How many times have I criticised a particular phrase or
acted as a human thesaurus? Am I even
allowed to mention this in a blog or must we maintain the polite fiction that
parents and teachers don’t cast an eye over the children’s Personal
Statements? The idea is that they must
write them by themselves or the statement will not reflect their personality.
How come then that the naturally quiet and thoughtful Perran
has managed to sound so manically cheerful that if the universities don’t want
him, he should be able to land a job at TGI Friday’s?
“I wouldn’t say that
you ‘love’ something more than three times in a statement,” I mention to him,
“And I’d limit the number of ‘enthusiastic’s too. I think that people who are applying for
maths and philosophy are probably allowed to sound a little reticent.”
Carenza is caught in indecision.
“There are several history books that I never finished. They say not to put down books you haven’t
read thoroughly in case you get an interview and they ask you about them.”
“If you’d spent less long writing your statement,” I snarl,
“You could have had them all finished.
Come to that, you might even have had enough time to write your own
history book.”
Their heads go down again and silence reigns. They are still editing.