The UCAS personal statement, which so many of this year’s A-level candidates found themselves struggling to complete, encourages concision. Or rather demands it, as the maximum length allowed is a mere 47 lines.Jane Godber’s enquiry into the difficulties potential undergraduates have with this virtual calling card was careful to consider the wider context of the university admissions process, but its immediate focus was her own daughter, 17-year-old Martha, who burned to embark on a dance degree but seemed to agree with most of the other young people questioned that what eventually got filed was somewhat unrealistic.It was hardly surprising, then, that the best bits of My Life on Paper (11 June) featured the ruminative comments exchanged by mother and child as the composition