Celtic and English Literature MA (Hons) personal statement example

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

For eight years I have driven a delivery van for a builders' merchant around Lochaber, and the bilingual road signs were the first Gaelic I ever read with any attention. When I learned that Inbhir Lòchaidh means the mouth of the Lochy, the English name Inverlochy stopped being just a label. I began to wonder what else the landscape's names were holding, and that curiosity turned into reading. Thomas Kinsella's translation of the Táin surprised me with how abrupt it is, prose breaking into verse and Cú Chulainn's battle distortion described in grotesque, almost comic detail. Sioned Davies's translation of the Mabinogion felt different again, because her introduction encouraged me to hear the tales as something performed aloud. What draws me to studying Celtic and English literature together is the contact between them. Reading Sorley MacLean's Dàin do Eimhir with his English versions beside the Gaelic, I could tell that the sound changed completely even when the sense stayed close, and I wanted to understand what a translator gives up and why. I want to learn enough language to judge translations for myself rather than simply trusting them.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare?

I left school in 2013 with Highers in English, History and Modern Studies, and went straight into work. Returning to study this year, I am taking an Access to Humanities course at my local college, attending three days a week and working the other two. The course has given me back the habit of structured argument. My strongest essay so far compared the openings of Seamus Heaney's Beowulf and an older prose translation, looking at Heaney's choice of 'So.' for the first word and how it makes the poem sound like someone starting a story at a gathering rather than a text on a page. My tutor's comments pushed me to quote more precisely and to separate my own reading from what critics say, which I now do as a matter of routine. A history unit on the Highland Clearances introduced me to working with primary sources, including emigrant letters, and showed me how much a writer's position shapes what a document says. Alongside college I have worked through the Speak Gaelic online course and attend a weekly beginners' class in the village hall. I can now read short, simple passages with a dictionary and follow basic conversation, and I enjoy the discipline of building vocabulary a little every day. I know my Gaelic is at an early stage, but it has shown me I can learn a language as an adult, steadily and without shortcuts.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

Driving has taught me more than routes. Each morning I read delivery notes, load the van in the right order and plan around single-track roads, ferries and weather, and when a site foreman needs materials an hour earlier than planned, I have to work out quickly what can move. I have kept a clean record over eight years and have been trusted to train new drivers on the longer West Highland runs. The job has made me organised and reliable with my time, which matters now that I balance work and college. It has also given me unexpected reading time: I keep a book in the cab for breaks, and much of the reading I mention above was done in lay-bys between drops. On Saturdays I help coach an under-12 shinty team. I played as a teenager, and when the club was short of volunteers I took my coaching certificate. Explaining skills simply to ten-year-olds, and keeping a squad of very different personalities working together, has made me more patient and clearer when I speak. I also run the club's fixture list and send the weekly messages to parents. Many of our older players and coaches use Gaelic terms for the game, and listening to them on the touchline is part of what prompted me to start classes. I am applying now because I have tested my commitment through a year of study alongside full-time responsibilities, and I want to give the subject my full attention.