Writing Your Personal Statement for a Narrative CV

Your Personal Statement is possibly the most challenging part of a narrative CV. In just 2-3 sentences,¹ you need to convey your research identity, your approach, and why you’re the right person for the funding 😳 It’s not a mini-biography or a list of achievements — you’re distilling your overarching research narrative.

How on earth do you compress your entire career into a few sentences?

In this post, I’ll guide you through the process of clarifying your research identity and crafting a Personal Statement that accurately and authentically represents who you are as an academic researcher.

What Makes a Strong Personal Statement?

A strong Personal Statement for a narrative CV:

• Articulates your research identity - not just what you do, but who you are as a researcher.
• Conveys your distinctive approach - what makes your perspective unique.
• Connects to all four modules - showcases the breadth of your contributions.
• Feels authentic - uses your voice, not generic academic language.
• Makes an impression - is memorable to the review panel.

Finding Your Research Identity

🧶 Before you can write your Personal Statement, you need to identify your research identity, or the thread that connects everything you do.

Exercise 1: Complete these sentences

Write quick, instinctive responses. Don’t overthink it at this stage:

• The problems that motivate my research are…
• I’m known among colleagues for…
• If I could change one thing about my field, it would be…
• The word that appears most often in my work is…
• My research approach differs from others because…

Exercise 2: Look for patterns in your modules

Review the examples you’ve gathered for your four modules. Ask yourself:

• What values keep appearing? (e.g., collaboration, accessibility, innovation, equity)
• What kinds of problems do you gravitate toward?
• What’s your characteristic way of approaching challenges?
• Who benefits from your work most often?

Exercise 3: Ask colleagues

Sometimes others see our patterns more clearly than we do. Ask 2-3 colleagues who know your work well: “If you had to describe my research in one sentence, what would you say?”

Their answers might reveal your distinctive contribution.

Start Long, then Edit

Don’t try to write the 2-3 sentence version first. Start long and then distil it down.

Use the OCAR framework to structure your story.

Step 1: Draft the full OCAR version (3-4 paragraphs)

Write out your complete research narrative:

• Opening: What problem or situation has motivated your career?
• Challenge: What question or need have you been addressing?
• Action: How have you pursued this across your four areas of contribution?
• Resolution: What has been the impact of your contribution so far? What’s the next step?

Don’t worry about length yet. Just get the full story down.

Step 2: Condense to key points (1 paragraph, ~100 words)

Now identify the absolute essentials:

• Your core commitment/motivation (from Opening).
• Your distinctive approach (from Challenge/Action).
• The breadth of your contributions (acknowledging all modules).

Step 3: Refine to 2-3 sentences (~50 words)

This is the hardest edit. Every word must earn its place. You’re aiming for:

• Sentence 1: Your research identity and core commitment.
• Sentence 2: What you actually do (spanning your four modules)
• Sentence 3: Your impact or unique approach.

Example progression:

Full OCAR version (320 words):

“Throughout my career in applied theatre, I’ve witnessed how mainstream performance spaces and practices often exclude marginalised communities — whether through physical barriers, cultural assumptions, or economic constraints - that make participation feel inaccessible or irrelevant. This systemic exclusion means that theatre, which should be a democratic art form, instead reinforces existing inequalities.

How could I develop and advocate for theatre practices that genuinely center the experiences, needs, and creative agency of communities who have been historically excluded from arts participation? This question has driven my work across multiple dimensions.

I have pursued this through interconnected approaches: developing participatory methods that prioritise accessibility, such as visual devising frameworks for Deaf participants (Module 1); creating partnerships with community organisations to bring theatre to underserved populations (Module 4); mentoring early career practitioners in inclusive approaches (Module 2); and advocating within professional networks for more equitable practices in how we organise, document, and share applied theatre work (Module 3).

This sustained commitment to inclusive practice has shaped every aspect of my work, from the methods I develop, to the communities I partner with, to how I contribute to building a more equitable applied theatre sector. These efforts position me to lead projects that require exactly this combination of practice-based innovation, community partnership skills, and commitment to centring marginalised voices.”

Condensed version (48 words):

“Applied theatre practitioner-researcher committed to creating inclusive performance spaces where marginalised voices are heard and valued. I lead participatory projects that centre community experiences, advocate for accessible theatre practices, and contribute to building a more equitable arts sector.”

Notice what stayed and what was deleted:

• ✅ Kept: Core identity, commitment to inclusion, what you actually do.
• ❌ Cut: Detailed context, all the “how” details, specific module references, project positioning.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Being too generic

❌ “Experienced researcher interested in improving health outcomes through innovative methods.”

This could describe thousands of researchers. What’s your distinctive approach?

✅ “Health services researcher committed to translating complex data into actionable insights in under-resourced primary care settings.”

Mistake 2: Listing activities instead of articulating identity

❌ “I conduct research, supervise PhD students, sit on editorial boards, and engage with policymakers.”

This is a to-do list, not an identity.

✅ “Interdisciplinary researcher bridging academic rigour and policy development to address health inequalities.”

Mistake 3: Using jargon or overly academic language

❌ “My research interrogates the epistemological frameworks underpinning methodological approaches to data synthesis.”

Save the jargon for your papers. Your Personal Statement should be clear to reviewers from any discipline.

✅ “I develop methods that help researchers synthesise evidence from diverse sources to answer complex questions.”

Mistake 4: Being too modest

❌ “I try to contribute to making research more accessible where possible.”

“Try to” and “where possible” undermine your authority and suggest you’re not making a difference.

✅ “I deliver tools and training that democratise access to advanced research methods.”

Mistake 5: Not showcasing the breadth of your work

❌ “Molecular biologist studying protein folding mechanisms.”

This only hints at Module 1. What about your other contributions?

✅ “Molecular biologist investigating protein folding while building collaborative research networks and training the next generation of structural biologists.”

Mistake 6: Looking backward instead of forward

❌ “Over the past 15 years, I have developed expertise in…”

Your Personal Statement should feel current and forward-looking.

✅ “I develop…” or “I am committed to…” (present tense suggests ongoing work).

Testing Your Personal Statement

Once you’ve drafted your Personal Statement, test it:

The authenticity test:

• Does this sound like you, or like generic academic speak?
• Would your colleagues recognise you in this description? 🥸
• Could you confidently say this out loud when introducing yourself?

The specificity test:

• Could this apply to hundreds of other researchers, or is it distinctively yours?
• Does it indicate your unique perspective or approach?

The comprehensiveness test:

• Does it showcase multiple areas of contribution, not just your research outputs?
• Could someone reading only this sentence understand the breadth of what you do?

The relevance test:

• Does it connect to the funder’s priorities?
• Does it position you for the type of project you’re proposing?

If your statement fails any of these tests, go back and revise it.

Adapting for Different Applications

Your core research identity stays consistent, but you’ll adjust the emphasis for different funders:

Original version:

“Applied theatre practitioner-researcher committed to creating inclusive performance spaces where marginalised voices are heard and valued. I lead participatory projects that center community experiences, advocate for accessible theatre practices, and contribute to building a more equitable arts sector.”

For a community engagement-focused funder:

“Applied theatre practitioner-researcher committed to co-creating performance with marginalised communities whose voices are often excluded from mainstream arts. I lead participatory projects rooted in community knowledge, build sustainable partnerships, and advocate for equitable arts practices.”

For a methods/innovation-focused funder:

“Applied theatre practitioner-researcher developing innovative participatory methods that centre accessibility and community agency. I create frameworks for inclusive practice, document and share methodologies, and contribute to building evidence-informed approaches in applied theatre.”

💡 Same core identity, different emphasis.

The Relationship to Your Full Narrative

Your Personal Statement is the most compressed version of your nested OCAR structure:

• CV level (Personal Statement): 2-3 sentences.
• Module level: 1 paragraph per module connecting examples.
• Individual level: Full narratives for each contribution.

The Personal Statement should emerge naturally from your module-level narratives, not exist in isolation. If you’re struggling, return to your modules and seek the common thread.

Next Steps

1. Complete the exercises to identify your research identity.
2. Draft your full OCAR version (don’t start with the short version!)
3. Condense progressively, testing at each stage - for more guidance, take a look at this post on strengthening the language in your narrative CV.
4. Review the annotated narrative CV example to see a Personal Statement in context.
5. Read Using OCAR at Three Levels to understand how your Personal Statement connects to your full narrative.

Your Personal Statement is difficult to write because it requires extensive self-reflection and ruthless editing. But when it works, it immediately tells reviewers who you are as a researcher and why they should fund you. Also, you’ll no longer panic when someone asks you to describe your research at a conference.

Once you have a Personal Statement, it won’t take you long to adapt it for different contexts. It’ll also help you quickly build profiles on platforms such as LinkedIn and ORCID. Above all, you’ll have a strong identity on which to develop your project idea.