5.4. Outlining

Now that you’ve brainstormed about each of the goals of the SoP framework (experiences, motivation, fit to program), what should you do with all these notes? You might want to start by organizing and grouping the ideas together to see if you can understand the different parts of your story. What parts fit together? Where is there cause and effect? What might a logical order of information look like?

The outlining stage of the writing process is an important bridge between the brainstorming stage and preparing to share a final product with someone else. When outlining you might start thinking about what the reader needs to know in what order; essentially, you’re giving yourself a tentative road map for your SoP.

Many writers find a past – present – future approach to be helpful. If you look at the example SoPs in Section 6, you’ll see that many writers choose to start by discussing their academic and research experiences, then move into talking about their research interests and career objectives, and then show their fit to the program. What if you were to loosely take this structure as your starting outline? How would your brainstorming fit into this structure? This structure follows a chronological order which can be a very effective way of writing the SoP.

A chronological order is not the only meaningful way to structure your statement. Is there important information that you need to communicate first? Or is there another more logical way to organize the information based on your experiences? What will make more sense for the reader? What makes the most sense given your experiences and their connection to your motivation? Consider what information is more important for the reader to know first; maybe you want to discuss your research experience and then move onto discussing extracurricular, leadership, and/or mentoring experiences. This might not be a strictly chronological order, but instead more thematic by type of experience.

Other writers like to start their SoP with a paragraph that addresses their research interests, career goals, and fit to program. This approach directly presents information to readers (who can sometimes be impatient). However you choose to start your SoP, recognize that your introduction will take time to develop as your SoP takes shape, and outlining can be a valuable stage to help you establish this shape and logical order of information.