这样写个人陈述，你更有可能出国读博

通常个人陈述(PersonalStatement/PS)会明确规定字数范围,给一些指示.但申请人估计还是有不少疑问:到底什么内容应该写进去?用什么样的时态、口吻比较合适?

近些年对于学术英语(Englishfor Academic Purposes /EAP)的研究很多,但是大都集中在论文写作这样的领域,在申请学校过程中必不可少的PS却少有人研究.但事实上PS也是学术写作的一种.PS与其他学术写作最不同的一点在于写PS的时候学生还没有取得这些学校的入学资格,作为"外人"的他们应该怎么写PS?

我们来看几个关于PS的研究,找找感觉~

一、 Brown(2004)丨申请临床心理学PhD的PS

Brown收集了18篇临床心理学的博士申请PS,其中9个学生成功申到,另9个学生被拒.研究显示,成功申请者的PS里用了更多的篇幅表达他们的研究目标,并树立了研究科学家的形象;而个人生活部分所占比重很少.在一对一访谈过程中,一位招生老师表示有竞争力的申请者能"像科学家一样思考"("think like a scientist").

二、几个关于医学院申请PS的研究

因为跟Brown研究的学科领域不同,侧重也有所不同.Bekins, Huckin, and Kijak (2004)发现医学院的PS更侧重展示申请者的实际经验,以及这些经历怎么影响他们做出自己的职业选择.PS中研究导向的信息并不是招生办公室的老师希望看到的,老师希望看到的是学生回顾过去,反思自己的经历.

Barton, Ariail,and Smith (2004)对比了美国一所学校169份医学院的申请PS得出了相似的结论.

Ding(2007)从网上收集了30篇申请医学院的PS文章(其中20人申请成功,另外10人未申请成功或PS未经修改),发现申请不成功的PS中提到的个人经历与申请意图的联系不够紧密.

三、Samraj and Monk(2008)丨不同学科的PS间的差异Samraj and Monk(2008)的研究重点在于不同学科的PS间的差异.他们的研究对比了美国一所大学三个研究生项目(语言学、商业管理和电子工程)的PS.研究表明,三类PS的rhetorical move(由John M. Swales提出)相似,但是associated steps有区别.

四、Chiu(2015)丨英美学校对于PS有不一样的解读

Chiu(2015)研究了来自于英国、美国两所精英大学的招生官对于教育专业博士项目申请文书的观点以及评估录取的侧重.这项研究采取半结构化访谈(semi-structured interview)的方法获取信息,访谈涉及9位来自英国学校的老师,10位来自美国学校的老师(分别来自不同的研究领域).

参与研究的招生官各自的研究领域

1. 两所学校都很看重的:

1)希望看到申请者对申请的领域有足够的动力和热情;显示相关的经历、教育背景.

2)引用名人名言不太招人喜欢.

一位学生在PS的开头引用了苏格拉底的话:

I cannot find any better way to start this statement than with a quotation by Socrates:‘the only thing I know is that I know nothing’. His words nicely express my profound beliefs on spiritual cultivation and my desire for expanding my knowledge continuously and persistently.

但招生官看到这样的PS时是这么想的:

Now as soon as if someone mentions ‘Socrates’ in the first in the opening of their personal statement, I think they are simply trying to impress … which raises suspicions. If I think someone's simply quoting names, yeah, that people see as intellectualnames, then I might think, well, what they are trying to mask here? They're trying to impress with this kind of citation by masking the lack of substance in their writing. So that puts me off for a start.

(所以随便引用的后果就让这篇PS变成了开头就让人产生怀疑、不爽的PS...)还有PS中引用电影《死亡诗社》中的台词来展示自己对教育的热情:

The words fromthe movie "Dead Poets Society", spoken by Dr. Keating (played by Robin Williams),"We all have a great need for acceptance. But you must trust that your belief sare unique, your own. You need to strive for your own voice because the later you start, the less likely you will find it at all. Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference", resonated deeply within me. [ … ] Education system should enable [students] to inspire the society with their diversity, not let them be assimilated.

但同样的,招生官并不喜欢:

I thought it was really, really bad to be citing the movie. We like primary sources … this is a second-hand … or third! (laughs) So they didn't seem, you know, it seemed cute.But we're not about cute, we're about scholarship.

(PS是学术写作!虽然有写自己吃遍各国泡面获得录取的先例,但这毕竟少见,而且申请研究生、PhD需要展现自己的学术水平.展示自己的特质可以,但是真的不要把自己写的只有"cute",让读PS的人看不出继续学习的潜力.)但如果申请者的PS里引用了该领域的著作、研究,说明他真的对这方面有所了解.这样的引用是学术的引用,招生官看到这样的PS会比较喜欢.

2. 两所学校有所区别的地方:

1)研究兴趣、研究者的身份感

美国的学校更强调这点,英国学校的招生官并没有提到这一点.(当然这不是说英国学校不看重这个,因为他们认为申请者会在研究计划Research Proposal里面会着重写这个)2)PS作为评判学生写作的能力的标杆

因为在被研究的美国学校里,博士项目只要求PS一项需要申请者书写的材料,所以PS被看作是衡量学生写作能力的重要内容.因为英国学校还有研究计划,所以这一点更多是从研究计划来看.

最后摘一段访谈中招生官关于PhD的话送给大家:

I'm looking for someone who knows what they're letting themselves in for because it requires a huge amount of commitment, sustained effort, and belief in the subject, real motivation and investment in the subject, not just because they want a qualification, it's not a qualification as such. I see it as something very, very different from most of the other academic qualifications that people study for. It's not something that just study and pass, it becomes your life for a few years.

上述研究每个研究的样本有限,所以仅供大家参考~