Guide/02 The Essay Course
Writing the Personal Statement
The Common App prompts, the two structures that work for most essays, and how to write the opening, the turn, and the ending.
Chapter 8 of 389 min readUpdated September 25, 2026 Preview
You have a topic — or at least a few candidates. Now comes the part most students dread: turning a pile of details into 650 words that sound like you and say something real.
The good news is that most strong personal statements use one of just two structures. Once you know them, the blank page gets a lot less scary...
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What’s in this chapter
- 1The prompts (and why they matter less than you think)
- 2The two structures
- 3Writing the opening
- 4Writing the turn
- 5Writing the ending
- 6Voice: sounding like yourself
- 7A 650-word budget
- 8Common mistakes
- 9Exercise: the five-sentence outline