Section 3: Identifying and Writing About Your Relevant Experiences
3.1. Identifying and Writing About Your Relevant Experiences
In Section 2 we learned about one goal of the SoP framework, motivation, which is the core of the statement of purpose. It is also important to discuss the experiences which have informed this motivation. This section will include options for how to engage in identifying and writing about the experiences that have impacted your decision to pursue a graduate degree.
Additionally, this section will help you identify the possibilities of what you might write about while also being selective in which experiences should be included (or not) in your story. This section is intentionally placed after discussing motivation to help you stay focused on your motivation and use that to reflect on your relevant experiences.
- Goal 1. Experiences: The relevant experiences you’ve had which have informed and prepared you to pursue a graduate degree.
- Goal 2. Motivation: Your purpose for wanting to pursue a graduate degree which is often related to specific research interests and/or career objectives.
- Goal 3. Fit to Program: A discussion of why a particular graduate program is right for you given your motivation (and especially your research interests and objectives).
This section will discuss strategies you can use to talk about your relevant experiences including, your educational experience, research experience, professional experience, academic and professional successes, and discipline-specific knowledge. The following pages include two opportunities for brainstorming and an example SoP so you can see how a writer has used these strategies.
