PASS personal statements

[tx oms]

Email your statements and the guys here will proof them for free (after passing them around and laughing at them).

This is in light of recent posts and the terrible statements that have come across our desks in the past.

[email protected]

 

[tx oms]

A couple of things I've noticed in the statements I've read so far:

1. Use "oral and maxillofacial surgery" once followed by "(OMFS)", then substitute OMFS for the remainder of your statement. Same goes with other long references, like the name of your dental school or STFU.

2. Avoid using prepositional phrases where possible because they are hard to read on the computer in my room at my desk in my house in my city in my state on the planet earth. Get it?

3. Resist the false and tempting belief that passive voice sounds good. For example, it would be akward if I said, "That the passive voice sounds good is a false and tempting belief that should be resisted". Once or twice is fine, more than that wears me out.

4. Subjects and verbs must agree.
4b. Use a subject and verb in each sentence.

5. Demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those) and interrogative pronouns (which, what) must be used carefully. I'd better be able to, at a glance, figure out their antecedent. If the reference is broad, replace the pronoun with a noun or give the antecedent. For example, "your personal statement blows ass, which accounts for your inability to match" is not as good as "your personal statement blows ass, accounting for your inablility to match", or "your personal statement blows ass, a fact which accounts for your inability to match".

6. Watch out for run on sentences.

 

[gryffindor]

Personal statements? Yikes, I better sit myself down and start trying to come up with something if I plan on submitting something for the 2006 PASS cycle.

Who knew tx oms was such a grammar guru? I'd think most people's knowledge of grammar comes from what they learned on School House Rocks - "Conjunction Junction, what's your function?"

 

[north2southOMFS]

Who knew tx oms was such a grammar guru?

Well, actually, he's not really a Guru, he is our service's secretary, he's not even an oral surgery resident. He thinks he is. We just let him play along and don't tell him.

 

[tx oms]

Well, actually, he's not really a Guru, he is our service's secretary, he's not even an oral surgery resident. He thinks he is. We just let him play along and don't tell him.

Kinda like we let you think you were one of our top two choices?

 

[tx oms]

bump in light of recent threads. I reactivated the above email account.
All you guys who PM'ed your statement, try emailing it as a Word document. I thought it would be easy to do over SDN's PM system, but it sucks. So, just attach the file and email it to me.