The task of “say something about yourself” is one of the most challenging. It puzzles even experienced, mature professionals. The truth is, people often feel awkward speaking about themselves. They mostly incline to dry listing their accomplishments or answering the questions. Frequently, it is a part of the culture. Thus, it requires a serious effort to change yourself and learn to speak openly. Still, it is a necessary skill in our daily lives.
The good news is, speaking about yourself and, respectively, writing about yourself is a skill. It can be trained and polished. You might not become an outstanding writer, but you can learn to write catchy and present personal stories to achieve your goals. These are all personal statements you do for college and grad school applications, the job interviews, and all the other cases when you need to share a personal story.
We all refer to manuals on how to write about yourself, as it is necessary for application essays. There, you will always note recommendations like “tell a story,” “be original,” “don’t list your achievements,” etc. But how should you achieve these goals? To help you get the necessary background, we’ve made this guideline.
There is one universal rule: when you want to learn to write about anything – you need to write. It is like sport: you improve and polish your skills through constant training, and the more you train, the better you become. Developing writing skill rests on several pillars:
Let’s clarify all these aspects in more detail.
If you want to learn how to write well, you need to read much. It helps you to compile a robust vocabulary and learn practical techniques of writing. By reading books of different genres, you examine the authors’ approaches to storytelling.
Even passive reading helps you much, but meaningful reading is the most fruitful exercise. Its essence is reading and analyzing the materials you’ve read. You pay attention to the plotline development, the scenes, and the characters. You define which means the writers used to express this or that idea and how successful it was.
It is impossible to become a decent writer without being a passionate reader.
This exercise is similar – you perceive the information from the other sources and interpret it. This time, though, your part is much more active. Notice the details around you and catchy events. This way, you develop your memory, imagination, and vocabulary perfectly.
While observing the environment, pay attention to the emotional impressions. Consider the things that bring you joy or make you sad, and analyze their grounds. Also, develop the sensual side – sounds, smells, tastes, touches. All these qualities are parts of daily life, and understanding them makes your perception sharper.
The best mental exercise is to imagine yourself retelling any event to the other people. It won’t take much time, as the results will be in your mind only. The main trick is to think in words – build the phrases to hear them in your head. After that, you might put them on paper.
Journaling is an excellent method to reach many goals. It helps organize your thoughts, reflect on the thing you’ve experienced during the day, and even reduce stress. You can choose any form you wish – a paper notebook, a Word file, a social media account, etc. You may keep it locked from any audience to keep all your thought by yourself. Or, you may open your notes to the public and discuss them.
The efficiency of this approach is that you get the habit of writing. The writer’s block is the most typical problem for all people. When you get used to sketching even a short paragraph of text to express your thoughts, you eliminate the problem.
In case you prefer social media, we’d recommend using more platforms that allow writing longer posts. Twitter is excellent for tracking the most burning issues of today and discussing them in real-time. However, Facebook, Instagram, or Reddit are platforms where you can expose more details and reach more goals. Besides, there you can get the feedback at once. Most likely, it will relate to your position expressed in the text. On the other hand, you understand this way how your writing impacts on your readers.
The best advantage of the journaling is developing your voice and writing style. There are no restrictions for the subjects and topics to write about, and you can expose your thoughts in any format. By doing it regularly, you improve the skills of composition. It comes naturally with your improvement. It could also be a good idea to return to your past entries time after time and reread them. You will learn much about yourself that way.
You learn how to write about yourself for many reasons. One of them is the complex of preparations before making personal statements. These documents are mandatory in many cases. Hence, you should also elaborate on specific approaches to writing such papers.
The best option is to take particular prompts for college application essays and work with them. There are lots of guides on the Web with topics’ suggestions and recommendations. You can take any of such guidelines. There, check the list of suggested topics and compose a short story for any of them.
There is no need to go into detail at that stage. Your primary goal is the contents only. So, consider general topics like “The moment I’ll never forget,” or “The people who mean most of all for me.” Start by composing short fragments to express your ideas. The good thing is that there is no haste. You can take as much time as you need.
One more excellent opportunity is to take part in various writing programs and marathons. There are free dedicated programs and events in social media related to creative platforms.
Understanding how to write about yourself and training this skill is necessary for our days. With time, you get experience, and the more skill you gain, the easier the task becomes. So, read much, notice the environment, and share your thoughts in written form with yourself or the audience. This way, you learn to write sincerely. Do it as much as possible.
