Imagine two applicants vying for a job neither has held before, perhaps running a sales team.
The first candidate spends the interview gushing about how much she wants the position, why she loves sales and loves this company. Her delivery is polished and she makes a great impression.
The second candidate also explains why she wants the position. However, she focuses more on what she will contribute to the team: her skills and experiences that will help the company grow and succeed, as well as her goals for the position.
Which candidate gets the job?
Even if the first candidate wants the job more and chooses her words more carefully, I think most people would agree that the second candidate makes a better argument. In filling a key position, a business must focus on its bottom line.
Likewise, law school admissions officers are looking to build a diverse and balanced class of outstanding candidates. They want to know you are committed to law school, and they often ask about your particular interest in their school. But what they most want to hear is what sets you apart.
[Related:How to Write a ‘Why This Law School’ Essay]
Your personal statement and optional essays are your chance to pitch yourself as a candidate. You should write and edit them as well as you can, but it’s most important to start with the right argument.
As a law school admissions coach, I often see personal statements that are sincere and expressive but still fail to achieve this purpose. Putting work into coming up with the best ideas for the essay is the surest way to avoid this fate, saving time in the long run.
Begin With Stories
Experience matters. If you lack legal experience or even come from an unconventional background, think about times when you’ve acted like a lawyer would.
No, this does not mean times when you argued with your parents as a kid. Lawyers are not just stubborn arguers. More legal career paths value reaching agreement over winning in court.
Lawyers are professionals who solve problems, serve others and get challenging work done under pressure. Think about the times you’ve shown these qualities.
If you have specific career goals in mind, think about how you can connect your experiences to those goals or how your experiences have shown the skills essential to success in that field.
[READ: 9 Law School Application Mistakes to Avoid]
Get Writing
As ideas for the stories you might tell come to mind, try sketching them out. It’s often hard to evaluate the viability of a topic until you have started working with it.
Which of your stories seem most compelling for a reader? Which ones say the most about you? Which ones are easiest to convey succinctly?
The best stories often are ones in which you’ve acted decisively, thoughtfully or even courageously, regardless of the circumstances or results.
Start Anywhere
Sometimes the perfect way to open an essay is clear. More often, it isn’t so intuitive. Too many applicants get hung up on honing a perfect introduction to the essay, causing writer’s block.
In my experience, the opening of an admissions essay is the part that’s most likely to change throughout the writing process. So don’t get too attached to your first idea, and don’t assume this is the part you must nail down first.
If it helps, leave a placeholder and start in the body of the essay, where the story truly takes off and you get to the things you most want to say.
[READ: 7 Deciding Factors in Law School Admissions]
Don’t Worry About Wording
Try not to judge your writing itself — there will be plenty of time ahead to revise. Focus on the substance rather than the style.
The only draft that matters is the one you submit to law schools. Just as you need to get comfortable with wrong answers to excel on the LSAT, you have to be OK with missteps on your path to your best work.
Put Objections Aside
The kind of people who become lawyers tend to be good at perceiving risks and finding faults. As helpful as this will one day be for your clients, don’t let it stunt your writing process.
For example, it is better to express humility than arrogance. But this is a concern for later in the writing process. Instead of rejecting an idea outright because it sounds too self-centered, try writing it out and seeing how you can reframe it.
Following this advice will not lead you to a finished essay, but it will give you a viable draft to work with. It may take many drafts over several weeks to hone your pitch to law schools. To get there, you have to start somewhere.
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How to Start Writing a Law School Application Essay originally appeared on usnews.com
