本文由芝士圈首席文书官Andrew Daum（牛津大学PPE）撰写，芝士圈CEO黄宇人热心翻译（特此感谢）。

Q：

How to judge whether the quality of a PS or CV is high or low?

如何判断PS或CV的质量是高还是低？

A：

You’re asking a good question about two very different documents.

你问了一个关于两类截然不同文书的好问题。

To address it helpfully, I am now going to give you—in turn—a definition of each document and a list of ‘red flag problems’ derived from those definitions. Neither will be a complete list of possible indicators of low quality. They are all logical applications of the definitions I will give you.

A PS is a tool for the admissions committee to differentiate you from other candidates; and a vehicle for you to deliver a case for admission to the program – that convinces the reader you are equipped to be a success on the program. So: It should be a persuasive case comprised of specific factual information derived from your experiences that substantiates why you think you have the right motivation and aptitudes for the program.

为了有效地解决这个问题，我将依次为你提供每种文书的定义以及从这些定义派生的“危险信号问题”列表。注意这不是低质量指标的完整列表。它们是根据我给出的定义的逻辑应用。
PS是招生委员会将你与其他候选人区分开来的工具；以及作为展示自我从而被项目录取的载体——使读者相信你具备在该项目上取得成功的能力。因此：这应该是一个有说服力的案例，其中包含从你的经验中获得的特定事实信息，这些事实信息可以证明你为什么认为自己对该项目有正确的动机和才能。

So now some red flag issues drawn from the definition:

现在，从定义中得出一些危险信号：

1. Generalities: Keep it specific. Eschew adjectives and stick to concrete nouns

2. Epiphanies: Your career goals, your reasons for applying for the program, your interest in the subject should be a result of a series of thoughtful, conscious, and reflective decisions and deliberations, based on actual experiences you’ve had. Not an instantaneous realization or something you’ve mysteriously “always known”.

3. Mom and Dad (or Aunt and Uncle or whatever): This is about you. Your goals and motivations and skills. Not your family or friends.

4. Chronological account: Avoid providing a re-run of all of your activities and achievements depicted in your resume.

1.笼统：保持具体。尽量避免形容词并坚持使用具象化的名词
2.顿悟情节：你的职业目标，申请该项目的原因，对主题的兴趣应该是基于你所拥有的实际经验而进行的一系列周全，有意识和反思性的决策和思考的结果。这不是瞬间的实现，也不是那种神秘的内心召唤。
3.爸爸妈妈（或姨妈和叔叔或其他）：这是关于你的（文书）。你的目标，动机和技能。重点不是你的家人或朋友。
4.流水账式记述：避免重新提供简历中描述的所有活动和成就。

5. Clichés: “I like science and want to take care of people therefore I want to study medicine.” – Every medical professional can or should be able to say this. Therefore, it is not suitable for a PS because it’s not something that is particular to you.

6. Grandiose objectives: So often people submit a PS containing claims that they are going to “cure diseases” or “improve quality of life” or “transform education in mainland China”. Grandiose objectives suggest the writer hasn’t reflected on their experiences to date adequately. It therefore suggests what they are saying in the PS doesn’t really matter to them. If the PS content doesn’t matter to you, why should it matter to the reader?

7. Excuses or blame: There are better things to write in your PS than worries about poor grades. Half the time you’re overthinking the scale of the problem and drawing unneeded attention to it. If you have a good explanation for some shortfall, the shortfall will be relevant to the application, and the explanation will be brief, focusing on what you learned as a result.

8. Quotations: In your PS, you have a word limit; you are constrained by the reader’s attention and patience; the reader wants to hear about you. So, there’s no logical way someone else’s words can be a good idea in that context.

5.废话：“我喜欢科学并且想照顾别人，所以我想学习医学。” ——每个医学专家都可以或应该这样说。因此，它不适用于PS，因为它不是你特有的。
6. 宏伟的目标：人们通常会提交一份PS，其中包含声称要“治愈疾病”或“改善生活质量”或“改变中国大陆的教育”。宏伟的目标表明作者至今尚未充分反思他们的经历。因此，这表明他们在PS中所说的话对他们而言并不重要。如果PS内容对你来说没有切身关系，那对读者来说又有何意义呢？
7.借口或抱怨：与其在PS中担心糟糕的成绩，不如多写点其他的优质内容。你有一半的时间都过度考虑了问题的严重性，并引起了不必要的关注。如果你对某些不足之处有很好的解释，则该不足之处应该与申请有关，并且说明要简短，重点是你从中学到的教训。
8.过度引用：PS有字数限制；你受到读者的注意力和耐心的束缚；读者希望了解你。因此，在这种情况下，过多引用别人的话并不是一个好主意。

Where the PS calls on you to present facts in order to convey your personality and prove your motivation and aptitude for the program, the resume calls for the facts. An overview. But pay attention to the format and conventions: You have a page or two. You should use three bullet points to provide detail on each experience. You should present in reverse-chronological order. These constraints mean you need to be selective and thoughtful about how you present facts in your resume.

PS要求你提供事实以传达你的个性并证明你对该项目的动机和才能，简历则要求提供事实和概述。但要注意格式和习惯：简历建议1-2页。建议使用三个要点来提供每种经历的详细信息。应该以时间倒序排列（最近的放在前面）。这些限制意味着你需要对如何在履历表中的经历精挑细选。注意下列情况：

1. Inconsistency: Inconsistency is jarring, interrupts attention, and suggests laziness or lack of care. There are fewer rules with resumes than you might think. With formatting, styling, punctuation, capitalization and so forth simply make a decision and apply it consistently. Be systematic. Create order for the reader’s eye to travel.

2. Job descriptions: A lot of people write entries on their resume as if they’re posting a job advertisement – they talk about their responsibilities instead of their achievements. State (as specifically as possible) what you used the tools and resources at your disposal to achieve.

3. Lack of discernment: Acknowledge the short space at your disposal and demonstrate care by making smart decisions about content: Do you need to include your high school on a resume applying for a master’s? No. You don’t. Because it’s not relevant. Do you need to precede your email address with the label ‘Email:’ No. You don’t. Because it’s pretty obvious what it is!

4. Careless verbs: The verbs you use at the beginning of each bullet point can be very powerful; not all verbs are equal and, as ever, show you’ve thought about it: The easiest way to demonstrate you have not thought about your verb choices is to repeat the same verbs at the beginning of multiple bullet points.

1.前后矛盾：前后矛盾会使人感到烦躁，打断注意力，反映出你的懒惰和粗心。简历的规则比你想象的要少。借助格式，样式，标点，大写等，只需决定一种样式并一致地应用它即可。有条理、有秩序地展现在读者眼前。
2.职位描述：很多人都在简历上写的职业经历就像招聘广告一样——谈论的是职责而不是成就。应该尽可能具体地陈述你使用了可利用的工具和资源如何实现了目标。
3.缺乏洞察力：写简历须时常做出明智的决策例如意识到可供使用的空间有限。你是否需要将高中经历包括在申请硕士的简历中？不，你不知道因为这关系不大。你是否需要在电子邮件地址前加上标签“电子邮件”？不，因为这很明显。
4.粗心的动词：你在每个要点开头使用的动词可能很有力量。并非所有动词都是一样的，如果你一味地重复使用同样的动词就很明显表示你没有认真思考如何写简历。

Those are some headline points, drawn from the definition of resumes I gave you.

这些是根据简历的定义给出的一些要点。

One last thing that is central to determining whether a document is high quality or low: Obtain and follow the exact specifications and requirements for the PS and resume as stated by the target program. Failing to do this is probably the most foolish thing candidates can do and the quickest route to producing low quality documents.

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确定文书质量高低的最后一个关键：详细阅读目标项目关于PS和简历的规范与要求，并按照项目的说明做针对性的准备。做不到这点（千篇一律）可能是申请人所能做的最愚蠢的事情了并且也是生产低质量文书最快的方式了。
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