個人陳述時留學(xué)文書中的重要組成部分，主要用于描述個人的背景、申請目的、研究方向等信息，也是留學(xué)申請材料中較重要卻也比較難把握的部分。當(dāng)申請者苦惱于GRE、TOEFL等標準化考試的成績，一份得體的個人陳述卻有可能讓你力挽狂瀾，從眾多申請者中脫穎而出。在某些學(xué)校，個人陳述已經(jīng)代替了面試，作為評價學(xué)生的一個重要依據(jù)。下文我們分析了個人陳述的內(nèi)容、格式與寫作技巧，并選擇了一篇優(yōu)秀范文供同學(xué)們參考。
一、個人陳述的內(nèi)容 　　
        1.申請者的學(xué)術(shù)或?qū)I(yè)興趣及背景; 　　
        2.欲研究的方向; 　　
        3.未來的職業(yè)目標。 　　
        要寫出成功的申請文書僅僅有那些適用于任何類型寫作的基本寫作技巧(清晰、簡潔)是遠遠不夠的。一篇好的申請文書要求申請人能夠用一種與其他申請人完全不同方式，巧妙地展現(xiàn)自己的獨特個性和經(jīng)驗。 　　
二、個人陳述的格式 　　
        個人陳述的要求不同，但一般個人陳述都包括固定信息，可以遵循下面形式。 　　
        1.自我介紹 　　
        許多個人陳述都是開始于一段類似郵件的開頭，可以采用很多方式增加閱讀者對你的關(guān)注，比如你從何處了解這個申請的，有何人推薦，有什么人曾經(jīng)是成功申請成功給你這個信息的，你認識哪位審閱委員會成員等，你所處的地位，你的職位或者學(xué)位，你在尋找什么職位或者學(xué)位，都要在第一段一目了然的寫清楚。
        2.詳細的支撐段落 　　
        后續(xù)段落應(yīng)該直接回答任何申請要求的具體問題，結(jié)合你自己的長處，你自己的資格/位置，你的團隊精神和認證，你的長遠目標和過去經(jīng)驗等。每一個段落應(yīng)該集中有一個主題句，只需要展示重點。每段都需要案例，每個案例都必須和你本人/申請要求有密切關(guān)系，無時無刻支持你有資格通過這個申請。 　　
       3.結(jié)論 　　
        在各種主題歸集在一起,再強調(diào)一遍，并重申你對申請目標的興趣，以及為什么有興趣。
三、個人陳述的寫作技巧
        1. 主題明確、主次分明
        即個人陳述結(jié)構(gòu)清晰，讀者能很輕易的找到文章主題。文章內(nèi)容有主有次，敘述有輕有重，邏輯感很強。通過閱讀文章，能讓讀者對你有一個很清晰的認識，感覺到你所說的優(yōu)秀一面。
        2. 論證有力#p#分頁標題#e#
        留學(xué)個人陳述不是簡單的羅列自己的優(yōu)秀品質(zhì)，而是恰當(dāng)?shù)挠胑xample來論證，說服力強。能通過example展示出作者的優(yōu)秀品質(zhì)和綜合能力，讓讀者信服。在寫作過程中，要注意使用過渡。必須在段落中使用過渡，特別是要在段落之間使用過渡以保持整篇文章的邏輯流暢。過渡不限于象“as a result、while…、since…”等等這樣的短語，還包括反復(fù)出現(xiàn)的關(guān)鍵詞和主題的遞進。過渡為樹立論點提供了邏輯結(jié)構(gòu)。也要整篇文章讀起來很流暢。
        3. 內(nèi)容應(yīng)該包括6個why
        即為什么對這個專業(yè)感興趣?
        為什么覺得這個專業(yè)在未來很重要?
        為什么選擇這個學(xué)校?
        什么事情使你對這個專業(yè)的興趣逐漸增加加深并且達到頂峰的?
        有沒有一些具體的研究經(jīng)歷，研究項目吸引了你?
        你認為自己能給該研究領(lǐng)域帶來什么樣的價值?
        因為這幾個問題直接關(guān)系到你的申請動機和研究能力，所以文章的內(nèi)容至少要包括這幾個問題的大部分。
        4. 文章獨特、個性、新穎
        文章要有獨特性，寫出自己的特色。而不是照搬照抄別人的文章。
如果大家的ps具備上述四個特點，就是一篇優(yōu)秀的留學(xué)個人陳述PS了。總之，根據(jù)自己的特點，構(gòu)思，寫出個性化的PS，吸引到教授，才稱得上是一篇優(yōu)秀的PS。這樣你的留學(xué)申請通過率就會大大提高。
        四、個人陳述范文
 
        Personal Statement 　　
        Applied Program: Mechanical Engineering 　　
        In China there is an old custom called one-year anniversary fortune-telling: by the time the new born is one year old, its family prepares a lot of objects of different shapes and functions for it to choose from. The first object that attracts its eyes and hands is supposed to be a symbol of the baby’s future career. Unscientific as it is, it truly predicted my profession and future. At that time the toy car in my hand greatly aroused my wonder at the wheeled monster. As I grew up, I was no longer satisfied with collecting car pictures and making car models. I was determined to be an expert in automobile design and manufacturing. As it turned out, the specialized education I have received in both my undergraduate and graduate programs have fully equipped me for undertaking more ambitious academic tasks in the field of mechanical control. I know I am no genius and I also know that success is to result from extraordinary efforts. I chose as my starting point Beijing Institute of Technology, one of the 3 universities in China that majored in automobile research. There besides the specialty and theory studies, I made use of my free time to read large quantities of references both in Chinese and English, to catch up with the latest development in theory and to be immersed in the widest range of information. As a graduate, my academic performance had always ranked No.1 in my class, especially for the 20 also specialty courses in the junior and senior years, among which Automotive Manufacturing got full scores. For 4 years I got the first or the second class scholarships consecutively and was awarded many honors such as Outstanding Student, Outstanding Cadre, as well as appraised by the department leader as the best student in the recent 5 years. 　　#p#分頁標題#e#
        The strong interests in automobile forever stimulated my enthusiasm in study and motivated me to equip myself with specialty knowledge to the greatest possible extent. Apart from the study task, I also served as teaching assistant in the course of vehicle electronic technology. As a post graduate and with the specialty knowledge getting more and more profound, I worked as a research assistant in the laboratory and came to better my ability to apply theory into practice, thus capable of carrying out scientific research activities independently. Meanwhile I took part in many research and development projects and accumulated rich experiences on that. In the joint-venture project between our school and the first automobile manufacturing plant in China, I was responsible for building up experimental framework composed of the electric motor, hydrostatic gearbox, loading device and the control system and carried out the functional adjusting of the automatic shift, thus getting a better knowledge of the power train. The experiment was a great success and provided reliable support for the overall vehicle experiment.
　　The thesis for my master degree is Research of Loader with Automatic Shift Technology and Fuzzy Control Strategy. At present, China’s research on automation of construction machinery has not started yet. I choose this subject in order to realize automatic shift control and computerization of construction machinery. It is mainly concerned with coordination control of the engine and the gearbox, power distribution, recognition and fuzzy control of the working state of construction machinery and so on. This is based on the joint venture----the automatic shift control of ZL50 loader between our school and a gearbox manufacturing plant in Hunan. The purpose of this research project is to change the loader’s original manual shift into automatic shift control. The stumbling blocks here are the recognition of different working states, the coordination of the engine and the gearbox and the realization of the potential engine power to the greatest possible extent. 　　
        In that project I was responsible for the whole process from the project demonstration, program selection, simulation research and project implementation. We largely enhanced the automation level and working efficiency of ZL50 loader and made convenient its operation. At the same time I benefited a lot from a deeper understanding of the essence of automatic shift techniques.       
Apart from the completion of my graduation thesis and based on the experimental statistics and the project’s early stage work summary, I published, on the national central periodical named Construction Machinery, a paper titled Research on the Mechanical Parts of Electronically Controlled Automatic Shift on ZL50 Loader and also another paper, on Construction Machinery and Equipment, titled Research of ZL50 Loader with Electronic Controlled Automatic Shift System, which has the project outcome as its theoretic basis. They were highly praised by experts in this field for their values in academic research and of creativity. Because of the need to collect large quantities of experimental data for possible future renovation reference, I independently developed a set of data collecting soft ware, with the transmitter soft ware written in C language and the receiver soft ware written in VC++, communication between the two through series connections. This soft ware was highly usable throughout the whole experiment and greatly increased my work efficiency. 　　#p#分頁標題#e#
        Automobile industry is the main industry for a country. It started very late in China and lags far behind the advanced countries such as the United States, Germany, Canada and others, its competency comparatively low. To shorten the distance, it is necessary to go abroad and learn from the developed countries the advanced automobile manufacturing technology and for that reason it is also urgent to perfect my knowledge structure and enhance my specialty level. The specialty of mechanical engineering in University of Michigan ranked No. 11 in the United States. It has rich technical resources and its research centers and laboratories are proud of state-of-the-art equipments. The research work of Vehicle Power train Dynamics and Control being carried out there by many famous professors well fits into my postgraduate research work. So I wish to continue my education in your university. A scrutiny of my educational background and of the research projects that I have performed will indicate that I have a solid foundation in mechanical control. Therefore, my knowledge and specialized trainings in mechanical control will also enable me to prove competent in control-related programs. If my qualifications suit me also for a program in mechanical control, do not hesitate to transfer me to such program because I am equally interested in those programs. My study plan is to learn the fundamental knowledge first and then, based on my own research background, decide on a research direction that will best facilitate the development of China’s automobile industry. In this way I will try to work out valuable academic achievements and write high-level doctorate thesis. Eventually I will return to China to contribute my learning to the development of automobile industry in my fatherland and thus realize the dreams of my childhood.