How to Write a Personal Statement: Questions You Need to Ask Yourself

When you need to write a personal statement, you should first consider several important questions. If you answer them properly, you will see that this paper is not very difficult to write:

1. What makes you interested in a specific area or a discipline?
2. What kind of qualities do you have to pursue a career in this field?
3. Is there anything that the admission committee might see in a bad light. For example, do you have a poor SAT score or are you slightly older that most candidates? How can you explain those facts to put them in a better light for your application?
4. Have you ever had to overcome difficulties? How did you do it?
5. What makes you different from other candidates?
6. What are the objectives that you intend to achieve in the future?
7. Can your past experience assist you in achieving your educational and professional goals?

How to Write a Personal Statement: Tips to Consider

There are several tips and rules that can help a student cope with a personal statement or an application essay. These are the things that you need to do when working on this paper:

• Be specific when answering each of the questions described before. Don’t write vague sentences that may easily confuse the readers.
• Try to enliven your paper by providing real-life examples.
• Be honest with your readers and don’t try to describe qualities that you don’t have. As a rule, such dishonesty is easily detected.
• Back up every claim that you make. If you say that you can be a good lawyer, describe the qualities that you have and will allow you to achieve this goal.
• Avoid arrogance. For example, if you say that you are the best possible candidate, you are not likely to make a good impression on the committee.
• Proofread your paper carefully. Grammar mistakes or typos are not the best way of advertising yourself.

How to Write a Personal Statement: Concluding Notes

The tips described above focus on how to write a good personal statement. However, to get an even better understanding of how to do that you might find it useful to read various examples of personal statements. Many of them are available on educational websites. If you read them, you will have a good idea of how to write a personal statement. So, hopefully, this paper will be as easy as ABC to you.

Too much homework: the 10 minute rule

What is homework? Homework is the totality of assignments students are supposed to complete during extra-school hours. The next question is how much homework is too much. According to the common rule of “10 minutes”, students can be assigned ten minutes of homework a night per each grade. Therefore, first graders should be assigned only ten minutes of homework a night, third graders should be assigned thirty minutes and so on… This rule was developed by Harris Cooper, a psychology professor from Duke University and was approved by the National Education Association. It was an attempt to reform homework policies and to prioritize quality of homework over its quantity. Still, the rule appears to be too good to be true…

Too much homework robbing kids of their childhood

In fact, homework frequently starts from kindergarten. However, the “10 minute rule” is far from a typical night of an average student coming home in the late afternoon only to have a snack, struggle over homework for several hours and go to bed. So, the “10 minute rule” is not followed by most schools and kids have no time to be kids.
 
Let’s do some math. For instance, most middle-schoolers go to school at 8 a.m., get home only after 4 p.m. and spend several hours (more than 4) on mountains of homework every night. Thus, they spend about 12 hours hunched over their desks. Isn’t it a legalized sweatshop for kids robbed of their childhood? How on earth can they preserve their thirst for knowledge and enthusiasm?

Too much homework: conflicting studies

Teachers, scholars and parents have strong conflicting opinions concerning the usefulness of homework and its appropriate amounts. Here are only a few of them:

• homework has positive effects upon achievements of all students;
• homework can be valuable only for middle and high school students;
• homework can be helpful, but the amount of time spent on it doesn’t matter;
• more homework can improve students’ achievements.

There are studies supporting the claim that increasing homework demands do not have a positive impact upon students’ scores. At the same time, other scholars argue that there is a direct relationship between the amount of homework and students’ achievements.

Too much homework: health risks for better scores

Apart from the issue of homework’s impact on students’ scores, 12 hours spent on studies with no time left for play are inevitably associated with health risks and enormous psychological distress. Moreover, parents who help their kids and thus take on the role of teachers do not have enough time left for themselves and other family members. Thus, family tensions might arise, and sleep deprivation or depressions are frequently the price of doing too much homework.

Too much homework: a final decision

Paradoxically, while some parents ask to have their kids assigned “less homework” or even “no homework”, others ask to have them assigned more. The attackers of homework create specialized committees and ask schools to reconsider their homework policies, while the proponents view homework as the only way for their children to meet the requirements of the best colleges and survive in this competitive world. Certainly, the compromise between a happy childhood and future studies at college is not an easy one. To sum up, here are the main arguments for and against the increase of homework demands:

Even though the column “against” is longer, you can add your own arguments to any of these columns to answer the question how much homework is too much and if mountains of homework are worth doing.

Imperative sentence definition

What is an imperative sentence? An imperative sentence is a type of sentence expressing commands. It can take the form of:

• Instructions;
• advice;
• request;
• command.

For example, in a movie, you might hear someone say: “Shut up!” This sentence is definitely an imperative one. However, it is a rude colloquialform. A better form is “Keep quiet!”

Imperative sentence types

Depending upon the speaker’s emotions, imperative sentences can end with a full stop (.), an exclamation mark (!) or even a question mark (?). The difference is only the speaker’s tone and attitude. To make a request more polite, a speaker can also add the word “please”. Note that sentences starting with “please”, always end with a full stop (.). Another way to make a command sound more polite is to add a tag question such as “will you?” or “won’t you?” at the end. Then, the sentence ends up with a question mark, but it still is regarded as an imperative one. Please compare these examples of imperative sentences:

1. Save electricity!
2. Please forgive me.
3. Bring me a glass of water, will you?

The first imperative sentence is a command, whereas the second and third sentences are polite requests.

Imperative sentence: where is the subject?

It seems that everything is clear with imperative sentences. Still, there are some tricky questions. For example, what is the subject in imperative sentences? The fact that there is often no explicit subject is a frequent source of confusion. Actually, there is always a subject, and that is the second person pronoun “you”, but it usually is hidden or even implicit in the sentence. Why repeat this “you” if everyone understands anyway, from the context, who the speaker actually addresses? Otherwise, if the context is not clear enough, the speaker can use a direct address.
E.g. Jane, read please.
 
There are also imperative sentences in which the speaker uses a third person pronoun. This happens when the speaker doesn’t care who exactly will perform the action.
E.g. Somebody, turn the lights off.
 
This was all you needed to know to tell if a sentence is imperative. Now you can boast of having a complete understanding of imperative sentences and will be able to answer tricky questions your instructors may ask.

1. First, you need to dedicate at least several sentences or even a whole paragraph to your academic advisor or advisors who guided your research and made many helpful recommendations to you.
2. Secondly, you need to express gratitude to your colleagues and peer-reviewers who might have given you practical advice and made valuable comments on your dissertation.
3. Provided that your research was funded by some organization, you definitely need to mention them in this section as an acknowledgement of dissertation assistance that they gave you.
4. Finally, a student should never forget about his or her family and friends. Without their support, dedication, and moral encouragement a person will find it rather difficult or almost impossible to work on a dissertation.

 
Dissertation Acknowledgement: How to Make It More Readable
 
There are many useful phrases and expressions that you can use while writing the acknowledgment part of your dissertation. Here are some of them:

1. I am greatly indebted to…;
2. I would like to express gratitude towards…;
3. This thesis is dedicated to somebody for his or her support…;
4. I am grateful to somebody for something;
5. I am deeply thankful for…
6. I owe a debt of gratitude to somebody for something;
7. My gratitude is extended to…;
8. Credit should be given to…;
9. I would like to show my appreciation to…;
10. I want to thank somebody for…

Normally, students have no difficulty in writing a dissertation acknowledgement, and this section can hardly affect the overall result. Yet, every part of your dissertation should be perfect in terms of grammar and style. The expressions above can help you vary the structure of your sentences.
 
Dissertation Acknowledgement: What Else You Need to Know
 
There are no minimum or maximum word requirements for the acknowledgement section of a dissertation. However, it shouldn’t be longer than one page. This is the optimal length of this section. So, now you need to think of those people who helped you with the dissertation and write about them. It will be as easy as ABC to you.

1. Cultural origins of jazz and its development in the nineteenth century.
2. What are the major musical innovations introduced during the Baroque period?
3. The main stylistic peculiarities of Romantic music. Refer to the works of composers who worked during this period.
4. Modern musicologists draw distinctions between “high culture” and “low culture”. How can these terms be applied to the music of the twenty-first century?
5. What is the definition of popular music? When did this term emerge and how has its meaning changed in time?
6. How can the term “folk music” be defined? Has the meaning of this concept changed in the course of the twentieth century?
7. Can music be used as a means of propaganda? If yes, what are some examples of such usage?

 
Music Essay Topics: Evolution of Genres and Forms
 
The development of a musical genre or form can be a good subject of an academic paper. People needing great musical essay topics may choose one of these questions:

1. What are the distinctive features of a fugue? What are the differences between fugues created by Baroque composers such as Bach, and fugues composed in the twentieth century? How has this musical form evolved in time?
2. What are the origins of opera? How did this art form come into prominence?
3. What are the key characteristics of space rock? Who helped to crystallize this genre?
4. How does hip hop music of the seventies differ from modern-day hip-hop?
5. Symphonic music and its evolution in the course of the nineteenth century.
6. Sonata during Classical and Romantic periods.
7. Richard Wagner’s revolution of opera.
8. How did Niccolo Paganini change violin-playing techniques?

Music Essay Topics: Theory and Education
 
People looking for an excellent musical essay topic should pay attention to disciplines such as music theory. Moreover, music education can also be an interesting subject for your paper. Here are some examples that you may consider:

• What is harmony? What kind of harmonic structures emerged in the twentieth century?
• What is the use of set theory by musicologists? Does musical set theory resemble mathematical set theory?
• What is Schenkerian analysis? What are its major objectives?
• How can elementary group theory be used by musicologists?
• The importance of music theory for composers and performers.
• At what age should music education start?
• What is rote learning? How can this method be applied in music education?
• What are the therapeutic effects of music? How can educators use music in the classroom?
• What are the main principles of the Kodaly method? What are the main duties of a teacher who uses this approach?

How should a student prepare for the performance of a musical piece?

Hopefully, you will be able to use one of these topics for musical essay. Each of them can be really thought-provoking and interesting.

• focuses readers’ attention on the subject matter
• informs readers as to your stance;
• alerts reader what to expect in the way of proof or argument.

 
What a thesis statement is not
 
To generate a strong one, be sure to distinguish it from other types of assertive sentences, considering the following principles:

• Not an assertion of fact
• Not a title.
• Not the announcement of your subject (exclusively)

 
What is a strong thesis statement?

1. Performance-enhancing drugs can be addictive (Weak)
2. Performance-enhancing drugs at college (Weak)
3. Performance-enhancing drugs (Weak)
4. Performance-enhancing drugs may be addictive, and their prohibition should be sustained. (Strong)
5. Although performance-enhancing drugs have been used with remarkable effect in the short term, they are often addictive, and in light of this, their prohibition should be sustained. (Even stronger)

In these sample thesis statements you can clearly see that the first one is an assertion of what most readers will confirm as fact, whereas the second one is a title, and the third one announces a topic. Your reader will likely ask: “so what?” The fourth one identifies the writer’s stance and proposes a clear recommendation for action, and is therefore stronger. The fifth one, powerfully, offers nuance, opening the way for reasonable debate, with a proposed response.
 
Be very sure that you say nothing in this opening that you cannot support in the body of your paper. Everything that comes after your introduction must bolster your propositions. If you follow up with relevant supporting points, such a beginning will generate a successful academic essay.
 
Keeping these simple truths in mind, you can avoid the most common mistakes, and submit a persuasive paper. So, make your thesis sentences simple but informative, comprehensive and focused, nuanced and assertive; and enjoy the positive grades you garner.

• This genre is exceedingly rigid and formal in order, content, and style.
• If you listen to how senior professors at your institution present their findings – you cannot go far wrong by copying them!
• You will probably be assigned a case, but if given a choice, pick a patient with whom you can speak. The patient’s input can be helpful.

Medical reports have made medical history
 
Famous case studies have transformed medicine, for example, the first description of a heart transplant. You could contribute, as well, although economic pressures on scholarly journals have severely restricted the volume of cases published.
 

1. Begin with a brief abstract or summary
2. Start with the patient’s condition when you examined them, including the basic information on:
   • gender,
   • age,
   • weight,
   • height,
   • Vital signs.
3. Then describe their
   • Background,
   • Work history (including potential sources of disease agents)
   • Symptom history
   • Test results including negative findings
   • Treatment and any response
4. Give an objective assessment of possible diagnosis and suggestions for further possible steps if the patient is still alive.

These journals offer examples of case studies

 
Case Reports in Medicine
Journal of Medical Case Reports
Cases Journal
BMJ Case Reports
Radiology Case Reports
Journal of Radiology Case Reports
Journal Of Surgical Case Reports
Journal of Orthopaedic Case Reports
 
The following are guidelines for a medical report with legal implications
 
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/728271_5
 
Medical reports highlight a particular disease or treatment technique
 
In this type of paper, you will research all available references on the disease, focusing on the most current. However, you should also read, understand, and reference earliest mentions of the disease, drug, or surgical intervention as well, for completeness. Cite correctly!

1. Using PhD dissertation examples can be of great help to students when making research and writing of their dissertation assignments.
2. Students can search for ready-made dissertations through internet and online database.
3. Students must strictly follow certain rules and regulations when using such dissertations.
4. Students must search for the required ready-made dissertation related to their dissertation topic.

PhD dissertation example: Useful tips and ideas
 
When using PhD dissertation example, students must ensure to consider the following tips:

• The ready-made dissertations listed in catalog must be used only for reference.
• These dissertations must be used for making effective research for present dissertations.
• Students must go through the pre-made dissertation stored in dissertation database in order to determine whether that dissertation is suitable for their dissertation topic.

The information given in this article can be great help to students who prefers to know about PhD dissertation example. It is very much important for students to know about the downloading procedure and usage procedure of these dissertations. It is also important to choose the right ready-made dissertation and use the dissertation wisely without making any plagiarism.
 
When a student follows the information given in this article together with other useful tips given over the internet, he/she will land up in producing a good dissertation. Proper use of pre-made dissertations will add to the quality of an academic dissertation.

1. To begin with essay editors can supply students with hilarious ideas for their own papers. The topics can be found on the web sites where essay editors provide brilliant examples of essays.
2. Essay editors can also help students identify the most common mistakes they make while writing their works. This is especially valuable when students have problems with writing style, flow, and grammatical structures.
3. Essay editors can proofread the completed paper and provide recommendations on how this paper can be improved.

What are the main drawbacks of applying for essay editors?

• It should be stressed that online essay editors cannot guarantee that your work will be properly checked and revised in terms of structure, grammar, and content. In this respect, you should consult several essay editing services to make sure that your work has a sufficient academic level.
• Students should not refer to essay editors every time they have problems with grammar and spelling because they will be reluctant to check their papers themselves. So, students should resort to essay editing only in very serious cases.

Taking everything into consideration, students should strike the balance between independent preparations and essay editors’ consultation.