As you are narrowing in on a final draft of your personal statement, read it out loud. Writing a sentence sounds quite different than reading a sentence. Try it with an essay draft of your own. You will discover run-ons and imprecision.
Here is an example. Read out loud this excerpt from a recent statement:
Isn’t it difficult to decide what we are meant to prioritize in this tangle of possible topics: Is it the joy of the child? Is it the fact of minimal support? Or, the author’s dawning realization? The reader has no guide post.
Good writing is meant to lead the reader. In fact, that is what makes writing potent, even dangerous! A good writer may well be able to persuade you without your even noticing the dexterous manipulation. Plato has it in the Phaedrus that Socrates was hostile to writing for precisely this reason. One cannot engage the absent writer in a dialogue; one cannot subject him to a cross examination nor interrogate his argument. Rather, the writer can hold the reader in his thrall. So, write clearly! Captivate your audience! They will grant you an interview precisely to get at the Socratic concern: what’s true? And then, having gained the interview, you will affirm your fine literary appearance as truth in speaking aloud.
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