Revisions, revisions, revisions..

[Loric]

Anyone else find themselves with a seemingly endless ability to revise things in your SOP?

 

Everytime I read through it, I think "What the hell was I thinking?" and rework a paragraph or something. I do think this last read/rewrite grinded down some rough edges and wonky wording, but i'm more concerned that I was happy with it a week ago thinking it was finished before I opened the file today.

 

I guess I'm asking how you get past the idea that it could be improved and just submit the darn thing. How to come to peace with that.

[Cesare]

I am having the same problem. Before totally reorganizing it, I was very happy with it. Now I wonder how in the world was I happy with that, but it has gotten worse... I am now asking myself how else can I improve it? I keep on making little changes here and there. BUT I am now wondering if my decision to present a series of research questions rather than just one and go into detail about it was a good idea. There are just so many ways to write a SoP.

[socioholic]

YES. My humble opinion:

Pick a date or time to stop. This is the easiest way.

Step away from it for a day and read it in a different environment than where you write it.

1. have you addressed every topic in the prompt?

2. does every sentence add value?

3. Is there anywhere you could be more descrptive and less general?

it's unlikely one or two *words* will make a diff (as opposed to new ideas, stories, examples, etc.).

[biotechie]

Once you get to the point where you feel like you're constantly changing little things, you need to just stop and give it to someone to critique. I had three people critique my SOP and research statements, and I think if I had not done so, I would have re-formatted and modified it forever. The version I submitted was successful, and I think it genuinely reflected me as a person as well as my own writing style.

[TexasGuy]

yes. going through the exact same thing. frustrating

[TakeruK]

I agree with socioholic -- decide on the last day/time you'd look at the SOP and stick to it. Also, as soon as I submitted a SOP, I never ever opened it up again (unless I was editing out the school name to submit to another place, but I would usually start from my "template SOP" instead of one already edited for a specific program). I didn't want to see a typo or other mistake and/or agonize about how I wrote something after there was nothing I could do about it anymore!

[Loric]

I agree with socioholic -- decide on the last day/time you'd look at the SOP and stick to it. Also, as soon as I submitted a SOP, I never ever opened it up again (unless I was editing out the school name to submit to another place, but I would usually start from my "template SOP" instead of one already edited for a specific program). I didn't want to see a typo or other mistake and/or agonize about how I wrote something after there was nothing I could do about it anymore!

 

I've specifically gone through and either gotten the feedback or asked the people not to respond because it's been so long - lol - to avoid agonizing over typos or anything I can't fix.

 

I think I've completely maxed out my favors from my peer reader group. My SOP went through at least 3 complete ground-up rewrites, and then I subjected them to my longform resume/CV hybrid, and a few have agreed to read through my potential writing samples. I started with 5-8 people and now maybe 1 or 2 will even respond to an email from me about it saying "oh, i'm sorry, i'm so busy, maybe by next week?" lol.

 

Eh, it's my life and it's important to me, so I think I get some leeway to be a little obsessive and pushy.

[MsDarjeeling]

I second bio's suggestions.  Instead of constantly revising it on your own it is important to have others review it.  Those others need to be professors or professionals with academic writing experience that can assist with content and grammar/spelling.  Let them write all over it, rip it apart, and add or delete things.  Before you incorporate any of their changes take a couple of days away from it.  Then go back and do another round of edits.  I think its good to have at least 3 people edit it for you and once you've gone through all of them take a week or two away from it.  Chances are when you open it you'll find it satisfactory.  If not then touch bases with your editors.  If they're telling you that its great and a huge improvement from the earlier draft they saw then start to accept that they're right and you need to leave it alone.