Can anyone help me write an SOP and a Personal Statement for the University of Edinburgh's PhD programme in English?

[Taniska]

Hi, I am from India and I recently started filling out the application form for the University of Edinburgh’s PhD programme in English. It mentions that I need to submit a Personal Statement and a Statement of Purpose as separate documents. I need help writing both the SOP and the Personal Statement. Last time, I wrote an SOP to apply to the University of Pennsylvania, but I was not selected. I want to strengthen my SOP this time. 

[DataInText]

Sure, I’ll help you with that.

[AverageEccentric]

Be really careful about this.  It's important that both documents are very much your own work and express who you are authentically.  Also, one of the biggest mistakes people think is believing that making an SOP or PS "better" is what will get them into a program.  Typically, admission depends equally upon being a great candidate and authentically matching your area of expertise very closely to an advisor who happens to be taking new students in the upcoming year.  It's a little more like finding a spouse than standing out as the best __ in a crowd.  This is why in the US we're told to apply to 10-15 different programs, because no matter how good you are, your research might not match the couple of professors who get a new advisee that year.  

That being said, it sounds like perhaps you would be best served by learning a lot more about what the SOP and PS even are.  The SOP typically is about your research, the personal statement about you.  Definitely go do a lot more research about what those documents are, because it's not the kind of thing you just make "better" so much as "more authentic" and yes, being authentically you means some people will see that you're not a good match for the program.  But that's just how it works.  And, like marriage, it's better to end up without a yes than stuck with the wrong program.  

AND ... if for any reason you applied somewhere and they saw this message and realized it was you, it raises suspicion of whether you actually wrote your own essay or had someone do it for you.