SoP headings

[merrythoughts]

My husband says I must put my name in the intro (he's already in grad school and did it this way-- he writes very matter-of-factly, and it always works very well for him), and I say I absolutely should not do this, as it just sounds weird.

The samples I've read online do not include the author's name in the body. So, I'm right... right?

Also, I'm seeing different headings for SoPs. What should I include in the heading? Just my name and "statement of purpose?" or should I also include the school/department, or even possibly the subject I'm interested in researching? I don't want to draw any unwanted attention right off the bat with my heading, so I want it to be very "typical."

Thank you.

[anonacademic]

Yes, I will be putting my name in the heading - as in, the top space of the page next to the page number. I'll be doing this for both my SOP and my writing sample. I'm not doing anything other than that - no title or name in the text - because all of my paper SOPs have cover forms provided by the university.

How would you work your name into the body of your SOP, anyway? Talk about yourself in the third person? Write something like, "I, John Doe, want to study X..."? Just curious.

Hope that helps! I think that's the simplest way - and anyway, writing an SOP is awkward and difficult as it is; no need to add another dimension of awkwardness

[merrythoughts]

Thanks for the input. My husband's intro was very short and to-the-point. "My name is ____, and I am applying to ____ so that I can further my research in _____." People seem to love his writing style (his intelligence just comes across so effortlessly!), but I absolutely cannot pull it off.

Anyhow, your heading will look like this?:

Name #

bodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybdoydbodybo

bodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybdoydbodybo

bodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybdoydbodybo

I was thinking

Name- School, department #

bodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybdoydbodybo

bodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybdoydbodybo

bodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybodybdoydbodybo

Anyone else have ideas?

[fbh]

Mine says this in the header:

Name (left edge) School/Department (in the middle) page _ of _ (right edge)

I think it looks pretty neat and useful.

[LJK]

My Header:

Name of University | Name of Department | Statement of Purpose | My Name

I center it and make it 12 point font if it fits or make it smaller to stay on one line.

[schoolpsych_hopeful]

In the header I put:

My Name - Statement of Purpose - Degree - Department Name

Then I had: Page X of X in the footer.