最棒的英文寫作教程(二)

個人聲明之所以難的部分原因是因為在一篇文章中你需要做許多事。與申請上大學的文章不同，在那個申請書中你的動機是沒有疑問的，你的目標也可以不必明確，但寫申請上研究生院的個人聲明卻要求你 把多個主題包括在一篇作文裏。用不著說，這可能是辣手的。

有三個主題可供你考慮：
1．你為什麼要研究這個領域/上這所研究生院？
2．哪些方面使得你特別、不同、或優越？
3．為什麼你夠資格？

你可以只集中在一個主題或想法把三個都包括進去。不論你選擇怎麼做，要記得如果你的文章最終沒表達你上研究生院的動機，沒提出為什麼你應該被接受的論點，那你就已經丟了分。

在本節你還將發現具體文章題目的一些特定問題策略。要是你面對的一個具體問題沒被列在這兒，請務必查看我們的“大學錄取作文輔助課程”或“商學院錄取作文輔助課程”，那兒有20多個不同的普遍問 題的特定問題策略。許多研究生院有一些簡短回答的問題，這些問題在本網站的其他章節都作了深入的探討。

一、為什麼上研究生院？

寫好這個主題的訣竅是說明你為什麼要研究該領域。不要只是說一下就認為可以了。錄取官員需要的是你生活中那些證明你的願望並使得你的願望得以成真的那些可信的詳情。

有個訣竅可以避免給人以“這樣的內容由來了”的反應，那就是密切注意第一行。當錄取官員一開始就看到“自從 … … 以來，我一直想當個物理學家”這樣的句子，他們肯定縮回去。我們知道可提供幫助的是文章的那行句子，但是這些可憐的官員已經有多少次讀過這樣的句子，他們自己也數不清，這樣的句子很快就變成老 一套了。相反，可以用一個能說明你早就呼喚法律的故事來開始你的文章。現看一看例1文章的第一段：

"That's not fair." Even as the smallest of children, I remember making such a proclamation: in kindergarten it was "not fair" when I had to share my birthday with another little girl and didn't get to sit on the "birthday chair." When General Mills changed my favorite childhood breakfast cereal, "Kix," I, of course, thought this was "not fair." Unlike many kids (like my brother) who would probably have shut up and enjoyed the "great new taste" or switched to Cheerios, this kid sat her bottom down in a chair (boosted by the phone book) and typed a letter to the company expressing her preference for the "classic" Kix over the "great new taste" Kix.
在講述故事的時候，文章作者說明了她政治上的激進主義是根深蒂固的，但她不必說出來。她不是只告訴我們就希望我們相信，她是展示給我們看的。

另一個開篇方式是“我爸爸是個 … …”。有些錄取官員說，如果申請人給出的想要研究某一個領域的唯一理由是家庭的願望，那麼他們不僅會對申請人的動機，而且對他是否成熟表示懷疑。這當然不是說你必須掩蓋你的父母支持你做該領域 研究這一事實，但這的確意味著你應該避免你想靠它作為進入研究生院的唯一理由。如果你的父親或母親確實鼓勵你進研究生院，那麼需要詳細地描述你為什麼受到他們的鼓勵，以及你在現實生活中做了那 些事可以檢驗你的動機。

例1：英語專業

注意：為了教學目的，該文發表時未加修改。
"That's not fair." Even as the smallest of children, I remember making such a proclamation: in kindergarten it was "not fair" when I had to share my birthday with another little girl and didn't get to sit on the "birthday chair." When General Mills changed my favorite childhood breakfast cereal, "Kix," I, of course, thought this was "not fair." Unlike many kids (like my brother) who would probably have shut up and enjoyed the "great new taste" or switched to Cheerios, this kid sat her bottom down in a chair (boosted by the phone book) and typed a letter to the company expressing her preference for the "classic" Kix over the "great new taste" Kix. Through the plenty of "not fair" incidents that followed, my mother tried to explain that unfair things happen sometimes, but I never accepted the idea of an unfair world and began to realize that there were a great many situations and conditions that were "not fair" to women. At age ten, I was mortified that all the boys in my Catechism class were signing up to be altar servers, but girls could not. When my grandmother told me that, at one time, because she was a woman, she was only allowed to touch the altar when she was cleaning it-the fight against the Catholic Church was on. Once again, I sat my bottom down in the chair (still with the phone book) and typed a letter to the Monsignor requesting to be trained as an altar server. With no immediate response, I respectfully but persistently harassed the Monsignor and the other priests every Sunday when I saw them in church, until, nearly two years later, I became an altar server. At age twelve I was almost too old to appreciate the new privilege, but there are girls becoming altar servers in that church to this day.Fighting against things "not fair" for women has been my goal throughout my education, just as it will be in my future, and I have had several unique opportunities toward this end.
I have worked two summers in a Sacramento, California, law firm for the managing partner, a brilliant litigator and a woman who really cares about justice, on two of the biggest cases of her career. I performed legal research relevant to the issues of spoliation and antitrust, and I directly assisted Ms. F with trial preparation, accompanying her to court during the trials. Under her guidance I have learned the inner workings of litigation, and I have seen that unfairness pervades all types of law. Having experienced litigation, I know the heavy work load that characterizes trial preparation and can safely say that I approach a legal career aware of its realities.
I have also participated in the [school] Center for American Politics and Public Policy (CAPPP) Quarter in Washington program, which allowed me to take classes at the [school] Center and intern at the National Women's Law Center in D.C. The Law Center showed me the public interest side of law, the area of law that I hope to enter in order to address the women's issues that are so important to me. Public interest offers the opportunity to help
women who need it the most, those who could not otherwise afford legal assistance and who are often victims of the "not fair," of violations of their civil rights.
My classes at [school] and through CAPPP, as well as my participation in the volunteer program at the [school] Women's Resource Center, have afforded me the chance to research issues of the "not fair" for women. Violence against women, an unfairness that maims and rapes and kills, has evolved into a special interest of mine that I hope to pursue through
future work in a sex crimes division in criminal prosecution. For two classes at [school] I have researched domestic violence and battered women who kill their abusers. While in Washington, D.C., I studied acquaintance rape among adolescents: after making an extensive review of the existing literature, I tried to conduct original research interviewing teenagers at a recreation center in Alexandria, Virginia.
Though at the last moment the recreation center directors did not authorize my project, I did discover a class called "Self-Defense is More than Karate" that was developed by the Office on Women in Alexandria to instruct high school students on relationships,HIV/AIDS, dating violence, and sexual assault. After I observed one week of the program, the Community Education Coordinator asked me to research how such education influences teens, interviewing students before and after they take the class, for the Office on Women. Currently, I seek a research grant from the [school] College Honors Program that would allow me to go back to D.C. in the spring to carry out this project.
Fighting the "not fair" is certainly a driving force for me; however, I have chosen to pursue law not only because I consider it to be a weapon against injustice, but also because it fascinates me. My love for the law echoes my love for literature. I participated in theater in high school and majored in English in college because I enjoy analyzing the subtleties, innuendos, and themes that serve as the foundation of a literary work or a dramatic performance. I strive to understand the stories behind the characters involved. I am awed by the power of language and the influence art and literature can have on the values, thoughts, and actions of the audience. So goes the influence on the law: they call it "courtroom drama" for a reason. Just as literature tells a story, so does each legal case, be it criminal or civil; the way in which the law applies to each case must be analyzed and, in some instances, constructed.Law reflects as much as it influences the beliefs of the people it governs.
Both law and literature are instruments of change. Furthermore, literature and law can give voice to people who have been traditionally silenced. Just as I love so much to hear the voices of others through literature, I want to use my voice in the realm of the law, calling out "not fair" for those who have not been heard. I want to have a positive influence on the lives of women and all people, be it in the civil or criminal realm, and in law school I hope to gain the tools to do just that.

二、為什麼有資格？

另一個主題是論述你的經驗和資格，這兩者是你進研究生院和成為你的研究領域一員並能為之做出貢獻所必須的。你的工作經驗或在自己領域的研究經驗總是你能提供的最好證據。如果你沒有這方面的經驗 ，那麼考慮你有什麼與之有關的其他經驗。這裏要遵循的規則是：有的話，就利用它。

研究領域的經驗

和你的研究領域有關的直接經驗是你的文章中要論述的最理想的經驗。這裏須記住的重要一點是你有什麼經驗，有多少經驗，都應該提到，不管你自己覺得多麼微不足道。以下提供的文章作為例子，它們的 作者分別是一位HIV的顧問（例2）和一位具有ER經驗的申請人（例3）寫的。他們都在申請醫學院。

研究經驗

千萬注意：不要只集中在你的研究題目，除非那是你的研究領域的標準做法，而且你必須把主要思想概括出來。過分依賴自己的研究，你的文章讀起來就會顯得枯燥乏味。注意不要濫用行話或專業術語。如 果那是你描寫自己的項目所必須，你當然別無選擇。但是在文章裏包含行話或專業術語只是因為你能夠這樣做，那是不會引起人家的興趣的。例如，這位申請人（例3），探討科技和醫學術語的使用，但又?肟廡┦跤錚俗愎壞氖奔浣沂舅約焊鋈說姆羌際跣緣囊幻妗?

不尋常的研究領域的經驗
即使你沒有正式的經驗，你可能還會有值得一提的研究領域方面的經驗。或許，你是個優秀的業餘天文學家，或者在你決定攻讀博士學位之前，幾年來你就一直在研究量子物理學。這位申請人（例4）描述?艘桓雋釗俗琶緣某曬適隆＞」蘢髡咼揮芯降難盜罰揮芯椋宜荒芴峁┮桓?5美元的Johnson & Johnson 藥箱，她被迫違反規定在洪都拉斯的一個村莊當了一個夏天的醫生。

例2：哈佛大學醫學院文章

注意：為了教學目的，該文發表時未加修改。
High School Teacher with AIDS; SCID/Genetics Research Experience; HIV Counselor Before I found out that my high school Spanish teacher was HIV-positive, AIDS was not much more than a bunch of statistics to me. The disease, its course, and the people afflicted with it seemed alien to my life-as distant as the continent from which the virus was supposed to have sprung. Then Mr. T. stopped coming to school. When he reappeared a few months later to wish us well on the advanced placement exam, his face looked sallow. His voice, once a thunderous bass that rumbled in class and reverberated down the hallway, was weak and thin. Seeing my teacher looking so unfamiliar was my shocking introduction to AIDS. I felt as if I were in the presence of a stranger, this mysterious disease, who was insulting Mr. T. right in front of my eyes. I wanted to know who this stranger was.
I entered college, believing that biology could explain to me why life's processes went awry. I learned that the body is exquisitely complex, but I was reassured by the underlying theme of systems. Even if I didn't know all the molecules and connections, there seemed no denying that a fundamental order existed.
From physiology to cell biology to molecular genetics, my classes presented smaller and smaller systems to explain the origins of diseases. Finally, in genes, with their innocuous four letter alphabet, I felt I was learning the foundation of it all. If biology provided the keys to understanding life, then genetics must be the master key (if only we could see some of the doors we were trying to open). During two summers in a research laboratory at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, I helped track down the gene causing X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID).
Even though AIDS and SCID are very different diseases (SCID is exclusively hereditary), each compromises the body's defense mechanisms against foreign pathogens. I felt this was a significant connection. In SCID, I was meeting a distant cousin of AIDS. Learning about common themes of immunodeficiency disorders, such as the perils of opportunistic infections, helped me to begin to understand what had happened to Mr. T. In the SCID laboratory, and in classroom seminars on infectious diseases, science was helping me demystify disease.
In the same year that Mr. T. became ill, my grandfather died during bypass surgery and my father underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment for colon cancer. Since then, disease has had a human face for me. To better understand how people deal with disease or the fear of disease, I've become a volunteer counselor in an HIV clinic.
Speaking to people who come in for free testing, I've found that discussing HIV, getting the scary words (and acronyms) out in the open, is a way for many people to release their anxiety. Through expression in their own words, they make the disease real, which helps them to see that it is also preventable. Then, they often take the next step, making specific goals to maintain their health, whether they are HIV-negative or positive. What science in class and lab did for me in confronting the difficult issues of AIDS, talk does for my clients.
As an HIV counselor in an anonymous clinic, I feel both the potential of my role and its limits. I can't go home with my clients to remind them to keep condoms under the bed, but I can help them make a plan-something that could stay with them much longer than the information I offer. At the end of one session, one client surprised me with his response to a question I had asked: "What do you think you'll do with the HIV information?" There was a silence in the counseling room as the client pondered, but I recall sensing the comfort of the silence. This was a session that seemed to be producing the potential for a breakthrough (not every session does), and I waited patiently. He responded, "I think I'll ask my girlfriend to use her own needles." Then, the client thanked me for having asked the question. I was thrown. My client proposed a strategy for reducing his HIV risk, but he didn't address what was likely his main issue-heroin use. Should I validate his plan? In effect, that's what I did, because I didn't challenge the drug issue. When he left the clinic, I practically wanted to follow him out the door. I wondered if I would ever see him again and be able to ask him how his plan was going. I wondered if he would ultimately seek help for his drug use. My supervisor reminded me that I had done my job as an HIV counselor. I had helped the client make a plan; he had even thanked me for it.
And I can thank him in return. He reminded me that although I have worked to understand disease in the classroom, the laboratory, and the clinic, I still have much to learn about caring for all aspects of a patient's health. I am eager to continue the learning process in the New Pathway Program at Harvard Medical School.

例3：哈佛大學醫學院文章

注意：為了教學目的，該文發表時未加修改。
Radiation Oncology Volunteer; Biochemical Lab Experience; Neurosurgery Research; ER Volunteer; English Language Tutor; Student Advisor; Community Service "Carl, the woman we're about to meet will receive her first palliative treatment today," said Dr. A., an Attending in Radiation Oncology. He continued to explain her case as we walked briskly down the hallways of the hospital. I followed him into the radiation treatment room to meet the
patient and learn about the procedure which, sadly, would not eradicate her disease. Since then, I have met with him weekly throughout this summer to learn about radiation oncology and medicine in general. Through experiences such as these, I have learned much about the profession of medicine. I want to become a physician for the intellectual challenges and rewards that come from helping others.
I first became interested in medical research by working in a biochemical engineering laboratory at MIT. For over two years I explored the medically related field, biotechnology. I have led experiments involving fermentation bioreactors and trained two inexperienced undergraduates. Recently, I presented a poster entitled "Effect of Antifoam during Filtration of Recombinant Bacterial Broth" at a New England Society for Industrial Microbiology colloquium. Enjoying the biomedical rather than engineering aspects of the work, I have shifted my career interests to medicine.Last summer, I expanded my interest in medicine by working for the Neurosurgery Department at Brigham and Women's Hospital. After a short training period, I worked independently on three research projects: Clonality analysis of schwannomas, clonality analysis of a multiple meningioma, and the loss of heterozygosity (LOH) screening of pituitary adenomas. I developed a strong interest in my work when I observed my mentor, Dr. Peter Black, remove brain tumors in the operating room. After the initial shock and amazement of seeing the exposed brain of a conscious patient, I thought more about the connections between this clinical work and my research. While my projects' objective was to gain a better understanding of tumors, the ultimate goal is to prevent and cure tumors to save human lives-the very people whom I had seen on the operating table! With this thought in mind, I found the motivation to complete the short-term objectives of my projects. I will be the second author of a paper, entitled "Clonality Analysis of Schwannomas," which will be submitted to Neurosurgery.
This summer, as a participant in NYU Medical Center's Summer Undergraduate Research Program (S.U.R.P.), I am learning even more about research and clinical medicine. In my work, I am determining the effect of the absence of the N-ras protooncogene on induced tumorigenesis. By conducting molecular oncology research for another summer, I have greatly expanded my knowledge and interest in the field. In addition, through my experiences in the Radiation Oncology Department with Dr. S., I clearly see the greater purpose of medical research beyond personal intellectual gratification. In the case of cancer and many other diseases, research is the only way to overcome the limitations of current clinical treatments.
I believe that one of the greatest joys and privileges of physicians are their abilities to directly aid and affect a community. While becoming interested in the science of medicine through research, I have explored human service to understand the art of medicine. When I volunteered in the Emergency Room of New England Medical Center during my sophomore year, many physicians impressed me with their sensitivity and compassion. When not assisting the hospital staff, I took every opportunity to comfort patients who felt scared and vulnerable. During that same year, I also tutored a middle-aged woman in English as a Second Language. It was challenging to teach her vocabulary and sentence structure since, initially, simple communication with her had been difficult. Helping her pass the high school equivalency exam made all of my efforts worthwhile. In addition, I have been an Associate Advisor for freshmen for the past two years. In this role, I have helped first year students adjust to college life. Not only have I played the role of academic mentor, but I have also become an intimate friend and personal tutor to my advisees. For my efforts, I won the annual Outstanding Associate Advisor Award.
Besides individual volunteering, I have taken the initiative to help the local community on a greater scale. As Community Service Chair for the Chinese Student's Club for the past two years, I established a new program to promote the interaction between MIT students and underprivileged teenagers. College students and children affiliated with a local community
organization, Boston Asian: Youth Essential Service, have become acquainted through regular activities. Through events such as a scavenger hunt and a hands-on introduction to the World Wide Web, MIT volunteers help teenagers learn about the opportunities available at college. Along with several other undergraduates, I have become further acquainted with the teens through individual tutoring. To establish this new service program, I have done intensive planning and budget management. I have refined rough, creative ideas into organized activities involving over twenty people. During the planning stages, I have worked closely with professional youth counselors, other MIT participants, and the teens. While my involvement in this program has been very demanding at times, seeing these teens learn and develop their interests has definitely made it worthwhile.
During college I have learned many things outside of lecture halls and libraries. In research labs, I have refined my intellectual curiosity and scientific thought processes. In the local community, I have developed my interpersonal skills and a greater understanding of others. Through it all, I have learned to treasure the simple pleasures of helping others. By becoming a physician, I will continue to develop and apply these personal attributes.

例4：杜克醫學院

注意：為了教學目的，該文發表時未加修改。
Survivor of Anorexia; Emergency Medical Technician Training; Clinic Experience; Medical Volunteer in Honduras; HIV Test Counselor I decided that I wanted to be a doctor sometime after my four month incarceration in Columbia Presbyterian Children's Hospital in the winter of 1986-87, as I struggled with anorexia nervosa. Through the maturation process that marked my recovery, I slowly came to realize that my pediatrician had saved my life-despite my valiant efforts to the contrary. Out of our individual stubborn wills was born a kind of mutual respect, and he is one of the people who make up my small collection of heroes.I admire doctors who understand both what is said and what is held back, who move comfortably around the world of the body, and who treat all patients with respect. I am lucky because a few of them have become my impromptu teachers, taking a little extra time to instruct me in anatomy, disease or courtesy. During my Emergency Medical Technician training, one of the emergency room doctors took me to radiology to point out the shadow of a fracture in a CT-scan and trusted me to hold a little girl's lip while he inserted sutures. The physicians in the Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid, Spain taught me to hear lung sounds and to feel an enlarged liver and spleen. They explained the social and medical difficulties associated with the management of pediatric AIDS until I understood the Spanish well enough to begin asking questions; then they answered them. I work now in the Mayfield Community Clinic, which provides primary care to members of the Spanish-speaking community near Stanford University. My job as a patient advocate involves taking histories, performing simple procedures and providing family planning and HIV counseling. I try to use the knowledge I have gained from class and practice to formulate the right set of questions to ask each patient, but I am constantly reminded of how much I have to learn. I look at a baby and notice its cute, pudgy toes. Dr. V. plays with it while conversing with its mother, and in less than a minute has noted its responsiveness, strength, and attachment to its parent, and checked its reflexes, color and hydration. Gingerly, I search for the tympanic membrane in the ears of a cooperative child and touch an infant's warm, soft belly, willing my hands to have a measure of Dr. V.'s competence.
I first felt the need to be competent regarding the human body when I volunteered with the Amigos de Las Americas program in the town of T. in Lempira, Honduras. The hospital available to the people of T. (at a day's ride in the bed of a truck) was "where one went to die," so my partner and I, with our basic first aid certifications and our $15 Johnson & Johnson kits, quickly became makeshift "doctors". The responsibility initially created a heady feeling; a distressed mother called on us to bandage the toe her eight-year-old son had accidentally sliced to the bone with his machete. I told him the story of Beauty and the Beast in broken Spanish while my partner and I soaked the dirt from his toe, and during the following week we watched him heal.
Then our foster-mother, who normally tended to the sick, told my partner and me to "check on the foot" of D. The gentle-eyed, sixty-five year old man lay on his bed, his leg encased in bloody bandages from mid-calf to toe. After performing surgery, the hospital had given him a bottle of injectable antibiotics and some clean needles and sent him home without bandages or further instructions. My partner and I had not been trained to handle so serious a situation. We did not know what had happened; we did not know what the antibiotics were (or if they were actually antibiotics); we did not know if handling D.'s blood put us at risk for disease. We wanted to leave, but leaving the house meant leaving D. and betraying our foster-mother's trust. So we injected the antibiotics and cleaned and
bandaged the wound every day for our remaining two weeks in Honduras although we felt ill-equipped for the responsibility, crippled by our ignorance and lack of supplies.
In T., I did not feel qualified to receive the trust the townspeople gave so willingly. As an HIV-antibody test counselor in California, I struggle everyday to win my clients' confidence. Somehow a twenty-one-year-old, Caucasian female must be sincere, knowledgeable and open enough to earn the respect of a fifty-five-year-old man who could be her father, a high school sophomore, an ex-drug addict, and a pregnant Latina woman. My clients are black, white, straight, gay, Ph.D. candidates and illiterate; some choose to come to me while others have court-orders. Yet to communicate effectively, each client must have enough confidence in me to engage in dialogue about his drug or sex life and to believe what I tell him, whether or not he chooses to act on our discussion.
Speaking with patients, doctors and community members has opened my eyes to some of the difficulties involved with healthcare provision, and I hope I have given some inspiration or comfort in exchange for the knowledge I have received. I want these lessons in openness and compassion to shape my understanding of medicine and allow me to become the type of doctor I admire.

三、為什麼你會獨特，與人不同，比別人優秀？

從“與人不同”這個意義上說，例如，如果你是個年紀較大的申請人，是個少數民族，外國學生，運動員或音樂家，殘疾人，或具有不尋常的學術或職業背景，利用從對你有利的這個角度，說明你的特別的 背景將會給該學院和你申請的領域帶來的好處。例如，對外國學生來說，一個有趣的題目可能是談論這個國家的教育制度如何不同，為什麼他們寧願選擇它而不想在自己的國家和/或用自己的語言學習。

但是，必須注意，在許多情況下，玩不同的牌倒會得到適得其反的結果。

如果你是個“多樣性”的學生，當然就利用這一點。但不要為了多樣而多樣而反復地提，也不要認為由於“不同”本身就夠你被錄取。那樣會使得我們覺得自己在被玩弄，同時也可能說明你不知道如何利用 一次好的機會。只有那些能證明有重大殘疾的人才應該寫進文章裏。我是說不是目前流行的診斷過分的殘疾 du jour，在我的時代，這叫ADD。

其中的訣竅是把你的多樣性與你的動機或品質，或你能給班級帶來什麼緊緊地結合起來。如果你不能做到，那你可能只是簡單地提一提你與眾不同的特點、背景或才能，而不是把它作為重點。這可是一個很 有效的方法，因為它說明你對自己的條件和能力有信心，而且相信這些條件和能力會起作用。這就好象你只提到你是個盲人，或是從戰爭蹂躪的國家逃出的難民，或是一位提琴鑒賞家，但這些是為了在你那 幅已經十分迷人的多彩的肖像上增加效果。

然而，有些申請人的問題正好相反。他們覺得強調自己與別人的差異很不自然。例如，職業換景員或年紀較大的申請人，有時覺得把自己的經歷寫進文章不一定保險，認為他們這樣只能使別人注意到自己的 大部分經歷都在別的領域。如果你也象這樣的話，不要忘記你過去的經驗給你一個獨特的觀察問題的方法，因此你可以用你的文章把這個變成有利的一面，而不是不利的條件。還有一種選擇，你可以取其相 同點而不是不同面，通過對你目前工作領域所需要的技能和你將來在研究生院所需要的技能進行比較，使你的不同的職業經驗變得有關了。這位作者（例5）就學習英國文學和當美國公民自由聯盟志願者的?榻辛吮冉稀?

例5：美國公民自由聯盟（ACLU）志願者

注意：為了教學目的，該文發表時未加修改。
When I began volunteering at the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, I was a doctoral candidate in English literature, a budding scholar of the early novel. By the time I stopped volunteering ten months later, I had learned that I wanted to become a litigator, a lawyer who brought his political beliefs and persuasive writing to bear on some of the most important social issues of the day. My experiences at the A.C.L.U. opened my eyes not only to the complexity and urgency of impassioned legal work but also to my own professional aspirations.
Under the supervision of the A.C.L.U.'s generous and busy legal director, I was quickly exposed to many aspects of practical lawyering. My first job-assessing and responding to the organization's voluminous mail-required me to analyze the fact patterns that various correspondents presented. The many incoming accounts of police brutality, judicial indifference, and prison rape were often moving and frequently suspect. They forced me to temper my emotional responses and determine whether the complaints seemed both factually plausible and within the A.C.L.U.'s limited purview. After this challenging introduction, I was then asked to assist in the discovery phase of a prisoner's rights case. This work was detailed and intricate: my job was to reconstruct the specific events of a day in 1991 while searching for conflicts between the prison's official regulations and the actual conduct of its guards. As I called Michigan prisons for information, sifted through ten years of our client's prison records, and helped endlessly revise our pleadings, I learned a good deal about the small chores and thankless legal persistence that go into building cases.
At the same time, I found considerable overlap between my new legal tasks and my ongoing academic work. In an A.C.L.U. case I assisted in, for example, a judge overturned a state ban on partial birth abortion because the procedure had no precise meaning in the graduate lexicon, and the legislation might thus chill a wide variety of graduate practices. What fascinated me was that when confronted with the task of interpreting a knotty and important text, the twentieth-century legal system made many of the same interpretive moves as the eighteenth-century novel readers I had studied in my English graduate work. As the case unfolded, the pleadings debated the legislators' authorial intentions; the relevant Supreme Court and Sixth Circuit precedents; the contradictory testimony of various graduate experts; and, finally, the language of the statute itself. Like my eighteenth-century readers, modern textual interpreters were attempting to make sense of a silent, ambiguous document by finding ways to situate it within different historical, intertextual, and linguistic contexts. While particular interpretive conventions have changed over the centuries-modern lawyers cite prior cases and not Biblical parables to bolster their arguments-I came to realize that the broader task of comprehending texts (whether artistic expression or legislation) has not. Moreover, as I roamed through the stacks of Michigan's graduate and law libraries, I increasingly began to believe that it is precisely through interpretation, through embracing particular readings of Robinson Crusoe over others or through fighting over the legal standing of terms such as "partial birth bortion" that a society obliquely expresses its priorities and values as well as its blind spots.
I began making these connections partly because my work on the prisoner's rights case had forced me to question my own values and unspoken assumptions. Was I being co-opted by working on behalf of an unrepentant racist and murderer who complained at having some writings and a swastika confiscated by prison officials? Or was I defending the rights of future prisoners who might be writing less like our client and more like John Bunyan, Henry David Thoreau, or Martin Luther King, Jr.? Had I succumbed to the knee-jerk First Amendment absolutism that the A.C.L.U. is sometimes accused of? I thought I knew what public policy I supported but I became sorely aware of my legal ignorance: much as I needed to do so, I felt ill-equipped to objectively assess and synthesize the various judicial precedents that pertained to the case. Although I was frustrated by my uncertainties and limited knowledge, I found myself increasingly excited by the questions I was trying to ask. By the time I finally threw myself into the bittersweet task of assisting a murderer, I had learned both how little I knew of the law and how much I valued the nuanced, committed defense of civil liberties.
My volunteer work left me wanting to do more in the legal sphere. While the law may be too ungainly and inefficient a vehicle to directly change the world, it offers a unique opportunity to help influence people's interpretation of their world. With the knowledge and skills imparted by a legal education, I hope to get back to crafting public arguments over abortion, prisoners' rights, Internet expression, and other defining issues of our day.

四、等候者信件

如果你最近被列入“等候者”名單，要有信心：你還有機會。然而，有很多被列入等候者名單的申請人以為離開等候名單的唯一辦法只有等待。如果學院沒有再提出特別具體的意見，那麼你應該繼續與學院 保持聯繫，反復重申你的興趣，並把任何可增加你的機會的新內容補充進去。

學校要錄取的是那些要來上學的人，對在等候名單上的候選者特別是如此。有許多待選者已經決定上另外一所學校，但還有其他人，他們拼命地想上他們在等待的那所學校。錄取官員只能根據你在被列入等 候名單後所表明的興趣程度來區分這兩組人。

你應寫一封簡短的等候被錄取的信，信中你要：

1．表示你對上該學校的興趣。你應感謝他們對你的關心，但不要提及你對沒被接受感到失望。你還可以讓他們知道這是你首選的學校。在這個階段，他們會相信你的話，因為如果不是你的首選學校，你不?岱研娜バ湊餛魑摹?

2．提及能感動錄取委員會的有關你的最新的成績/活動。或許，你的GPA分值提高了，或者你成功地領導了一個商業小組。或許你當了“大哥哥”志願者或開辦了個企業。提及這些只能有助於你的例子。如?愕惱夥獾群蟣宦既〉男龐肽愕諞黃鋈松饗嘁恢碌幕埃鎦岣蟆Ｂ既」僭苯匭縷攔濫愕惱鏨昵耄緩蠼郵苣愣涯憒擁群蠣トサ簟?

3．認識到學校沒錄取你不只為了一個原因。你之所以被放在等候名單上，是因為他們在你的申請書上看到一些小弱點。或許你的考試分數不高，或課外活動不多。不要提你的弱點，要提那些能增加你申請?櫚姆至亢拖強煽吹眉娜醯恪?

4．讓他們知道你對上他們學校是認真的，而且能夠提供其他補充資訊，諮詢人，等。

無論你寫什麼，你的信不要長於一頁半。那些錄取官員要讀數以千計的作文，他們不想在等候者的信中看到重複的資訊。每三、四個星期發一封信，而每次再放進一封力度大的推薦信則不會有壞處。

五、轉學學生的文章

對轉學文章的建議 （E. Whitney Soule, 康乃狄格格學院轉學錄取部主任）

從一個學校轉到另一個學校是既競爭又複雜的。甚至在學生想到諸如可轉的學分、住房及經濟補助等問題之前，他/她就必須被錄取。

和申請入學的新生一樣，轉學的學生也為一個學院或大學的有限名額而競爭。顯然，你需要遞交可靠的學術性證書。但是，多數大學將要求寫一篇文章，說明你要轉學的原因。如果寫得好，該文章可能成為 轉學學生的最有力和最能說服人的申請書的一部分。

錄取官員每年要審讀成百，有時是成千份的申請書，並且必須在審讀的一刻根據所提供的資料迅速作出決定。他們在考慮轉學申請時會特別敏感。畢竟，那個學生已經通過一次申請和錄取過程（有時甚至二 次！），而一個錄取官員需要弄清下一個著陸點是永久的。

既然錄取官員不太可能有時間給申請人打電話，詢問更多的資訊，問題的答案經常是通過對申請書中現有的資料的推斷得來的。因此，申請人必須預料到錄取委員會可能問的問題，然後在文章中給予回答。

毫無例外，轉學學生有特殊的實際的理由要離開一所大學而轉到另一所大學。而每一個錄取委員會也需要有個解釋。適當而且重要的做法是：申請轉學者能夠清楚說明他選擇第一所學校的理由，為什麼那所 學校不再適合他，為什麼另一所學校會更好。

例如，如果某個學生寫了一篇解釋他要從大學A轉到學院B的簡短文章，“因為學院B較小，而且在東海岸”，錄取委員會可能理解為該學生喜歡較小的班級，想家，本科生人多，等等。然而，如果該學生詳?傅奈惱攏得魎聰膁系奈揮諼韃康哪撬蟮拇笱綰尾輝偈屎希蛭г築的新的科學設備激起了他研究海洋生物的熱情。錄取委員會會相信他尋求轉學的動機。

毫無疑問，如果申請人的證書有明顯的不一致，他也必須在文章中將這些講清楚。對某一個學生來說，問題可能與GPA的莫名其妙的減低有關，而對另一個學生來說，問題可能與他的專業或他的專注有關。

遺憾的是，關於轉學的最後期限、申請書的要求、錄取的規則、以及轉學分的評估等，各個學院和大學都不太一致。但是，所有的學生都應該解釋自己的詳情和選擇，而且通常是通過寫一、二篇文章。轉學 文章是給學生說實話、接觸問題實質以及有把握為之辯護的一個機會。

E. Whitney Soule
錄取部副主任
轉學錄取處主任
康涅狄格學院

六、一般作文題目

《大學作文輔助教程》和《商學院作文輔助教程》內有許多具體問題的建議。如果你面臨的一個這裏沒覆蓋到的有關具體的個人聲明的題目，請你參考其他教程。