Robyn's Personal Statement: FINAL!!!!

Edgar Allan Poe once said that writers 'prefer having it understood that they compose by a

species of fine frenzy an ecstatic intuition'. I am one such individual. Inspiration hits and

your fingers itch for the sensation of putting pen to paper. You do not think of themes or

subtext but scribble the outpour and turn inspiration to words, emotions to themes, instinct

to metre. You breathe in the ideas and breathe out the design as your entire being becomes the

words you write.

I was taught to write by the books I read. As a child I wandered through The Secret Garden and

giggled at Mitton's Plum. As a teenager I grew with the Little Women and was stunned by

Zephaniah's Too Black, Too Strong. Today, I would require an extra 4000 characters to list the

novels that have passed through my hands; everything from The Golden Notebook to The Waves.

There are three areas which I feel a particular passion for, the first being 19th century

literature with the likes of Eugene Onegin and Portrait of a Lady. Second are novels which

push society's boundaries, such as Jude the Obscure and Invisible Man. I also have a great

love of international literature including Old Goriot and War & Peace but feel that translated

novels lose the authors syntactical crafting. It was this that sparked my interest in studying

French and I now seek to become fluent.

Studying French provided me with the skill of extracting information from research and using

it to write my own work while law developed fundamental analytical and essay writing skills.

Politics allowed me to practise rhetoric and enhanced my ability of debate and unbiased

comparison. I chose to study the combination of English Literature & Language because of the

creative writing element of the course which specifically taught me how to write and allowed

me to improve my writing. Having now had this experience, I have no intention of letting it go

and have immersed myself in the world of creative writing.

I subscribe to The Writer's Magazine, using the articles as lessons and the competitions as

practice. I was a teaching assistant in a year 9 and 10 English class and am in charge of the

school's Creative Writing Club which began this year. Combined with my other community work,

this culminated in a Jack Petchey award for my contribution to creative writing within my

school. I received GBP 200 to spend on any area of my school and chose to split it between the

school production which I wrote and look to produce this summer and a new school magazine for

which I am editor.

Outside of school, I was chosen by the Windsor Fellowship and Hummer-Tuttle Foundation to be

part of a Dialogue and Leadership Programme which provided a group of young people from London with the opportunity to engage in dialogue with their Iraqi and American peers to explore issues of faith and leadership and strategies for reducing conflict. The programme consisted of a series of training workshops and a 2 week trip to the US, ending with a presentation in October to the stakeholders of our group including the chairmen and trustees of the Windsor Fellowship and the founders of the Hummer-Tuttle Foundation. Despite the programmes end, our group continue to work together to resolve issues within our communities.

In June I attended an English Literature degree event consisting of several lectures at a

university. While mesmerised by the detailed manner of analysing author's work, I still found

myself itching for the opportunity to practise what I was being taught. The course of English

and Creative Writing, on the other hand, scratches this itch to an extent I could never have

imagined. The days have passed since writing was simply a euphoric hobby for me; it is now a

future I am tirelessly working towards. Over the past 10 years I have been taking small steps

for man but I know that reading this course with your university will be my giant leap for

mankind.

Robyn's Personal Statement: 6th Try

In the Philosophy of Composition, Edgar Allen Poe said that writers ‘prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy – an ecstatic intuition’. I am one such individual. When I write I don’t think of themes or metre. I scribble the outpour and turn inspiration to words, breathing in the ideas and out the design.
No one ever taught me to write; I was taught by the books I read. As a child I would revel in The Secret Garden and giggle at Mitton’s Plum. As a teenager I found solace in Little Women and was stunned by Zephaniah’s Too Black, Too Strong. Today, I would require an extra 4000 characters to list the novels that have passed through my hands; everything from The Golden Notebook to Eugene Onegin. There are three areas which I feel a particular passion for, the first being 19^th century literature with the likes of Pride & Prejudice, Jane Eyre and Portrait of a Lady. The second are novels which push society’s boundaries, such as Jude the Obscure, Invisible Man and Of Mice and Men. Lastly, I have a great love of international literature including Old Goriot, War and Peace and Freely’s The Other Rebecca but feel that translated novels lose the authors syntactical crafting. It was this that sparked my interest in studying French and I now seek to become fluent.
All of my A Level subjects have developed my skills in English. They have all improved my essay writing skills and provided a forum for practising rhetoric. In my extended project I combined Politics with English and my essay writing skills to argue the extent to which Orwell’s 1984 had become our political reality. I chose the combination of English literature and language because of the creative writing element of the course which specifically taught me how to write and allowed me to improve my writing, something which I had never had the chance to do before. Having now had this experience, I have no intention of letting it go and have immersed myself in the world of creative writing.
I have completed three Poetry School courses and subscribed to The Writer’s Magazine. I also spent 8 months as a teaching assistant in a year 9 and 10 English class and mentored a group of lower school students on planning the school production. Combined with my other community work, this culminated in a Jack Petchy award as an outstanding achiever and my contribution to creative writing within my school. I received £200 to spend on any area of my school and I split it between two new projects starting in year 13. The first was the school production which I wrote and look to produce this spring and secondly a new school magazine for which I am editor.
Outside of school, I was chosen by the Windsor Fellowship to be part of a leadership and dialogue programme with 11 other young people from around London. As a group we discussed the issues facing young people in London today and worked on how to resolve them through communication. The programme involved several seminars and a two week trip to America to work with Americans and Iraqis on communication. In October we will be doing a presentation at the Channel 4 studios to the stakeholders of our group on what we had learnt. Despite the programmes end in October, our group will continue to work together to resolve issues within our communities and have already made steps to doing so.
In June I attended an English degree event of several lectures at a University. While mesmerised by the detailed manner of analysing author’s work, I still found myself itching for the opportunity to practise what I was being taught. The course English and Creative Writing scratches this itch to an extent I could never have imagined. The days have passed since writing was simply a euphoric hobby for me; it is now a future I am tirelessly working towards. Over the past 10 years I have been taking small steps for man but I know that reading this course with your University will be my giant leap for mankind.

Robyn's Personal Statement: 5th Try

I could never say how I feel when I write poetry; but I could write it. When that inspiration hits and your fingers itch for the sensation of putting pen to paper. You do not think of themes or subtext but scribble the outpour and turn inspiration to words, emotions to themes, instinct to metre. You breathe in the ideas and breathe out the design as your entire being becomes the words you write.

No one ever taught me to write; I was taught by the books I read. As a child I would revel in Burnett’s The Secret Garden and giggle at Mitton’s Plum. As a teenager I found solace in Alcott’s Little Women and was stunned by Zephaniah’s Too Black Too Strong. Today, I would require an extra 4000 characters to list the novels that have passed through my hands; everything from Lessing’s The Golden Notebook to Smith’s White Teeth and Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin. There are three areas, however, which I feel a particular passion for. The first is 19^th century literature, the likes of Pride & Prejudice, Jane Eyre and Portrait of a Lady. The second are novels which push society’s boundaries, such as Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, Ellison’s Invisible Man and Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Lastly, I have a great love of international literature including Balzac’s Old Goriot, Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Freely’s The Other Rebecca but feel that translated novels lose the authors syntactical crafting. It was this that sparked my interest in studying French and I now seek to become fluent.

Studying law gave me fundamental analytical and essay writing skills which I use in my occupation of writing legal articles for a Barrister. Politics has allowed me to practise rhetoric, which I hadn’t done since debating competitions in year 9. In my extended project I combined Politics with English, arguing the extent to which Orwell’s 1984 has become our political reality. English literature and language allowed me to greatly improve my writing through the creative writing element of the course and studying how authors craft literary texts.

My passion for literature is something I sought to pass on while I was a teaching assistant in a year 9 and 10 class. I loved teaching and went on to teach a GCSE preparation lesson to year 9 and did a Stop & Search Rights law assembly for year 10.

All that I had worked on over the course of year 12 culminated in a Jack Petchy award for being an outstanding achiever. I received £200 to spend on any area of my school and I chose to split it between two new projects starting in year 13. The first was the school production which I wrote and secondly a new school magazine for which I am editor.

Outside of school, I was chosen by the Windsor Fellowship to be part of a leadership and dialogue programme with 11 other young people from around London. As a group we discussed the issues facing young people in London today and worked on how to resolve them through communication. The programme involved several seminars and a two week trip to America to work with Americans and Iraqis on communication. In October we did a presentation at the channel 4 studios to the stakeholders of our group on what we had learnt. While the programme ended in October our group have continued to work together to resolve issues within our communities.

I am a subscriber to the Writer’s magazine and have been on a Poetry School course but feel that I have so much to learn. In June I attended an English degree event made up of several lectures and sat in the back of the lecture room listening to the professor, I was mesmerised. After only a few hours of lectures I knew that English was the degree for me and the only thing missing was the chance to be taught how to write myself too. English and creative writing is the perfect course for me and a subject that is an integral part of my life. I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend the next three years than at your University becoming the best writer I can be.

Robyn's Personal Statement: 4th Try

Mozart wrote his first composition aged 5. Picasso discovered his talent for painting aged 9. I penned my first poem aged 7. I could never say how I feel when I write poetry; but I could write it. When that inspiration hits and your fingers itch for the sensation of putting pen to paper, lest the ideas should fade, you do not think of themes or subtext. You scribble the outpour and turn inspiration to words, emotions to themes, instinct to metre. Your entire being becomes the words you write and the euphoria from writing them.

No-one sat me down and taught me how to write; I just did it. If anything, books were my greatest teachers. My love of literature lines the paper on which author’s write. At a young age I revelled in the rich description of Burnett’s The Secret Garden, the intimate characters of Alcott’s Little Women and the thrilling adventures of Harry Potter. Today, I would require an extra 4000 characters to list you the novels I have read. There are three areas in particular, however, that I hold a great passion for. The first is early 19^th literature such as Jane Eyre, Eugene Onegin and Pride and Prejudice. The second lies in international literature compromising of texts like Old Goriot, War & Peace and the Home and the World. With the latter I believe that the author’s syntactical choices are often “lost in translation”. This belief brought me to study French at A Level and I continue to study the language outside of school in the hopes of attaining fluency. Lastly I love literature that pushes, convulses and thereby moulds society for example Orwell’s 1984, Rushdie’s Midnight Children and Ellison’s Invisible Man.

Literature has a profound power to shape opinion and it is in this fact that I believe my future lies. At 14 I competed in a regional debating team for my school and I was amazed by the way in which I could change the audience’s mind simply by giving a good speech. My fascination with the power of rhetoric grew as I studied politics and read of politicians and activists that moved nations with their speeches. While I may not yet be moving nations, I do all I can to change the communities in which I work and live. In Law we learnt of the injustices in stop & search due to people’s lack of education and so I gave an assembly on stop & search rights to year 10. I was also a teaching assistant in a year 9 and 10 english class, seeking to end their apathy towards reading and writing and instil some of my passion for literature into them. From the year 10 class I met two girls who I began to mentor on their work ethic and self-belief. Lastly, two others and I won funding from Sports Relief to run a 12 week kickboxing class for 20 sixth formers, which students finished with a level 1 kickboxing qualification. All of this work accumulated in a Jack Petchy award for being an Outstanding Achiever in May 2009. My reward was £200 to spend anywhere in the school I liked. I placed £100 into a new school magazine which I am editor-in-chief for and £100 in the school production which I wrote and then organised and directed with a team of sixth formers.

Outside of school, my greatest achievement lies in my succession onto a leadership and dialogue course by the Windsor Fellowship. BLLLLAAAHHHHHHHHHH HOW DO I SUM THIS UP IN 500 WORDS????? TIS IMPOSSIBLE. BLEH. RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAA RRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRR FFFFFFFFFFFFFF UUUUUUUUU DDDDDDDD GGGG EEEEEEEE. Must fill the word gap. Lallalalalalalalalalalalalalalala. Only 60 more characters tralalalala. 16 more. Done.

I have come a long way since the days when writing was just a euphoric hobby and reading an educational exploration into the world. Now, I aim to cultivate the lives of many through my writing and I know that this course is the key. Everything, from the modules to the tutors to the campus, is perfect for helping me achieve my goal. I am already a writer but with what I can learn from this course and from your University, I hope to become so much more.

Robyn's Personal Statement: 3rd Try

Mozart wrote his first composition aged 5. Picasso discovered his talent for painting aged 9. I penned my first poem aged 7. I could never say how I feel when I write poetry; but I could write it. When that inspiration hits and your fingers itch for the sensation of putting pen to paper, lest the ideas should fade, you do not think of themes or subtext. You scribble the outpour and turn inspiration to words, emotions to themes, instinct to subtext. Your entire being becomes the words you write and the euphoria from writing them.

My love of literature lines the paper on which author’s write. I have always had a love of reading and writing that differed from children of my age. While they giggled at the adventures of Spot the dog, I revelled in the rich description of Burnett’s The Secret Garden. Today, I find solitude in a variety of texts from Woolf’s The Waves or Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, with my favourite being those that push their society’s boundaries such as Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and Hardy’s Jude the Obscure.

This love of literature played an integral part in choosing my A level courses. With my love of international literature, such as Balzac’s Old Goriot and Puskin’s Eugene Onegin, came my decision to study French. I always felt that when novels are translated, they lose the authors lexical and syntactical crafting and so I have since become determined to be fluent in French. Politics allowed me to explore the power of rhetoric in shaping our political system and exercise my passion for debating, which began when I competed in debating competitions for my school. English literature & language allowed me to not only analyse author’s work but learn how they craft it and I loved the creative writing element of the course. Law gave me the understanding of our legal system and allowed me to go on to teach it in a simpler way. I created and presented a stop & search rights assembly for year 10 and found the challenge of entertaining while teaching an exhilarating affair.

While the first, this was not the last time I taught or organised teaching opportunities for students. Two others and I won funding from Sports Relief to run a 12 week kickboxing class for 20 sixth formers, which students finished with a level 1 kickboxing qualification. I was also a teaching assistant in a year 9 and 10 English class for 8 months. For the year 9 class, I went on to teach a GCSE preparation lesson and from the year 10 class I met two girls who I began to mentor. In the future, I hope to become a social entrepreneur at the forefront of ending young people’s growing apathy toward reading and writing.

Finding this university course was like a cliché in a romance novel. Our eyes met across a screen crowded with courses and I weakened at the knees. Everything, from the modules to the tutors to the campus is perfect for helping me to achieve my dream of becoming a successful author and poet. I became determined to ensure that I would be reading my name on the top of an acceptance letter.

Writing comes as naturally to me as flying to a bird but even the birds must spend some time sinking and soaring in the skies before calling themselves fliers. I have been on both an Arvon foundation and Poetry School writing course and subscribed to The Writer’s Magazine all of which has developed the manner in which I write my poetry. Before this, I created Home Grown Writing, a blog in which I post all that I write. More recently, I was published in an e-anthology, entered several poetry competitions – the results of which I should find out very soon - and was chosen to be the editor for the school magazine. I am already a writer but now I look to you to make me a poet. University is the final step and I look to you to hold out a hand and help me take the final leap in achieving my dream.

Robyn

Robyn's Personal Statement: 2nd Try

Mozart wrote his first composition aged 5. Picasso discovered his talent for painting aged 9. I penned my first poem aged 7. I have always had a love of reading and writing that differed from children of my age. While they giggled at the adventures of Spot, I revelled in the rich description of Frances Burnett’s The Secret Garden.

Literature has moulded my entire life and I hope to one day write literature that will mould the lives of others. It played an integral part in choosing my A level courses. With politics, I could exercise my love of debating, which began when I competed in debating competitions, and examine the power of rhetoric in shaping our political system. With my love of international literature, such as Balzac’s Old Goriot and Puskin’s Eugene Onegin, came my decision to study French. I always felt that when novels are translated, they lose the authors lexical and syntactical crafting and so I have since become determined to be fluent in French, in order to better understand the literature. English literature and language allowed me to study how writer’s craft their work as well as analyzing it. I also loved the creative writing element of the course and the wide range of novels we would read. Law gave me the understanding of our legal system and allow me to go on to teach it in a simpler way. I created and presented a stop & search rights assembly for year 10 and found the challenge of entertaining while teaching an exhilarating affair.

While the first, this was not the last time I taught or organised teaching opportunities for students. Two others and I won funding from Sports Relief to run a 12 week kickboxing class for 20 sixth formers, which students finished with a level 1 kickboxing qualification. I was also a teaching assistant in a year 9 and 10 English class for 8 months. For the year 9 class, I went on to teach a GCSE preparation lesson and from the year 10 class I met two girls who I began to mentor. In the future I hope to become a social entrepreneur and use my talents and reputation as a writer to end young people’s apathy towards reading.

Given my love of all things literary, it will come as no surprise that when I discovered this course my heart not only skipped a beat but completed a triathlon. The idea that my time would be spent reading and exploring the works of a wide range of authors as well as writing and developing my own work made me determined to do whatever it took to ensure I would be reading my name on the top of an acceptance letter. I have been on both an Arvon foundation and Poetry School writing course and subscribed to The Writer’s Magazine. I created Home Grown Writing, a blog in which I post all that I write and for my part-time job I write legal articles for a barrister. More recently, I was published in an e-anthology, entered several poetry competitions and was chosen to be the news & creative writing editor for the school magazine. I also read a large variety of books from Maureen Freely’s The Other Rebecca to Tolstoy’s War & Peace, with my favourite being those that push their society’s boundaries such as Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and Hardy’s Jude the Obscure.

One experience, however, has prepared me the most for the demands that this course will require. I was chosen out of 60 applicants by the Hummer Tuttle Foundation to be part of a group of young people on a US-UK leadership and dialogue programme. It involved months of residential weekends with 100% attendance, research and presentations in order to prepare us for a 2 week trip to the US with Americans and Iraqis. This experience gave me a never-ending list of skills, including leadership, independent learning and the ability to balance heavy workloads with a social life.

My aim in life is to become a novelist and poet and so this course is perfect to the letter. I have myself have taken many steps towards this and now look to you to hold out a hand and help me take the final leap in achieving my dream.

Robyn

Robyn's Personal Statement: 1st Try

Mozart wrote his first composition aged 5. Picasso first discovered his talent for painting aged 9. I penned my first poem aged 7. From a very young age, I had a love of reading and writing that differed from the other children of my age. While they giggled at the adventures of Spot the dog, I delved in the rich description of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden.

Literature has moulded my entire life and now I hope to write literature that will in turn mould the lives of others. It played an integral part in my A level courses. With politics, I could exercise my love of debating, which began when I competed in debating competitions for my school, and examine the power of rhetoric in shaping our political system.

With my love of international literature, such as Old Goriot by Honore de Balzac and Eugene Onegin by Alexander Puskin, came my decision to study French. I always felt that when novels are translated, they lose the authors lexical and syntactical crafting and so I have since become determined to be fluent in French.

I decided on English literature and language as I wanted to study how writer’s craft their work as well as analyzing it. I also loved the creative writing element of the course and the wide range of novels we would read as part of the course.

Law gave me the fundamental understanding into our legal system and thereby go on to teach it to others. I created and presented a stop and search rights assembly for year 10 and found the challenge of entertaining while teaching an exhilarating affair. While the first, this was not the last time I taught or organised teaching opportunities for students.

Two others and I won funding from sports relief to run a 12 week kickboxing class for 20 sixth formers, which we all finished with a level 1 kickboxing qualification. I was also a teaching assistant in a year 9 and 10 English class for around 8 months. For the year 9 class, I went on to prepare a GCSE preparation lesson and from the year 10 class I met two girls who I began to mentor. I loved the feeling of watching others develop from the skills you were teaching them and in the future I hope to become a tutor on an Arvon writing course.

Given my love of all things literary, it will come as no surprise that when I discovered this course my heart not only skipped a beat but completed a triathlon. The idea that my time at university would be spent reading and exploring the works of a wide range of authors as well as writing and developing my own made me determined to do whatever it took to ensure I would be reading my name on the top of an acceptance letter.

This course is perfect for helping me to achieve my dream of becoming a successful novelist and poet. I have taken many steps towards this dream, especially since starting sixth form. I have been on both an Arvon foundation and Poetry School writing course and subscribed to The Writer’s Magazine. I created Home Grown Writing, a blog in which I post all that I write from poetry to gonzo journalism articles. My part time job has helped me to develop my article writing skills as I write legal articles for a barrister. More recently, I was published in an e-anthology, entered several poetry competitions and was chosen to be the news and creative writing editor for the school magazine. I also read a large variety of books from Maureen Freely’s The Other Rebecca to Tolstoy’s War & Peace.

One experience, however, has prepared me more than most for university life and the demands that a university course would require. I was chosen out of 60 applicants by the retiring US ambassador and the Windsor Fellowship to be part of a group of 12 young people on a US-UK leadership and dialogue programme. It involved months of residential weekends with 100% attendance, research and presentations in order to prepare us for a 2 week trip to the US which we spent with Americans and Iraqis, using communication to understand each other’s faiths and cultures and then present our new knowledge in a presentation back in London to our stakeholders. This experience gave me a never-ending list of skills, including leadership, communication, independent learning, teamwork and the ability to balance heavy workloads with a social life.

This course is everything I could possibly dream of and now I am looking to you to take my raw natural skill and chisel and shape it into a profound, undeniable talent. In return, I pledge here and now to exceed every expectation you have of students on your course.

Robyn

Personal Statements

Ok, so i've started writing my personal statement for Uni and now have THREE versions. I'm going to post them all on the blog and then you can advise me on what bits you like from each version etc.

BE WARNED: YOU CANNOT COPY ANYTHING. IF YOU COPY THEN YOU'LL GET CAUGHT OUT WHEN THEY SEARCH GOOGLE WITH BITS OF YOUR STATEMENT AND IT COMES UP WITH MINE

I'll post the first today, second tommorow etc etc and if i end up with more versions then i'll post them as the days go by too! =]