How to make the first few sentences interesting?

[jilly11]

Hi all,

I am wondering how do you make the start of your SoP interesting and encourage the reader to keep reading? I don't want the first line to be some boring line/cliche.

Any tips from people who have written an SoP or are writing one?

Cheers

[msw2013]

It does pay to use terminology or phrases similar to the field you are going into. Like the strong qualities or traits that you can easily elaborate on within your paper. You can also use a small opening like a personal experience that ignited your interest in the field... they are mostly looking for how you can relate your self and your experiences to your interest in the school and the field.

For my SOP, I used several traits that Social Workers find very helpful to promote self-resilience, respect and dignity in their clients which ranges from Ambition to Perseverance and their relation to my aspirations as a Social Worker.

[butterfingers2010]

I am currently writing my SOP and just recently finished what I hope is the final draft. I started my SOP with a story about how I initially became interested in my field, and the first line is what I would consider an attention-grabber. What I did was thought up some interesting personal anecdotes and chose one that I thought related really well to the "theme" of my essay, which is having positive unconditional regard for others, and especially for clients (I am in the counseling field). My advice would be to try and define what the "theme" or main points of your essay are and think of a personal story, philosophy, life lesson, etc. that goes along with that, and start it in an interesting way. You are right..you want them to have some reason to keep reading your essay, as they are reading through hundreds of them and many of them will probably start out in a boring way "I've always wanted to be a .....", etc. Choose a good attention-grabber for your first few line and you will definitely at least stick out!

[fullofpink]

Make sure that you read any directions given on a school's website. While most of the schools I'm applying to just give a word/page limit, one school actually stipulated that in the first sentence of the SOP that you MUST mention the school's name and what department you are applying to. That changes everything regarding my entrance of the SOP.

Whatever you put in for your first paragraph, it needs to be strong, relevant and not too wordy/verbose. I think this website explains very succinctly how to make things sharp: http://www.uni.edu/~gotera/gradapp/stmtpurpose.htm

[jilly11]

Full of pink - thats a great website! Thanks!