Getting help on personal statement = plagiarism?

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bc2m

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I bet most people would say that it's ethical to have a few people proofread your personal statement, but where do you draw the line?

Today I'm stressing about the fact that I asked several people (four this year, some on about three drafts each; not to mention asking for help from several people last year on an earlier draft) for help revising/editing the medical school essay. Most of the edits were grammatical, choice of words and phrases, adding a few words or phrases here and there, etc.. They also offered some major suggestions for ways to revise it, some of which I tried out.

How can I claim it's mine if I changed words, phrases, etc., and even included/excluded major ideas, etc., based on other people's advice/suggestions? Any thoughts on this? Anyone else worrying about this?

I can rewrite it if I need to. But I'd prefer to keep it ...

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pla·gia·rism   [pley-juh-riz-uhm, -jee-uh-riz-] Show IPA
noun
1.
an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author: It is said that he plagiarized Thoreau's plagiarism of a line written by Montaigne. Synonyms: appropriation, infringement, piracy, counterfeiting; theft, borrowing, cribbing, passing off.
 
On page 11 of the AMCAS instruction manual, it says:
I certify that all written passages, such as the personal statement, essays required from M.D.-Ph.D. applicants, and descriptions of work/activities, are my own and have not been written, in part or in whole, by a third party. Quotations are permitted if the source is cited.
So if you incorporated an entire phrase suggested by someone else, either give them credit (I've never seen it done) or reword it. Getting a broad idea, grammatical or punctuation corrections, or thesaurus-type input don't seem to be on the proscribed list.
 
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What you have there are edits, not someone ghostwriting your essay for you. You're fine, stop being paranoid.
 
pretty much everyone gets their PS edited by others. What the point for asking others to edit if you don't expect them to recommend some changes that you can make to your essay? This is definitely not plagiarism at all.
 
On page 11 of the AMCAS instruction manual, it says: So if you incorporated an entire phrase suggested by someone else, either give them credit (I've never seen it done) or reword it. Getting a broad idea, grammatical or punctuation corrections, or thesaurus-type input don't seem to be on the proscribed list.

I would assume such a phrase would just be a revision of a phrase that the original writer had already written. Most editors tend to adapt this approach.
 
You would have to be stupid not to get your PS thoroughly edited.
Just saying.
But having someone else write your personal statement? That would be not only dumb, but functionally impossible without pretty much writing it for them anyways.
Quit being paranoid parrot.
 
I would assume such a phrase would just be a revision of a phrase that the original writer had already written. Most editors tend to adapt this approach.
And a few get carried away and use a "slash and burn" approach with massive imposition of their own ideas. Of course, they only mean to be helpful.
 
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