5 Hallmarks of a Bad Statement of Purpose admission essay tips

Posted by Paul on 23. February 2018

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As you browse in various sample templates of Statement of Purpose (SoP) or Letter of Intents across the webpage and blogging sites, take note that not all appeal to the readers, in particular with the panel of critics involved.  Consider the fact that SoP is a piece of paper, yet brief and concise personal essay, which could make or break your application with any graduate school.

Five (5) common features of a poorly written SoP are presented here which includes:

• Grammatical and Typographical Errors
• A typical feature in every essay; incorrect grammar and typographical error can induce an effect in a sentence.  What you really meant in your statement wasn’t conveyed at all with what you actually wrote about.  This in turn, can be positive or negative depending on the construction clause of your sentence input.  A good statement of purpose must be clear and concise.  Therefore, always check for consistency in grammar and incorrect spelling, as well as placement of punctuation marks.
•  Too Much Story-Telling.

• It is a must in writing SoP to just be yourself; however, don’t overdo it by presenting mainly your own achievements and too much of personal opinions and emotional matters as it might in turn, intimidate and displease the jury panel.  The essay must contain only relevant information about yourself, your academic accomplishments, and shared experiences related in choosing the profession you’ve wanted.  Avoid stressing out one-by-one your grade-point averages (GPAs) and discussing evenly why you come up with such as it is already reflected in the form you previously filled up and submitted.
• Lack of Assertion and Outline.
• The essay should not contain too many paragraphs that are irrelevant.  It has to make an assertion wherein one can be able to have support sentences for a certain topic which in turn, can defend the paragraph context and justify the information written.  A thorough outline can help in organizing the data content of the entire piece; it acts as a guide both to the author and the critic to fully understand the subject matter being discussed
•  Excessive Use of Colloquial Words and Excerpts.
• Be direct to the point.  Avoid using foreign or colloquial words; the reader wouldn’t want to get in touch with a dictionary from time-to-time to check on your flowery remarks.  Excerpts are not mainly fillers; it should hold an important part in your SoP and should act as a supporting statement to your topic.
•  Plagiarism and Misleading Information.

Each written piece is an intellectual property of a person.  Be original.

Avoid plagiarism and copy-pasting sample documents.  Don’t mislead your readers by having extraneous topics and cliches in your essay.  Again, your statement of purpose must be brief and specific.  Usually in a 2-3 page document format, the SoP or Personal Statement is a highly important document for application.  Have your SoP typewritten in a nice and clean sheet of paper for it to be presentable enough to the jury.  It is suggested that you proofread your material by another professional before having it submitted to your desired graduate school.

Author: 

Nicole Clark is a talented freelance author of works for famous media and educational blogs. She is interested in studying education topics, and also she likes to help students with their essays and papers. If you want to read more her stories feel free to visit her own blog on Blablawriting.comand enjoy her works!