Assignment: The Personal Statement

IMPORTANT DATES:  

• Tues, October 5:  First draft, worth 20 points, is due in class.  No credit for late papers without an excused absence from a parent.
• Fri, October 8:  We changed this deadline to accommodate Homecoming Hoopla.  The deadline for this second draft is now Tuesday, October 12:  Revised second draft with pseudonym, worth 30 points, due in class. 
• Thur, October 14:  Final paper is due in class.

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  Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
  27	28	29	30	1
  4	5	6	7	8
  11	12	13	14	15

  
  
  OK Seniors, it’s time to use the momentum we have created in three weeks of free-writing to write that personal statement.
  
  
  Goals & Objectives:
  • to experience and experiment with the Writing Process
  • to create a personal statement that you can use as the basis for future personal essays that may be required of you
  • to make all deadlines for Small Group Work and Blind Read Arounds
  • to learn to work in a Writer’s Workshop, offering and receiving feedback from classmates and from the teacher
  • to demonstrate skill and proficiency in writing through
  • a properly narrowed, controlling idea
  • supporting examples with singular, concrete detail
  • an appropriate sense of audience and rhetorical purpose;
  • minimal errors in grammar and punctuation;
  • a clear prose style appropriate to the assignment
  
  
  Specifics:
  • Your personal statement will be between 750-1000 words, double-spaced, 12pt. Times Roman with 1” margins.  Your paper will look like a picture in a frame.
  • Your heading on the first page will include your name, the title of this class and assignment (ERW: Personal Statement), and the date).  The heading will be single spaced and left justified. 
  • Skip two lines, and center a title on the page.  The title must be 12pt. Times Roman and in regular type: not underlined, not bold.  Good titles come from the content of the personal statement.  You absolutely, positively may NOT use “Personal Statement” as a title.
  • Subsequent pages will feature your first initial and last name, and the page number, left justified and 1” from the top.  (I will show you how to set this up.)
  • Please use the writing skills and techniques we will cover during class: use of concrete, sensory detail; correct usage of one semi-colon; correct comma usage in introductory phrases; one short sentence for emphasis.
  
  
  
  TOPICS FOR THE PERSONAL STATEMENT
  
  
  CHOICE A:  From the University of California
  
  
  1. Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.
  
  
  2. Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?
  
  
  CHOICE B:  Prompts from the Common Application (www.commonapp.org)
  3. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
  4. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
  5. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
  6. Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
  7. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
  1. Here is a link to a blogger who has this year's prompts.  This blog looks pretty interesting -- you may want to browse a little.  Beware of anyone who is trying to charge you money. 
  CHOICE C: 
  8. Your choice.  You may create your own prompt, use the prompt from the college of your choice, browse the University of Chicago prompts (one prompt that caught my attention this year:  "Find x"), or choose one of the “100 College Admission Essay Prompts" that I have in my red folder.  Here's a link to a site with prompts.
  ASSESSMENT:
  • The Personal Statement is worth 130 points, as follows:
  • Draft 1:  20 points – typed, in-class on the correct day, full participation in Small Group Work
  • Draft 2:  30 points – REVISED draft, typed, in-class on the correct day, full participation in Blind Read Around
  • Final Draft:  50 points, scored on a 6-Traits Rubric
  • Daily Participation:  30 points — 3 points a day divided randomly among the 15 days of the unit.  Everyone starts the day with 3 points; I dock points if I observe behavior that is off topic or distracting.