personal statement: passive or active voice?

[MirrorTodd]

To all you personal statement experts: Is it better to write the personal statement in the passive voice or active voice?

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[KTDseven77]

To all you personal statement experts: Is it better to write the personal statement in the passive voice or active voice?

active voice. it makes your experiences come alive for the reader, and makes you sound more engaging/interesting.

but it's really your call, depending on what tone you want to convey.

 

[45408]

Active. Passive voice results in longer sentences, and brevity is key in your PS. I've never read a PS that made me think "This was way too short."

 

[rxlea]

Active!

 

[DrYoda]

Active. The wording is more powerful ("action words"), which is what you want for applications.

 

[MirrorTodd]

Thanks for the responses. I'm kinda surprised. I figured most people would want to write in the passive voice because we're used to writing in the passive voice due to scientific writing.