There are key elements that the personal essay should answer about you as an applicant, and all this needs to be done artfully yet concisely to convince a committee of admissions officers that you are the right fit for their program. Crafting the essay should involve planning regarding what kind of story you want to tell, insight into how to structure this in a way that flows naturally for the reader, and most importantly ensuring that you took the opportunity to display the unique qualities that you possess as an applicant.  Editing and preparing your essay should involve multiple rounds of edits to verify that there are no grammar or spelling errors – but this alone is not sufficient to stand out among a group of qualified and compelling applicants. The story you choose to tell needs to be interesting and engage the reader, flow well from paragraph to paragraph in a logical progression, and above all else show the admissions reader that you are someone that will contribute value to the diversity of ideas, passions, and insights at an institution.