personal statement

[batista_123]

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hello
can i write my personal statement from the point of view of me one year ago? the reason is my PS's central theme revolves around me involvement in a certain activity which ended one year ago. But I dont want to write everything in the past tense (I want to write "for the past three years, I have been working...I enjoy helping people" versus "for three years, I worked...I enjoyed helping people"
I dont know why, but to me past tense seems weird, so I dont know what to do here. Should I write it as if I am still working there, or what?

 

[pineappletree]

I hope that's ok, because I'm writing it as a narrative from a different time point~~

 

[DocBell]

hello
can i write my personal statement from the point of view of me one year ago? the reason is my PS's central theme revolves around me involvement in a certain activity which ended one year ago. But I dont want to write everything in the past tense (I want to write "for the past three years, I have been working...I enjoy helping people" versus "for three years, I worked...I enjoyed helping people"
I dont know why, but to me past tense seems weird, so I dont know what to do here. Should I write it as if I am still working there, or what?

I would do both. Tell your narrative in present tense but at some point bring it back to past. You don't want to skip the whole last year of your life. My beginning narrative was in present tense though. I would be really careful to avoid overuse of the passive voice. It is relatively frowned upon in English writing for non scientific papers. Besides the active voice usually draws the reader more effectively.

 

[NickNaylor]

I would avoid trying to be too cute or "innovative" in your PS. It's a risk, and maybe it'll pay off, but most likely it won't. I've been told by many that if you can simply blend in with your PS, you've won. Very few people will stand out. Most will destroy themselves.

If you're going to do it, I would have your advisor(s) read it over before submitting.

 

[wanderer]

I would do both. Tell your narrative in present tense but at some point bring it back to past. You don't want to skip the whole last year of your life. My beginning narrative was in present tense though. I would be really careful to avoid overuse of the passive voice. It is relatively frowned upon in English writing for non scientific papers. Besides the active voice usually draws the reader more effectively.

I don't think he used the passive voice, the passive voice for example would be "the people were helped by me" as opposed to the more active "I helped the people."