Unofficial personal statement, what points should I hit and what to avoid?

[budgiepie]

My current grad applications don't need a personal statement, but one of my PoIs asked for one. So what should I include in this unofficial personal statement? Should I follow the format of an 'official' one? Suggestions welcome.

[psychdork]

I would follow the format of an official statement. I would make sure to include the standard information (your inspiration for this area, previous research, any other experience - like TAing, why you want to work with this POI, etc.). The actual information might be different given you're in bio and I'm in psych, but you get the idea. Basically, since this is going to one of your POIs, I would treat this as I would an official statement.