L.E. Carmichael's Blog, page 20
May 1, 2020
The Appalachian Extension: Spotted Skunks in the Southern Boreal
Announcements!Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who tuned in to my #CanadaPerforms broadcast yesterday. I had such a great time celebrating The Boreal Forest with all of you! If you missed the livestream, no worries. You can watch the recording on the National Art Centre’s Facebook Page.
And bear in mind that just because we can’t leave our houses doesn’t mean I can’t visit your virtual classroom! Contact me or visit Authors’ Booking Service to find out which Canadian kid lit personalities do school visits via Skype and Zoom.
And now, for today’s bonus content:
Deleted Scene – The Appalachian Extension
The boreal forest is generally considered a northern forest, because boreal species, like pines and birch and rhododendrons, thrive in cooler climates. But cool climates are also found at high altitudes, so boreal forests extend into mountain ranges along the southern edge of the forest’s main distribution. One of these extensions is found in the Appalachian mountain ranges of the eastern United States. This part of the forest is thought to be a relic that’s held on since before the end of the last ice age, when cool climates were common much farther south than they are today. In part because the area was a glacial refugium (a place without ice cover where animals could survive surrounded by glaciers), it also contains animals that aren’t found in the main portion of the boreal forest. Which brings me to this passage, from the first draft of The Boreal Forest:
Clouds part. Moonlight bathes the spines of southern mountains. Above red spruce and yellow birch, hoary bats flitter and flap, snatching moths from the steamy air.
Rain drops drip from leaf to litter. Others flow from twig to branch, from branch to trunk. Streams trickle down the valleys in the bark. Beneath snaking roots, a northern slimy salamander stalks a spider. He rustles the sodden litter. A spotted skunk perks and pounces. She lifts her head, salamander dangling. The white patch on her forehead gleams. Splashing over rocks and through puddles, she scampers to her den. Her kits tumble and tussle, fighting for the prize.
Cutting the hoary bat was hard. First, because bats are awesome, viruses notwithstanding. Second, because hoary bats are named for the frosted look of their fur, making them a perfect fit for a book that’s built around the water cycle.
Cutting the spotted skunk just about killed me. Skunks are SO CUTE. Especially the spotted ones. I mean, just look at this cuddly little critter:
There is also some very cool emerging science around skunks and other mammal species with dramatic markings. From the also-cut sidebar, called “Seeing in the Dark”:
In a green-and-brown forest, black-and-white fur stands out. That could be the whole point. Mammals with striped or spotted fur are often nocturnal, meaning active at night. Full moonlight is 1 million times dimmer than sunlight. In low light, white patches are easy to see. White spots may help animals recognize family members in the dark. Since small black-and-white animals can be fierce—or smelly!—their markings might also tell predators to keep away.
I mean, how cool is that?
Have you been to the Appalachian mountains? Where do you weigh in on bats and skunks – love them or hate them? Have you ever wished that you could see in the dark? Share your stories in the comments. And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
April 27, 2020
Teach Write: A Common Misunderstanding About the Purpose of Children’s Literature
Welcome to Teach Write! This column draws on my 20 years’ experience teaching writing to kids, university students, and adult learners. It includes ideas and exercises that teachers and students can use in the classroom, and creative writers can use to level up their process.
For the last few months, we’ve been looking at the purpose of different genres of writing, and the way the purpose of a document affects our approach to the task. Most of those columns focused on academic writing, but today, I’m talking to creative writers – particularly, those of us who write, or want to write, for young readers.
I’ve been a professional children’s writer for (oh wow), 12 years now. In that time, I’ve attended countless meetings and conferences and casual get-togethers, not to mention all the conversations I’ve had online. When I talk to new and pre-published writers about their projects, one of the first things they tell me is what they want kids to learn from reading their books. These desires spring from a (regrettably) common misunderstanding about the purpose of children’s literature – that it exists to teach.
“Now hold on there,” I hear you saying. “You write nonfiction, Lindsey. You seriously expect me to believe you don’t want your readers to LEARN?”
You’re right – by definition, nonfiction is chock full of facts. It is a genre that is designed to present information and ideas, in the hopes that some of them will stick to the bumpy surfaces of the readers’ brains. But even for non-fiction writers, teaching’s not actually the goal. At least, it’s not my goal. My primary goal* is to entertain and engage and delight, with luck so effectively that kids don’t actually notice they are learning. #daretodream
And here’s the thing – the vast majority of writers who tell me that they want to teach kids aren’t writing nonfiction. They are writing picture books and chapter books and novels.
I have no actual data on this, but I suspect that our impulse to teach comes from two places:
books that we ourselves read as kids – because many older children’s books are explicitly moralistic (I’m looking at you, C. S. Lewis and Charles Perrault)
the desire to make a difference in kids’ lives
I get it, I really do. Wanting to make a difference is why many of us decide to write for young readers in the first place (as opposed to writing for adults, who might already be beyond saving). And if we haven’t read a children’s book in a while, we can certainly be forgiven for not appreciating how much kid lit has changed since we were kids ourselves.**
As children’s writers, we can have many goals – to entertain, to illuminate, to comfort, to build empathy, and yes, even to teach. But our primary purpose should always be the same: to tell a good story, whether true or imagined. If we do that, and do it well, teaching will take care of itself. Think of the story as the medium – the cereal, if you will – and the message is the toy surprise. 
April 24, 2020
Deleted Scenes – Of Flickers and Fire
Thank you to everyone who tuned in to my Earth Day 50 livestream with the Ontario Science Centre on Wednesday! It was SO MUCH FUN. Don’t worry if you missed it – you can check out the recording on the OSC’s Facebook page.
You can also tune in next Thursday, April 30, at 3PM ET, when I’m going live for #CanadaPerforms! I’ll be doing an interactive presentation on awesome animals of the boreal forest, so come on by and bring your questions. 
On to today’s main event!
The Boreal Forest – Deleted Scene
Sunbeams dance in a birch grove, sparkling off the morning dew. Rat-a-tat-a-tat! A northern flicker drums on a burned stump, then flutters to the soil. It pecks and scratches, licking up ants with its long tongue. In a puddle beneath a blueberry bush, the flicker bathes. It hops into the drooping branches, plucking berry after berry. These sugary treats will fuel its coming migration.
A lot of the “deleted” scenes from the first draft didn’t actually get deleted, just revised and reworked (more on that in a future post). This scene is one of two that got cut entirely, which is too bad, because there is some cool stuff in here:
the sparkle of dew in the sunshine – I would have loved to have seen that illustrated!
after a forest fire, birches and other deciduous plants are often the first to recolonize a burned patch, including…
wild blueberries! Historically, some Indigenous peoples in Canada used proscribed burning to encourage growth of blueberries and other boreal plants. This provided berries for humans, as well as habitat for animal species that Indigenous peoples used (and some still use) for food
northern flickers have the longest tongues of any woodpecker – they can stick their tongues out almost 5cm (2 inches) past the ends of their bills!
The Boreal Forest is organized around the seasons of the year. Within those seasons is a second, nested layer of structure, following the stages of the water cycle. From a writing standpoint, that gave me some nice, fluid (lol!) transitions while moving through the book. From a content standpoint, it let me explore the important role that this biome plays in a global process. The flicker scene illustrated a water concept that (for space reasons), also had to get cut from the final book. Here’s the original sidebar, called “Fire and Water”:
Fire makes soil hydrophobic, meaning it repels water. Less water soaks in, so more runs off into streams. Hills get drier while valleys flood.
Intense fires burn both canopy and litter. Afterwards, there are no leaves to slow down rain drops. Rain hits soil with greater force, breaking it up. Runoff carries the soil into streams. This erosion makes the water cloudy, blocking sunlight. When water plants can’t photosynthesize, aquatic food webs fall apart.
These effects may last for several years. Luckily, growth of pioneer species helps reverse them.
Have you ever seen a flicker – or any woodpecker? Or seen soil erosion at work in your backyard garden? Do you love blueberries, too? Share your stories in the comments!
And don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway, or to contact me about those signed bookplates.
April 19, 2020
STEMinism Sunday: Nurse and Children’s Writer, Marla Lesage
Welcome to STEMinism Sunday! As a former woman in science, I have a deep and enduring interest in the experiences and representation of women in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). This series will be an opportunity for me – and you – to learn more about these intellectual badasses.
Today – a special guest post by children’s author/illustrator and woman-in-STEM Marla Lesage. To learn more about Marla’s work, visit her website or follow her on Twitter and Instagram @marlalesage — take it away, Marla!
I like to say that I’m very lucky because I have two careers. I’m a registered nurse – currently working part-time – but I’m also an author/illustrator/artist. My debut picture book, Pirate Year Round, was published last May and my poem, Snorkel, will be published in Highlights magazine this summer. When Lindsey sent a call out for other STEM writers to contribute to her weekly blog posts, I started to wonder, is nursing a STEM career? I’d hadn’t really given it much thought before. I did a quick search online and it turns out, the answer is yes, no, maybe, it should be, or it’s STEM-related, depending on who you ask.
What is STEM anyway?
Ever notice that the acronym varies? STEM, STEAM (A = art or agricultural studies), STEMM (the extra M = medicine). What exactly is included doesn’t seem to matter quite as much as the desire to focus on cross-disciplinary, applied learning.
What Makes Nursing STEM or STEM-related?
While nursing is an art, like other medical fields it is based firmly in science. For my degree, I had to study math & statistics, biology, chemistry, anatomy, psychology, physiology, and pathophysiology. In order to make good decisions in my daily practice I need to have a solid understanding of how the body works, what happens when things go wrong, how medications work & interact, how to calculate how much of a medication to give, and how to determine if the ordered dose is safe for that particular client. I need to be able to evaluate and interpret nursing and medical research and apply it to my practice. Nurses also need to understand how the communities we live in affect the health of community members… and so much more. Did you know that some nurses conduct research?
How Does a Career in Nursing Influence Me as an Author/Illustrator?
I like to joke about using my old nursing textbooks for taking better scans of my artwork. They work really well! They’re big and heavy and perfect for ensuring the paper is flat and pressed firmly against the scanner.
Joking aside, perhaps the most obvious influence is the Writing for Nurses class I took when I did my Masters degree. While the course was focused on speaking out and sharing experiences and research findings as a nurse, I learned many skills that have helped me as a writer in general. We learned about that nasty inner voice that tells us we can’t or that our writing doesn’t matter, that it stinks. We had to name it, tell it to shut up, and learn to ignore it. We learned how to write effectively for grants and how to edit our work to make it shine.
While writing for a nursing or other health journal is a bit different than writing for children these skills are expandable and applicable in any situation. And that anatomy course has definitely come in handy when illustrating people! Although the most valuable skill might be knowing how to evaluate sources of information when researching! Or is it knowing the fragility of life and how it can end or change dramatically in an instant? Knowledge that can push you to pursue your dreams and passions now instead of waiting for tomorrow.
What’s the Best Part of Combining Careers in Nursing and Writing/Art?
Writing and creating art are wonderful ways to unwind. I think of them as forms of meditation. And although my current nursing job is low-stress, I think art is a wonderful way to unwind and rejuvenate when life and work can be stressful. As an emerging writer/artist my art and writing is finally paying for itself. But like many creatives, it’s my other job that pays the bills!
Thank you, Marla! I especially love what you said about training in ANY kind of writing being transferable to the other types of writing. Totally agree.
Are there any nurses reading the blog today? What do YOU think? Is nursing science, art, or the best parts of both?
April 17, 2020
The Partnership Between Author and Illustrator
Next Wednesday, April 22, is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day! The Ontario Science Centre is cooking up a fabulous online event and I am thrilled to announce that I will be part of it. We are still finalizing technological details, so make sure to check the Public Appearances page for updates. I’ll also be posting details on Facebook and Twitter, so feel free to follow me there. And of course, pop over to the Ontario Science Centre’s website – they’ve got a lot of great free resources available to house-bound families.
Reminder for anyone who has purchased The Boreal Forest online or through your local bookstore: contact me and I will send you an autographed book plate (offer valid for books purchased before June 12).
On to today’s main event!
My previous books cover a wide range of age groups and topics, but they all have one thing in common: they are illustrated with photographs. The Boreal Forest was the first book I’ve ever written that has illustrations instead. I had no idea how much that difference would affect the writing process. Here are some things I learned while Josée Bisaillon and I put this book together.
The Author Doesn’t Get to Pick the Illustrator
This may be surprising to any non-authors in the audience, but it’s true. In most cases – and certainly in mine – the author doesn’t get to decide who will illustrate her book. I was invited to submit a list of illustrators whose work I liked – a list my publisher promptly ignored. Which, I am SO GLAD they did. It’s hard to imagine anyone doing a better job than Josée. I mean, have you seen this book? It is BEAUTIFUL.
You might be wondering why authors don’t get much say over the illustrators they work with. There are lots of reasons, starting with the fact that many writers don’t know squat about art, and ending with the arcane and mystical powers wielded by the marketing department – something else a lot of writers know squat about. For my part, I tried to concentrate on doing the best writing I could and letting people who were smarter than me handle the rest.
The Author Doesn’t Get to Talk to the Illustrator
I think the reason behind this is like the reason you don’t typically want two large, territorial, ego-driven panthers locked in the same room together – it might get bloody.
I’m kidding (mostly).
The path between author and illustrator looks like this:
author editor art director illustrator
and communication occurs mainly in the form of the “art note.” Art notes are suggestions that authors write for the illustrator, and which everyone farther along the chain from them is generally free to use or ignore as they see fit.
Because The Boreal Forest is nonfiction, my art notes were given a bit more weight than might be typical for a fiction picture book. But I still tried to restrict myself to notes that would ensure accuracy, thus leaving plenty of space for Josée to do what she does best. Here’s a sample art note from the manuscript, for what became pages 8-9:
Season: Winter // Key Concept: Snowfall (Precipitation) // Setting: January in European Russia. Dense, mature boreal forest with large trees (Norway spruce, alder, birch). Nighttime, as squirrels are nocturnal. // Species: Main species: Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans); Norway spruce (Picea abies); birch (Betula pubescens). Other species: grey alder (Alnus incana).
The Author Has to Write Something That Can Actually Be Illustrated
As a writer, one of my worst habits is the compulsion to cram as much info onto the page as I possibly can. If you read my post about the amount of research I did for this project, you’ll understand why! It’s partly to get the most mileage out of the months (and months) that went into the research, but it’s also because I think that EVERYTHING is interesting.
In the past, this hasn’t been too much of a problem, because if I mentioned two species on the same page, the art department could simply include a photo of each. The Boreal Forest is different, because the illustrations are designed to represent a single scene per spread. That meant I was restricted to a single setting per spread, and a single span of time. Which also meant that it wasn’t going to be possible to show moose gambolling along a lake shore AND show loons nesting on an island out in the middle of the same lake. We could hear the loons, but not see them.
Sniff… bye, loons…
Josée did manage to sneak a whooping crane onto the spread about the beavers though. And that made me happy, because, due to word count restrictions, the text on the whooping cranes went under the knife.
But not forever. Authors may cut their prose, but we never throw it away. Instead, we use it for blog posts.
April 13, 2020
Cantastic Authorpalooza: Maram Taibah
Welcome to Cantastic Authorpalooza, featuring posts by and about great Canadian children’s writers! Today’s guest:
Maram Taibah
. Take it away, Maram!
It’s called the Cerulean Universe because of the color of the sea around the lush archipelago, where the characters of Weathernose live. “Not quite tropical and only a touch Mediterranean” was how I’ve always described it.
This world appeared to me as I stood looking out across an inlet of the Red Sea. It was night and the dark spread out in front of me like a void. There was a far-off shore, contoured with little orange lights. My family was back there in the chalet, in their own world of laughter. I was somewhere else, transfixed by a world that was coming into shape. In reality, there might have been water treatment plants on that island across from me or a ship yard or anything so metallic and unromantic. In my eyes, however, it was an island that was alight with torches, where the citizens were up all night to await the arrival of their prince’s ship. There was music there and dancing and revelry, a festival of welcome.
And that was how the Cerulean Universe was born. I didn’t know back then that this was what it would be called. I didn’t know that it would be anything. In the years to come, this place grew in my mind, still nameless. There were many attempts to populate it with characters and set a story in motion but they failed. It wasn’t until I was in college that the lens came into focus and this fascinating world that wanted to be born into words matured. It was a steampunk world (even though I didn’t know back then that there was a word for this kind of world).
Building the Cerulean Universe was the most natural thing once I understood its personality. It was light and quirky and spangled with color, as opposed to the unhumorous and medieval image I first had in my mind at thirteen years old. The characters were brightly flawed and wonderfully self-conscious. And there were inventions. Always inventions. And books! Lots of books! Hot air balloons! Strawberry tarts!
In the first book, Weathernose, you are introduced to Tart Morning and Cypress Korkul, two rivals – a middle-aged man against a conniving little girl who destroys his career with an invention. They were the dynamic duo for me because of the contrast between them and that was how the story took off. There are other characters in this world, some who are kooky, others who are wise, and a few who are rebellious. There are pirates and mad scientists and fish-out-of-water chancellors who are two young for the responsibility. I am currently writing the sequel to Weathernose. We’ll see where that adventure ends up!
April 10, 2020
The Great Big Boreal Forest Resource List
I hear it’s a long weekend? I’m not sure how to tell, really, since we will all (hopefully) be doing exactly what we’ve been doing for the last couple of weeks: preventing the spread of potentially deadly viruses by eating too much while watching Netflix in our jammies.
Jammies are a long-standing Easter tradition in the Carmichael family, because the Grandparents Carmichael used to give my brother and me a new pair of PJs with our baskets of chocolate and kids’ books every year. And it occurred to me that once you and your kids recover from your chocolate comas, and have finished reading your shiny new copies of The Boreal Forest, you might find yourselves in need of more fun and educational things you can do at home. And thus I present:
The Great Big Boreal Forest Resource List
First – it’s a video of me reading from the book!
Thank you to my publisher, Kids Can Press, for permission to keep this video available online until the end of the school year. May it bring the outdoors inside to you.
The Official Boreal Forest Activity Guide
Click here to download a free activity guide for use with your copy of The Boreal Forest. It includes suggestions for science, social studies, and language arts, and will help support a variety of elementary school curriculum outcomes. Not to mention a little creativity and fun.
But why stop there?
General Information, Online Articles, and Websites
Borealforest.org – Canadian website produced by Lakehead University
Natural Resources Canada: Boreal Forest Pages
NASA Earth Observatory: The Carbon Cycle – A detailed overview of the global carbon cycle, in which the boreal forest plays a crucial role
NASA Precipitation Education: The Water Cycle – A kid-friendly resource that includes activities and lesson plans
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species – Find the conservation status of your favourite boreal plants and animals
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Birds of the World – This is a superb resource, but note that it does require a paid subscription
Keeping the Carbon in Alaska Forests
Coronavirus Toilet Paper Hoarding “Totally Unnecessary,” What You Need to Know
A photographer who discovered baby bears dancing in a forest thought he was imagining it
Bird that looks like it died yesterday turns out to be 46,000 years old
Time to vote for Canada’s national lichen – the “spectacular” organisms that carpet the country
How deforestation drives the emergence of novel coronaviruses
What do wild animals do in a wildfire?
Totally bizarre facts about the star-nosed mole
Lesson Plans, Activities, Projects
Borealforest.org – Educational Resources Section
Canadian Geographic: The Boreal Forest “In the News”
Canadian Wildlife Federation: Boost the Boreal Forest
Boreal Songbird Initiative: Provincial and Territorial Forest Facts
Nature Canada: For Children Section – Articles and a Resource Section
Forests Ontario: Community Engagement Section
NASA Precipitation Education: The Water Cycle
Utah State University: Water Cycle Lesson Plans
Scholastic: The Water Cycle Teaching Guide
California Academy of Sciences: Carbon Cycle Role Play
University of Colorado Teach Engineering: Carbon Cycles
Indigenous Peoples of the Boreal ForestNote:
Worldwide, hundreds of Indigenous peoples live in the boreal biome. I’ve included resources for those peoples featured in my book, but I encourage you to learn about the Nations nearest you!
Canada
Gwich’in Social & Cultural Institute – a repository of Traditional Knowledge, including audio recordings of Gwich’in words and information on Gwich’in medicine plants
The Whitefeather Forest Initiative of the Pikangikum First Nation – general info and links to research involving Traditional Knowledge
Europe/Asia
Reindeer Herding – information on reindeer (caribou) and the many Indigenous peoples of Europe and Asia who herd them
Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East of the Russian Federation – This site is in Russian, but Google translate will give you a starting point for further research
Organizations
Ontario Nature – Boreal Forests Section
The PEW Charitable Trusts: International Boreal Conservation Campaign
Science Books for Adults
For teenagers that want to learn more, or for adults who want more knowledge to help support their children’s learning – here are some of the adult-level books I consulted while researching The Boreal Forest. Check your local library for ebook options, or see what you can find online!
Bannick, Paul (2008) The Owl and the Woodpecker: Encounters with North America’s Most Iconic Birds. Seattle, WA: The Mountaineers Books.
Bondrup-Nielsen, Soren (2009) A Sound Like Water Dripping: In Search of the Boreal Owl. Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press.
Chang, Mingteh (2013) Forest Hydrology: An Introduction to Water and Forests. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Crawford, R.M.M. (2013) Tundra-Taiga Biology: Human, Plant, and Animal Survival in the Arctic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gawthrop, Daniel (1999) Vanishing Halo: Saving the Boreal Forest. Vancouver, BC: Greystone Books.
Lynch, Wayne. (2001) The Great Northern Kingdom: Life in the Boreal Forest. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside.
Do you know of additional boreal resources? Drop them in the comments for others to explore!
Have you ordered a copy of The Boreal Forest online? Contact me and I will mail you a signed bookplate for every book purchased before June 12.
And don’t forget to enter the giveaway, which also ends June 12.
April 6, 2020
Mad Science Monday: Marvel’s Inhumans (That’s Not How DNA Works)
Welcome to Mad Science Mondays, where we talk about depictions of science in movies, TV shows, books, and the media. We dissect the good, the bad, the comical and the outright irresponsible. Who says learning about science can’t be fun?
Oh, Inhumans. I so wanted to like you, mostly due to my enduring crush on Anson Mount (or rather, Cullen Bohannon of Hell on Wheels). Sadly, I spent most of the time I was “watching” you making dinner, doing dishes, and otherwise listening with half an ear because you are really, really terrible. In really quite a lot of ways.
I see you were cancelled after one season, so evidently this is a generally-held opinion.
For today’s purposes, let’s just focus on one of your many fails:
Even in superhero world, scientists can’t identify the one piece of DNA that gives you powers after half-an-hour’s effort. Also, even if they could find it, they would have no idea what it did without extensive testing. And the idea that you could take all those bits, recombine them, stuff them into Ramsey Bolton, oh wait, Maximus, and actually have them work? Um, no.
Here, let me send you a copy of my book Gene Therapy, which explains how these kinds of experiments are more likely to either:
do nothing, or
cause cancer.
I think I need to take a break from the superhero genre for a while. At least until there’s an attempt at scientific plausibility.
Did you watch Inhumans? Are you getting as burnt out on superheroes as I am? I love hearing your thoughts!
April 3, 2020
Four Days Until the Forest!
Kermit GIF from Kermit GIFs
Oh, come on. There was NO WAY that Kermit gif wasn’t making another appearance, and you all know it. 
March 30, 2020
Teach Write: The (REAL) Purpose of Personal Statements and Letters of Intent
Welcome to Teach Write! This column draws on my 20 years’ experience teaching writing to kids, university students, and adult learners. It includes ideas and exercises that teachers and students can use in the classroom, and creative writers can use to level up their process.
Personal statements and letters of intent… with the possible exception of the dissertation, there are no forms of academic writing quite as likely to turn an ordinary student into a quivering ball of overwhelming anxiety.
Deep breaths, all. I am here to help. First things first.
When will you be asked to write a personal statement or letter of intent?
For applications. Most often graduate school and scholarship/financial aid applications, but sometimes undergraduate university programs request them, too.
What’s the difference between a personal statement and a letter of intent?
For all practical purposes, not a thing! The terms are used interchangeably in identical contexts. And other than trying to keep it to one, single-spaced page, there are absolutely no rules about the structure or content of either of these documents. You can write them any way that is effective – which is to say, any way that achieves your purpose.
So what IS that purpose?
I’m so glad you asked me, because this is where is all tends to go pear-shaped.
These documents help us get into schools – or help get us the money we need to pay for our educations. As a result, they are high-stakes pieces of writing that can have lasting consequences for our lives. So it’s not surprising that we tend to fixate on OUR goals while writing them. And our goals are very simple:
to get in, or
to get the cash.
Because we are fixated on these, admittedly, very important goals, we tend to forget something really important: our audience.
Our personal statements are about us, but they are not for us. Which means that the real goal of a personal statement is not to, say, get us into graduate school. It’s to convince total strangers that they want to LET us into graduate school. And that shift in emphasis changes everything. Instead of thinking about how much we want the thing we are applying for, and how much is riding on our getting it, we have to start thinking about what someone else needs to know about us to feel comfortable investing limited resources in us. As opposed to investing in the many other, perhaps equally qualified, people who are vying for the same spot or scholarship.
We will return to these most difficult of documents in future columns (probably many times) but for now, consider the following:
How do I show that I am qualified to do this?
What past experiences and accomplishments have prepared me for the next step?
What do I want to do next, and why?
How do I show that I am capable of achieving the things I want to achieve?
Brainstorm until you’re confident you can answer all of these questions before you start to write.
Hey, did you know I teach writing workshops? It’s true – I work with adult writers, teachers, and students of all ages. Contact me to learn more.
