Things You Should Know When Writing a Personal Statement

Things You Should Know When Writing a Personal Statement Personal Statement Writing Secrets The role of personal statement is hard to overestimate because the future of your educations depends on its quality. Writing a personal statement requires not just good writing skills but also creativity and certain level of mental sharpness. Writing skills are useful for every person who wants to become a good professional, but writing skills alone cant guarantee that you will write a decent personal statement. Creativity, ability to think out of the box and a sharp mind are the necessary elements which in combination with good writing skills can help you to craft an excellent personal statement. It means that you need to understand well what youre writing and how exactly youre planning to do this. These two things are the key to writing a good personal statement. Personal Statement Writing Guide Before we proceed to giving you more tips on writing a personal statement, lets clarify the terminology which people still find confusing: Personal statement is a type of essay that is written in order to demonstrate a college admissions committee why you are a good fit for their college and what is your motivation to enter this particular college. Personal statement term is also used for graduate school. College essay means the same thing as a personal statement so I will use both of these terms in this article interchangeably. Essay prompt this is the main question that your college essay is supposed to address. Supplemental essay additional essay beyond personal statement that some educational institutions may require. Now, as we know the terminology lets look at the structure of a personal statement: What is the angle that you want to use to tell the story? What key points do you want to focus on in your story? In case you begin your college essay with a thesis statement, you should reinforce it throughout the whole essay and return to it in the end. Conclusion should restate your focus in a way that lets the college admission committee know why youre an excellent fit for their educational institution. Lets assume that you have selected the college or university where you want to study. Before you start working on a personal statement you need to learn as much as possible about the requirements to the personal statement in this particular educational institution. Also, it is advisable to do a research on prospective college or university to understand its values and see if they correspond to yours. Knowing a background of the educational institution that you want to apply to will be great for your personal statement because if you mention how your life and your values are related to the life and values of the university it will definitely show the admission committee that you have done your research and youre a passionate candidate that should be considered very seriously. When writing a personal statement carefully think what you should and what you shouldnt mention there. For instance, you shouldnt mention facts that dont correlate with your achievements, traits of character and further education. On the other hand, you should mention achievements which are relevant to the spirit of an educational institution that youre applying for. Never forget that there are hundreds of others who are applying with you. This notion should make you understand that you need to focus on something that makes you special. College Personal Statement Prompts: The Process of Writing a Personal Statement Analyze questions mentioned in the application Make a research of the educational institution that youre applying for Write your college essay Revise it and make sure that its devoid of grammatical and logical errors Ask a faculty member in your area to read your essay and give recommendations Make another revision and proofread it one final time Help Writing Personal Statement: Things to Avoid Controversial or too flowery language Mentioning your desire to become a part of this particular educational institution since the young age Being too proud or too modest When writing a personal statement be sincere and use a neutral tone. List all your virtues, values and achievements that are relevant to the definition of a good student for this educational institution. Try to think about what you can achieve as a student and where these achievements may take you in your adult life. Think how they can benefit your educational institution, your community, your city, state, country or even the whole world. Use your creativity and write your college essay interestingly so that the members of admission committee dont get bored while reading it. You may even include a joke or two if appropriate, but be very careful with it, because inappropriate jokes only do harm. Of course, students dont write personal statements often, that is why it seems like a difficult task. While its certainly not easy, calling it difficult would be an exaggeration because if you follow the tips on writing a personal essay offered in this article, writing this essay ceases to be a difficult task. Feel a deep sense of your being within yourself and try to write out of this sense. Be very sincere and project your authenticity from your heart right onto the paper. Admission committee will definitely notice personal statements written in that manner.

How to Conduct an Interview in Sociology Research

How to Conduct an Interview in Sociology Research Interviewing is a method of qualitative research (used by sociologists and other social scientists) in which the researcher asks open-ended questions orally. This research method is useful for collecting data that reveal the values, perspectives, experiences and worldviews of the population under study. Interviewing is often paired with other research methods including survey research, focus groups, and ethnographic observation. Key Takeaways: Research Interviews in Sociology Sociologists sometimes conduct in-depth interviews, which involve asking open-ended questions.One advantage of in-depth interviews is that they are flexible, and the researcher can ask follow-up questions to the respondent’s answers.The steps necessary for conducting an in-depth interview include preparing for data collection, conducting the interviews, transcribing and analyzing the data, and disseminating the study results. Overview Interviews, or in-depth interviews, are different from survey interviews in that they are less structured. In survey interviews, the questionnaires are rigidly structured- the questions must all be asked in the same order, in the same way, and only the pre-defined answer choices can be given. In-depth qualitative interviews, on the other hand, are more flexible. In an in-depth interview, the interviewer has a general plan of inquiry and may also have a specific set of questions or topics to discuss. However, it is not necessary for the interviewer to stick to predetermined questions, nor is it necessary to ask questions in a particular order. The interviewer must, however, be fully familiar with the subject in order to have an idea of potential questions to ask, and must plan so that things proceed smoothly and naturally. Ideally, the respondent does most of the talking while the interviewer listens, takes notes, and guides the conversation in the direction it needs to go. In such a scenario, the respondent’s answers to the initial questions should shape the subsequent questions. The interviewer needs to be able to listen, think, and talk almost simultaneously. Steps of the Interviewing Process Although in-depth interviews are more flexible than survey studies, it is important for researchers to follow particular steps in order to ensure that useful data is collected. Below, we’ll review the steps of preparing for and conducting in-depth interviews, and for using the data. Determining the Topic First, its necessary that the researcher decides on the purpose of the interviews and the topics that should be discussed in order to meet that purpose. Are you interested in a populations experience of a life event, set of circumstances, a place, or their relationships with other people? Are you interested in their identity and how their social surroundings and experiences influence it? Its the researchers job to identify which questions to ask and topics to bring up to elucidate data that will address the research question. Planning Interview Logistics Next, the researcher must plan the interview process. How many people must you interview? What variety of demographic characteristics should they have? Where will you find your participants and how will you recruit them? Where will interviews take place and who will do the interviewing? Are there any ethical considerations that must be accounted for?  A researcher must answer these questions and others before conducting interviews. Conducting Interviews Now youre ready to conduct your interviews. Meet with your participants and/or assign other researchers to conduct interviews, and work your way through the entire population of research participants. Typically interviews are conducted face-to-face, but they can also be done via telephone or video chat. Each interview should be recorded. Researchers sometimes take notes by hand, but more commonly a digital audio recording device is used. Transcribing Interview Data Once youve collected your interview data you must turn it into usable data by transcribing it- creating a written text of the conversations that composed the interview. Some find this to be a cumbersome and time-consuming task. Efficiency can be achieved with voice-recognition software, or by hiring a transcription service. However, many researchers find the process of transcription a useful way to become intimately familiar with the data, and may even begin to see patterns within it during this stage. Data Analysis Interview data can be analyzed after it has been transcribed. With in-depth interviews, analysis takes the form of reading through the transcripts to code them for patterns and themes that provide a response to the research question. Sometimes unexpected findings occur, and these findings should not be discounted even though they may not relate to the initial research question. Validating the Data Next, depending on the research question and the type of answer sought, a researcher may wish to  verify the reliability and validity of the information gathered by checking the data against other sources. Sharing Research Results Finally, no research is complete until it is reported, whether written, orally presented, or published through other forms of media.