My August blogs are devoted to aspiring university students set to begin the application process in September. Yes, it’s the middle of your summer holiday; no, you don’t want to be drafting your personal statement right now. In 15 minutes each week, this series of steps will help you build a solid first draft of your personal statement, to make the process easier and more productive.

Step 2: Framing Concept

Each Olympic Games begins and ends with a focus on the same object: the Olympic flame. The flame is lit at Olympia in Greece, and a torch relay carries it to the main stadium of the host city, to a cauldron lit during the opening ceremony. The flame burns for the duration of the Games, and at the end of the closing ceremony, it is put out. The flame symbolises the continuity of this ancient competition, and its lighting and extinguishing are poignant moments hailing the start and finish of each Games as a momentous, historical, global event.

The flame frames the Olympics, and this kind of conceptual structuring device can make a personal statement powerful. While the flame symbol is itself quite potent - as fire connotes light, passion and energy - it is the way it announces and encloses the Games that makes its image so compelling.

Athens, Greece - March 19, 2020: Olympic Flame handover ceremony for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games at the Panathenaic Kallimarmaro Stadium. Ververidis Vasilis / Shutterstock.com

A personal statement is a self-portrait, and should be framed like one. In my post published last September, I outline 5 action points for an outstanding personal statement. The fifth is to frame your statement, but this should be really be done as the second step in the writing. Having written your origin story, you may very well have generated a framing concept - an idea you can refer back to in the main body and conclusion.

Step 2: Instructions

GENERAL GUIDANCE: Pick a concept or a theme to mention at the start, touch on it at one or two points in the main body, and then conclude your statement by referring back to it. This technique connects and binds the paragraphs of your statement. For example, you might begin by explaining how building forts as a child sparked your interest in civil engineering, refer throughout to structures you have encountered at key points in your life and education, and end on the notion of fortifying your knowledge of engineering at university. A conceptual framework makes the image of your candidacy cohere.

STEP 2 ASSIGNMENT: Take 15 minutes today to look back at your origin story and brainstorm a framing concept for your statement. Your origin story may contain a particularly useful word, a poignant feeling or a characterising element you can use. Ideally, this concept will be touched on again in the main body of your statement—as you recount key experiences in your academic journey—and then again as you conclude.

Next Instalment: Drafting Your Personal Statement - Step 3: Key Experiences