Purdue OWL: Writing for Your Application
Purdue OWL: Writing for Your Application is a Purdue Online Writing Lab resource that helps students prepare written materials for graduate school, professional school, academic, and job-related applications. Purdue OWL provides guidance on application writing, including how to prepare personal statements, teaching philosophy statements, employment documents, and other materials that may be required during an application process.
The Purdue OWL application writing section includes resources on:
- Writing a personal statement
- Writing a statement of teaching philosophy
- Tailoring employment documents for a specific audience
- Understanding job search terms for international students
- Using a job skills checklist
- Choosing action verbs for resumes, cover letters, and other employment documents
- Reviewing example employment documents
✍ Writing the Personal Statement
The personal statement is an applicant’s opportunity to present themselves clearly and persuasively during the application process. Purdue OWL explains that personal statements often fall into two categories: a general personal statement that gives the applicant more freedom, or a response to specific application questions. Students applying to graduate school, law school, medical school, or other programs may use this resource to understand how to tell their story and connect their experiences to their goals.
Purdue OWL encourages students to ask themselves questions such as:
- What is special, unique, distinctive, or impressive about your life story?
- What people, events, challenges, or experiences have shaped your goals?
- When did you become interested in this field?
- What have you learned through classes, readings, work, research, seminars, or conversations with professionals?
- What are your career goals?
- Are there academic gaps or discrepancies that should be explained?
- What obstacles or hardships have you overcome?
- What personal characteristics, skills, or experiences would help you succeed?
- Why would you be a strong candidate for the program or profession?
- The guide also recommends answering the specific question being asked, telling a clear story, using concrete examples, finding an angle or hook, focusing carefully on the opening paragraph, showing knowledge of the field, researching programs when needed, proofreading carefully, following word limits, and avoiding clichés.
✍Writing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy
Purdue OWL also provides guidance for applicants who need to write a statement of teaching philosophy, sometimes called a teaching statement. This type of document is often required for academic or educational jobs and explains a teacher’s beliefs about teaching, learning, and classroom practice.
A strong teaching statement should explain what the teacher believes, what the teacher does in the classroom, and why those practices reflect their values. Purdue OWL recommends using specific examples rather than broad or generic claims. The statement should connect teaching values to actual teaching methods, assignments, classroom activities, assessment practices, and inclusive learning environments.
A teaching philosophy statement may discuss:
- Beliefs and values about education, learning, and teaching
- Goals for students
- How readings, activities, discussions, and assignments support those goals
- How student work is evaluated or assessed
- How the instructor creates an inclusive classroom environment
- How teaching practices connect to larger educational values
Students can use this resource to draft stronger, more specific application materials and to better understand how their experiences, goals, values, and writing choices affect the strength of an application.
Source: The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2025, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl. Accessed May 2025.
