Tips for Writing a Masters SOP

When preparing an application to graduate school, many applicants lose many hours of sleep thinking about how to write their statement of purpose. The SOP can be either the best or the worst part of the application, depending on how you look at it.

On the one hand, it gives applicants the chance to present their personality and their creativity to the admissions staff. A good statement of purpose can help compensate for bad grades or poor test scores. Thus, the statement of purpose can greatly improve an applicants chances of being accepted into a program.

However, on the other hand, students who are poor writers will have difficulty expressing themselves clearly and in an organized manner, which will hurt their chances of being admitted to the school of their choice. Here are a few tips for creating the best SOP possible.

Use Sample SOPs as a Guide

A good starting point is the many free sample SOPs weve made available. Look these over, and get a sense for the structure, the format, and some useful phrases to use. . There are now several free sample statements of purpose available in areas as diverse as marketing, business, architecture, education, science, and virtually any other subject you may wish to apply to. These sample essays can be a wonderful boon to you as you begin to think about what you can include in your essay.

Everyone who writes a statement of purpose needs to be creative and start with an interesting introduction; viewing several sample essays might give you an example of how you can make your own essay interesting. After writing a passionate introduction, you simply need to answer the questions provided by the university, for example, describing your motivation for studying a particular subject, or describing your career goals. As long as you have thought carefully about your aspirations and strengths, it should be easy to put this into a coherent essay.

Write, Write, and Write Again

As with any formal essay, it is important to edit several times. For your first draft, its a good idea to first come up with an outline for the essay, after which you can just start writing as much as possible.

Once you have a draft, you will need to go back, re-read it, and fix any mistakes. This includes not only spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors, but also problems with formatting and logical flow. Each paragraph should flow into the next, and you should ideally have a good, catchy introduction along with a concise and logical conclusion.

Once youve written a draft and edited it, youre ready for the next part: Walk away.

Thats right. Stand up, go outside, play some basketball, go shopping, or maybe grab a beer with a friend. Its good to take your mind away from the essay, clear your head, and come back to it the following day with a fresh set of eyes. This will make it easier to spot mistakes and further polish your essay.

Depending on how much time you have, you can do this last step several times, until you are satisfied with what youve written.

Dont be Afraid to Ask for Help

Finally, in some cases it may be the best choice to simply ask for professional help.

If you know what you want in your essay, yet you feel that you are not the most skilled writer, you can simply hire a tutor or editor to help you polish your statement of purpose. This way, you can incorporate your own ideas and your own stories, but you can have someone help you present them in a dynamic and proper way.

Hiring a writer should not be viewed as cheating; in the increasingly competitive educational environment, students should do anything they can to get a leg up. Moreover, taking the time to perfect your essay by hiring an assistant writer may not be viewed as a negative thing by the admissions staff, because, in a way, it shows that you are serious about your education and dedicated to doing whatever is necessary to gain admission to their schools graduate program.

If youre feeling stuck and unable to write an SOP, send an email to our SOP Writing Service. We have affordable options for both writing and editing your SOP, so you can sleep a little easier when it comes to that part of your application.