danieleWrites

Thank you for proving my point.
 
As you would not be happy in an English department, which finds hasty generalizations and the concept of "words on a page" as unpalatable as you seem to find literary approaches to Shakespeare. Less so, perhaps, since hasty generalizations are a sign of poor abilities with rhetoric. Thus, we are all very pleased that you are not in English. Though, I have done fine in theater.

It's difficult to say.

15 page papers generally (discipline mileage will totally vary) are "conference" papers. 20 to 25 page papers are "journal" papers. Anything over that are "thesis" papers. Different disciplines have different requirements, of course, but these are some ballpark numbers for genre.

As far as a lower limit goes? If you have an outstanding 15 page paper, a school with a maximum of 20 pages isn't going to freak out. If there is a minimum number of pages, that's different. Don't submit less than the minimum. For a school with a 30 page limit, instead of submitting one 15 page paper, submit two papers. I think half of the required writing sample isn't a good plan.

If there is not expected length requirement, submit something that is of conference paper or journal article length.

The key isn't page length so much as it is a good read. A 22 page page-turner will go over better than a 20 page meh paper if the limit is 20 pages. The purpose of a writing sample is so that they can actually see your best scholarship in action. The length limits are so they don't get a bunch of theses (reading 50 to 100 75-page samples would sooooo suck). The minimums are likely set in place because short papers are unlikely to show personal scholarship so much as they show a student's response to what was learned in class.

If you can cut down your 60 page paper into a 25 page paper and still show excellent scholarship, go for it. Otherwise, you're better off submitting two papers instead of one.

I'll add my voice to the you-did-the-right-thing chorus.
 
I would also suggest that you, at the least, look at your university's grad school website to see the minimum requirements for international students in terms of speaking English. Now, not every student that doesn't speak English well is an international student. I've had to wade through a composition class with an American citizen that spoke poor English. She would not have been able to pass the TOESL enough to be admitted into the university. At any rate, this will give you an idea of the baseline that the university expects regarding the use of English. To an extent. A TOESL score isn't necessarily an easy to understand indicator for people who never have to deal with the TOESL.
 
The next step would be to email your supervisor for guidance should something of this nature happen to you in the future. If nothing else, you will have a paper trail, as it were, should the student or a future student complain about your handling of this or a similar situation.

You are not overthinking this. A good adviser is important. You are not saying that this professor is a bad person. You are saying that you don't think this professor is the right fit for your future work. Not every professor is good at teaching. The university has run on the mastery method since the inception of university education, and in most fields, it still does. A professor is qualified to teach because s/he has mastered the field in some way, not because s/he has had any training in pedagogy. Some fields have pedagogy courses, but these vary in scope from program to program, school to school. Even in composition studies, in which pedagogy is half of the field's work, some programs have no pedagogy training available.
 
So you ask a very important question: when it is time for me too choose my PI, which is the best fit?
 
Now, there are ways that you can nudge people into working with you, but it's not your job to teach a professor how to be a mentor/adviser/teacher/whatever. It's his job to teach you.
 
From my unlearned perspective (I'm not in physics), this seems to be an important decision for you to make. I would suggest that you use your usual process for working through multiple options to find the one the best suits you.

You are not overthinking this. A good adviser is important. You are not saying that this professor is a bad person. You are saying that you don't think this professor is the right fit for your future work. Not every professor is good at teaching. The university has run on the mastery method since the inception of university education, and in most fields, it still does. A professor is qualified to teach because s/he has mastered the field in some way, not because s/he has had any training in pedagogy. Some fields have pedagogy courses, but these vary in scope from program to program, school to school. Even in composition studies, in which pedagogy is half of the field's work, some programs have no pedagogy training available.
 
So you ask a very important question: when it is time for me too choose my PI, which is the best fit?
 
Now, there are ways that you can nudge people into working with you, but it's not your job to teach a professor how to be a mentor/adviser/teacher/whatever. It's his job to teach you.
 
From my unlearned perspective (I'm not in physics), this seems to be an important decision for you to make. I would suggest that you use your usual process for working through multiple options to find the one the best suits you.

As an EMT (ambulance and inpatient ICU), I HATED when I'd encounter a locked phone. None of my patients had emergency cards. If I was lucky, they'd have a drivers license. Unlock your phones or carry a card!

OP, I hope your son is feeling better! It's a little frightening being far from your support system when something is going on. I spent two days in the ER (as a patient) a few weeks ago, alone. Would have been nice to have someone to drive me there!

Not touching the teaching-isn't-valuable-for-hiring argument.
 
That said, if you get the sense that teaching is going to be part of your hiring evaluation, keep a teaching journal that allows you to analyze what you've done over the semester, what worked, what didn't, what changes you'll implement, what things you've done that are new/original (or seem to be), and why you chose to do the things you do. At the end of the first semester, write a teaching philosophy statement and, at the end of each semester, tweak it with what you've learned.
 
If your field offers pedagogy theory and methodology studies, keep an eye on it to some extent. Eyeball the abstracts on new journal articles about pedagogy in your field, if nothing else. The more teaching oriented the field, the more these pedagogy theories should support your teaching philosophy in your teaching philosophy statement.
 
I wouldn't go totally crazy and put as much effort into this as you would your research, but do spend a few hours per semester reflecting on your teaching with an eye toward writing that teaching philosophy statement that some job openings might ask for.
 
Keep a copy of all your syllubi and assignments that you develop in some way, for future reference. Make notes on why you developed the syllabus and assignments the way you did, why you developed the grading the way you did. If you assisted a professor rather than taught your own course, make those notes about why you believe the prof developed the syllabus/assignments in a particular way and why these ways were good/bad ideas, and what you might do differently.
 
Like I said, a few hours per semester, not per week. Be casual about it, other than a teaching philosophy statement and your CV. How much this will help you depends entirely on you, your field, and your goals.
 
Keep an eye out for pedagogy publication and presentation opportunities, as well. In some fields, you shouldn't bother because they're stuck on Shaw's idea that those who can do, those who can't teach. Other fields, this can be a great place to get yourself out there.

I was pointing out that you can easily be sexist, paternalistic, and condescending while making factually true statements, things your previous post implied were mutually exclusive. In fact, it's precisely what happened.
 
What you originally said was this:
 
If being sexist, paternalistic, and condescending is not your intent, next time I would say something along these lines:
 
"Hey, I know you've been taught that women are supposed to play hard to get and wait for men to ask them out or show interest in them, but this is a terrible way to go about doing things. You'll find life is significantly easier and contains a lot less drama if you think of the person you're interested in as a human rather than in terms of the supposed role they're supposed to play in an artificial drama."
 
Tangentially, I would note that using "girl" to refer to adult women is generally considered to be dismissive and condescending.
 
Or continue being outraged. Whatever you want.

As long as the person is not teaching your class do what you want. Please note the Campsite Rule and the Tea and Sympathy Rule. 
 
 
 
 
 
(I'm getting a strong whiff of Troll)

I go straight from my day job, so business casual for me - nice pants, collared shirt (although I do have a preference for colorful Hawaiian/Tropical prints)

Depends on the culture of your program.
 
I wore a Darth Vader t-shirt and jean shorts to teach last Friday. Thursday, when I went to class, my t-shirt said, "Ask my about my AD/HD Highway to Hey a squirrel!" My Thursday class is a research methods course that grad students from several disciplines take every semester. There are two folks from the business school, one in public policy, and one in some profession blah blah blah that I didn't catch. The business school and professional blah blah blah wear formal business wear. Seriously, they're totally dressed to be an ADA on a Law & Order episode at any time. I'm a total shlub next to them. The public policy student is somewhere between business formal and business casual, more Sunday School Teacher Formal than anything.
 
I consider dress to be text, ergo, the way one dresses is defined by the rhetorical situation: what your purpose for the text (persuasive, informative, entertaining---bearing in mind that all text is persuasive when accounting for ethos)? who is your audience? what is the genre (business school, art school, going to a concert, meeting the parents for the first time)? who is the rhetor (who am I supposed to be for the occasion)? There's also medium, but it's clothing and accessories, duh.

My kid just had a vehicle accident and this kind of brought things home with a bang. He's fine (just some minor scrapes and a bit of muscle strain), but his scooter is in many, many pieces. We live two hours away from him when there's no traffic. I left for grad school, so he did stay in his home community for college, where we have a large network of friends and acquaintances (no family). Luckily, my spouse was in town, and actually driving nearby when it occurred, so he was able to be on the scene in a few minutes.
 
So, my advice? If you're new to an area, make an emergency plan. An, I just got hit by a bus, OMFG plan. Find someone, maybe make an emergency contact group out of your fellow no-family-in-town cohort, to be your go-to person/people until either your family can get there or you can take care of yourself. Someone that can take your bookbag from the scene of an accident and hang on to it until you can reclaim it, or you family can pick it up. Someone who your parents can call if they need help finding your hospital room, or getting into contact with someone at the university so they can deal with an extended absence.
 
Sit down and make a list of what needs to happen if you get hit by a bus. Do some rough figuring, how long until a family member can show up and start taking responsibility for the things you can't do until you're out of traction? What needs, at minimum, to happen between you getting hit by a bus and your family member getting to your bedside? Do you have a dog that needs walking? A plant that needs watering? An experiment in progress that needs monitoring? TAing to cover? Food in the office fridge to be tossed? A cake to buy for an office birthday party? Library books that you left scattered on the road?
 
Pre-plan for disaster. The plan will probably fall through in some fashion (most people don't get hit by a bus), but having an arrangement worked out in advance is smart. Particularly since you can put your local emergency contact's name alongside of your non-local emergency contact so someone can get there quickly.

I cut my meat with beans. For example, if I'm making tacos for dinner, I'll use a can of black beans or pinto beans and 1/3 pound of beef instead of a full pound of beef. Not only is it cheaper, it's healthier, and has a more interesting texture. White beans for ground or diced chicken, and so on. I make a lot of meals that involve stir fry techniques, so this works out well for me. I make enough to store.

I don't have a microwave. I know, say what?!?!?! We were going to get one, but we never did. We not only eat healthier, but cheaper. We have a toaster oven instead of a microwave, so those things that needed to be heated and we don't want to turn on the oven? Toaster oven. Microwaves do save time, but our food bill dropped when we quit buying microwave dinners and started making toaster oven dinners. This meant spending some money on glass storage containers, but that's actually worked out better because we haven't replaced them in years, unlike plastic ones (which can get seriously nasty). I do have a breadmaker and bread slicing knife and guide. I got the breadmaker at a garage sale for $5. It paid for itself in two loaves. The knife took 2 loaves and the guide took 5. But now, it's the cost of flour, yeast, sugar, and oil. It's actually easier to make bread than buy it and cart it home.
 
We live close to the grocery stores we go to. One is four blocks away, so we often walk to it. My bus stop actually puts me halfway between the store and my house. Our kitchen has a tiny freezer and we don't have much storage space, so we don't stock up. I buy stuff at the store every few days. I get in a bit of extra exercise and the fact that I have to haul everything home by hand means that I don't buy extra stuff. The other store we go to is a mile away and we bicycle to it. Again, space restraints and the fact that a hill that belongs in the Alps as between that store and my house keeps us from overspending.
 
I do wash my car at least once a month, more if its winter and they're salting the roads. I pay for the drive through part so I can get the undercarriage. I apply regular wax by hand at least once a quarter. Yes, it's cheaper not to, but only in the short term. We keep our vehicles for long periods of time, and maintaining the paint is just as important as maintaining every other part of the vehicle. Those hundreds of dollars saved on car washes are not worth the thousands of dollars in depreciation that goes with a fading or chipping paint job.
 
We winterize *and* summerize our home, even though it's a rented duplex. We make sure the filters in the airconditioners and heater are kept clean. Twice a year to replace a filter that's expected to be in use all  year (like for a combo heater/ac) and at the beginning of a season for one that's in use for a season (like a window ac). This means calling the maintenance guy in October and nagging until the filter is changed. Utilities are part of the rent, but if they go up, so will the rent. We put plastic over the windows. This cuts utility bills like crazy. We also make sure to get anything leaky fixed as soon as possible. Nag, nag, nag the maintenance man.
 
Flu shots make a difference.
 
The biggest saver of time and money has been cultivating entertainment and spouse-time tastes that involve doing things that don't cost ad hoc money. We bicycle out somewhere, have a picnic, and I always a bring a book. He'll nap, I'll get some paragraphs in before I fall asleep, too. We did spend extra money on really good bicycles, but we use them all of the time. Our community is bike-friendly. We go to free plays or shows. We (usually me) go to lecture series. We go to the farmer's market. We
 

My kid just had a vehicle accident and this kind of brought things home with a bang. He's fine (just some minor scrapes and a bit of muscle strain), but his scooter is in many, many pieces. We live two hours away from him when there's no traffic. I left for grad school, so he did stay in his home community for college, where we have a large network of friends and acquaintances (no family). Luckily, my spouse was in town, and actually driving nearby when it occurred, so he was able to be on the scene in a few minutes.
 
So, my advice? If you're new to an area, make an emergency plan. An, I just got hit by a bus, OMFG plan. Find someone, maybe make an emergency contact group out of your fellow no-family-in-town cohort, to be your go-to person/people until either your family can get there or you can take care of yourself. Someone that can take your bookbag from the scene of an accident and hang on to it until you can reclaim it, or you family can pick it up. Someone who your parents can call if they need help finding your hospital room, or getting into contact with someone at the university so they can deal with an extended absence.
 
Sit down and make a list of what needs to happen if you get hit by a bus. Do some rough figuring, how long until a family member can show up and start taking responsibility for the things you can't do until you're out of traction? What needs, at minimum, to happen between you getting hit by a bus and your family member getting to your bedside? Do you have a dog that needs walking? A plant that needs watering? An experiment in progress that needs monitoring? TAing to cover? Food in the office fridge to be tossed? A cake to buy for an office birthday party? Library books that you left scattered on the road?
 
Pre-plan for disaster. The plan will probably fall through in some fashion (most people don't get hit by a bus), but having an arrangement worked out in advance is smart. Particularly since you can put your local emergency contact's name alongside of your non-local emergency contact so someone can get there quickly.

First, my credentials. Well. I can spell my own name, though I don't usually know exactly how old I am. I'm within a year or two, but I'm usually wrong until I've done some subtraction. I teach composition and like to write calculus equations on the board when I take classes in poetry writing. But, here's my real credentials: consider what is written herein in conjunction with what the various instructions on SOPs that you've read have said, with the requirements the program you are applying to has put forth, and with your own experience as a writer. Do you think I know what I'm talking about? Should you pay any attention to it? Is any of it useful?
 
Second, I'm not going to give you a formula for what the standard SOP is like, or a list of things the various thousands of admissions committees will be looking for. There are plenty of prescriptions on the internet, many of them written by professors who have presumably gotten sick of badly written SOPs.
 
Third, I'm not promising that SOP writing be easier after this. It'll be harder, actually. I'm not promising that you'll get in to any place you desire, or that there is any one best thing to put in the SOP to get noticed. That would be totally impossible. Each discipline has its own needs and values, as does each university, each department, and each faculty member on the admissions committee (adcomm). There is no one size and it doesn't fit most, let alone all. There are conventions (use Standard English, for one), but other than include your research interests, I won't advocate that any one thing is strictly necessary. I leave that up to the more knowledgeable.
 
The advice:
 
First thing is to deeply understand that you should write an SOP for each program. Most people take this to mean write one master SOP and then tweak as necessary to make the one SOP applicable to each university (U of A becomes U of B, Professor X becomes Professor Y). You can do that. You can be very successful doing that. You most likely, really shouldn't do it.
 
The next thing to understand is the SOP's purpose. Why do the adcomms want to see SOPs? Shouldn't transcripts, letters of recommendation, and a writing sample do it? After all, transcripts and samples show the actual scholarship and the letters verify it. The SOP isn't for showing scholarship off, or to act like a resume, or anything. So why do the adcomms want an SOP? Why are the SOPs one of those make-it-or-fail things? What is the SOP's purpose? In job hunting terms, the SOP is like a cover letter. The cover letter is to make clear connections between the resume and the job ad. For you, its primary purpose is to make the adcomm offer you admission with full funding. For the adcomm, its primary purpose is to help them see how you would fit into their program (make connections between their program and you). By fit, I mean do they have faculty (or enough faculty) in your area of research interest that can advise, mentor, supervise, and/or committee you through the program to get your degree? Do you have the kind of understanding of the discipline, your research interests, and their program that would make you successful? Do they have something to teach you? Offer you? What can you offer them? They want to brag on you as much as you want to brag about them. If they offer you admission, will you be a good scholar? A good student? Here is the most basic question the SOP should answer: What is it about you that makes you a better prospect than everyone else who's applying?
 
Understanding the SOP's purpose, in practical terms, means that you will know what to put into it and what to leave out of it. And how to phrase it.
 
So, with the purpose in mind, there comes the question: what should you put into it and leave out of it? What format should you use? (MLA? APA? Is footnoting okay?! What about citation?!) Should I stick in a personal story that everyone seems to recommend, except for the half that don't? My research interests? The story about why I got on F in that one, very important class? I'm not going to answer those questions because I can't. Every discipline and department is different. I will give you an answer you won't like: research. Find out the requirements each program you're interested in has for the SOP, think of the SOP's purpose: and now research.
 
Research is one of the basic keys to writing an SOP. It's no different than the writing sample you'll be including in your application packet. For each program you apply to, do some research. How much research you need to do depends on a lot of things, the least of which is your personality. More research does not automatically mean a better SOP. Less research doesn't automatically mean a better one, either. What makes the right amount of research? The ability to craft an SOP that is specific for the program that you're getting into. Here's some ideas (not an exhaustive, inclusive list of what to do) on what to research:
The program itself. Look at the recent graduates and, if possible, read their theses and/or dissertations, at least in part. The acknowledgements can give you an idea about the program's culture. The introduction can give you an idea about what kind of scholarship the program produces and expects. It will also, and this is very important, give you an idea as to how the program uses language. If you speak to them in their own language, that helps your case. You've likely done this, if not, seriously, you should have done this. Look at the program's website and read it all. What kind of classes are offered for both undergrad and grad. Who are the faculty, the tenured, the assistant, the visiting, the emeritus, and the graduate students. What kind of ties to the community (both academic and their local town) do they like to talk about? Do they talk about how their graduate students are working with community partners? Do they host conferences? What happened at the last one? This gives you a taste of the program's culture. The faculty. All of them that might be on the adcomm and the ones that are relevant or somewhat relevant to your interests. Crack open JSTOR etc. and search for recent faculty publications. If you're basing your interest on a faculty member on the interests they've got listed on the site and a reference to them in an article from a decade ago, or worse, only their reputation, you don't have a strong basis to establish clear reasons why they have anything to offer you. Read their recent publications, see who they name drop in terms of theory, other faculty, and so on. Make a list of what each faculty member can offer you in terms of research, not just the ones that are directly related to it. If you're into studying apples, but Dr. V works with oranges, think about how Dr. V's work might help you out. Take notes when you research. Each program has a bunch of people, and you're likely applying to multiple programs. It's easier to refer to notes than to go back and look it up all over again. What's happening in the field with your current research interests, if necessary. This is so you can situate your research interests in the discipline, and then situation your research interests in the program. You can just tell them what you're research interests are and leave the situating to them, but you can lose that chance to sell yourself as the best amongst the rest. Research you. Yup. You. Scribble out some lists or paragraphs or whatever that inventories you. Who are your influences? Who are the theorists you keep coming back to? Who are the theorists you loathe, mock, and/or ridicule? What are your research interests in general and specifically and anywhere in between? Some SOPs will need to be more general, some will need to be more specific. Length restrictions, what you found out about the program, the faculty, the state of the discipline, and so on, can alter this for you. What kind of scholar are you? Student? What's the difference? How do you manage your time? Stress? Health? Do you expect to bring your dog? Do you have health issues? Do you have any academic things that are a negative? If you do, how negative are they? It's easy to see that as an either it's entirely bad, or it's somewhere in the huge good category, but some things are negatives that need to be addressed for certain programs, while other negatives can be ignored, or you should discuss with the one relevant letter writer so they can address it. While Sam ultimately received a C in the Research Methods course, the grade doesn't reflect the actual scholarship as Sam fell ill during the mid-term and consequently failed it; my course policies do not permit re-taking the test. What are the good things about you? Not just the grades, awards, publications, and presentations, but also the character traits. What are you weaknesses? Don't do the job interview baloney, my greatest weakness is my perfectionism. Of course, the important, probably ought to be on the SOP questions: why grad school? What will you do with the degree you want? Why are into the research you're into? Why that particular school? Why are you worth admission and funding?
 
Research the assistanceships. Some SOPs will want you to write a bit about teaching or research with assistanceships in mind. So, do a bit of research on what these entail in the programs you're looking at. What do they do and how do they get it? Have you done assistanceships in the past? If so, what were they like? Do you have a teaching philosophy? If not, make one. Have you done anything that can be discussed in terms of the assistanceship? I taught kung-fu to white belt children, so I have teaching experience. I was part of the state herpetological society and went out to help them with their field counts twice a year. I learned that licking petrie dishes is always a bad idea, no matter how much they resemble pistachio ice cream.
 
Research SOPs. You're doing that, right? Go on to forums (like this one) and read the SOPs people have posted and then read the responses. Look particularly at SOPs in your discipline or related disciplines. Psychology might look at other social sciences. Physics might tell the joke about the Higgs Boson and Sunday mass. Bear in mind that the people responding to and/or criticizing the posted SOPs are likely not on an adcomm. Some have been  or will be, but it's not likely they'll be on the adcomm you're hoping will like you best. However, you can start to get a sense of what SOPs are like. What format is it in? Does yours look like everyone else's? Do you have the exact same opening sentence as half of the people hoping to get into a program in your discipline? I've always wanted to be a librarian since those wonderful, summer days I spent in my (relative of choice)'s home library. 
 
So, to take stock. First, understand the purpose. Second, research. A lot. Let the purpose of the SOP guide your research efforts.
 
Next, get the specific requirements for the SOP from each program. Make a list of similarities. If they all ask for a statement of your research interest, score! One sentence fits most! Most of them will be of different lengths and will have different ideas of what specific information they want. Most won't tell you enough, aside from length and one or two "should have" things. They mostly won't tell you if you should use APA or if you should footnote, or how to format it. Single space? Double space? They will tell you whether it should be on paper or what kind of file format to use. I have only one suggestion: consistency. Okay, two suggestions: unless otherwise specified, don't include anything other than the SOP. No bibliography or footnotes. If you quote or paraphrase someone, cite them in the text the way they do it in the average newspaper article. As Scooby says, "Ruh-roh!"
 
Now, start writing. Create something of a master SOP, or a set of master sentences for the SOPs. Some things should be in every one of them, like what your research interests are. Because length requirements are different for each program, you should work out more than one sentence or set of sentences for each thing you plan to put into more than one SOP. Have a more detailed explanation of your research interests and a more concise one. Even though this might be central and, perhaps, most important to the SOP, you don't want most of a short SOP taken up by one thing. Make these sentences do extra duties. If they can explain not only why you're into what you're into, but also why it's significant to the discipline/program, and how the program factors into it, bonus! The more functions one sentence can serve, with clear, readable logic, the more room you have in the length requirements to bring in other things. Think of this master SOP as more of a set of sentences you can hang on the individual SOP's unique structure. A flesh and skeleton metaphor can work here. You can order all SOPs at this point, you'll probably want to put research interests in the middle or toward the end, rather than in the first sentence, but the key here is that the skeleton of the individual SOP and most of its flesh will come from the needs of the program you're writing it for, not from some predetermined formula. No generically applicable, master SOP that has a few tweaks here and there.
 
Here's the thing. The SOP is one of the most important documents you'll write in your life. It's not something that should be done in a few hours, after looking at the program website and spending some time on the net searching for a how-to-write-an-SOP-guide. It takes work backed by research. The readers can tell quite easily how much research you've done on them by the way you structure and write your SOP. They can tell if you're sending out a generic SOP to several programs because it will be too general. You can't change faculty names in and out, along with a detail or two that makes it seem tailored to the program. The individual SOP should be tailored from the beginning. Some sentences won't change much, so you can pre-write them. But how they fit into each SOP, the reasoning you'll use to try to convince the adcomm that you're the best applicant, and the perspective you'll take all the way to the words you use should be done with the program in mind. It shouldn't be generic. Even if it doesn't seem noticeably generic to you, that doesn't mean that the adcomm won't notice it. They read many, many SOPs every year. People who read SOPs develop a sense about the generic, the cut and paste work.
 
How to name drop gracefully, or bring up the theory and histories and whatnot you're working with when there's only a teeny amount of space for everything? That's a bit easier than it might seem. It's not in the explanation; it's in the usage. If you can use the relevant theories and people and methodologies correctly in a sentence, you don't have to show the adcomm that you know how to use them, or how they're related, by explaining it. Trust them to have enough education to make a few connections for themselves when it comes to the discipline. Example: Novels such as Twilight exemplify how Marxist alienation can be applied to childbirth. My research interest lies in the alienation of women from the product of delivery in Modernist American fiction, such as Faulkner's Sound and the Fury. (Huh, I wonder if that would really work?) Two sentences and I've referenced theory, period, history, relevance for today, and some methodology (it's literature, not science). Use it, don't explain it.
 
If possible, have a professor you know read the SOP to your preferred school and give you some advice. They know more than most other groups of people. If not possible, your current university's writing center can help, or other people who are familiar with the field, or with writing. Your high school English teacher or your English major buddy can probably say something about your grammar, but might not be as helpful as expected. Example, in English, the convention is to speak of historical people in present tense. Shakespeare writes, "To be or not to be," because he thinks it is the question. History has kittens. Shakespeare has been dead for centuries, he can't write! Past tense! Shakespeare wrote, "To be or not to be," because thought it was the question. Someone in the field is preferable!
 
Finally, a word about my real credentials. The adcomm is going to do to your application what you've just done with this post. They are going to judge your credentials (your ethos, trustworthiness, veracity, credibility, knowledge, and so on) based on the impressions they get of you from what you've written. So, be knowledgeable about you, your field, and the program, and use that knowledge well.

Depends on the culture of your program.
 
I wore a Darth Vader t-shirt and jean shorts to teach last Friday. Thursday, when I went to class, my t-shirt said, "Ask my about my AD/HD Highway to Hey a squirrel!" My Thursday class is a research methods course that grad students from several disciplines take every semester. There are two folks from the business school, one in public policy, and one in some profession blah blah blah that I didn't catch. The business school and professional blah blah blah wear formal business wear. Seriously, they're totally dressed to be an ADA on a Law & Order episode at any time. I'm a total shlub next to them. The public policy student is somewhere between business formal and business casual, more Sunday School Teacher Formal than anything.
 
I consider dress to be text, ergo, the way one dresses is defined by the rhetorical situation: what your purpose for the text (persuasive, informative, entertaining---bearing in mind that all text is persuasive when accounting for ethos)? who is your audience? what is the genre (business school, art school, going to a concert, meeting the parents for the first time)? who is the rhetor (who am I supposed to be for the occasion)? There's also medium, but it's clothing and accessories, duh.

My kid just had a vehicle accident and this kind of brought things home with a bang. He's fine (just some minor scrapes and a bit of muscle strain), but his scooter is in many, many pieces. We live two hours away from him when there's no traffic. I left for grad school, so he did stay in his home community for college, where we have a large network of friends and acquaintances (no family). Luckily, my spouse was in town, and actually driving nearby when it occurred, so he was able to be on the scene in a few minutes.
 
So, my advice? If you're new to an area, make an emergency plan. An, I just got hit by a bus, OMFG plan. Find someone, maybe make an emergency contact group out of your fellow no-family-in-town cohort, to be your go-to person/people until either your family can get there or you can take care of yourself. Someone that can take your bookbag from the scene of an accident and hang on to it until you can reclaim it, or you family can pick it up. Someone who your parents can call if they need help finding your hospital room, or getting into contact with someone at the university so they can deal with an extended absence.
 
Sit down and make a list of what needs to happen if you get hit by a bus. Do some rough figuring, how long until a family member can show up and start taking responsibility for the things you can't do until you're out of traction? What needs, at minimum, to happen between you getting hit by a bus and your family member getting to your bedside? Do you have a dog that needs walking? A plant that needs watering? An experiment in progress that needs monitoring? TAing to cover? Food in the office fridge to be tossed? A cake to buy for an office birthday party? Library books that you left scattered on the road?
 
Pre-plan for disaster. The plan will probably fall through in some fashion (most people don't get hit by a bus), but having an arrangement worked out in advance is smart. Particularly since you can put your local emergency contact's name alongside of your non-local emergency contact so someone can get there quickly.

I'm going to address the homesick thing because that seems to be the root of your problem. Don't let homesickness be what makes your choices for you. It is natural to miss home and the people you know the point of being miserable, even seriously depressed. Something is missing: what you're used to. Before you make any decisions, visit with your campus counseling center about how you're feeling. Counseling isn't just for people who need to spend a great deal of time in therapy. It's also for people who only need to speak with someone a few times to make sure they're making good decisions. You've just started the program, the people are great, the program is great, you're going out and doing things, but you're just feeling something missing, but you're not sure what. Give the program a shot. See how the full semester goes. If you do choose to leave the school for one closer to home, make sure you're doing it because that's the better choice for your future, not because you're missing home.

My kid just had a vehicle accident and this kind of brought things home with a bang. He's fine (just some minor scrapes and a bit of muscle strain), but his scooter is in many, many pieces. We live two hours away from him when there's no traffic. I left for grad school, so he did stay in his home community for college, where we have a large network of friends and acquaintances (no family). Luckily, my spouse was in town, and actually driving nearby when it occurred, so he was able to be on the scene in a few minutes.
 
So, my advice? If you're new to an area, make an emergency plan. An, I just got hit by a bus, OMFG plan. Find someone, maybe make an emergency contact group out of your fellow no-family-in-town cohort, to be your go-to person/people until either your family can get there or you can take care of yourself. Someone that can take your bookbag from the scene of an accident and hang on to it until you can reclaim it, or you family can pick it up. Someone who your parents can call if they need help finding your hospital room, or getting into contact with someone at the university so they can deal with an extended absence.
 
Sit down and make a list of what needs to happen if you get hit by a bus. Do some rough figuring, how long until a family member can show up and start taking responsibility for the things you can't do until you're out of traction? What needs, at minimum, to happen between you getting hit by a bus and your family member getting to your bedside? Do you have a dog that needs walking? A plant that needs watering? An experiment in progress that needs monitoring? TAing to cover? Food in the office fridge to be tossed? A cake to buy for an office birthday party? Library books that you left scattered on the road?
 
Pre-plan for disaster. The plan will probably fall through in some fashion (most people don't get hit by a bus), but having an arrangement worked out in advance is smart. Particularly since you can put your local emergency contact's name alongside of your non-local emergency contact so someone can get there quickly.

My kid just had a vehicle accident and this kind of brought things home with a bang. He's fine (just some minor scrapes and a bit of muscle strain), but his scooter is in many, many pieces. We live two hours away from him when there's no traffic. I left for grad school, so he did stay in his home community for college, where we have a large network of friends and acquaintances (no family). Luckily, my spouse was in town, and actually driving nearby when it occurred, so he was able to be on the scene in a few minutes.
 
So, my advice? If you're new to an area, make an emergency plan. An, I just got hit by a bus, OMFG plan. Find someone, maybe make an emergency contact group out of your fellow no-family-in-town cohort, to be your go-to person/people until either your family can get there or you can take care of yourself. Someone that can take your bookbag from the scene of an accident and hang on to it until you can reclaim it, or you family can pick it up. Someone who your parents can call if they need help finding your hospital room, or getting into contact with someone at the university so they can deal with an extended absence.
 
Sit down and make a list of what needs to happen if you get hit by a bus. Do some rough figuring, how long until a family member can show up and start taking responsibility for the things you can't do until you're out of traction? What needs, at minimum, to happen between you getting hit by a bus and your family member getting to your bedside? Do you have a dog that needs walking? A plant that needs watering? An experiment in progress that needs monitoring? TAing to cover? Food in the office fridge to be tossed? A cake to buy for an office birthday party? Library books that you left scattered on the road?
 
Pre-plan for disaster. The plan will probably fall through in some fashion (most people don't get hit by a bus), but having an arrangement worked out in advance is smart. Particularly since you can put your local emergency contact's name alongside of your non-local emergency contact so someone can get there quickly.

My kid just had a vehicle accident and this kind of brought things home with a bang. He's fine (just some minor scrapes and a bit of muscle strain), but his scooter is in many, many pieces. We live two hours away from him when there's no traffic. I left for grad school, so he did stay in his home community for college, where we have a large network of friends and acquaintances (no family). Luckily, my spouse was in town, and actually driving nearby when it occurred, so he was able to be on the scene in a few minutes.
 
So, my advice? If you're new to an area, make an emergency plan. An, I just got hit by a bus, OMFG plan. Find someone, maybe make an emergency contact group out of your fellow no-family-in-town cohort, to be your go-to person/people until either your family can get there or you can take care of yourself. Someone that can take your bookbag from the scene of an accident and hang on to it until you can reclaim it, or you family can pick it up. Someone who your parents can call if they need help finding your hospital room, or getting into contact with someone at the university so they can deal with an extended absence.
 
Sit down and make a list of what needs to happen if you get hit by a bus. Do some rough figuring, how long until a family member can show up and start taking responsibility for the things you can't do until you're out of traction? What needs, at minimum, to happen between you getting hit by a bus and your family member getting to your bedside? Do you have a dog that needs walking? A plant that needs watering? An experiment in progress that needs monitoring? TAing to cover? Food in the office fridge to be tossed? A cake to buy for an office birthday party? Library books that you left scattered on the road?
 
Pre-plan for disaster. The plan will probably fall through in some fashion (most people don't get hit by a bus), but having an arrangement worked out in advance is smart. Particularly since you can put your local emergency contact's name alongside of your non-local emergency contact so someone can get there quickly.

My kid just had a vehicle accident and this kind of brought things home with a bang. He's fine (just some minor scrapes and a bit of muscle strain), but his scooter is in many, many pieces. We live two hours away from him when there's no traffic. I left for grad school, so he did stay in his home community for college, where we have a large network of friends and acquaintances (no family). Luckily, my spouse was in town, and actually driving nearby when it occurred, so he was able to be on the scene in a few minutes.
 
So, my advice? If you're new to an area, make an emergency plan. An, I just got hit by a bus, OMFG plan. Find someone, maybe make an emergency contact group out of your fellow no-family-in-town cohort, to be your go-to person/people until either your family can get there or you can take care of yourself. Someone that can take your bookbag from the scene of an accident and hang on to it until you can reclaim it, or you family can pick it up. Someone who your parents can call if they need help finding your hospital room, or getting into contact with someone at the university so they can deal with an extended absence.
 
Sit down and make a list of what needs to happen if you get hit by a bus. Do some rough figuring, how long until a family member can show up and start taking responsibility for the things you can't do until you're out of traction? What needs, at minimum, to happen between you getting hit by a bus and your family member getting to your bedside? Do you have a dog that needs walking? A plant that needs watering? An experiment in progress that needs monitoring? TAing to cover? Food in the office fridge to be tossed? A cake to buy for an office birthday party? Library books that you left scattered on the road?
 
Pre-plan for disaster. The plan will probably fall through in some fashion (most people don't get hit by a bus), but having an arrangement worked out in advance is smart. Particularly since you can put your local emergency contact's name alongside of your non-local emergency contact so someone can get there quickly.

I'm so sorry to hear that your child was in an accident, but am very glad they are okay and not seriously injured. 
 
I honestly recommend EVERYONE carry around a few very important things in their wallet, on their person, at all times. It can be written on a blank business card or index card. Any thicker piece of paper will do:
 
At the top of the card highlight it in lime green (or something distinguishable) and write MEDICAL (this part should be visible from its pocket in your wallet)  Name, and emergency contact(s). Your DOB should be on an ID card anyways.  Medical conditions (any/all). Include disabilities or other health concerns. Asthmatic? Diabetic? Panic disorder? Epilepsy? Pacemaker? That goes here.  Blood type (I have a rare and weird blood issue so I have that listed in the odd case I need a transfusion.)  Allergies (any and all) important medical history (e.g. had a heart attack, stroke, surgery on something major, etc) Prescriptions -- FULL name, dosage of the Rx in mg, and how often you take it. Include the "as needed" prescriptions. Insurance name.  THEN, list pets [if you have no roommate/they aren't your emergency contact] and/or another emergency contact or school/department. An "If hospitalized, please call/email ____ department." Your emergency contacts should include at least ONE local person (roommate or otherwise), and THEY should be given a similar card with your medical information, your family's contact information, and a list of top priority things to be done (feed your pet), and people to contact, probably your advisor -- with the name of your hospital/ER room/etc. If you don't have a roommate, and DO have a pet/home things which need taking care of you can pre-emptively give your emergency contact a spare key to your apartment, provided you trust them. Otherwise, I would speak to your apartment's landlord/on-site manager/whatever and make them aware of your emergency contact, their name, and that you've instructed this contact to get in touch with the manager/landlord in the case of a dire emergency in order to feed/water/whatever. If your roommate is one contact, have a second one in case you were both in the accident. 
 
This card can be incredibly helpful, and I actually learned this from my 75 year old grandmother. After donating blood one day, we took her out to lunch, and she began to feel woozy and faint, as well as clammy. We were lucky, there was a woman at a nearby table who gave us medical advice, and the EMTs showed up fairly quickly to assess her. But when they started asking me what prescriptions she took, I didn't know the answer. My grandmother was too woozy to think of specific names, but said they were in her wallet. I found the card very quickly, and gave it to the EMTs which made their inspection and checking her vitals much easier because it took out all the guesswork. She was fine (low on fluids, otherwise healthy), but being able to have everything on one card made the entire scenario less terrifying and more efficient. More than just a contact (which can sometimes be garnered from your phone or ID, or other things in your wallet), you also need vital medical information. 
 
I have family nearish (about 20 minutes away, and a Doctor), but I still carry the medical card at all times and have a second contact listed. 

My kid just had a vehicle accident and this kind of brought things home with a bang. He's fine (just some minor scrapes and a bit of muscle strain), but his scooter is in many, many pieces. We live two hours away from him when there's no traffic. I left for grad school, so he did stay in his home community for college, where we have a large network of friends and acquaintances (no family). Luckily, my spouse was in town, and actually driving nearby when it occurred, so he was able to be on the scene in a few minutes.
 
So, my advice? If you're new to an area, make an emergency plan. An, I just got hit by a bus, OMFG plan. Find someone, maybe make an emergency contact group out of your fellow no-family-in-town cohort, to be your go-to person/people until either your family can get there or you can take care of yourself. Someone that can take your bookbag from the scene of an accident and hang on to it until you can reclaim it, or you family can pick it up. Someone who your parents can call if they need help finding your hospital room, or getting into contact with someone at the university so they can deal with an extended absence.
 
Sit down and make a list of what needs to happen if you get hit by a bus. Do some rough figuring, how long until a family member can show up and start taking responsibility for the things you can't do until you're out of traction? What needs, at minimum, to happen between you getting hit by a bus and your family member getting to your bedside? Do you have a dog that needs walking? A plant that needs watering? An experiment in progress that needs monitoring? TAing to cover? Food in the office fridge to be tossed? A cake to buy for an office birthday party? Library books that you left scattered on the road?
 
Pre-plan for disaster. The plan will probably fall through in some fashion (most people don't get hit by a bus), but having an arrangement worked out in advance is smart. Particularly since you can put your local emergency contact's name alongside of your non-local emergency contact so someone can get there quickly.

Depends on the culture of your program.
 
I wore a Darth Vader t-shirt and jean shorts to teach last Friday. Thursday, when I went to class, my t-shirt said, "Ask my about my AD/HD Highway to Hey a squirrel!" My Thursday class is a research methods course that grad students from several disciplines take every semester. There are two folks from the business school, one in public policy, and one in some profession blah blah blah that I didn't catch. The business school and professional blah blah blah wear formal business wear. Seriously, they're totally dressed to be an ADA on a Law & Order episode at any time. I'm a total shlub next to them. The public policy student is somewhere between business formal and business casual, more Sunday School Teacher Formal than anything.
 
I consider dress to be text, ergo, the way one dresses is defined by the rhetorical situation: what your purpose for the text (persuasive, informative, entertaining---bearing in mind that all text is persuasive when accounting for ethos)? who is your audience? what is the genre (business school, art school, going to a concert, meeting the parents for the first time)? who is the rhetor (who am I supposed to be for the occasion)? There's also medium, but it's clothing and accessories, duh.