drum极品个人陈述留学文书Personal Statement

极品个人陈述留学文书

Personal

St atement

（

PS

）大赏【无老师 力荐】

来源：

无老师的日志

无老师题：

何谓比较和总结？举 个具

体的例子。本文第一句话有这样一个片段：

attract ing me to the study of African literature

through nothing more than a single sent ence

。直译过来是：他仅用不到一句话就使我深深

地迷上了 研究非洲文学。

想一下如果我们自己写的话，

这句话很有可能写 成

He just uses one

sentence and attracts me to study African literature.

如果我们这样写的话，就会发现意境全

无。因为

st udy African literature

是每个人都能写出的内容，但是原文里 的

study of African

literature

将整个表达方法名词化，显得很有学问，就像是你惊讶的时候说：哎呀妈呀！于

丹站在身边就会说：呜呼哀哉！这时，我们就都觉得于丹比较有学问，是一个道理。然后

nothing more than a single sentence

< br>则是活用了最近比较流行的以否定表肯定的表达方式，

比如

I could not agree with you more.

直译过来就是

―

我不能更同意你

‖

< br>，那么意思也就是：

―

我完全同意你的话

‖

。这里的

nothing more than a single sentence

，意思就是

―

他只用了一

句话就

……

.

‖

用的实为精妙！

上面的无老师的讲解，就是比较和总结。这也是我们提升自己的关键！

This section contains five sample graduate school personal statements:

Why Graduate School? Essay

Why Qualified? Essay One

Why Qualified? Essay Two

Why Unique? Essay One

Why Unique? Essay Two

Why Graduate School? Essay

My freshman year at Harvard, I was sitting in a Postcolonial African Literature class when

Professor Ngugi wa Thiong

’

o (the influential Kenyan author) succeeded in attracting me to

the study of African literature through nothing more than a single sentence. He argued

that,

when

a

civilization

adopts

reading

and

writing

as

the

chief

form

of

social

communication, it frees itself to forget its own values, because those values no longer have

to be part of a lived reality in order to have significance. I was immediately fascinated by

the idea that the written word can alter individual lives, affect one

’

s identity, and perhaps

even shape national identity.

Professor

Ngugi

’

s

proposal

forced

me

to

think

in

a

radically

new

way:

I

was

finally

confronted with the notion of literature not as an agent of vital change, but as a potential

instrument of stasis and social stagnancy. I began to question the basic assumptions with

which I had, until then, approached the field. How does

―< /p>

literature

‖

function away from the

written

page,

in

the

lives

of

individuals

and

societies?

What

is

the

significance

of

the

written word in a society where the construction of history is not necessarily recorded or

even linear?

I

soon

discovered

that

the

general

scope

of

comparative

literature

fell

short

of

my

expectations

because

it

didn

’

t

allow

students

to

question

the

inherent

integrity

or

subjectivity of their discourse. We were being told to approach Asian, African, European,

and

American

texts

with

the

same

analytical

tools,

ignoring

the

fact

that,

within

each

culture,

literature

may

function

in

a

different

capacity,

and

with

a

completely

different

sense of urgency. Seeking out ways in which literature tangibly impacted societies, I began

to

explore

other

fields,

including

history,

philosophy,

anthropology,

language,

and

performance studies.

The interdisciplinary nature of my work is best illustrated by my senior thesis (

―

Time Out of

Joint:

Issues

of

Temporality

in

the

Songs

of

Okot

p

’

Bitek

‖

).

In

addition

to

my

literary

interpretations,

the

thesis

drew

heavily

on

both

the

Ugandan

author

’

s

own

cultural

treatises and other anthropological, psychological, and philosophical texts. By using tools

from other disciplines, I was able to interpret the literary works while developing insight

into the Ugandan society and popular psychology that gave birth to the horrific Idi Amin

regime. In addition, I was able to further understand how people interacted with the works

and incorporated (or failed to incorporate) them into their individual, social, and political

realities.

On a more practical level, writing the thesis also confirmed my suspicion that I would like

to

pursue

an

academic

career

.

When

I

finished

my

undergraduate

career

,

I

felt

that

a

couple

of

years

of

professional

work

would

give

me

a

better

perspective

of

graduate

school. I decided to secure a position which would grant me experiences far removed from

the academic world, yet which would also permit me to continue developing the research

and writing skills I needed to tackle the challenges of graduate school. I have fulfilled this

goal by working as a content developer at a Silicon Alley web start-up for two years. The

experience

has

been

both

enjoyable

and

invaluable

—

to

the

point

where

colleagues

glance at me with a puzzled look when I tell them I am leaving the job to return to school.

In fact, my willingness to leave such a dynamic, high-paying job to pursue my passion for

literature only reflects my keen determination to continue along the academic path.

Through a Masters program, I plan to further explore the issues I confronted during my

undergraduate years by integrating the study of social, cultural, and linguistic anthropology

into

the

realm

of

literature.

I

believe

that,

by

adopting

tools

used

in

such

disciplines,

methods of inquiry can be formulated that allow for the interpretation of works that are

both technically sound and sociologically insightful. Thus far

, my studies have concentrated

largely on African and Caribbean literatures, and I am particularly interested in studying

these

geographic

areas

in

more

specific

historical

and

cultural

contexts.

I

also

seek

to

increase my knowledge of African languages, which will allow me to study the lingering

cultural impact of colonialism in modern-day African literature. Eventually, I would like to

secure an academic post in a Comparative Literature department, devoting myself to both

research and teaching at the college level.

I believe the Modern Thought and Literature program at NAME is uniquely equipped to

guide

me

toward

these

objectives.

While

searching

for

a

graduate

school

that

would

accommodate

my

interdisciplinary

approach,

I

was

thrilled

to

find

a

program

that

approaches

world

literature

with

a cross-disciplinary

focus, recognizing

that the

written

word has the potential to be an entry point for social and cultural inquiry.

The level of scholarly research produced by the department also attracts me. Akhil Gupta

’

s

―

Culture, Power

, Place

‖

, for instance, was one of my first and most influential experiences

with the field of cultural anthropology. Professor Gupta

’

s analysis of the local, national, and

foreign

realms,

achieved

through

a

discussion

of

post-colonial

displacement

and

mixed

identifications, has led me to believe that

—

given the complexity of modern societies

—

comparative

literature

’

s

focus

on borders (national

and

linguistic)

has

been

excessively

arbitrary. Even more significant is the accurate rendering of individually-lived realities that

may then be synthesized with other experiences. I believe that I could greatly benefit from

Professor Gupta

’

s teaching and guidance in applying these ideas to the literary arena, and

I

believe

that

his

work

is

representative

of

the

rigorous

yet

creative

approach

I

would

pursue upon joining the department.

Why Qualified? Essay

Ever since my first psychology lecture, I have been fascinated by the nature of human

memory. Indeed, human memory is one of the most tenacious and enigmatic problems

ever faced by philosophers and psychologists. The discussion of memory dates back to the

early

Greeks

when

Plato

and

Aristotle

originally

likened

it

to

a

―

wax

tablet.

‖

In

1890,

pioneer William James adopted the metaphorical framework

and equated memory

to

a

―

house

‖

to

which

thirty

years

later

Sigmund

Freud

chimed

that

memory

was

closer

to

―

rooms in a house.

‖

In 1968, Atkinson and Shrifren retained the metaphorical framework

but

referred

to

memory

as

―

stores

‖

.

The

fact

that

the

controversy

surrounding

human

memory

has

been

marked

more

by

analogy

than

definition

suggests,

however

,

that

memory is a far more complex phenomenon than has been uncovered thus far

. I intend to

spend the rest of my professional life researching the nature of human memory and solving

the riddle posed yet cunningly dodged by generations of philosophers and psychologists.

When I first came to psychology, however

, I wanted to be a clinical psychologist. Only upon

enrolling in Dr

. Helga Noice

’

s Cognitive Psychology course, did I discover the excitement of

doing

research.

The

course

required

us

to

test

our

own

autobiographical

memory

by

conducting an experiment similar to the one run in 1986 by W. Wagenaar

. Over the course

of the term, I recorded events from my personal life on event cards and set them aside

without

reviewing

them.

After

studying

the

effect

serial

position

on

the

recollection

of

autobiographical memories, I hypothesized that events that, when I sat down at the end of

therm to recall those same events I had described on the event cards, that events that had

occurred later in the term would be recalled with greater frequency than events that had

occurred earlier

. Although the experiment was of simple design and predictable results, I

found the processes incredibly exciting. Autobiographical memory in particular fascinated

me because I realized how crucial, yet fragile, memory is. Why was my memory of even

ten weeks so imperfect? What factors contributed to that imperfection? Could such factors

be controlled?

I

had

ignited

my

passion

for

experimental

psychology.

Suddenly,

I

had

many

pressing

questions about memory that I wanted to research. Under the guidance of Dr

. Noice, I

continued to study human memory. I worked closely with Dr

. Noice on several research

experiments involving expert memory, specifically the memory of professional actors. Dr

.

Noice would select a scene from a play and then a professional actor would score it for

beats, that is, go through the scene grouping sections of dialogue together according to

the intent of the character

. Some actors use this method to learn dialogue rather than rote

memorization. After they were finished, I would type up the scene and the cued recall test.

Next, I would moderate the experimental sessions by scoring the actor

’

s cued recall for

accuracy and then helping with the statistical analysis. My work culminated with my paper

,

―

Teaching

Students

to

Remember

Complex

Material

Through

the

Use

of

Professional

Actors

’

Learning Strategies.

‖

My paper accompanied a poster presentation at the Third

Annual Tri-State Undergraduate Psychology Conference. In addition, I presented a related

paper entitled

―

Type of Learning Strategy and Verbatim Retention of Complex Material

‖

at

the

ILLOWA

(Illinois-Iowa)

Conference

the

following

year

.

Again,

I

was

involved

in

all

aspects of the experiment, from typing the protocol and administering it to the subjects to

analyzing the data and finally presenting my results.

The opportunity

to perform this research was invaluable, particularly

as I began taking

independent research seminars in my senior year

. For the seminars, I was required to write

an extensive review of the literature and then design a research proposal on any topic of

my choice. Although I had participated in all aspects of research previously, this was my

first opportunity to select my own topic. I was immediately certain that I wanted to explore

at human memory. But I spent a long time considering what aspect of memory I found

most intriguing and possible to tackle within the confines of the research seminar

. I had

always been interested in the legal implications of memory, so I to investigate eyewitness

memory.

In retrospect, my choice was also informed by my recollection about an experiment I had

read about several years earlier

. In the experiment, subjects read about Helen Keller

. Later

they were given a recall test. Still later they were given an additional test to determine the

source of their knowledge about Helen Keller

. The authors discovered that subjects could

not determine the source of their knowledge, that is, they could not distinguish whether

specific details of their knowledge about Helen Keller came from the information provided

by the experimenters or if the details came from another source at an earlier time. Once

their

new

knowledge

about

Helen

Keller

had

been

assimilated

into

their

previous

knowledge about Helen Keller

, there was no way to separate the information according to

the source it came from.

I

wondered

what

the

implications

of

that

conclusion

would

be

for

eyewitnesses.

I

wondered

if

an

eyewitness

account

could

be

corrupted

by

misleading

post-event

information. My research proposal was entitled

―

The Rate of Memory Trace Decay and its

Effect on Eyewitness Accuracy.

‖

While I was not able to complete the experiment in its

entirety, I was excited by the fact that I created a possible research protocol. Immediately,

I knew I wanted to pursue the field of experimental psychology. My success in course work

and my passion for research demonstrated to me that I had both the interest and ability to

enter this challenging and rewording field.