There are lots of things you can write about in your law school personal statements, so here are 10 tips to narrow down your topics and get the most out of those 2 pages.

1. Identify what they are asking for. Any topic that doesn’t answer their prompt should stay in the drafts folder. Different schools can ask for different things. If you’re not sure what they’re asking for (some of the prompts are poorly worded), or the essay prompt is so open ended that it becomes paralyzing (that’s also bad prompt writing on their part), move to step 2.
   

2. What are the 5 most important qualities about you that an admissions officer needs to know in order to understand you on a very fundamental level? Write them down and keep that list in front of you as you brainstorm. You’re painting a picture of yourself through words, so keep the most important words or themes in front of you.
   

3. Personal topic: Is this story meaningful to you? Do you have something interesting to say about it (“so what?”)? Can you do it justice in 2-3 pages? If you can’t answer yes to each of those three prongs, it’s not the right topic.
   

4. Personal essay structure: Tell a story (does it have a beginning, a middle, and an end?). Build a narrative arc (how has your world changed between the beginning of the essay and the end?). Read the first paragraph in isolation (would you want to keep reading?).
   

5. Professional essay topic (why law?): Have a 40,000 foot view of your career goals. Does your essay help the admissions officer understand “Why law school? Why now?” Do you have fire in the belly? What problems do you want to solve with the benefit of your law degree? Get specific. “Effect positive change” is not compelling or specific enough, and it’s hard to squeeze two pages out of generic sounding motivations.
   

6. Professional essay structure: Does each paragraph build logically on the previous one? Do you have a track record to support your stated goals? If you talk about wanting to effect positive change, can you back it up? Why do you need a law degree in particular to do that? (There are lots of ways you can do good in the world without a law degree, so what’s so special about a law degree for your goals?)
   

7. Ditch the term paper structure altogether (an introduction that summarizes your argument, followed by 4-5 supporting paragraphs, followed by a conclusion that re-summarizes your argument). Drive a stake through that structure until it is dead. The term paper structure is six kinds of awful for a narrative style of writing.
   

8. Pay attention to good writing. Lawyers have to write well to be taken seriously get ahead. That means grammar, word choice, simplicity, syntax, spelling, punctuation. All the basics.
   

9. Keep it positive. Explain blemishes or dings in an addendum, not in your main essay, and then only if an addendum would add value. Not every bump in the road merits an extra, unsolicited essay that will require more effort from admissions officers.
   

10. Keep the focus on you. You’re not writing a position paper or a policy analysis.