Elbow and Personal Statements

Peter Elbow is the man! I love that we were introduced to him. His book Writing with Power helped me when it came to writing my personal statement. As I mentioned before in one of my comments on Kinsey’s blog post I always had trouble with writing my personal statement from previous years, but this time it is different. Elbow is one of the factors that cause writing my paper easily. I also think it’s the fact that teachers in previous years made it seem like we have to write something drastic in the essay, like a family member dying.  The overall writing process is easier now. From listening to the past presentations on Peter Elbow the methods I would like to etch into my writing is free-writing, looping, priming the pump, and writing without thinking. Not that all methods presented aren’t helpful, but these certain methods I find more beneficial to my writing process.

Another thing that I want to mention is that I actually had an easier time writing my second personal statement than my first one. I think it is my choice in prompts. I honestly like the Common Application prompts more because it is easier to write about the topics. I don’t know about you, but I found that the Common Application prompts were straighter to the point causing me to have no trouble sharing my feelings on paper. If you guys were wondering I wrote about the second UC prompt and for the Common Application I wrote about a place where I find myself to be perfectly content.

Now that we are turning in our final essays, what have you learned from writing your personal statement? Have you seen yourself progress as a writer? Did Peter Elbow help? Lastly which was your favorite prompt to write about?