What should I avoid when writing a personal statement?

So many articles online are heaving with advice for students currently completing a UCAS application. Most of them tend to disregard what should be avoided in an application. Personally, I find critical analysis of my work the most fruitful, it helps with constantly keeping myself in check, as well as allowing me to acknowledge what I should not do in future. The same goes for the piece of writing that allows entry into further academic study, your personal statement. Like any piece of literature, the opening line is of high important, in the respect it key to catching a reader's attention. The best opening line I have read on a personal statement belonged to my friend, after applying for medicine, in which she received no letters of rejection. The line read, ‘I have not always wanted to be a doctor’ – this is an excellent contradiction to the cliché often found in personal statements, detailing that you have strived for since birth is pursuing a certain career. It allows you to develop how you have used experience to build on your want to study a particular course, in my friend’s case it was the realisation of her enthusiasm of caring for others in her own working environments. Additionally, it shows strength relating back each point to your chosen course as it demonstrates your determination for that career path, whilst at the same time avoiding sweeping statements of your achievements by providing clear cut evidence of why you are one of the best candidates. Relating to the previous point, one of the most common pieces of advice in regards to personal statements is to avoid the word ‘passionate’. This is for good reason, never TELL someone of your passion for a subject, SHOW it through your own merits and experience. Furthermore, a rather obvious element that should be avoided is lying, false statements can easily be checked with your establishment, and turning one week’s worth of work experience into one month may risk your place on a course. Finally, avoid false evidence in the form of submitting someone else’s language. It can be really helpful to let others read your personal statement, for example, your teachers or parents, but if they rewrite sections into what they deem more academically appropriate, it will lead to an unbalanced tone throughout, with different bursts of language unfamiliar to the rest of the statement. Universities are looking to submit you, not your parents or teachers. Good luck!