How to start a SOP?

[historygeek]

I'm beginning to draft my statements of purpose, and I have no idea how to start it. I've seen different approaches; most commonly, something like "I am applying to the PhD in history at blah blah blah..." Is this a good way to start? Help?!

[TakeruK]

I'd vote for the straight-forward / direct start, where the main goal of the first paragraph is to let the reader know what area of research you want to work in and why it is important. 

"I am applying to the PhD program in ...." is a fine way to start, especially if you are applying to a department that has multiple programs (especially if they have both MA and PhD applications). If your field can be cross-disciplinary and the reader might actually be someone in multiple fields/evaluating admissions for more than one department, then I think it's really important to be very clear what you are applying to. If there is no way that your application can be confused for a different place, then you might be able to leave this first sentence out (however, having it there does show that you at least went back and changed the school name, correctly, for this application).

Whatever you do for the first sentence, my advice would be to jump right into your research interests / goals. For my field, this will help the reader categorize you and imagine where you would fit into the department. In addition, while everyone does care about admitting the right students etc., I think it is pretty tiring to read through dozens or hundreds of these in one season. Scholars are primarily interested in the research, so talk about that first! What do you want to do while you're at their school? I would keep this just brief though, and expand on this in a later paragraph where you discuss specifically why their program is a good fit for you.

Finally, I would end the first paragraph with a motivation/justification on your research interests. To be clear, when I say this, I am not thinking about personal motivation but professional motivation. For example, although there is nothing wrong with a motivation like "being fascinated by this topic since I first read .... " or whatever, I am thinking about why the reader should care about the research interest you state. In my field, I might for example, motivate my interest in one particular type of planet with giant atmospheres because they provide a good testing ground to study some particular atmospheric process. I think this is a good way to end the first paragraph because it makes the reader even further interested in your work and it also shows that you can think like a grad student and understand the implications of your research interests.

But I want to stress that there is no one single right way to write an SOP. I am just providing you with how I would start one, from my experience, and why I think this could be effective. There are other ways to begin, including personal motivation stories, which could also be effective, but could also be very cliché. Ultimately, I think it's a good thing that you are looking at many different options to find the best one for you. Once you find what fits you best, I'd adopt it and then not worry too much about your choice. I am not sure it makes a huge difference as agonizing over the SOP opening for a long time may not be worth it (the reader may just skim right past it anyways!)

[historygeek]

37 minutes ago, TakeruK said:

I'd vote for the straight-forward / direct start, where the main goal of the first paragraph is to let the reader know what area of research you want to work in and why it is important. 

"I am applying to the PhD program in ...." is a fine way to start, especially if you are applying to a department that has multiple programs (especially if they have both MA and PhD applications). If your field can be cross-disciplinary and the reader might actually be someone in multiple fields/evaluating admissions for more than one department, then I think it's really important to be very clear what you are applying to. If there is no way that your application can be confused for a different place, then you might be able to leave this first sentence out (however, having it there does show that you at least went back and changed the school name, correctly, for this application).

Whatever you do for the first sentence, my advice would be to jump right into your research interests / goals. For my field, this will help the reader categorize you and imagine where you would fit into the department. In addition, while everyone does care about admitting the right students etc., I think it is pretty tiring to read through dozens or hundreds of these in one season. Scholars are primarily interested in the research, so talk about that first! What do you want to do while you're at their school? I would keep this just brief though, and expand on this in a later paragraph where you discuss specifically why their program is a good fit for you.

Finally, I would end the first paragraph with a motivation/justification on your research interests. To be clear, when I say this, I am not thinking about personal motivation but professional motivation. For example, although there is nothing wrong with a motivation like "being fascinated by this topic since I first read .... " or whatever, I am thinking about why the reader should care about the research interest you state. In my field, I might for example, motivate my interest in one particular type of planet with giant atmospheres because they provide a good testing ground to study some particular atmospheric process. I think this is a good way to end the first paragraph because it makes the reader even further interested in your work and it also shows that you can think like a grad student and understand the implications of your research interests.

But I want to stress that there is no one single right way to write an SOP. I am just providing you with how I would start one, from my experience, and why I think this could be effective. There are other ways to begin, including personal motivation stories, which could also be effective, but could also be very cliché. Ultimately, I think it's a good thing that you are looking at many different options to find the best one for you. Once you find what fits you best, I'd adopt it and then not worry too much about your choice. I am not sure it makes a huge difference as agonizing over the SOP opening for a long time may not be worth it (the reader may just skim right past it anyways!)

Thank you so much for your response! I really appreciate it.