SOP, Getting started - My Desk

It seems to be easy to just write down a super great SOP.But once you hold that pencil (or open you word document) an stare at the blank page, it becomes tough to even write the first letter!! (because that time you think , hmmm…so where should I begin my fantastic SOP??!!??)… and while wondering, you become anxious, you become tensed, and yeah you got it.. Lost!!!!!

Last month, I was at the UNCC Seminar for Writing Skills. The hall was packed with future journalists and writers, but amongst those were bunch of us trying to learn how to write a good SOP for our residency!

So here is what I learnt there. I hope this helps as much as it helped me:

TAKE A MOMENT: Before you sit down to write your SOP, take some time out to think about yourself. What are your strengths, your greatest positive points, your achievements, the hardships you went through to achieve what you did, motivations in your life-can be person, place, incident etc, influences in your life, your aspirations and reasons( if there are any) behind your dreams. Recollect each and every thought that you would want to pen down in order to show that you and you deserve the residency seat and no one else.

MAKE ROUGH NOTES: Once you have thought enough on this topic, start writing whatever comes in your mind.Don't worry, let your mind be free, note down each and every thing your mind is telling you. Don't worry about sequence or words or even grammar, just keep writing your thoughts, let your brain lose!!its ultimately you who will be looking at it. Don't assume what you will write will be ultimate SOP and thus you should write correct from the beginning. This is a common misconception. World famous writers jot down their thoughts randomly and then edit and organize in order to come up with final version which can make sense. You need right now is the content of your SOP, don't worry about sequence.

MAKE THE DRAFT: Once you have thought and written down all the important or relevant points, its time to labor and write the SOP. Think and write, for here thinking will become easy because you already have the content, you just need to add fancy things here and there and organize your content.

DON'T KNOW ENGLISH PROPERLY? WRITE IN YOUR LANGUAGE: There are many of us who come from different parts of the world where English is not the first language, nor it is mother tongue. Should this stop us from reaching our goals? NO
To start with, write the statement in a language you are expert in and can express yourself best. Aa aa aaa.. wait a minute….you must be thinking, have I gone nuts?!!! No. absolutely not!!

Here is the deal. Once you have written SOP, things become easy. Nest you can do is either take help of a friend who is well versed in English and try to translate your SOP in English word by word, sentence by sentence. Other method is to simple open a language converter dictionary and a thesaurus of words an then start converting your SOP in English again word by word sentence by sentence. Take help of dictionary to find English words in your language, and thesaurus to make your SOP sophisticated.

EDIT EDIT EDIT!! : When I was making my SOP, I took almost a week to come up with final draft.Why? because I would come up with things to add or edit in it. I will be in gym and something will strike me while doing cardio on treadmill. I will be driving and would remember to add something or remove something. Take time to read the SOP as many as 3-5 times and correct the mistakes if you find any.

TAKE HELP OF PEERS/FAMILY: While my friend was applying for his admission Business School, I used to see him circulating his SOP among friends and family and would ask everyone to edit any mistakes they see or advice him if he can modify the SOP in any way. I would mock at him(why would anyone want to expose his/her SOP to friends who might use content for their own!!!! Or may be think bad or laugh at him/her etc etc) …But I was wrong. I saw his friends taking active part to correct his SOP, advice him and eventually encourage him. He landed up in getting admission to the Business School he always wanted to go to.
HAVE FAITH IN YOURSELF! Keep faith and confidence in yourself. Success will touch your feet, after all you worked so hard for it.