Constructing a Personal Statement

 In this post I will demonstrate on self improvement while making personal statements (Including reflection and all drafts), I will also be showing some research of existing personal statements and what I can learn from them. Research is found through the link here: https://www.studyin-uk.com/uk-study-info/personal-statement/

Personal statements and how to write one.

A personal statement is essential when looking and applying for a university, this should include your career asperations, your interest in the subject, previous works experience etc. To write a good one you will need to make a good structure so that your writing can be understandable,  put some passion in when writing about yourself, tell them who you are, show your interests, hobbies and skills, selling yourself out there will make you more likely to stand out, be honest, don't lie and don't sound very negative about yourself either. Using these examples below will have helped me identify the Dos and Don'ts when writing up a statement, I will explain a bit more of the common mistakes after showing these two examples:

Good Example

Bad Example        

Using these examples it have helped identify the Dos and Don'ts when writing up a statement.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

Under/Over the Limit: When writing up a personal statement many people will make the statement either very short or too long, it is important to put as much detail as possible but within a certain word limit since the accessor of my statement will also have to read other Personal statements. 

Negative Information: I will create a bad impact to my statement, I will need to sound confident about myself otherwise I might give off a bad vibe, I'll need to sound more passionate about not just the course but about myself, to sell myself out there I must be positive about my skills.    

Bad Structure and lack of proof reading: A bad one means lack of organization and won't leave good first impressions to anyone who reads that statement, if people won't understand the whole structure of my statement that will leave a bad impression and I would be more likely to get rejected. 

Why use personal statements? 

Writing a personal statement allows the assessor to get to know you better and understand your intentions, they are beneficial for applying to Universities, Jobs or other courses like college etc. 

A maximum amount of words for a UCAS personal statement is 4000 however as you can see, my second personal statement exceeds over the limit so I made a shorter version of the draft on the final product, but first I will show the first two drafts. 

Draft 01: Usually the most flawed draft since the most common mistakes are often found especially on first attempts, this is when I started to reflect on my work for the first time.  

Draft 02: Getting and receiving feedback really does help me to reflect and self improve on my work although there is still some flaws, this is an improved version. 

Final product: This one was done on blogger and not on word, it does not exceed the word limit and has plenty of detail about myself.  

The subject Film and Media interests me because I am passionate about it, the reason why is because making movies is a hobby that I do at home and is something I personally enjoy doing, I specialize mostly in making stop motion videos and then uploading them to YouTube. The reason why I have selected this course is because it relates to my interests and what I want to do for my future such as making films or at least be behind the scenes in one, I enjoy creating things and bring my stories/ideas to life and the subject itself is something I'm rather interested in taking part of because I feel this encourages my creativity which allows me to feel more passionate. I was inspired by many successful film directors like George Lucas and his famous Star wars movies and Steven Spielberg's outstanding realistic films like Saving Private Ryan, I mostly like films that have a mixture of Fiction/Non-Fiction, SCI-FI elements, action and a bit of dark and gritty elements.  

 

I am skilled and have previous experiences with using Canon DSLR cameras, but I mostly use I phone software since I personally don't own a camera.  

I have had general knowledge with technical editing as well, I have achieved this from Creative Media Level 2 and 3, the projects I have participated last year are the Smile campaign which is a project aimed to encourage people to be more positive and happy, another one for Canon which is to create iconic and eye-catching images and lastly I have made a short documentary based on pop culture, during those times I have collaborated with different students and have been able to perform teamwork effort including good leadership. The skills I have developed at home such as my hobby for example allowed me to develop the skills to be more patient which allowed me to discover different ways to edit and animate projects even when using limited technology and having a rather low budget. Over the years I have already gained most of my skills that relates to this course at home, the following skills I have are, having a great use of creativity, lots of patience, great use of teamwork, ambitious, persistent, friendly, outgoing, kind and confident. That is until I joined creative media level 2 at September 2020, I then started learning new skills and learned how to make projects more professionally such as, using pre-production resources before making a project like writing storyboards, scripts, and proposals. Finally I have been learning new camera angles and the use of mise en scene for stage direction of actors. 

 

In the past for my work experience I have volunteered to work at the following work placements such as: Sainsburys (2016) my responsibilities down there was to help stock up shelves including food, electronics, other product and lastly helping out customers, In Software City (2017) I was tasked to create and showcase a product when working with a group and we had to present it, next at Harding's solicitors (2017-18) I spent most of my time there at the reception taking phone calls and sorting bills and mail for different people, afterwards I worked at St Benedict's Hospice (2019-2020)  in this job I had to help the elderly, the disabled and the ill, I was able to offer assistance like helping them with a disabled access elevator to get inside the minibus but mostly I chat to them and offer hospitality to help them feel reassured. (2019-2020), YAV/Young Asian Voices (2022 Present day) they are a charitable organization that helps support different cultures what I done for them so far is to help them with projects for communities and of course I created a Christmas animation for them. If after completing my current course Creative media level 03 I would go into more further education to University which is why I am applying to the course, afterwards I would like to look  for a job at the film industry, I would either like to be a Producer, a Director or maybe something else that is suitable for my use of skills.

Once done this will be ready to use during an application whether it will be a Job, Apprenticeship or Further education.