3 Tips When Writing Your Statement Of Purpose

Writing the essay for grad school statement of purpose can be difficult, effort-demanding, and very time-consuming. However, we understand that our experience and grad personal statement tips can help you save your time and nerves. So, here are some ideas you should consider when preparing for the writing process.

1. Read the information about the essay

First of all, you have to understand what is a personal statement for a graduate. Then you can start thinking about further work. Without determining the importance of this essay and its value, it can be difficult to start the writing process. Also, while reading the general information about the essay, you can catch the wave of inspiration and note some ideas for further development in your paper.

2. Understand what the grad school wants from you

It is about the requirements and sticking to them. If you ignore the provided conditions, none of grad personal statement tips can make your essay better. Understand the format, word limit, and the topic if these points are provided. In the opposite case, we recommend sticking to the general workflow, which you can find in our article on how to write a personal statement for grad.

3. Get aware of the details

If you don’t know how to catch readers’ attention, what to include in the essay, and how to start it, we recommend looking through some samples or consulting with a professional essay editor. Both of these actions can help you understand some grad personal statement tips and tricks, so you will have a general idea of how to make your essay better. Also, we highly advise looking through all possible grad personal statement prompts before you start writing. It will allow you to understand the details of the format of the essay and its specific and unique features.

Graduate and professional schools often require some sort of written statement called a “statement of purpose,” “personal statement,” or “letter of intent” as a part of the application. Some statements require rather specific information about the applicant’s intended area of study within their graduate field and others are quite unstructured, leaving the applicant free to address a wide range of matters. The importance of the statement varies from school to school and from field to field.

Determine your purpose in writing the statement

Usually, the purpose is to persuade the admissions committee that you are an applicant who should be chosen. Whatever its purpose, the content must be presented in a manner that will give coherence to the whole statement.

Pay attention to the purpose throughout the statement so that extraneous material is left out.
Pay attention to the audience (committee) throughout the statement. Remember that your audience is made up of professionals in their field, and you are not going to tell them how they should act or what they should be. You are the amateur.

Determine the content of your statement

Be sure to answer any questions fully. Analyze the questions or guidance statements for the essay completely and answer all parts. Usually, graduate and professional schools are interested in the following matters, although the form of the question(s) and the responses may vary:

  • Your purpose in graduate study. Think this through before you try to answer the question.
  • The area of study in which you wish to specialize. Learn about the field in detail so that you are able to state your preferences using the language of the field.
  • Your intended future use of your graduate degree. Include your career goals and plans for the future.
  • Your unique preparation and fitness for study in the field. Correlate your academic background with your extracurricular experience to show how they unite to make you a special candidate.
  • Any problems or inconsistencies in your records or scores, such as a bad semester. Explain this in a positive manner. Since this is a rebuttal argument, it should be followed by a positive statement of your abilities. In some instances, it may be more appropriate to discuss this outside of the statement of purpose.
  • Any special conditions that are not revealed elsewhere in the application, such as a significant (35 hour per week) workload outside of school. This, too, should be followed with a positive statement about yourself and your future.
  • You may be asked, “Why do you wish to attend this school?” Research the school and describe its special appeal to you.
  • Above all, this statement should contain information about you as a person. They know nothing about you unless you tell them. You are the subject of the statement.