I too wrote a personal statement to apply for my masters. In that I wrote about how my personal experiences as a child in school or in my under graduation helped me gather inspirations and motivations to pursue the particular course.
Alternatively, if by chance you scored a low gpa in any semester or any minor, major, you could mention that too. Though, don't make it sound like an excuse but a proper explanation with how did you achieve to overcome it later. Or if had to face any hardships to study or something, you could mention that too. So well basically it's anything to everything from your life which you think reflects your choice of taking this course.
And yes because it's a letter format AFTER you say something like that then you can end with the "thank you for your consideration and I look forward to contributing my research expertise/skills/etc to your program" (whatever those skills/expertise are)
I'd never heard of a Letter of Motivation until you mentioned it. Google says it's essentially the SOP of European schools.
Google also says you can do away with the formalities of addressing an audience, etc.. So no Sir/Madam.
Where it's "titled" and such is going to depend on how it's submitted. If you copy-paste into a text field, don't bother titling it. If it's submitted as a Word doc or PDF you'll want to put your name, info, etc.. somewhere in the document and with that you can "title" it as needed. In the header or footer or something. You don't have to have a big 16pt title centered above your text like an assignment essay. Imagine they're going to print it out and put it in a folder - what happens if they drop a page? So page numbers, your name, what it is, are important to be in header or footer of the pages. Think of it like if you were the person reading it, in a heap of papers, and you dropped a page or wanted to go back and reread something. "Who is this? What is this? Are these pages out of order?"
That sort of thing.
But my understanding is that it essentially -is- a SOP. So you'll want to try and avoid the sort of opening you're looking at. It's in a file, they know who you are, what you've applied for, etc.. so you don't have to spell it out at the start. You'll mention the course and why you want to take it, but you don't have to be so literal in answering it.
What exactly does the prompt say and how does it fit into the rest of the app? Are there other areas where you can address information instead of this Letter? (CV, Resume, other personal essay).
The art of these things is getting the info you need to get across in very strict word budgets. Think of your app as a whole. What does this part need to convey to make the full picture of who you are?
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