The English guide to grammar when writing a personal statement, cover letter or CV

Whether you’re applying for a university course or a job, you need to make sure you’re presenting yourself in a professional way. Not all of your qualifications or employment history will be relevant, but if your personal statement or cover letters and CVs are organised and well written, you’re more likely to get that interview.

Here’s our English guide to grammar and writing so you can impress your potential employers or university admission team.  

If you’re not sure what these terms mean, here’s a quick reminder... 

Personal statement: This is a short essay you write about yourself for the university admissions team. Its purpose is to show you’re the perfect candidate for the course you want to study. If you’re applying through UCAS (undergraduate, teaching, medicine etc) then you’ll be able to focus on why you want to study that course, but not the university.

CV: This is a document that showcases your skills, education and work experience when applying for job roles. Potential employers will look at it, so it has to be professional and easy to read. Some employers will request a personal statement as part of the application and some admission teams will request CVs for postgraduate courses and PhD applications. 

Cover letter: This is written to accompany your CV. You should include your most relevant work experience and skills for the role you’re applying for. Additionally it's just as important you include your motivation for the role and the place of work.

Why do I need to use the correct grammar when writing?

How your personal statement, cover letter or CV is written says a lot about your abilities, personality and professionalism. It’s the first impression a potential employer or admission team has of your qualifications and abilities. 

A document which is well researched, well written and does not include any spelling or grammar errors demonstrates good attention to detail, accuracy and an interest in the employer/role/course/university.

If you're claiming to be perfect at anything, for example, a spelling mistake such as "attention to detial" can put this statement at risk. Are you really perfect if you've not noticed and corrected this error? 

As well as this, spelling and grammatical errors give the person reading the impression that you weren't really interested in the job because you weren’t motivated enough to spend a few seconds proofreading before pressing send.

There are also certain word choices, such as the use of slang (informal language), that can make your writing seem less professional. 

This is just general advice for writing any of these documents. You can read more about the specifics below. 

How do I make sure my personal statement is the best it can be?

When writing a personal statement for undergraduate courses, you should cover the reasons why you’re a suitable choice for studying the course you’ve applied for. Here are some other tips.  

• be aware of your character limit - you only have 4,000 characters and 47 lines to use. So, plan which key points you’ll cover to show the university admissions teams that you’re the ideal candidate
• make sure your personal statement has a memorable ending. It’s important the admissions teams remember why they need you at their university, studying one of their courses
• don’t be tempted to copy a personal statement from online or your classmates. Plagiarism is a serious issue. UCAS has software to screen applications and if you're caught plagiarising, your application may be cancelled by UCAS, so don't risk it.

These are just a few tips for your personal statement, you can take a look at this blog for more information on writing it here.

How can I write a CV that impresses potential employers?

CVs are one of the first things potential employers see so you need to make a good impression. The easier your CV is to read, the better. Here are some other tips.

• your CV should never be longer than two A4 pages. However, for any PhD students, CVs for academic posts are regularly and normally expected to be longer than two pages
• focus on your most relevant experience. For example, if you’re writing a CV for a role at a big corporation, highlight all your business experience. For example, if you're applying for a marketing role include any related marketing experience you have, this could be paid or unpaid experience from internships, work shadowing and societies
• include a personal branding statement which showcases your best talents in just a couple of sentences at the top of the page
• regularly update your CV with your most recent achievements 
• try to include evidence for your achievements. For example, if you have experience in leading teams and you took part in a big project where you led a group of people, write about how you demonstrated leadership
  
  

Not only is the way you write your CV important, but the way you format it is too. Simple formats work best and are easier to read, so make sure the layout is uncomplicated. 

How can I make my cover letter professional? 

Cover letters work with your CV to give potential employers the best possible impression of you. This is the place to really show your skills and achievements and motivation for the role and work place. They’re just as important as the CV itself.

Here are some other tips.

• never use generic greetings like “to whom it may concern”. If you know who’s going to read your CV then address it to them. It shows you've made the effort to research the company and aren't just sending the same cover letter to several different employers. However, if you can’t find a personal name, you should use ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ instead
• use the cover letter to add extra information about yourself. Don’t just repeat your CV. Instead use your cover letter to summarise the key selling points from your CV which demonstrate what you have that the employer is looking for
• provide lots of details on your most relevant roles and less information on roles that won’t assist your application for this job
• don’t make the mistake of only focusing on your educational background - you also need to talk about work experiences, volunteering, extra-curricular activities and internships too. This helps your potential employer know you have working experience
• when you don’t meet all of the job requirements, it’s tempting to use phrases like “while I may not have direct experience working in finance…”. However, instead of drawing attention to your weaknesses, talk about the strengths and transferable skills you do have
• cover letters are a great way to show that you understand the culture of the company. Spending some time reading over the company website can give you a good idea of what kind of personalities they're looking for. You can use this knowledge to tailor your cover letter

General tips for writing

You might already have a good understanding of the English language, but everybody can benefit from these simple tips for writing:

• spell-checking tools like Grammarly are great for smaller mistakes but it’s important to get it checked by friends, family, teachers or Careers Service. They might be able to spot errors that you or Grammarly didn't
• these documents are all about you. However we discourage excessive use of first person words like ‘I’, ‘Me’ and ‘My’ when talking about yourself. Make sure you only do so sparingly, otherwise it can get repetitive
• tailor your copy to the job or course requirements and say what skills you have to succeed in the role or the course
• write your first draft on a word processor, such as Microsoft Word or Google Documents, so you can edit it more easily
• avoid complicated vocabulary or technical terminology if you can think of a simpler alternative. For example, using ‘assiduous’ when ‘hardworking’ works fine. A PhD applicant might use technical terms in an application that’s going to be read by somebody in the field, whereas someone applying for a graduate scheme which is going to a gen

Spelling and grammar are very important when it comes to personal statements, cover letters and CVS. After all, these documents are the first things a university admissions team or potential employer will have of your skills and experience. Errors can put your application at risk, making you seem unprofessional and uninterested in the course or job you’re applying for. 

Now you have all the knowledge and tips to write everything you need to develop your future career, it’s time to get started. 

Get ready with our guide to personal statements, CVs and working life

At Newcastle University, we can support you with everything career-related, but there are certain things like interviews and securing a job in the UK that you need to do yourself. Don’t worry, you can always ask our Careers Team for advice. They can help with everything from CVs to job applications and are a part of the university.

We’ve also created a useful guide that might help. Download it below for tips when it comes to CVs and working life.