English Literature Personal Statement for Cambridge and Oxford
Writing a personal statement for English literature can be one of the most challenging parts of the application process. Below we have given an example personal statement from a real candidate. They received an offer from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
Oxbridge Example English personal statement
Literature is more than a form of escapism. I believe the written word is an insightful representation of the human condition; it is essentially empathy manifested, and subsequently presents the same fundamental ethical issues and questions that arise naturally from human understanding. My enjoyment of English is centred on this infallible ability to force observers to challenge themselves, and how this plays a crucial role in the formation of opinions and interpretation of ideas. As my knowledge of literature has broadened, I have found myself increasingly fascinated by different portrayals of morality. Within my ‘A’ Level studies I have encountered the infamous and questionable protagonists of Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’, and was completely captivated by the concept of virtuous intention being opposed by immoral action. Written during the Enlightenment Era with a contradictory attitude towards the advancement of science, the perspective of both monster and creator cause the reader to question to what extent they condone the events, and critically decide who deserves the sympathy of the spectator. I have discovered this challenge of beliefs to be as present in reality as in fiction, and attended a lecture by Professor A.C. Grayling on The Ethics of War, where I first encountered the ‘just war theory’; I consequently applied this to my analysis of literature, in particular Nabokov’s Lolita. I found the novel challenged the inherently human notions of protection of the innocent, and upholding traditional values, but approached this in a manner that still enabled me to empathise with Humbert’s persona: to me this proved the power and potential of literature to persuade and manipulate the changeable emotions of the reader. Intrigued by his ability to influence his readers, and the juxtaposition between form and subject, I read Nabokov’s ‘Lectures on Literature’. Another aspect of literature that I anticipate enjoying at degree level is its evolution over time. As I attended a Master Class Lecture on ‘The Essay as Literary Form’ I discovered an interest in the Practical Criticism of the structure and use of the written word, and was inspired to read ‘Essayists on the Essay’. This presented me with the previously unconsidered concept of the dichotomy between the didactic and expressive purposes of the essay. My enjoyment of this book was based on the variety of arguments presented for each case, and it caused me to consider the function of subsequent texts I encountered. I found this analytical approach useful when working collaboratively to present on Seamus Heaney’s ‘Sonnet 3’ during a University Experience Course, as a previous seminar on sonnet structure enabled me to attribute the nostalgic and reflective tone of the work to its format as a Petrarchan sonnet. I also thought that the difference in layout of individual lines and rhyme scheme could change the meaning and questions presented by a work of poetry, as the evolution of the sonnet is comparable to that of the essay in regard to its development of style to convey intention. My further reading allowed me to comprehend the place of literature in communication and academia. In contrast to this; the work experience placement I completed at HarperCollins Publishers gave me an insight into the role of literature in the corporate world. As well as gaining an understanding of the process of bringing books into existence, I found it fascinating to observe how the role of a publisher involves a series of compromises between author and reader: the books must be tailored to the changeable interests of their audiences without this being detrimental to the integrity and authenticity of the author’s original intentions. I am incredibly motivated to challenge myself further in the criticism of literature, and broaden my knowledge of texts, as well as gaining innovative research skills to allow me to develop my ability to manipulate the English language.
Looking for more Oxford and Cambridge English Literature personal statement Examples?
Stay up to date with our blog as more examples will be uploaded soon!
Maths Personal Statement Example for Cambridge and Oxford
Law personal statement for cambridge and oxford.
Using Literary Quotations
Use the guidelines below to learn how to use literary quotations.
Download this Handout PDF
Introduction
When you’re asked to write a paper analyzing a work of literature, your instructor probably expects you to incorporate quotations from that literary text into your analysis. But how do you do this well? What kind of quotations do you use? How do you seamlessly weave together your ideas with someone else’s words?
On this page we clarify the purpose of using literary quotations in literary analysis papers by exploring why quotations are important to use in your writing and then explaining how to do this. We provide general guidelines and specific suggestions about blending your prose and quoted material as well as information about formatting logistics and various rules for handling outside text.
Although this material is focused on integrating your ideas with quotations from novels, poems, and plays into literary analysis papers, in some genres this advice is equally applicable to incorporating quotations from scholarly essays, reports, or even original research into your work.
For further information, check out our Quoting and Paraphrasing resource, or you may wish to see when the Writing Center is offering its next introductory workshop about the genre of literary analysis. Additionally, our Short Guide to Close Reading for Literary Analysis offers wonderful insight into how you can read a piece of literature in order to analyze it.
Why should I use literary quotations?
Within a literary analysis, your purpose is to develop an argument about what the author of the text is doing—how the text “works.” You use quotations to support this argument. This involves selecting, presenting, and discussing material from the text in order to “prove” your point—to make your case—in much the same way a lawyer brings evidence before a jury.
Quoting for any other purpose is counterproductive. Don’t quote to “tell the story” or otherwise convey basic information about the text; most of the time within this genre you can assume your reader knows the text. And don’t quote just for the sake of quoting or to fill up space.
How do I use literary quotations?
General guidelines.
The following paragraph is from a student’s analysis of the relationship between two characters in Woolf’s To the Lighthouse . Notice how statements expressing the writer’s ideas and observations are verified with evidence from the novel in both summarized and quoted form.
We learn about Mrs. Ramsey’s personality by observing her feelings about other characters. For example, Mrs. Ramsey has mixed feelings toward Mr. Tansley, but her feelings seem to grow more positive over time as she comes to know him better. At first Mrs. Ramsey finds Mr. Tansley annoying, as shown especially when he mentions that no one is going to the lighthouse (7). But rather than hating him, she feels pity: “she pitied men always as if they lacked something . . .” (85). Then later, during the gathering, pity turns to empathy as she realizes that Mr. Tansley must feel inferior. He must know, Mrs. Ramsey thinks, that “no woman would look at him with Paul Rayley in the room” (104). Finally, by the end of the dinner scene, she feels some attraction to Mr. Tansley and also a new respect: “She liked his laugh . . . She liked his awkwardness. There was a lot in that man after all” (110). In observing this evolution in her attitude, we learn more about Mrs. Ramsey than we do about Mr. Tansley. The change in Mrs. Ramsey’s attitude is not used by Woolf to show that Mrs. Ramsey is fickle or confused; rather it is used to show her capacity for understanding both the frailty and complexity of human beings. This is a central characteristic of Mrs. Ramsey’s personality.
Your ideas + textual evidence + discussion
Notice that this paragraph includes three basic kinds of materials: (a) statements expressing the student’s own ideas about the relationship Woolf is creating; (b) data or evidence from the text in summarized, paraphrased, and quoted form; and (c) discussion of how the data support the writer’s interpretation. All the quotations are used in accordance with the writer’s purpose, i.e., to show how the development of Mrs. Ramsey’s feelings indicates something about her personality.
Textual evidence options
Quoting is only one of several ways to present textual material as evidence. You can also refer to textual data, summarize, and paraphrase. You will often want merely to refer or point to passages (as in the third sentence in the above example paragraph) that contribute to your argument. In other cases, you will want to paraphrase, i.e., “translate” the original into your own words, again instead of quoting. Summarize or paraphrase when it is not so much the language of the text that justifies your position, but the substance or content.
Quoting selectively
Similarly, after you have decided that you want to quote material, quote only the portions of the text specifically relevant to your point . Think of the text in terms of units—words, phrases, sentences, and groups of sentences (paragraphs, stanzas)—and use only the units you need. If it is particular words or phrases that “prove” your point, you do not need to quote the full sentences they appear in; rather, incorporate the words and phrases into your own sentences that focus on your own ideas.
Blending your prose and quoted material
It is permissible to quote an entire sentence (between two sentences of your own), but in general you should avoid this method of bringing textual material into your discussion. Instead, use one of the following patterns:
An introducing phrase or orienter plus the quotation:
- In Blake’s poem “The Tyger,” it is creation, not a hypothetical creator, that is supremely awesome. [ argument sentence ]. The speaker asks, “What immortal hand or eye / Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?” [ data sentence; orienter before quote ]
- Gatsby is not to be regarded as a personal failure. [ argument sentence ] “Gatsby turned out all right at the end” (2), according to Nick. [ data sentence; orienter after quote ]
- “Our baby was a boy,” Shukumar tells his wife in the conclusion of Lahiri’s “A Temporary Matter” (22). [ data sentence; orienter after quote ] This admission is a death knell, tolling the end of their failing marriage. [ argument sentence ]
An assertion of your own and a colon plus the quotation:
- In the midst of discussing the fate of the Abame tribe, Uchendu presents his own theory: “There is no story that is not true” (141).
- Fitzgerald gives Nick a muted tribute to the hero: “Gatsby turned out all right at the end” (2).
- Within Othello , Cassio represents not only a political but also a personal threat to Iago: “He hath a daily beauty in his life / That makes me ugly . . .” (5.1.19-20).
An assertion of your own with quoted material worked in:
- For Nick, who remarks that Gatsby “turned out all right” (2), the hero deserves respect but perhaps does not inspire great admiration.
- Satan’s motion is many things; he “strides” through the air (55), arrives like a “rattling” cloud (56), and later explodes—“wandering,” “hovering and blazing” like a fire (270).
- Walking through Geraldine’s house, Pecola “wanted to see everything slowly, slowly” in order to fully appreciate its comparative order and opulence (Morrison 89).
Maintaining clarity and readability
Introduce a quotation either by indicating what it is intended to show, by naming its source, or by doing both. For non-narrative poetry, it’s customary to attribute quotations to “the speaker”; for a story with a narrator, to “the narrator.” For plays, novels, and other works with characters, identify characters as you quote them.
Do not use two quotations in a row without intervening text of your own. You should always be contextualizing all of your outside material with your own ideas, and if you let quotes build up without a break, readers will lose track of your argument.
Using the correct verb tense is a tricky issue. It’s customary in literary analysis to use the present tense; this is because it is at the present time that you (and your reader) are looking at the text. But events in a narrative or drama take place in a time sequence. You will often need to use a past tense to refer to events that took place before the moment you are presently discussing. Consider this example:
When he hears Cordelia’s answer, King Lear seems surprised, but not dumbfounded. He advises her to “mend [her] speech a little.” He had expected her to praise him the most; but compared to her sisters’, her remarks seem almost insulting (1.1.95).
Formatting logistics and guidelines
If for the sake of brevity you wish to omit material from a quoted passage, use ellipsis points (three spaced periods) to indicate the omission. Notice how in the paragraph about To the Lighthouse , above, the writer quoted only those portions of the original sentences that related to the point of the analysis.
When quoting, you may alter grammatical forms such as the tense of a verb or the person of a pronoun so that the quotation conforms grammatically to your own prose; indicate these alterations by placing square brackets around the changed form. In the quotation about King Lear at the end of the previous section, “her” replaces the “your” of the original so that the quote fits the point of view of the paper (third person).
Reproduce the spelling, capitalization, and internal punctuation of the original exactly. Of the following sentences presenting D. H. Lawrence’s maxim, “Books are not life,” the first is not acceptable in some style systems.
- For Lawrence, “books are not life.” [ UNACCEPTABLE ]
- For Lawrence, “[b]ooks are not life.” [ acceptable but awkward ]
- Lawrence wrote, “Books are not life.” [ acceptable ]
- “Books,” Lawrence wrote, “are not life.” [ acceptable ]
- For Lawrence, books “are not life.” [ acceptable ]
Punctuation
You may alter the closing punctuation of a quotation in order to incorporate it into a sentence of your own. For example:
- “Books are not life,” Lawrence emphasized.
Commas and periods go inside the closing quotation marks; the other punctuation marks go outside. For example:
- Lawrence insisted that books “are not life”; however, he wrote exultantly about the power of the novel.
- Why does Lawrence need to point out that “Books are not life”?
When quoting lines of poetry up to three lines long (which are not indented), separate one line of poetry from another with a slash mark with a space on either side (see examples from Blake’s “The Tyger” and Shakespeare’s Othello above).
Indentation
Prose or verse quotations less than four lines long are not indented. For quotations of this length, use the patterns described above.
“Longer” quotations should be formatted according to the expectations of a block quote. This unit of text should be positioned one half inch from the left margin, and opening and closing quotation marks are not used. The MLA Handbook , 8 th edition (2016) recommends that indented quotations be double-spaced, but many instructors prefer them single-spaced. The meaning of “longer” varies slightly from one style system to another, but a general rule is to indent quotations that are more than two (or three) lines of verse or four lines of prose.
If you’re quoting a series of dialogue dialogue between characters in a play, indent these lines and place the speaker’s name before the speech quoted. For example:
- CAESAR: Et tu, Brute! Then, fall, Caesar! CINNA: Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! (3.1.77-78)
Documentation
Follow your course instructor’s guidelines for documenting sources. If your instructor hasn’t told you which system to use to document sources, ask.
The documentation style used in this handout is that presented in the MLA Handbook , 8 th edition (2016), the most common citation style for literary analysis papers. The Writing Center has information about the rules of documentation within the most common systems .
Works Cited
Achebe, Chinau. Things Fall Apart . 1959. Anchor Books, 1994.
Blake, William. “The Tyger.” Poets.org , American Academy of Poets, https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/tyger. Accessed 1 July 2018.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby . 1925. The Scribner Library, 1953.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. “A Temporary Matter.” Interpreter of Maladies , Mariner Books, 1999, pp. 1-22.
Lawrence, David Herbert. “Why the Novel Matters.” Study of Thomas Hardy and Other Essays , edited by Bruce Steele, Cambridge University Press, 1985, pp. 191-8.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost . Printed for John Bumpus, 1821. Google Books , https://books.google.com/books?id=pO4MAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. Accessed 1 July 2018.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye . 1970. Plume, 1993.
Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Wordsworth Editions, pp. 582-610.
–. King Lear. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare . Wordsworth Editions, pp. 885-923.
–. Othello, the Moor of Venice. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare . Wordsworth Editions, pp. 818-57.
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse . 1927. Harcourt, 1981.
Academic and Professional Writing
This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.
Analysis Papers
Reading Poetry
A Short Guide to Close Reading for Literary Analysis
Play Reviews
Writing a Rhetorical Précis to Analyze Nonfiction Texts
Incorporating Interview Data
Grant Proposals
Planning and Writing a Grant Proposal: The Basics
Additional Resources for Grants and Proposal Writing
Job Materials and Application Essays
Writing Personal Statements for Ph.D. Programs
- Before you begin: useful tips for writing your essay
- Guided brainstorming exercises
- Get more help with your essay
- Frequently Asked Questions
Resume Writing Tips
CV Writing Tips
Cover Letters
Business Letters
Proposals and Dissertations
Resources for Proposal Writers
Resources for Dissertators
Research Papers
Planning and Writing Research Papers
Quoting and Paraphrasing
Writing Annotated Bibliographies
Creating Poster Presentations
Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper
Thank-You Notes
Advice for Students Writing Thank-You Notes to Donors
Reading for a Review
Critical Reviews
Writing a Review of Literature
Scientific Reports
Scientific Report Format
Sample Lab Assignment
Writing for the Web
Writing an Effective Blog Post
Writing for Social Media: A Guide for Academics
- Discussions
- Reading Challenge
- Kindle Notes & Highlights
- Favorite genres
- Friends’ recommendations
- Account settings
English Literature Quotes
Browse By Tag
- Love Quotes 90.5k
- Life Quotes 71k
- Inspirational Quotes 68k
- Humor Quotes 41.5k
- Philosophy Quotes 27.5k
- God Quotes 25k
- Inspirational Quotes Quotes 24.5k
- Truth Quotes 22.5k
- Wisdom Quotes 22k
- Poetry Quotes 20.5k
- Romance Quotes 20k
- Death Quotes 18.5k
- Happiness Quotes 18k
- Hope Quotes 17k
- Faith Quotes 17k
- Inspiration Quotes 15.5k
- Quotes Quotes 15k
- Life Lessons Quotes 15k
- Writing Quotes 14k
- Motivational Quotes 14k
- Religion Quotes 14k
- Spirituality Quotes 13.5k
- Relationships Quotes 13.5k
- Success Quotes 12.5k
- Life Quotes Quotes 12k
- Love Quotes Quotes 12k
- Time Quotes 12k
- Knowledge Quotes 11k
- Science Quotes 11k
- Motivation Quotes 10.5k
Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.
We use cookies to enhance our website for you. Proceed if you agree to this policy or learn more about it.
- Essay Database >
- Essays Samples >
- Essay Types >
- Personal Statement Example
Literature Personal Statements Samples For Students
20 samples of this type
WowEssays.com paper writer service proudly presents to you a free collection of Literature Personal Statements meant to help struggling students tackle their writing challenges. In a practical sense, each Literature Personal Statement sample presented here may be a guidebook that walks you through the important phases of the writing procedure and showcases how to compose an academic work that hits the mark. Besides, if you require more visionary assistance, these examples could give you a nudge toward a fresh Literature Personal Statement topic or encourage a novice approach to a threadbare theme.
In case this is not enough to quench the thirst for effective writing help, you can request customized assistance in the form of a model Personal Statement on Literature crafted by an expert from scratch and tailored to your particular requirements. Be it a simple 2-page paper or a sophisticated, lengthy piece, our writers specialized in Literature and related topics will submit it within the pre-set period. Buy cheap essays or research papers now!
University Studies Personal Statement Examples
What are your learning needs what are the skills and competencies that you personal statement sample, personal statement on the english department of columbia university, writing supplement – columbia university.
Don't waste your time searching for a sample.
Get your personal statement done by professional writers!
Just from $10/page
Free Personal Statement About My Book Report On Where The Red Fern Grows
Example of the richness of the elective courses at university of illinois at urbana-champaign personal statement, macbeth as a tragedy personal statement examples, macbeth as a tragedy, example of northeast ohio medical university personal statement, personal statement, example of stereotypes in push personal statement.
The novel “Push” by Sapphire chronicles the life of a young African American teenage lost in a world fraught with desperation and abuse. The main character Claireece (better known as Precious) symbolizes a very stereotypical portrayal of life in the ghetto. Some feel that these stereotypes are too prevalent and are offensive to African American culture. However I feel that by analyzing these stereotypes we also gain a better perspective of issues that may face today’s inner city youth.
Instance of Stereotypes
Good example of applicant’s name: personal statement, admission committee:, good personal statement on business management and finance from de montfort, learning english personal statement, example of legal education personal statement, good human resource degree personal statement example.
Life is filled with uncertainty, because at times we think we are trailing one path then all of a sudden we encounter someone or something that will change the course of our life for good. Life’s unpredictability showed me that I am still a project in the making. I believe that the choices I made in life are the compilation of my everyday encounters that molded my decision to pursuing this monumental career decision.
A Tale of Two Cities Personal Statement Example
Statement of purpose academic personal statement examples, masters in public health (mph): personal statements examples, my core interests lie in four areas personal statement examples, organization, personal statement on contact number, admissions officer, you must submit a with your application form. this should be personal statement sample, personal statement: msc management, organisations and governance (lse), example of personal statement on degree objective ms in accounting.
Password recovery email has been sent to [email protected]
Use your new password to log in
You are not register!
Short on a deadline?
Don't waste time. Get help with 11% off using code - GETWOWED
No, thanks! I'm fine with missing my deadline
- Apprenticeships
- Applying to Uni
- Postgraduate
University Interviews
- Money & Finance
- Vocational Qualifications
- U.S Universities
- Health & Relationships
Personal Statements
- Accommodation
- Budgeting, Money & Finance
- Health & Relationships
- Jobs & Careers
- Socialising
Studying Abroad
- Studying & Revision
- Technology
- University & College Admissions
Guide to GCSE Results Day
Finding a job after school or college
Retaking GCSEs
In this section
Choosing GCSE Subjects
Post-GCSE Options
GCSE Work Experience
GCSE Revision Tips
Why take an Apprenticeship?
Applying for an Apprenticeship
Apprenticeships Interviews
Apprenticeship Wage
Engineering Apprenticeships
What is an Apprenticeship?
Choosing an Apprenticeship
Real Life Apprentices
Degree Apprenticeships
Higher Apprenticeships
A Level Results Day 2023
AS Levels 2023
Clearing Guide 2023
Applying to University
SQA Results Day Guide 2023
BTEC Results Day Guide
Vocational Qualifications Guide
Sixth Form or College
International Baccalaureate
Post 18 options
Finding a Job
Should I take a Gap Year?
Travel Planning
Volunteering
Gap Year Guide
Gap Year Blogs
Applying to Oxbridge
Applying to US Universities
Choosing a Degree
Choosing a University or College
Personal Statement Editing and Review Service
Guide to Freshers' Week
Student Guides
Student Cooking
Student Blogs
- Top Rated Personal Statements
Personal Statements By Subject
Writing Your Personal Statement
- Postgraduate Personal Statements
- International Student Personal Statements
- Gap Year Personal Statements
Personal Statement Length Checker
- Personal Statements By University
Personal Statement Frequently Asked Questions
Personal Statement Template
Job Interviews
Types of Postgraduate Course
Writing a Postgraduate Personal Statement
Postgraduate Funding
Postgraduate Study
Internships
Choosing A College
Ivy League Universities
Common App Essay Examples
Universal College Application Guide
How To Write A College Admissions Essay
College Rankings
Admissions Tests
Fees & Funding
Scholarships
Budgeting For College
Online Degree
Platinum Express Editing and Review Service
Gold Editing and Review Service
Silver Express Editing and Review Service
UCAS Personal Statement Editing and Review Service
Oxbridge Personal Statement Editing and Review Service
Postgraduate Personal Statement Editing and Review Service
You are here
- Mature Student Personal Statements
- Personal Statement Editing Service
- Personal Statement Writing Guide
- Submit Your Personal Statement
English Literature and Philosophy Personal Statement Example
As an English student I revel in the aesthetic beauty of literature while enjoying how the big ideas underpinning a work adds meaning. As a Philosophy student my inquisitive mind constantly pushes me to ask questions and engage in debate.
I attended a Philosophy and Religious Ethics Conference at the Bloomsbury Baptist Church. Here, a debate was held concerning morality and God. I relished taking part in the debate which further motivated my interest in studying philosophy.
At the conference I listened to an excellent lecture by Professor Keith Ward questioning ‘Is God Evil?’ It illuminated one of the aspects of philosophy that I love: philosophy challenges the most common assumptions and logically dismantle them.
Another problem that intrigues me and dismantles assumptions is Hempel’s paradox; the examination of inductive reasoning and the mutability of the argument from Hempel to Maher is something that I would like to explore further.
One of the philosophers I admire most is Simone de Beauvoir, I read about her Existential Feminist Ethics in Dialogue. What I found particularly fascinating is her idea of the ‘feminine’ as a passive and patriarchal myth. I have been aware of gender inequality as a long standing issue but it was reading Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Woman that originally inspired me to involve myself in feminism, leading me to co-found and chair The Feminist Society at my sixth form.
One of my proudest accomplishments with the society is my involvement with Plan UK, helping to invest in the education of girls.
Feminism has influenced my interest in Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a feminist utopian writer. Herland depicts a society comprised only of women. Men intrude upon their society and quickly find that their assumptions of women are incorrect; this reminded me of Simone de Beauvoir’s idea of the ‘feminine’ as patriarchal myth.
Female writers have a unique voice that is hugely influential on style. For instance in Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen portrays many witty, intelligent women who believe in marrying for love.
The fiction I enjoy reading raises as many questions as it answers. Great literature doesn’t just sound beautiful, it says something original and startles you into thinking. One poem that makes me feel this way is ‘The Wasteland’ by T.S. Eliot. The poem has to have one of the most stunning openings in poetic history with a unique take on spring that immediately engaged my imagination.
Another poem that leaves me in awe is Stevie Smith’s ‘Not Waving but Drowning’. Unlike the Wasteland, it is the ending of this comparatively short poem that amazes me. With a few words Smith is able to radically change the perspective of the poem. She turns the lens from a tragic pinpointed moment towards existence as a whole; giving ‘Not Waving but Drowning’ universal significance.
I am interested in debating global issues and politics and intend to continue this at university. I founded a debating society for lower school students, developing my ability to critically analyse arguments, and led a Geography Society, where we participated in Earth Day and corresponded with students from China.
My concern for social issues also led me to procure work experience at SPEAR, a homeless charity. This gave me an opportunity to think independently and be responsible.
Moreover my empathetic nature helped me when spending time with residents in SPEAR’s hostels. The work has inspired me towards charity work in my future and I would be looking for a chance to develop this at university, particularly due my interest in ethics and morality.
English and philosophy both allow me to explore possible answers to universal questions.
Through studying them together I can consider these questions in a logical, systematic way and debate with people who are interested in looking at philosophical issues through the lens of literature. English and Philosophy make me think, this is why I would like the opportunity to study joint honours.
Profile info
There is no profile associated with this personal statement, as the writer has requested to remain anonymous.
Author's Comments
I found it really difficult to write my personal statement, but this website was very useful is aiding me to write it so I thought I would also post my ps on here. Besides I got offers from all the Unis i applied for so I hope it is a good example x
This personal statement is unrated
Related Personal Statements
Add new comment.
Summer School 2023 is filling up fast. Enrol online now or call +44 1865 954800 to book your place
- The World’s Worst Personal Statement: Why It Fails and How to Fix It
Writing a personal statement is never an easy thing to do, but some students fall so spectacularly short of the mark that their efforts can be a lesson to us all.
You should also read…
- How to Choose the Right University for You
- Common UCAS Personal Statement Issues and How to Resolve Them
Sometimes the easiest way to figure out how to write a personal statement is to look at someone else’s efforts and see how not to write one. In this article, we present to you a superbly bad (fictional) personal statement and show you just how many ways in which it misses the mark. We’ll also explain what our hapless fictional student should have done in order to write a personal statement that stands out for the right reasons, not the wrong ones.
The personal statement:
So what was wrong with it.
Let us count the ways!
1. The pretentious quote
The personal statement opens with a pretentious-sounding quote, which, let’s face it, the student probably found from Googling “quotes about English literature”. It doesn’t even come from a great work of literature – it’s from a novel for young adults, which is unlikely to command the respect of the admissions tutors. The student then proceeds to say that this quote reflects their own “thirst for knowledge” (though they mistyped it as “thrist”) – but this doesn’t really relate to the quote at all. What’s more, starting with a quote is a bad idea anyway; it’s pompous, and the admissions tutors want to know what you have to say, not what someone else says.
2. The clichés, the controversial analogy and the Hungry Caterpillar
“Thirst for knowledge”. “From an early age”. The opening of this personal statement is littered with clichés that far too many students use and that admissions tutors have seen countless times before. This student goes a step further down the “loved reading from an early age” route by citing The Very Hungry Caterpillar as an early literary enjoyment. They probably think it sounds cute, but when said children’s book is a picture book with virtually no words, it’s hardly worth taking up valuable characters on a personal statement with. Later in the statement we hear clichés such as “one-trick pony”, “steely determination”, and even a rather embarrassing comparison between their determination to achieve the best grades in an essay and the determination of a hunter to slay an impressive beast. This singularly fails to impress in the way the student clearly wants it to. What’s more, you never know what the beliefs are of the person reading your statement, and it might turn out that they’re passionately against hunting – in which case this comparison with a hunter is going to go down especially badly.
3. Questionable motives
The student’s mention of James Joyce’s Ulysses reveals a rather questionable motive for wanting to read it: to “show off one’s superior intelligence” in front of other people. This sounds major alarm bells. It’s hardly going to tell the admissions tutor that the student wants to study the subject because they have a deep interest in it; they’ll pick up from this that they want to study English for the wrong reasons .
4. Mentioning texts and writers with no comment on them
The student has name-dropped a few novels and poets, but offers no insight into why they are interested in them or what they’ve got out of reading them. The mention of Ulysses seems calculated to make them appear clever for reading such an advanced text, but the fact that they offer no commentary on it has the opposite effect. The same goes for later in the personal statement with the list of poets – a random jumble of poets, modern and older, with no explanation as to why they appeal (and they misspelt Seamus Heaney’s name!). It comes across as a list of poets whose names the student happened to be able to rattle off, without any thought put into it. As for the novels mentioned, these are three incredibly famous novels that virtually everyone has read and loved. Leaving aside the fact that they haven’t said why they like these novels, it doesn’t show much depth or academic pursuit of knowledge to name-drop three very famous novels rather than demonstrating interest in or knowledge of less well-known literature.
5. Naming the course and university
The student has committed a huge faux pas in naming the course and university for which they are applying. This reveals that the only university they’re interested in is Oxford. They’re unlikely to be applying for just this university, but they’ve immediately alienated admissions tutors from all the other universities they’ve almost certainly put on their UCAS form.
6. Jokes and slang
The student jokes that they are partly applying for Oxford because of G&D’s ice cream, a famous ice cream parlour in Oxford. Quite apart from the fact that they shouldn’t have mentioned Oxford in the first place, the use of humour in this way does the student no favours. To make matters worse, they then add “Jokes” in brackets. Slang is a big no-no in a personal statement, and when combined with an attempt at humour, it’s frankly disastrous.
7. Hollywood inspiration
The admissions tutors are not going to be impressed that the reason you decided to study English at university because your friends commented on your similarity to a character in a film.
8. Unnamed awards
The student attempts to indicate their talent for poetry, stating that they have “won quite a few awards” for their own poems. However, this claim is too vague to be impressive. Which awards were they? “Everyone says how good” the student’s poems are, but how many people have actually read them, and was it just the student’s parents and grandparents who were impressed by them? These statements would have more weight if the student named the exact awards they’ve won and who has deemed their poetry to be good.
9. Downton Abbey and history
The student goes on to talk about their other academic interest: history. The only problem is, it seems a bit out of place in a personal statement for English, making one wonder whether they might also be applying for an English and History course elsewhere. To make matters worse, they talk about Downton Abbey as the inspiration for their love of history, and in particular their interest in the First World War, commenting on the fact that it’s the centenary of the start of the First World War. The latter is hardly an insightful comment, while the mere mention of Downton Abbey is enough to discredit the student’s supposed interest in history. What’s more, they go on to say how much they love history, that it’s their joint favourite subject with English, and that they’d love to study it at university. This is inevitably going to make English Literature admissions tutors question the student’s commitment to their subject. What if the student changes their mind and wants to switch to history? It’s a big warning sign against this student.
10. Bragging
Nobody likes people who brag. The student claims to be “best in their class” and someone who’d “fit right in at Oxford” (that name again!) – though, judging by the poor quality of their personal statement, one wonders whether this could possibly be true. Later, they casually drop in “when I’m not winning poetry competitions”, a flippant remark that smacks of arrogance.
11. Negativity about one of their grades
The student attempts to explain a less-than-perfect grade by laughing it off with a comment about reading and writing too much poetry. One can see what they were aiming for here: they wanted to show that they’re so enthusiastic about English Literature that they get carried away and can’t stop reading and writing. However, it’s not going to look good to an admissions tutor, who’ll see someone who is unable to juggle their workload or apply themselves to succeed in all their subjects. What’s more, the student doesn’t attempt to explain what they’re doing about the bad grade – for instance, they could be taking on extra history lessons to bring the grade up, but there’s no such reassurance in their statement.
12. Boring interests
The student gives their interests as “socialising with their mates and going to the cinema”, interests that are so universal and boring that they are not worth mentioning at all. The point of mentioning interests in a personal statement is to demonstrate that there’s more to you than your academic interests. Proper hobbies and so on show you to be a well-rounded person with a range of interests, and those interests help develop skills that you can’t learn in the classroom, and that make you a good person to have around.
13. An unexplained gap year
The student ends on a rather dull note by stating that they are taking a gap year. However, there’s no explanation of what activities they have planned for this. This would have been a good place to highlight course-related activities planned for the year out, which would have made them more suitable for the course (such as embarking on a writing workshop). This was also a lacklustre way to end the statement; a couple of sentences summarising why they want to study the course and why they’re so suitable for it would have been a good closing remark.
14. The smiley face
They’ve tried to look friendly by putting a smiley face at the end. There’s only one word for this: don’t!
15. General shortfallings
In addition to the specific faults outlined above, there were a few general shortfallings worth highlighting.
- Poor grammar – such as “its” when they meant “it’s”, and even an instance of double exclamation marks.
- Typos – “thrist for knowledge”, for example.
- Not long enough – the statement uses 2,289 characters out of an available 4,000. If you have that many characters to play with, it makes sense to use them by demonstrating even more reasons why you should be given a place.
- Odd spacing – mostly with one sentence per paragraph, perhaps to make it look longer than it really is.
- Very little focus on why they want to study English – which is, after all, the entire point of the statement.
Overall, it felt that very little effort had gone into writing this personal statement, leaving one questioning the student’s commitment to the course. Now that you’ve seen a disastrous personal statement first-hand, you’ll have a better idea of how not to write yours. Good luck!
Image credits: banner ; caterpillar ; Clockwork Angel ; Ulysses ; Cambridge ; WWI ; reading ; boat ; love .
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
- Oxbridge Law 24/25 Entry
- Non-Oxbridge Law 24/25 Entry
- Oxford PPE 24/25 Entry
- Oxbridge Economics 24/25 Entry
- Oxbridge Modern Languages 24/25 Entry
- Cambridge Land Economy 24/25 Entry
- Oxbridge Psychology 24/25 Entry
- Oxbridge English 24/25 Entry
- Oxford Human Sciences 24/25 Entry
- Oxbridge History 24/25 Entry
- Oxbridge Geography 24/25 Entry
- Cambridge Philosophy 24/25 Entry
- Oxbridge Classics 24/25 Entry
- Cambridge Architecture 24/25 Entry
- Cambridge HSPS Programme 24/25 Entry
- Oxbridge Medicine 24/25 Entry
- Oxford Biomedical Sciences 24/25 Entry
- Oxbridge Engineering 24/25 Entry
- Cambridge Natural Science 24/25 Entry
- Oxbridge Maths 24/25 Entry
- Oxbridge Computer Science 24/25 Entry
- Oxford Physics 24/25 Entry
- Oxford PPL 24/25 Entry
- Cambridge Veterinary Science 24/25 Entry
- Oxford Chemistry 24/25 Entry
- Oxford Biology 24/25 Entry
- Oxford Biochemistry 24/25 Entry
- Non-Oxbridge Medicine 24/25 Entry
- Non-Oxbridge Dentistry 24/25 Entry
- IMAT Medicine 24/25 Entry
- Can’t Find Your Subject?
- UCAT 24 Entry
- BMAT 24 Entry
- IMAT 24 Entry
- PAT 24 Entry
- TSA 24 Entry
- LNAT 24 Entry
- MAT 24 Entry
- ELAT 24 Entry
- HAT 24 Entry
- MLAT 24 Entry
- NSAA 24 Entry
- ENGAA 24 Entry
- TMUA 24 Entry
- HAA 24 Entry
- Law Interview Programme
- PPE Interview Programme
- Economics Interview Programme
- Oxbridge Medicine Interview Programme
- Natural Science Interview Programme
- Engineering Interview Programme
- Maths Interview Programme
- Dentistry Interview Programme
- Medicine MMI Interview Programme
Our Guarantee
Our Reviews
Our Students
Student Success Stories
- University Access Scheme
- New Tutor Application Form
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Free Expert Consultation
- +44 (0) 208 068 0438
- [email protected]
SCIENCE PROGRAMMES (24/25 ENTRY)
HUMANTITIES PROGRAMMES (24/25 ENTRY)
GET STARTED
Can't find your subject?
OXFORD TESTS (24/25 ENTRY)
CAMBRIDGE TESTS (24/25 ENTRY)
MEDICINE TESTS (24/25 ENTRY)
Learn about who the world's first Oxbridge prep school are.
You're 3x more likely to get your Oxbridge place with UniAdmissions.
What have past UniAdmissions' parents and students said about us.
Students & Tutors
Discover who a UniAdmissions student is and our admissions criteria.
Learn about our high-performing Oxbridge tutors.
We're proud of our alumni. Read about their journey with UniAdmissions here.
Admissions Resources
Free Admissions Guides
Visit our Learning Centre and read our in-depth free guides.
We are the world's biggest Oxbridge application publisher. Learn more here.
Oxbridge Success Calculator
Answer a few questions about yourself and calculate your chance of success.
Get Started
- Student Portal
- Oxbridge Programmes
- UniAdmissions Foundation
- Tutor Application Form
- Common Questions
The Ultimate UCAS Personal Statement Guide
Author: Rob Needleman
- Getting started
- The Ultimate UCAS Personal Statement…
Table of Contents
When it comes to completing your UCAS application, the Personal Statement is one of the most important parts to consider.
While your grades show your academic ability and Admissions Tests assess your knowledge and capabilities, a Personal Statement is all about you. Tutors want to see the person behind the application and understand why you’re a suitable candidate for your chosen course.
Although each university will have its own unique way of shortlisting applicants, your Personal Statement is your opportunity to demonstrate your strengths and let your personality shine through.
However, over 20,000 students apply for Oxbridge every year which is a lot to compete with. As such, you need to stand out from the crowd and really get across your reasons for wanting to study your topic, which can make the prospect of writing one and including all the right things pressurising. To help you, we have written this ultimate Personal Statement guide. Let’s get started.
How to write a Personal Statement
Your Personal Statement isn’t a long monologue of your life so far, nor a gigantic list of all your achievements. Think of yourself as a storyteller. Start at the beginning with how you developed an interest for your chosen subject and end with where you see yourself after university.
Before You Start
How to get started.
Before you sit down to write your UCAS Personal Statement, the first thing we recommend is to research the courses you want to apply for. This will help you prepare your statement as courses vary from university to university, and your content should reflect these. Bear in mind, you are only able to send one Personal Statement to all your chosen universities, so you can’t overly cater to one. Look at all of the details, including the structure, modules and examination methods, as well as what they’re looking for from a student. This will support your first draft, though bear in mind you’ll redraft a few times before it’s perfect.
For example, Oxford lists the personal characteristics that they look for in applicants to their Medicine degree:
How many words should a Personal Statement be?
Personal Statements can be up to 4,000 characters long (615-800), and no more. This might sound like a lot, but it’s just one side of A4 paper. There’s plenty of information to include, so make sure it’s concise, clear and easy to read.
When to start writing it
It’s never too early to start thinking about your Personal Statement and what you’re going to write about. But there is a deadline : October 15th for all Oxbridge courses including Medicine and Dentistry, and January 25th for other undergraduate subjects. We suggest you begin preparing at the start of the year, as this gives you plenty of time to plan, draft and rewrite until it’s perfect for submission.
Your Personal Statement is the first thing Oxbridge Admissions Tutors will see about you. It’s imperative you get it right.
Our Oxbridge Premium Programmes help you write a successful Personal Statment that ticks all the Admission Tutor’s boxes. Our proven support is implemented through various mediums including Personal Statment Intensive Courses, Personal Statment Marking and Personalised Reading Lists.
Discover our Oxbridge Premium Programmes by clicking the button below to enrol and triple your chances of success.
What To Include
Your Personal Statement is a glimpse into your passion, how keen you are to learn and what you already know about your chosen subject. Express your interest by commenting on the areas that fascinate you most. For example, is it helping people that draws you into Medicine, or is it the fascinating human anatomy?
Another great way to show your enthusiasm is through your previous experience in the subject. Demonstrate why you’re suitable for the course by providing evidence of any relevant skills and qualities that relate to this. What are you good at? What have you done that proves it?
- Answering Your Personal Statement Questions
Mention any additional projects, work experience or extra-curricular activities you’ve got involved with that further demonstrate you’re an ideal candidate. Reflect on the skills you’ve gained from these (as long as they’re transferable to your studies). Admissions Tutors will be looking for such information, as well as your unique selling points — give examples of things you’ve done that show you have a wider interest in learning.
You should also try to link your interests, skills and qualities to your university research. However, Oxbridge are not interested in sports, hobbies or if you play any musical instruments — keep it academic.
Show you’re an interesting person and have a true passion for your subject, and your Personal Statement should be a winning one. Your enthusiasm is what will make your statement stand out, so don’t shy away from expressing your love for your chosen subject, though you don’t need to say you’ve dreamed about doing the course your entire life.
Aim to include things like:
- Personal attributes, such as adaptability, problem-solving and organisation
- Employment experience and volunteering work
- Personal interests in your subject
- Relevant extracurricular activities, like any clubs or societies you belong to
- Your future after university
The Structure
The key to writing a good UCAS Personal Statement is getting the structure right, as this can have a huge effect on the message it delivers. Often, students get caught up in the content and forget that presenting information effectively is just as important as the words included.
Each section of your statement needs to be crafted correctly so that Admissions Tutors can digest the information easily. While there are no strict rules on how to structure it — since it’s personal to you — there are a few rules of thumb to use to find the right balance. In general, though, remember to consider the format, structure and content equally, and you’ll write a great Personal Statement.
- Personal Statement Cheat Sheet
Here is a breakdown of how we recommend students to split up their essay:
- Introduction - About six lines
- Academic abilities - 22 - 27 lines
- Extra-curricular information - 10 - 12 lines
- Conclusion - No more than four lines
Personal Statement Introduction
Rightly or wrongly, it is highly likely that your UCAS Personal Statement will be remembered by its opening sentence. It must be something short, sharp, insightful, and catch the reader’s attention. It sets the precedent for the rest of your statement and unfortunately, decides whether your statement is paid particular attention to when read.
- Avoid using overused words like “passionate”, “deeply fascinating”, and “devotion”.
- Avoid using clichéd quotes like the infamous Coco Chanel’s “fashion is not something that exists in dresses only”.
- If you are going to use a quote, then put some effort into researching an obscure yet particularly powerful one – don’t forget to include a reference.
- Draw on your own personal experiences to produce something both original and eye-catching.
Once that’s out of the way, you need to answer the most important question:
The introduction does not need to be very long. It is generally a good idea to open the statement with something that sets the context of your application. For example, someone who is applying to study History may open: ‘History is all around us’, rather than ‘I have always been interested in History because…”
By the end of the introduction the reader should clearly know:
- What subject you are applying for
- What motivated you to apply for this subject
Make sure you keep it personal and honest! The exact phrase: “from a young age, I have always been interested in” was recently used more than 300 times in Personal Statements in a single year, and substituting “young” for “early” gave an additional 292 statements – these phrases can quickly become boring for Admissions Tutors to read!
Personal Statement Main Body
In the rest of your text, your aim should be to demonstrate your suitability for the course by exemplifying your knowledge of the course structure and its requirements through personal experience. Again, there are no rigorous guidelines on how to do this and it is very much down to your own writing style. Whereas some prefer a strict structure, others go for a more synoptic approach, but always remember to be consistent to achieve a flowing, easy to read Personal Statement.
Here’s the structure we recommend:
Paragraph #1: This should cover why you are suited for your subject. This will include your main academic interests, future ambitions (related to the chosen degree), and what makes the course right for you. This should be the academic side of why you want to study this subject.
Paragraph #2: This should still cover why you are suited for your subject. However, it can be less focused on academic topics. If you’ve had to overcome any significant challenges in life and wish to include these in your Personal Statement, this is normally the best place to do so. Similarly, any work experience or relevant prizes & competitions should be included here.
Paragraph #3: This is the smallest part of the main body and is all about extra-curricular activities. It is easy to get carried away in this section and make outrageous claims, e.g. claim to be a mountain climber if all you have ever climbed is a hill at the end of your street etc. Lying is not worth the risk, given that your interviewer may share the same hobby that you claim to be an expert in. So, don’t be caught out!
What you should include in your Personal Statement main body:
- Sports and other hobbies
- Musical instruments
- Work experience
- Personal interests in the field of study
- Personal attributes
What you shouldn’t include in your Personal Statement main body (or anywhere!):
- Negative connotations – always put a positive spin on everything
- Lack of reflection
- Controversy in whatever form it may come
- Generic/stereotypical statements
- Listing things
Personal Statement Conclusion
The conclusion of your Personal Statement should be more about leaving a good final impression rather than conferring any actual information. If you have something useful to say about your interest and desire to study your subject, you shouldn’t be waiting until the very end to say it!
A good conclusion should not include any new information, as this should be in the main body. However, you also need to avoid repeating what you have said earlier in your Personal Statement. This would be both a waste of characters and frustration for the tutor. Instead, it is better to put into context what you have already written and, therefore, make an effort to keep your conclusion relatively short – no more than four lines.
For more inspiration, take a look through our other successful Personal Statement a nalysis articles:
Our Personal Statement do’s
1. Show passion for your subject
Admissions Tutors aren’t going to pick a candidate who doesn’t seem particularly interested in their field. Show your passion and eagerness to learn and succeed. Why do you love your subject? Why have you chosen it? What do you find most interesting and why?
2. Talk about you
This is your chance to talk about you, your interests and skills. It’s no good saying you’re passionate if you don’t prove that you are. Write in a natural style to show off your personality, making sure it’s genuine, relevant and specific.
3. Use appropriate language
Re-read your Personal Statement multiple times and check that the content is academic, engaging and clear.
4. Provide evidence to back up your claims
It’s all well and good saying you love medical science, but this is going to fall flat if you can’t back it up. Talk about your school subjects and results, any wider reading and relevant work experience. Perhaps you attended a lecture on your subject — this would be good evidence.
5. Link your activities outside of education to your course
Tell tutors why these activities are relevant and what you have learned as a result. Focus on transferable skills gained too, such as time management or organisational abilities.
6. Spell check and look for grammatical mistakes
Poor spelling and grammar makes for a terrible first impression, so ensure you triple-check it’s written to the highest standard before submitting it.
Our Personal Statement dont’s
1. Write a clichéd beginning
Don’t waste time thinking of a catchy opening. The best Personal Statements get to the point quickly, so avoid starting with phrases like “From a young age”, “I am applying for this course because”, and “Throughout my life I have always enjoyed…”. Go straight into why you are interested in your course subject.
2. Use cringe-worthy language and cheap gags
This is not impressive and can indicate that you’re not a serious student. It’s essential you don’t come across as verbose or pretentious too, as Admissions Tutors will spot this immediately. They are well-versed in the ramblings of students who think this tone makes them seem more intellectual.
3. Overcomplicate things
Say what you need to, be specific and don’t waffle too much — you’ll run out of characters fast.
4. Go overboard with extra-curricular activities
Talking about these is good, but the truth is, Admissions Tutors have very little interest in what you do outside of education unless you can find a way to directly link them to your subject.
5. Plagiarise content
You can read Personal Statement examples online for inspiration but avoid copying and pasting them. During your interview, you’re likely to be asked about specific parts of your statement, and if you’re caught off-guard, you’re going to look silly. This could ruin your chances of being accepted. Use a plagiarism detector to ensure your essay is unique.
6. Mention universities or specific courses by name
You can only write one Personal Statement, so it’s the same for each course you apply for. Avoid mentioning specific unis by name or detailing exact specifics of a module, for example. Keep it general.
Now you know what to include in your Personal Statement and the best practices for doing so, we hope you feel more confident writing it. We have plenty of guides and successful personal statement examples to go through in our Free Personal Statement Resources page. Good luck submitting your UCAS application!
First impressions count. Learn how to craft the perfect Personal Statement that demonstrates your suitability to Oxbridge Admissions Tutors.
We help you craft the perfect Personal Statement , achieve a highly competitive Admissions Test score and teach you how to Interview effectively – covering all areas of your Oxford or Cambridge application, from History to Medicine.
Discover our Oxbridge Premium Programmes by clicking the button below to enrol and triple your chances of success.
UniAdmissions students placed at Oxford And Cambridge
The Secrets to Oxbridge Admission.
- We cracked the Oxbridge formula . Find out what we discovered here.
- Looking for application support? Don't work with a random tutor. This is what you need to know first.
- Get up-to-date Oxbridge advice with our webinars. Follow our Open Days led by our experts and stay updated.
After booking your consultation please click on “Finish” to ensure it’s scheduled correctly.
If the booking widget is not appearing, please refresh the page and try again or make your consultation booking on this page.
How would you like to speak to an Admissions Consultant?
Literature Quotes and Sayings
- Love Quotes
- Great Lines from Movies and Television
- Quotations For Holidays
- Best Sellers
- Classic Literature
- Plays & Drama
- Shakespeare
- Short Stories
- Children's Books
- M.A., English Literature, California State University - Sacramento
- B.A., English, California State University - Sacramento
We see, enjoy, and criticize the end result of writers' work, but there's so much more to these pieces than what the public consumes. After all, millions of books get published every year, joining the vast libraries that have been built up over time, but we regard few as classics, greats or masterpieces. So what makes the difference between just another piece of writing and a literary success ? Often, it's the writer.
Here's a collection of thoughts from world-famous writers on what literature means to them and why they pursued the written word as a means to express themselves.
Quotes About Writing and Literature
- Henry Miller : "Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music-the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls, and interesting people. Forget yourself."
- Ezra Pound : "Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree."
- Joseph Heller : "He knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it."
- John Steinbeck : "I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature."
- Alfred North Whitehead : "It is in literature that the concrete outlook of humanity receives its expression."
- Henry James : "It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature."
- C. S. Lewis : "Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become."
- Oscar Wilde : "Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it but molds it to its purpose. The nineteenth century, as we know it, is largely an invention of Balzac."
- G. K. Chesterton : "Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity."
- Virginia Woolf : "Literature is strewn with the wreckage of those who have minded beyond reason the opinion of others."
- Salman Rushdie : "Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart."
- William Somerset Maugham : "The crown of literature is poetry."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : "The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation."
- Robert Louis Stevenson : "The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean."
Like a Woman Who Gives Herself Without Preference
- Anatole France : "The duty of literature is to note what counts and to light up what is suited to the light. If it ceases to choose and to love, it becomes like a woman who gives herself without preference."
- E. M. Forster : "What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote."
- Samuel Lover : "When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. But if you have not a pen, I suppose you must scratch any way you can."
- Cyril Connolly : "While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living."
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/ChinaDragonGrantFaintPhotogsChoiceGetty-5685e70a3df78ccc15ec40c3.jpg "english literature quotes personal statement")
- Are Literature and Fiction the Same?
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/GettyImages-520721187-5a43c0b8c7822d0037223def.jpg "english literature quotes personal statement")
By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.
- Australia edition
- International edition
How to write a personal statement for English
Tips for convincing English tutors you deserve a place on their course
Here's an analogy every student of English will grasp: "Think of your personal statement as a very short, short story. It has to have a beginning and an end and a character that we care about.
"For the purposes of this story, you are that character. What makes you tick?" Sheffield English lecturer Jonathan Ellis recommends that's the approach you take when you start writing your personal statement.
But in telling your story, don't let your imagination run riot. Listen to the note of caution sounded by the academics who read the personal statements submitted by sixth-formers trying to get on to their English courses. You need to play it safe, they say.
The quietly thoughtful, honest statement will go a lot further than one puffed up with flamboyant claims and razzmatazz.
Professor Martin Coyle, admissions tutor for English at Cardiff University, says students who strain too hard for effect often sound hollow. An interest in the minor figures in Jane Austen's novels is more likely to interest an admissions tutor than a statement written in blank verse, he says.
"They should also be looking forward to university – to anything from analysing grammar in detail, to learning old English, to studying post-modern American poetry," says Professor Coyle.
Does he object to students with a "passion" for their subject. Not really, he says. "If they're not passionate at 17, they're never going to be passionate!"
But Dr Hilary Hinds, an admissions tutor from the English department at Lancaster University, finds cliches such as "passionate about literature" and "I've loved books for as long as I can remember" dull and predictable. "Demonstrate it rather than claim it," she says.
Lancaster University offers English with creative writing, a course that gives applicants a little more scope to be imaginative in their personal statements, says Dr Hinds.
But it is more important to provide evidence of creative writing experience, such as submitting work to a poetry magazine or editing a school magazine.
Dr Hinds advises students to avoid reeling off a list of their A-level reading. "Give me some kind of contextual, analytical or historical angle that shows you are actively engaging with course texts."
School-leavers fresh to an English degree have to brace themselves for a hefty reading list, and evidence of extensive reading in your personal statement will convince tutors you can handle it.
Dr Richard Storer, admissions tutor for English at Leeds Trinity, recommends students read and discuss as much as they can outside of the A-level curriculum. "Books from pre-1900 will catch the eye – that shows more of a readiness to take on a challenge," he says.
His personal bugbear is the opening quote from Plato, Nelson Mandela or Oscar Wilde that may or may not reflect the applicant's philosophy on life. "Quite often they don't seem to have actually looked at the quote or understood it."
Such misplaced pretension is not going to impress Oxbridge either. Steve Watts, chair of the Cambridge admissions forum, says he's never happy to receive personal statements in badly written verse. "There's standing out from the crowd – fine. But there's also making a show of yourself – not so fine," he says.
"The worst thing you can do is to declare how much you love Tolstoy, say, when you're only at page five of War and Peace. You can guarantee we'll ask you about something from the middle or end."
What should you include in your statement? Ucas guidance recommends applicants state their career aspirations, reasons for choosing the course, academic interests, relevant experience and other interests. Is that applicable to an English degree?
Well, the trick is to keep it relevant. A Duke of Edinburgh expedition to the Lake District might seem tangential but it is interesting if it inspires you to read Dorothy Wordsworth's journals. A supermarket Saturday job doesn't develop your powers of literary criticism – but it does show you can get up early and take responsibility for yourself.
English tutors at the University of Cambridge don't really expect work experience – unless its something that enhances how you think about literature, says Watts.
He also says he'd be surprised if many candidates knew their career aspirations at the personal statement stage. Other interests, however, are important: "Reading, theatre-going, film-watching, creative writing, making drama could all be called hobbies but are also part of the business of critical engagement which most English degrees are all about."
Tutors are assessing your potential, not what you have already achieved. They are aware that some students have a better chance of gathering impressive life experiences than others.
Research conducted last year by Dr Steve Jones of Manchester University found that personal statements from independent school applicants were generally better written and listed more prestigious experiences than those from state school applicants.
"Admissions tutors are increasingly conscious of how past advantage can affect the statements submitted," says Dr Jones, "Academic capital is more important than cultural capital – so it's great if you can play the flute, but we'll be more impressed if you show a deep understanding of your discipline and the kind of content you'll encounter on your chosen courses."
He also advises erring on the side of caution when it comes to style. "Don't be under-formal or over-formal, don't crack jokes, and don't use up your word count with pretentious quotes," he says.
There are subtler and more effective ways of bringing your personal statements to life. "The best personal statements," says Sheffield's Ellis, "have their own story to tell – perhaps beginning with the first book you finished in one sitting or the first book you re-read.
"Do you care about authors or genres? Novels or poems? There's no right answer.
"We certainly don't look favourably on personal statements that don't mention a single book. Alas, there are many of these every year.
And of course, every tutor makes it clear that impeccable spelling and grammar are paramount, particularly for English applications. The advice is to check and check again, then get parents, teachers and friends to check.
A misplaced apostrophe can be really off-putting to admissions tutors, and you don't want to give them an easy reason to turn you down.
- Personal statements
- Guardian Students
- Advice for students
- Higher education
Most viewed
Prepare the Perfect English Literature Personal Statement
Applying for English Literature at university? You need a good personal statement.
Studying English at university gives you the opportunity to explore great literature, as well as the chance to develop critical thinking and communication skills. What’s more, English graduates go on to have top careers in law, journalism, consulting, and academia. The best places to study English Literature include Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham - but, whatever university you want to get into, you need to start with a great UCAS personal statement .
You probably already love to read - you want to study English, after all - but it can be tricky to know what to read in order to prepare your personal statement. We’ve gathered the best things to read, listen to, and watch to make your personal statement stand out from the rest.
English Literature Personal Statement
What Makes a Good English Literature Personal Statement?
Of course, a great English Literature personal statement will feature a lot of books. That being said, strong personal statements don’t just recite a long list of classic literature - they engage with the texts. It’s far better to choose a handful of texts that you can analyse deeply , rather than write about every single thing you’ve ever read without saying what you think about them.
Make your opinions and thoughts clear. What other pieces of writing does this novel remind you of? Why do you think this poet used those techniques? How does this book link to historical context?
Your English Literature personal statement should also show range across period and genres . For instance, include a contemporary novel and a Victorian poem, or a Renaissance play alongside a film that came out in the 1990s. This will show that you’re able to adapt to a wide variety of texts and demonstrate your passion across the whole subject.
The Best Books for an English Literature Personal Statement
Finding the best books to read for an English personal statement can feel daunting - there are plenty of intimidating reading lists packed with Dickens and Shakespeare. Reading classic, pre-20th century literature is a great way to boost your personal statement - but it’s not the only way. In fact, it’s far better to pursue your own interests and develop a niche. Interested in science fiction? Great - find some literary sci-fi that is overlooked by elite reading lists. Want to read more diverse fiction than the classic canon? Fantastic - dig deep into history and discover writers like Fanny Burney and Elizabeth Jane Howard. Developing your own passions will make your personal statement stand out.
Read fiction that you enjoy - whether that’s novels or short stories. Go further than what you’ve read at school. You should have a balance of under-the-radar writers and established literary figures - the likes of George Eliot, Mary Shelley, and Oscar Wilde. If you’re interested in very old literature, try reading Geoffrey Chaucer or Thomas More. Familiarise yourself with literary movements as well as specific authors, too - interesting literary movements include Romanticism, Postmodernism, and Magical Realism.
Your personal statement should ideally include poetry alongside novels. Use anthologies like The Rattle Bag, edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes, and She is Fierce, edited by Ana Sampson, to explore a huge range of poetry. Don’t just stick to poetry that you’ve studied at school! If you’re not a poetry fan, then think about music lyrics that you like - could these be considered as poetry?
Finally, supplement your reading with books about literature. This will show that you are thinking about literature, as well as consuming it. Terry Eagleton’s book Literary Theory is a great introduction to theory, as is Jonathan Culler’s Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. Try to link what you learn from these books to literature that you’ve read. Literary biographies are also a great way to widen your knowledge. Claire Tomalin has written great biographies of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Thomas Hardy, to name a few. Read about literary movements, too. The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar is about feminism in literature, while George Saunders’ A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is an introduction to Russian short stories.
What to Watch for an English Personal Statement
Plays are literature too! What’s great about plays is that you can stream them. Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Tony Kushner are fantastic playwrights to start with - their work is engaging and accessible. There are hundreds of Shakespeare productions to be found on YouTube - focus on ones from the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.
YouTube can also be a great way to learn more about literary theory. The School of Life, for instance, is a YouTube channel that discusses philosophy and writing. They have a whole playlist discussing writers including Virginia Woolf and George Orwell, and a ‘History of Ideas’ series which explores literary movements like Romanticism.
Listening to Radio and Podcasts Will Make Your UCAS Application Stand Out
Podcasts can feature a wide range of academic speakers, which can help broaden your knowledge of your subject. Radio Four’s In Our Time explores a different topic every episode, ranging from Wuthering Heights to Moby Dick. Each episode features academics from leading universities - you can find a back catalogue of episodes online. Oxford University’s “Great Writer’s Inspire” project features a huge array of lectures that you can stick on in the background - topics include Why Literature Matters and Key Critical Concepts.
In order to write a perfect personal statement, read as widely and as broadly as you can. Watch and listen to expert talks in order to start thinking like an academic, too. Once you’re ready to turn your preparation into a personal statement, check out our tips for writing a UCAS application that’s unique. Our expert team are on hand to help you get into your dream university - find out more here.
Top 10 Medical Universities in UK
How to write the perfect economics personal statement.
Popular Course Categories
Course search & discover.
Start the search for your uni. Filter from hundreds of universities based on your preferences.
Search by Type
Search by region.
Recommended Universities
Writtle University College
South East England · 66% Recommended
Escape Studios
London (Greater) · 90% Recommended
Newman University
West Midlands Region · 83% Recommended
Search Open Days
What's new at Uni Compare
Request Info From Uni's
Get the help you need direct from the university. Ask about accommodation, your course and university societies.
Bulk Order Prospectuses
Bulk order prospectus from universities and have them delivered to your door for free.
Ranking Categories
Regional rankings.
More Rankings
Top 100 Universities
Taken from 175,000+ data points from students attending university to help future generations
About our Rankings
Discover university rankings devised from data collected from current students.
Guide Categories
Advice categories, recommended articles, popular statement examples, statement advice.
What to include in a Personal Statement
Personal Statement Tips
Personal statement example english literature personal statement.
English Literature Personal Statement
Literature has a unique ability in gathering an array of emotions from its readers whilst revealing attitudes towards characters or time periods. A writer’s ingenuity has always engrossed me, which led me to believe that English is the ideal degree to read at university.
An insight into canonical literature truly developed a hunger for literature within me. I particularly found Austen’s focus on the women of Georgian society to be amusing, notably the way that marriage was such a significant aspect of their lives. Her books seemed to remove excessive vulnerability from her female characters; they were thoughtful like Anne Elliot, intelligent like Elizabeth Bennet and imaginative like Catherine Morland. Victorian literature was also engaging in my eyes with Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” offering me a satirical outlook on the social hierarchy of the nineteenth century. I was intrigued by how the members of the upper class, such as Lady Bracknell, persisted to maintain their status and strived to have no association with those that they believed were of a lower breed.
Recently, I have started to appreciate the finesse of close reading. I admired how the use of creative language in Arundhati Roy’s “The God of Small Things”, such as the capitalisation of words, accentuated meaningful events through the twins’ eyes. The parallels were visible between their delight in the English language and my own when I had first began to learn English as a second language. Furthermore, close reading was vital in my comprehension of a governesses’ life in Victorian England and aided me to differentiate between the romantic view that “Jane Eyre” portrayed as opposed to the mundanity that Anne Bronte depicted in “Agnes Grey”.
My AS English Literature course was fundamental to me in developing my ability to critically analyse characters and ideas, especially in the novel “Frankenstein”. I found it fascinating that Frankenstein’s hubris leads to the creature’s destructive nature and that Shelley questions humanity’s desire to overstep the boundaries of science. Nevertheless, I found myself sympathising with Frankenstein due to his eagerness in pioneering a new path for mankind and found him comparable to scientists today. My own investigative approach was heightened by the study of Biology and Mathematics at AS. Similarly, Emily Dickinson’s poetry taught me to consider what she was implying behind her stanzas and to contemplate the presentation of her themes. Her poem “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” was poignant in the sense that it compared a mental illness to a death which I found harrowing.
What I found most gratifying outside of college was my development in communication skills, an aspect that is imperative for an English student. Participating in Model United Nations as a Syrian delegate was demanding during the peak of the crisis but it honed my capability to produce effectual responses. I volunteer at Marie Curie Cancer Care in order to give back to the community as well as it enabling me to work effectively in a team, which I find invaluable. I learnt to swim this year-a prospect that I had initially been fearful of. I also became a volunteer for the Summer Reading Challenge through my local library. It was beneficial in the sense that I was able to create a curiosity for unfamiliar stories in younger children.
Over the years, my affection for English has only been elevated and my aptitude and diligence for learning will be of great service during my time at university. I view literature with unwavering zeal which will certainly permit me to relish the challenges ahead.
Recommended Statements
Submitted by anonymous
English Language and Linguistics Personal Statement
Further study of the English language would fuel my interest and genuine curiosity of language and assist ...
Submitted by Sabrina
English BA Personal Statement
I have always been fascinated by the way writers can influence people or even manipulate reader’s emotions...
Submitted by Annie
The broad range of writers from varying eras, from Chaucer to Capote, that I have been introduced to, has ...
Submitted by Amanda
To me, English Literature has a way of uniting us. The subject plays a vital role in understanding each ot...
undergraduate Universities
Undergraduate uni's.
Writtle Uni College
103 courses
107 courses
West London IoT
Uni of Leicester
285 courses
Uni of Portsmouth
353 courses
Bristol, UWE
302 courses
Nottingham Trent
535 courses
Middlesex Uni
367 courses
101 courses
Uni of Suffolk
130 courses
Uni of Reading
477 courses
Edinburgh Napier
188 courses
Coventry Uni
443 courses
Goldsmiths, UOL
276 courses
547 courses
Uni of Roehampton
215 courses
Uni of Kent
524 courses
Uni of Bradford
212 courses
Uni of Bedfordshire
460 courses
Uni of Derby
273 courses
Uni of Chester
436 courses
Staffordshire Uni
275 courses
Uni of Greenwich
310 courses
Uni of Winchester
175 courses
Uni of Surrey
446 courses
Uni of Sunderland
225 courses
Uni for Creative Arts
532 courses
Uni of Westminster
343 courses
Northeastern Uni
Cardiff Uni
496 courses
Leeds Beckett Uni
251 courses
Wrexham Glyndwr Uni
203 courses
Edge Hill Uni
216 courses
258 courses
Uni of Glasgow
986 courses
Uni of East London
Queen's Uni
409 courses
- Ask a question
- go advanced Search
- Please enter a title
- Please enter a message
- Your discussion will live here... (Start typing, we will pick a forum for you) Please select a forum Change forum View more forums... View less forums... GCSEs A-levels Applications, Clearing and UCAS University Life Student Finance England Part-time and temporary employment Chat Everyday issues Friends, family and work Relationships Health News Student Surveys and Research
- post anonymously
- Life and style
- Entertainment
- Debate and current affairs
- University help and courses
- Universities and HE colleges
- Careers and jobs
- Introduce yourself
- Help and announcements
- Uni applications
- Uni student life
Postgraduate
- Teacher training
- Medical schools
- Finance and accountancy
- Maths study help
- UK politics
- News and current affairs
- Football chat
- Fitness forum
- Sexual health discussion
- Relationships forum
- Fashion and beauty section
- Video games
- University and university courses
- Careers and Jobs
- GCSE homepage
- GCSE study help forums
- Scottish qualifications forum
- GCSE revision forum
- Revision help
- What to do after GCSEs
- GCSE Biology
- GCSE Business Studies
- GCSE Chemistry
- GCSE English
- GCSE English Literature
- GCSE French
- GCSE Geography
- GCSE German
- GCSE History
- GCSE Mathematics
- GCSE Physics
- GCSE Psychology
- GCSE Religious Studies
- GCSE Science
- GCSE Sociology
- GCSE Spanish
- A-level homepage
- A-level forum
- A-level study help
- Revision forum
- Revision guides
- A-level results day 2023
- What to do after A-levels
- A-level Biology
- A-level Business Studies
- A-level Chemistry
- A-level Economics
- A-level English
- A-level English Literature
- A-level French
- A-level Geography
- A-level German
- A-level History
- A-level Law
- A-level Mathematics
- A-level Media Studies
- A-level Physics
- A-level Politics
- A-level Psychology
- A-level Religious Studies
- A-level Spanish
About Grow your Grades
- What Grow your Grades is all about
- Grow your Grades forum
Getting help with your studies
- Study help forums
- Revision articles and advice
- Revision and study tips forum
Popular articles
- How to make a great revision plan
- 18 ways to stop procrastinating
- How to use past exam papers
- Applying to uni homepage
- Applications and Ucas
- Student finance forum
- International study forum
- Uni courses forum
- Universities forum
- A-Z of universities
- University open days
- Apprenticeships explained
- Studying medicine at uni
- Personal statements homepage
- Personal statement builder
- Personal statements: by subject
- Personal statement advice forum
- Studying law at university
- Student life at university
- Studying in the UK
- Studying abroad
- Studying business and management
- University homepage
- Universities
- University life
- Uni courses
- International study
- Postgraduate study
- Student accommodation advice
- Student financial support
- Apprenticeships forum
- Universities A-Z
- Postgraduate resources
- Student accommodation
- Careers homepage
- CV help forum
- Career forums
- Part-time and temp jobs
- Apprenticeships guide
- Armed forces careers
- Engineering careers
- Finance careers
- Investment banking careers
- Law careers
- Marketing, sales and PR careers
- Medicine careers
- Public sector careers
- Teaching careers
- Technology careers
- Relationships
- Friends, family and colleagues
- General health
- Sexual health
- Mental health
- Fashion and beauty
- Advice on everyday issues
- Sexual health help and advice
- Mental health information
Undergraduate
Eu students.
- Taking a break or withdrawing from your course
- Postgraduate Master’s Loan
- Postgraduate Doctoral Loan
- Disabled Students’ Allowances
Further information
- Parents and partners
- Advanced Learner Loan
News discussion
- Latest news
- Educational debate
Entertainment discussion
- Books and comics
More from entertainment
- Laptops and tablets
- Mobile phones
- Creative Corner
- Food and drink
- Volunteering
- Personal statements
English personal statements
On this page you'll find a collection of real personal statements written by students applying to study English and related courses at university.
These personal statements are written by real students - don't expect them all to be perfect! But by reading through a few of these samples, you'll be able to get some ideas and inspiration for your own personal statement.
English personal statement examples
More help with your personal statement, personal statement examples.
You can find personal statement examples for other courses by using this subject list, or by returning to our personal statements by subject page.
Other useful links
- Applying to university
The Student Room and The Uni Guide are both part of The Student Room Group.
- Grow your Grades
- Applying to uni
- Careers & jobs
- Relationships & health
- Student finance
- News & entertainment
Get Started
- Today's posts
- Unanswered posts
- TSR help centre
- Cookies & online safety
- Terms & conditions
- Privacy policy
- The Uni Guide
- Get Revising
Connect with TSR
© Copyright The Student Room 2023 all rights reserved
The Student Room and The Uni Guide are trading names of The Student Room Group Ltd.
Register Number: 04666380 (England and Wales), VAT No. 806 8067 22 Registered Office: Imperial House, 2nd Floor, 40-42 Queens Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 3XB
- Will you write my paper for me? - Yes, we will.
What we offer:, let’s write a paper for you in no time, follow these 4 simple steps and solve you problem at once.
Provide details such as your topic, the number of pages, and extra requirements, and we’ll do a paper for you in no time!
Log in to your personal account to know the current status of your paper(s). You can also turn to our support team for the same purpose. Enjoy your life while we're working on your order.
As soon as we write the paper(s) for you, check it for correctness, and if everything is good to go, just download it and enjoy the results.
Our customers’ feedback
Still hesitant just look: others have already used our services and were pleased with the results.
Thank you guys for the amazing work! I got an A, and my professor was impressed. You have done the impossible, and I will never forget your help! The best service ever!
I ordered my paper two weeks ago and received it on time. The quality is very good, much better than other companies provide. My support agent is a pro, fast and simple explanations. Thanks!
I am firmly convinced that you will never disappoint me because you haven’t done it before. Amazing approaches and solutions at perfect prices! Please continue working the way you do!
I’ve been using WritePaperFor.me for about five months, and I have nothing to complain about. Excellent quality, perfect grammar, delivery on time, nice support team, pleasant prices, amazing results.
This service helped me focus on my job, and I will never forget the support I received. I’ve got a promotion in the end! Thanks a lot for everything you do for people like me!
I have to admit that searching for a reliable and professional service was a tough quest. Nevertheless, I am happy that I managed to find writepaperforme! Everything is much better than I expected!
The best bargain is just a few clicks away!
Get an original paper that doesn’t cost a fortune!
- 450 orders completed daily
- 86 disciplines of expertise
- 820+ professionals on our team
- 4.88/5 is the average order rating
Still have questions?
Contact our support agents and let them help you!
Is it time to write a paper for you? Contact us and relish the highest academic performance!
Our professionals will do their best!
You’ll write my paper for me, won’t you? We certainly will!
So tired of writing papers that you’re starting to think of your professor’s demise? Relax, we’re only joking! However, even a joke is woven with the thread of truth, and the truth is that endless assignments are constantly nagging at you and keeping you up all night long.
‘Writing my papers is unbearable!’ you may think But you’re not alone… What if we told you that we know a magical place where professionals can write your essays so perfectly that even professors’ most sophisticated requirements will be met? You’ve probably already guessed that we’re talking about WritePaperFor.me — the most delightful, facilitating, and destressing custom paper-writing service!
We are not going to be shy about our wish to see you as our steady customer. As a result, we aren’t twiddling our thumbs but permanently improving our services; we carefully select writers who always bone up on their subjects and disciplines, and we won’t rest unless you’ve gotten your ideal paper(s). All your wishes become our unshakable rules!
Why would I ask you to write paper for me?
Despite the obvious and even natural resistance to the idea of paper writing in principle that may occur with any student, you may also ask yourself, ‘Why would I need you to help me write my paper?’ The answer to this question lies in the spectrum of your routine actions. It’s not surprising that studying becomes part of our lives, but sometimes we’ve just got too much going on!
When you write an essay or academic paper, you just do one of the numerous things you face daily or weekly. This part of your life consumes lots of energy and time, so how can you possibly get around to doing other things like having fun, working, playing sports, helping relatives, and spending time with friends?
People are social creatures, and it’s only natural of us to request help from experts.. That’s why we ask doctors, electricians, or plumbers to help us! They’re all specialists. Who writes essays for you better than you do? Right, people who write numerous essays every day. We are experts in academic writing, aimed at satisfying all your needs related to education.
You just hire a professional to get a paper written, like you normally do in other situations. Our team of writers know everything about writing your paper and can cope with assignments of any complexity and academic level. Well-researched and expertly-written papers are what we do for our customers, and we always do our work professionally so that you could kick back and enjoy your life to the fullest.
The undeniable benefits of our custom paper-writing service
Apart from a paper written in accordance with the highest standards, we provide a wide range of contributory advantages to make your life easier. Let’s take a closer look at them.
Round-the-Clock Support. Our paper-writing service works day and night to help you with all current issues. Our friendly support team is available whenever you need them, even if it’s the middle of the night. They will gladly guide you and answer all your questions on how to order customized papers or consult you about the matters at hand. Feel free to share your questions or concerns with them and get comprehensible answers.
High-Class Quality. ‘Will you write a paper for me that meets all requirements?’ This question is frequently asked by many students, and we always answer in the affirmative. Our main goal is to deliver a perfectly written paper the meets the highest possible writing standards. We don’t rest unless you are satisfied with our work. If you hire a paper writer online, we guarantee you that you get 100% original and plagiarism-free assignments of high quality.
Complete Anonymity. We value your privacy and use modern encryption systems to protect you online. We don’t collect any personal or payment details and provide all our customers with 100% anonymity. ‘Can you write a paper for me and let me stay anonymous?’ Of course, we can! We are here to help you, not to cause problems.
Fast Delivery. We completely understand how strict deadlines may be when it comes to writing your paper. Even if your paper is due tomorrow morning, you can always rely on us. Our writers meet all set deadlines unequivocally. This rule is ironclad! The offered range is wide and starts from 6 hours to 2 weeks. Which one to choose is totally up to you. On our part, we guarantee that our writers will deliver your order on time.
Free Revisions. Our mission is to hone your paper to perfection. That’s why we offer you free revisions to make everything ideal and according to your needs. Feel free to ask for revisions if there is something you would like to be changed. That’s how our paper writing service works.
Money-Back Guarantee. You can get up to a 100% refund if you are dissatisfied with our work. Nevertheless, we are completely sure of our writers’ professionalism and credibility that offer you hard-core loyalty to our guarantees.
Comprehensible Explanations. ‘Can someone write my paper for me and provide clarifications?’ This question arises from time to time. Naturally, we want you to be totally prepared for the upcoming battle with your professor. If you need to fill the gaps in your knowledge, you can always ask for clarifications related to your paper. Moreover, when you order ‘write my paper for me’ service, you can always turn to our support agents for assistance. They will be glad to provide you with the necessary information and comprehensible explanations.
Fast and Customer-Focused Solutions. ‘Is it possible to do my paper for me so that I don’t worry about it at all?’ It certainly is! We offer all-encompassing solutions to all your academic problems by defining issues, determining their causes, selecting proper alternatives, and ultimately solving them. You are free to do your favorite activities while we are taking care of ongoing matters. You can always rely on us when it comes to essay-writing online and taking an individual approach to every case.
Who will write my paper when I order it?
Another crucial advantage of our service is our writers. You may have asked yourself, ‘I’d like to pay someone to write a paper for me, but who exactly will that person be?’ Once you order a paper, our managers will choose the best writer based on your requirements. You’ll get a writer who is a true expert in the relevant subject, and a perfect fit is certain to be found due to our thorough procedure of selecting.
Every applicant passes a complex procedure of tests to become one of our permanent writers. First of all, they should provide their credentials. We need to make sure that any prospective writers we hire have the proper experience.. The next step resides in passing a series of tests related to grammar, in addition to subject and/or discipline. Every paper-writer must pass them to prove their competency and their selected field of expertise.
One more step includes writing a sample to prove the ability to research and write consistently. Moreover, we always set our heart on hiring only devoted writers. When you ask us to write your essay or other academic works, you can be sure that they always do their best to provide you with well-structured and properly-written papers of high quality.
The final chord is related to special aspects of academic paper-writing. It means that every writer is prepared to cite properly, use different styles, and so on, so you don’t have to be worried about formatting at all.
‘So, can they write an ideal paper for me?’ We answer in the affirmative because we select only the best writers for our customers. Approximately 11% of all applicants can pass the whole set of tests and are ready to help you. All writers are fully compensated for their work and are highly motivated to provide you with the best results.
We are online 24/7 so that you could monitor the process of paper-writing and contact us whenever necessary. Don’t forget that your satisfaction is our priority. Our writers fully focus on your order when it comes to the ‘write my paper’ procedure. Our managers will immediately send all the information to your writer if any corrections are required.
It’s time to write my paper! What should I do?
‘I am ready to pay to have a paper written! Where do I start?’ Our team hears these words every day. We really believe that every student should be happy. That’s why we offer you to look at the simple steps to make the process even more convenient.
- Fill in the comprehensible order form located on the main page of our website. If you need some help with it, feel free to contact our support team.
- Provide the necessary details, such as the topic, subject or discipline, paper format, your academic level, etc.
- Select the deadline, and we will strictly follow it.
- Pay the total price. Submit a preferred payment method. The full sum will be deposited into your account on our website. The money will be transferred to your writer in case you approve the paper.
- If you have additional materials provided by your professor or may simply assist in writing your paper, please attach them too. They will help the assigned writer meet your professor’s expectations.
Every paper we can write for you is expertly-researched, well-structured, and consistent. Take a look at some types of papers we can help you with:
- Dissertations
- Research papers
- Case studies
- Term papers
- Business plans, etc.
Questions like ‘I would like you to write a paper for me without destroying my reputation. Can you promise to do so?’ or ‘Can you write my paper for me cheap and fast?’ often arise, and we take pride that these options are included in the list. Your safety and anonymity are parts of our common priority, which is to make you fully satisfied with all offered services.
Moreover, our pricing policy is flexible and allows you to select the options that totally suit your needs at affordable prices. You will be pleased with the results and the amount of money spent on your order. Our managers and writers will do the rest according to the highest standards.
Don’t hesitate and hire a writer to work on your paper now!
We believe that students know what is best for them, and if you suppose that it is time to ‘write my paper right now,’ we will help you handle it. ‘Will you do my paper without any hesitation?’ Of course, we will. Our service has all the necessary prerequisites to complete assignments regardless of their difficulty, academic level, or the number of pages. We choose a writer who has vast experience and a breadth of knowledge related to your topic.
Our ‘write my paper for me’ service offers a wide range of extra features to make the ordering process even more pleasant and convenient. Unlike lots of other services, we provide formatting, bibliography, amendments, and a title page for free.
‘When you write my paper for me? Can I monitor the process?’ Naturally, you can. We understand that you may want to ensure that everything is going well. Furthermore, there may be situations when some corrections are needed. We believe that a tool like this can come in handy. The assigned writer will strictly follow your and your professor’s requirements to make sure that your paper is perfect.
‘Is it possible to write my essay from scratch?’ We don’t do just proofreading or editing. Our goal is to fully carry your burden of writing. When this or similar questions appear, we always assure our customers that our writers can do whatever they need. Apart from writing from scratch or editing and proofreading, our experts can effortlessly cope with problem-solving of all kinds;even sophisticated software assignments!
Our ‘write my paper for me’ service is good for everyone who wants to delegate paper-writing to professionals and save precious time that can be spent differently and in a more practical way. We want you to be happy by offering the great opportunity to forget about endless and boring assignments once and forever. You won’t miss anything if your papers become the concern of our professional writers.
Don’t waste your precious time browsing other services. We provide you with everything you need while you are enjoying yourself by doing things you really enjoy. ‘Write my paper then! Do my paper for me right now!’ If you are ready to exclaim these words with delight, we welcome you to our haven, a place where students spend their time serenely and never worry about papers! It’s your turn to have fun, whereas our mission is to provide you with the best papers delivered on time!
Questions our customers ask
Can someone write my paper for me.
Yes, we can. We have writers ready to cope with papers of any complexity. Just contact our specialists and let us help you.
Who can I pay to write a paper for me?
We will help you select a writer according to your needs. As soon as you hire our specialist, you’ll see a significant improvement in your grades.
Can I pay someone to write a paper for me?
Yes, you can. We have lots of professionals to choose from. We employ only well-qualified experts with vast experience in academic paper writing.
What website will write a paper for me?
WritePaperFor.me is the website you need. We offer a wide range of services to cover all your needs. Just place an order and provide instructions, and we will write a perfect paper for you.
Is it safe to use your paper writing service?
Our service is completely safe and anonymous. We don’t keep your personal and payment details and use the latest encryption systems to protect you.
What are you waiting for?
You are a couple of clicks away from tranquility at an affordable price!
How to Write a Personal Statement for English 2023: An Oxbridge Graduate’s Top Tips
When applying to university, your personal statement is your best opportunity to showcase what motivates you to study the subject you are applying for and why you are suited to study it. You can do this by providing evidence of your interest: how have you gone beyond the curriculum to satisfy questions which reach past the subject at A Level? Interviewers for English at university will be looking for students who have an insatiable curiosity for learning and developed interests in various areas of the subject. They will also be looking for candidates who have the analytical skills and academic rigour required for success at university. And, of course, you’ll be expected to demonstrate evidence of substantial reading; a successful personal statement will provide a starting point for an interview discussion, so gesture towards a range of different texts which you are prepared to discuss at length. Don’t shy away from making a provocative statement, as long as you are prepared to support any claim you make: independent, fresh responses to texts will generate a positive response.
The key tips to bear in mind when writing a personal statement are: be truthful, be ambitious and don’t undersell yourself. This is an opportunity to show off what you’re good at! Don’t hold back from writing about times when you have excelled (for example, winning an essay competition) but don’t distort what you’ve done either. Don’t mention books which you haven’t read all the way through. If you feel like your breadth of reading might be lacking, it’s a good idea to do some extension reading in the months leading up to applying for university, so that when it comes to writing your personal statement, you’ll have a wide variety of texts to choose from.
How to Structure Your English Personal Statement
The word count for personal statements is quite limited, so it’s important to use every sentence effectively. Don’t repeat yourself and don’t include information which isn’t relevant to your application. When applying for English, there are certain areas which should be addressed in your personal statement, so here is a guideline of how one might structure the personal statement to ensure that all of these areas are mentioned.
Introductory paragraph:
What is your motivation to study English? Be specific: what do you want to explore at university? What is distinctive about studying literature that makes it worthwhile? Ensure you talk about what motivates your study of the subject now, not a catalyst from your childhood as, even if it may be true, the interviewer will find it clichéd and less relevant.
Main body of the personal statement:
Devote at least a paragraph to talking about specific areas of interest within the subject. What excites you most? For example, do you have a particular fascination with performance studies or postcolonial theory? Indicate that you have opinions and preoccupations within the discipline.
Mention a range of texts which have interested you: ensure that you’ve mentioned at least one play, prose text and piece of poetry. It’s also a good idea to show that you’ve engaged with secondary texts, for example a work of literary criticism or a book covering the historical background of a period of literature you’ve studied.
Show that you have an active interest in the subject: have you sought out performances of plays, special lectures or essay competitions? These will all reveal that you’ve gone out of your way to immerse yourself in your subject already, and this is a very appealing trait in a prospective university candidate.
Showcase your skills: don’t just name-drop texts but say something incisive and persuasive about them. This could involve discussing what links together works by authors of the same period or what defines the work of a single author. Demonstrate your ability to analyse texts effectively, because this is the most important skill which you will use studying English at university level.
Looking for ideas for personal statement content?
We have built out an entire co-curricular platform, Minds Underground, for university applicants to use as evidence for their wider subject exploration. A few ideas:
Our English Literature Summer School allows students to broaden their horizons in literature, to consider authors and theorists from across the globe. classes are hosted by our Oxbridge-educated tutors, from a Fellow at all Soul’s College, Oxford, to published authors and Master’s and PhD researchers specialising in English Lang & Lit
Research Projects: E.g. ““Ways of Seeing": Exploring Word, Image and Ideology with a Cambridge Master's English Researcher and Multidisciplinary Artist” (Typically 1 month, 5 project tutorial sessions)
Final paragraph:
The personal statement isn’t long enough to talk at length about extracurricular hobbies and activities, so don’t let these take up too much space (a few lines maximum). However, it is a good idea to mention what you do outside your subject to present yourself as a well-rounded candidate. Therefore:
Mention your other A Level subjects, perhaps describing how they have enhanced your study of English. This will be particularly convincing if you have studied History or a foreign language at A Level.
Mention any extracurricular activities which make you stand out. Do you play a musical instrument, and if so, to what level? If you’re involved in sport, do you play in a team? Don’t write at length about this: try to contain this information within one sentence.
Mention any prizes or roles of responsibility which you have had at school, including any clubs that you might organise, such as the school newspaper or student council.
Conclude your personal statement by returning to your aptitude for studying the subject . Which core skills do you possess which will equip you to excel at degree level? It’s important to strike a balance between enthusiasm for the subject and evidence of skills.
By Sarah (English Language & Literature, University of Oxford - U2 Tutor)
Looking for an English Personal Statement Writing Tutor or Support For Your Wider Oxbridge English Application?
English Personal Statement Tutoring
U2 Tuition’s Oxbridge-educated tutors have a close insight into what admissions tutors like to see in an English personal statement, and can help students to convey their skills, motivations, and long term goals, in order to stand out from other applicants. The statement should be the candidates own work, but our mentors will provide direction and guide you through the process of content building and writing. We offer offline drafting as well as tuition sessions.
Oxbridge English Tutoring
U2 Tuition offers ELAT admissions test preparation, as well as wider Oxbridge Mentoring programmes (book a free consultation to discuss options). We have a large team of Oxbridge-educated English mentors including 1st Class, Master’s and PhD level graduates.
The Process:
1) We suggest an Oxbridge English graduate as a mentor and send their full CV for review. Our mentors are deeply familiar with the admissions process to study English at the University of Oxford, Cambridge, as well as top UK Universities such as UCL, and are well-placed to guide you through personal statement curation, the entrance exam and interview process. We may suggest a range of application tutors to choose from with slightly differing rates depending on qualifications and level of experience.
2) We typically suggest beginning with a 1.5 hour informal assessment/ taster session , where the mentor will informally assess the student’s current performance level for application, including test and interview. Following this, we issue a report with feedback, and structure a plan to best prepare.
3) U2’s approach for regular English application sessions: The main focus of tutorial sessions will be to explore material that can be discussed in the personal statement and at interview - this may sometimes stretch from A-Level standard to First Year Undergraduate. Mentors ensure each student refines their literary interests, and is exposed to a range of literary eras, approaches and new concepts, guiding students in their reading and wider subject exploration. Together, we build a case for the student, solidifying the stance and direction they will take during interview and honing skills for the ELAT if applicable.
Frequency of sessions can be decided between student and mentor. Students can take either ad hoc sessions, or we structure a full programme for preparation, which may include further co-curricular opportunities such as our research projects , English Literature summer school and Oxbridge mock interview days. Honing the skills necessary to succeed for Oxbridge ideally requires long-term preparation and mentoring presents a wonderful opportunity to learn from some of the very best Oxbridge has produced.
Sessions from £70/h + VAT.
Educational Podcasts to Listen to in 2023: A Subject-Specific Guide to BBC’s Higher Education Podcast: ‘In Our Time’
How to prepare a successful biological natural sciences application in 2023: a u2 application guide.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Your English Literature personal statement doesn't need to be a work of literature akin to the greats like William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, TS Eliot or Kurt Vonnegut, but it should at least show why you are so interested in the subject and your passion for it.
Oxbridge Example English personal statement Literature is more than a form of escapism. I believe the written word is an insightful representation of the human condition; it is essentially empathy manifested, and subsequently presents the same fundamental ethical issues and questions that arise naturally from human understanding.
Welcome to our popular Personal Statement series where we present a successful Personal Statement, and our Oxbridge Tutors provide their feedback on it. Today, we are looking through an English Language and Literature applicant's Personal Statement that helped secure them a place at Oxford. The English Language and Literature course at Oxford ...
Within a literary analysis, your purpose is to develop an argument about what the author of the text is doing—how the text "works.". You use quotations to support this argument. This involves selecting, presenting, and discussing material from the text in order to "prove" your point—to make your case—in much the same way a lawyer ...
English Literature Personal Statement The appeal of literature for me lies primarily in the thrill of ambiguity. Studying complex texts during my A-level course has shown me how subtly and inventively authors can use language, narrative method, voice and syntactical form to convey meaning and respond imaginatively to the world they live in.
"The world is supposed to be full of possibilities, but they narrow down to pretty few in most personal experience." ― David Herbert Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover tags: d-h-lawrence , english-literature , lady-chatterly-s-lover , possibilities 3 likes Like
University Studies Personal Statement Examples. I am very fortunate to be an undergraduate student of English at the University of Dammam, in Saudi Arabia. During my studies, I discovered that I am passionate about literature in general and English literature in particular. I believe that English literature possesses an overwhelming power; it ...
I believe that English literature possesses an overwhelming power: it has the ability not only to entertain but to challenge its readers to ascertain a deeper understanding of the world. The most recent novel to stimulate my senses in this manner has been Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights'.
English Literature and Philosophy Personal Statement Example As an English student I revel in the aesthetic beauty of literature while enjoying how the big ideas underpinning a work adds meaning. As a Philosophy student my inquisitive mind constantly pushes me to ask questions and engage in debate.
1. The pretentious quote. Not exactly highbrow literature. The personal statement opens with a pretentious-sounding quote, which, let's face it, the student probably found from Googling "quotes about English literature". It doesn't even come from a great work of literature - it's from a novel for young adults, which is unlikely to ...
The best Personal Statements get to the point quickly, so avoid starting with phrases like "From a young age", "I am applying for this course because", and "Throughout my life I have always enjoyed…". Go straight into why you are interested in your course subject. 2. Use cringe-worthy language and cheap gags.
Quotes About Writing and Literature. Henry Miller: "Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music-the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls, and interesting people. Forget yourself." Ezra Pound: "Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible ...
There are subtler and more effective ways of bringing your personal statements to life. "The best personal statements," says Sheffield's Ellis, "have their own story to tell - perhaps...
Your personal statement should ideally include poetry alongside novels. Use anthologies like The Rattle Bag, edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes, and She is Fierce, edited by Ana Sampson, to explore a huge range of poetry. Don't just stick to poetry that you've studied at school!
English Literature Personal Statement. Literature has a unique ability in gathering an array of emotions from its readers whilst revealing attitudes towards characters or time periods. A writer's ingenuity has always engrossed me, which led me to believe that English is the ideal degree to read at university.
English personal statements. On this page you'll find a collection of real personal statements written by students applying to study English and related courses at university. These personal statements are written by real students - don't expect them all to be perfect! But by reading through a few of these samples, you'll be able to get some ...
English Literature Quotes Personal Statement 100% Success rate Level: College, University, High School, Master's, PHD, Undergraduate, Regular writer Min Garages Any 100% Success rate Elliot Law #19 in Global Rating Psychology Level: Master's, University, College, High School, PHD, Undergraduate
Personal Statement. U2's Oxbridge-educated mentors have a close insight into what admissions tutors like to see in an English personal statement, and can help students to convey their skills, motivations, and long term goals, in order to stand out from other applicants. The statement should be the candidates own work, but our mentors will ...