STATEMENT OF PURPOSE II

Drafting considerations:
Try and make a case. This is good for yourself. It will help you realize how good you actually are.

Specifically try and answer these questions:

• When did you get interested in this field? What have you learned about it? Have you contributed anything to it? How much work have you really put in toward this “interest” of yours.


• Have you worked or done something that other students normally don’t do? (Projects, Publications, working, teaching assistance etc).


• What are your career goals? Where do you see yourself after 5 years? Have you done anything toward reaching that coveted destination. If yes, what have you done? Can you articulate about it?

What if the SOP question is not specific? What If the question is like “Provide a personal statement”?
In this case you must try and follow the general pattern:

• Articulate your personal/professional inspiration


• Discuss your relevant experiences/skills


• Articulate a research focus and plan


• Describe long term objectives


• Refer to the specifics in the program that will help you realize the objectives listed in the above question.

How to write each para:
In general it is very useful to have a strong “topic sentence” followed by evidences to support this sentence. This topic sentence should highlight one(some) of your quality (experience, skill) which they seek in their applicant. This sentence should be followed by evidences that substantiate this claim of yours. These are answers to “HOW” you learned them or how you APPLIED them. In most cases this technique works well.

Introduction:
Try to find an angle from which to approach your personal statement or an interesting way to “hook” the reader.
You MUST create a “thesis” statement in the intro paragraph itself. Every other paragraph should then talk about one specific aspect of this thesis statement. The topic sentence should introduce to the reader the broad idea (skill, experience, interest of yours) of the paragraph and other paragraphs should describe HOW you learned the skill, gained the experience, applied that knowledge, pursued your interests.

Conclusion:
You have to flaunt your research about your program of interest in this space. You have to talk about specific research groups/labs/profs and how you fit into their work and why you think you will gain something out of it etc.

Some general advice:
SOP is personal. But the personal part should be connected with your professional pursuits.
- Articulate a focus.
- Articulate long term objectives.
- Be honest about possible liabilities (low GPA, low test scores, lack of publications lack of directly relevant experience)
- Cast these as learning experiences
- Stress other strengths
- Discuss specifics about the program/school
- Reputation of the program/school
- Faculty research
- Projects in research centres/labs
- Address what you can do for them and what they can do for you
- Adapt language from resume/CV (action oriented)
- Use discipline specific language (jargon) with care and use rather sparsely.
- Revise from top down. Focus on large scale organizational issues, paras,sentences, spelling, punctuation etc.

Revision Considerations:
Remember your application reviewers read through several (sometimes hundreds) applications. Do not write in a complicated way that makes it difficult for the reader to understand. Keep things simple. Improve skimmability by having topic sentences and supporting statements as explained earlier. This is very important and its importance cannot be overemphasized.

Improve Coherence:
This means that sentences within a paragraph should be ONE cohesive unit. Use transition techniques between sentences. What are these? Words like “However”, “Therefore”, “in addition”, “On the other hand”.

Another way is to use Pronounds. (“This ___+ etc).
Improve word choice, Avoid empty words, Be concise:
Example words/phrases to avoid (just a few examples):
It is/was -> IS or WAS are weak verbs. AVOID them at all costs. Your sentences should have STRONG ACTION WORDS as verbs.

It seems -. Nobody cares abt what “seems”. In fact it is irritating to read such stuff sometimes.
The fact that – no
Thing – again no
As far as I am concerned – very informal
More or less – lack of confidence
In my opinion – bad word choice

Avoid repetitions like (just a few examples):
End result, revert back, basic essentials, circle around, consensus of opinion, future to come

THE MANTRA OF SOP IS: “ARTICULATE” and “CONNECT”. (Nothing more. Nothing less).
DEFINITE DON’TS:
DO NOT SEND SAME SOP TO ALL SCHOOLS
DO NOT COPY FROM OTHER GOOD SOPS. ALL GOOD UNIVS USE “TURNITIN” TO DO A GOOD CHECK OF THIS KIND OF STUFF. IF THEY FIND OUT, FORGET GETTING ADMITS IN ANY SCHOOL.
DO NOT WRITE UNNECESSARY DETAILS JUST TO FILL UP SPACE. KEEP IT CONCISE WHENEVER POSSIBLE.
DO NOT OVERSHOOT SPACE LIMITATION.

References/Acknowledgements:
1)Writing Personal statements (Grad writing workshop, Penn State University)
2)Schall J “Style for students”, Eden Prairie
3)Stelzer (1989), “How to write a winning personal statement for graduate and professional school”, Princeton: Peterson’s guides