.
As far as I am aware, the personal statement will appear to admissions staff exactly as it appears if you click preview. If there's no line spacing there, then there's no line spacing. To me, if this isn't the case, it makes the preview function a bit redundant as well.
Original post by benplumley
I've heard from a number of sources (including TSR and my college) to put line breaks in between each paragraph of the personal statement on UCAS. This makes sense, otherwise the whole thing is going to look like one big block of text. However, reading the help page of UCAS Apply, I came across this:
The implication of this, as far as I can tell, is that writing in Word using the Normal profile (which automatically line-breaks paragraphs) is an acceptable way of submitting a statement. Yet, when this is pasted in, the line breaks will disappear, and this tells us not to worry about it?!
I'm not sure who to believe here; obviously UCAS are something of an authority, but literally everyone else I've ever spoken to disagrees. Any thoughts?
The implication of this, as far as I can tell, is that writing in Word using the Normal profile (which automatically line-breaks paragraphs) is an acceptable way of submitting a statement. Yet, when this is pasted in, the line breaks will disappear, and this tells us not to worry about it?!
I'm not sure who to believe here; obviously UCAS are something of an authority, but literally everyone else I've ever spoken to disagrees. Any thoughts?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvqFG-C9RvY
Go to around 3 minutes ish and you can see the paper which the university will receive in a dudes hand. You can see line breaks.
My line lengths happen to fall in such a way that it is very clear where my paragraphs are, with no spaces. I've heard plenty of other people on here who say they have no spaces. Using line breaks would've meant I'd have had to remove an entire paragraph. Given that personal statements really aren't long, I wouldn't go with breaks.
Original post by Jkizer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvqFG-C9RvY
Go to around 3 minutes ish and you can see the paper which the university will receive in a dudes hand. You can see line breaks.
Go to around 3 minutes ish and you can see the paper which the university will receive in a dudes hand. You can see line breaks.
Everyone knows you can have line breaks, the OP is trying to say that you don't need to explicitly put them in.
This makes sense considering that track has a new format/look.
Posted from TSR Mobile
Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Jkizer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvqFG-C9RvY
Go to around 3 minutes ish and you can see the paper which the university will receive in a dudes hand. You can see line breaks.
Go to around 3 minutes ish and you can see the paper which the university will receive in a dudes hand. You can see line breaks.
But his is just an example? He probably entered those lines himself..
Original post by SlowlorisIncognito
Can you provide a link to the specific page, as I can't see this anywhere on the UCAS site.
https://apply2.ucas.com/ucasapply2014/PopUpServlet?functionname=help&page=HELP.PERSONALSTATEMENT.STATEMENT.FIELD.STATEMENT
Print screen it (if its allowed), link doesn't work.
Original post by Jkizer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvqFG-C9RvY
Go to around 3 minutes ish and you can see the paper which the university will receive in a dudes hand. You can see line breaks.
Go to around 3 minutes ish and you can see the paper which the university will receive in a dudes hand. You can see line breaks.
Original post by PythianLegume
Everyone knows you can have line breaks, the OP is trying to say that you don't need to explicitly put them in.
Actually, I think this video does have the answer in. Go to 1:34, you'll see the difference between a carriage return and a line break between the second and third lines of "blah blah blah". It looks like UCAS displays these in a similar way to the way Word displays them, so I'm going to go without line breaks. Thanks for the research guys
Peculiar that my link is broken, it still works from here.
Original post by benplumley
Peculiar that my link is broken, it still works from here.
It's because your link was to UCAS Apply - you need to be logged in on an account to see it.
Obviously it's up to you how you submit your statment, but I would be wary of expecting line breaks to appear if they don't appear in the preview screen as this is supposed to be exactly how your statement will come up when your application reaches universities.
Original post by benplumley
I've heard from a number of sources (including TSR and my college) to put line breaks in between each paragraph of the personal statement on UCAS. This makes sense, otherwise the whole thing is going to look like one big block of text. However, reading the help page of UCAS Apply, I came across this:
View original
The implication of this, as far as I can tell, is that writing in Word using the Normal profile (which automatically line-breaks paragraphs) is an acceptable way of submitting a statement. Yet, when this is pasted in, the line breaks will disappear, and this tells us not to worry about it?!
I'm not sure who to believe here; obviously UCAS are something of an authority, but literally everyone else I've ever spoken to disagrees. Any thoughts?
View original
The implication of this, as far as I can tell, is that writing in Word using the Normal profile (which automatically line-breaks paragraphs) is an acceptable way of submitting a statement. Yet, when this is pasted in, the line breaks will disappear, and this tells us not to worry about it?!
I'm not sure who to believe here; obviously UCAS are something of an authority, but literally everyone else I've ever spoken to disagrees. Any thoughts?
No. What it states is that the render within apply ignores the formatting characters. The uni however will view it and the formatting characters will be used and the correct format shown.
Reads very clearly to me.
Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by benplumley
I've heard from a number of sources (including TSR and my college) to put line breaks in between each paragraph of the personal statement on UCAS. This makes sense, otherwise the whole thing is going to look like one big block of text. However, reading the help page of UCAS Apply, I came across this:
View original
The implication of this, as far as I can tell, is that writing in Word using the Normal profile (which automatically line-breaks paragraphs) is an acceptable way of submitting a statement. Yet, when this is pasted in, the line breaks will disappear, and this tells us not to worry about it?!
I'm not sure who to believe here; obviously UCAS are something of an authority, but literally everyone else I've ever spoken to disagrees. Any thoughts?
View original
The implication of this, as far as I can tell, is that writing in Word using the Normal profile (which automatically line-breaks paragraphs) is an acceptable way of submitting a statement. Yet, when this is pasted in, the line breaks will disappear, and this tells us not to worry about it?!
I'm not sure who to believe here; obviously UCAS are something of an authority, but literally everyone else I've ever spoken to disagrees. Any thoughts?
What it means is that you need to put your paragraph spacing in but when you preview it, the paragraph spacing will not show up. However the universities will receive it the way you pasted it in.
Posted from TSR Mobile
When I press 'view all details' in the 'apply' section of UCAS, my personal statement looks like this, with paragraphing:
However, when I go on track, and view my details there, my personal statement looks like this, completely without paragraphing:
Is this supposed to happen/has this happened to anyone else?
(I've blurred out the actual words of my PS for obvious reasons).
However, when I go on track, and view my details there, my personal statement looks like this, completely without paragraphing:
Is this supposed to happen/has this happened to anyone else?
(I've blurred out the actual words of my PS for obvious reasons).
Original post by R.P.Everything.
When I press 'view all details' in the 'apply' section of UCAS, my personal statement looks like this, with paragraphing:
However, when I go on track, and view my details there, my personal statement looks like this, completely without paragraphing:
Is this supposed to happen/has this happened to anyone else?
(I've blurred out the actual words of my PS for obvious reasons).
However, when I go on track, and view my details there, my personal statement looks like this, completely without paragraphing:
Is this supposed to happen/has this happened to anyone else?
(I've blurred out the actual words of my PS for obvious reasons).
Yes, your unis will receive it as the former.
Posted from TSR Mobile
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