Help meeee! Implacable giant space before footnote

[Yanaka]

Hello! 

Often whilst writing SOP's, I get a huge, blank space between my text and a footnote. I don't know why that happens since it's not always the case and was not able to figure out what causes its sudden appearing in the doc... Google has not been helpful, nobody seems to use Pages but me! Would someone here have a solution? Here's a snapshot of my issue. I'm trying to start a new line but keep the paragraphs together, and instead there's this gigantic space that denatures my process. Thank youuu 

[TakeruK]

I think the source of the problem is that the 2nd line of your new paragraph has yet another footnote (#4). So the software is stuck. If it tries to use the remaining space on that page to include the next two lines, then there's not enough room for both the 2nd line of your paragraph and also for your footnote #4 to be at the bottom of the page. So, it decides to just put the next paragraph on the next page. (I think most word processors will avoid having only a single line of a paragraph by itself so that's why it's not just putting the first line ("My political..." in the gap and then leaving the second line on the next page. You can test this by adding another paragraph in between the two you displayed here that is about 5-6 lines long and has no footnote. See if it moves up into the gap. 

If this is what's happening, my advice is to worry about this type of formatting at the very end. Through several drafts, my paragraphs might get longer/shorter or moved around, so it's not worth the effort of lining everything up right now and then having things shift around again later! It's in this stage that I modify wording to remove orphaned words too. In my field, we also write with "both sides justified" and when we also use jargony words that are just a bunch of things compounded into each other, it can create awkward spacing so I also make these edits last!

 

[fuzzylogician]

When you said "giant space" I was definitely imagining something a lot more spectacular than your screenshot there. I think TakeruK is exactly right about why it's happening and also about not worrying about formatting until you're done with writing, because this may not be an issue at all by the time you're done. I would also venture as far as to say that even though you don't like it very much, this is really not a problem at all, and not worth the time you're spending worrying about it. It will *not* affect your admissions decisions one way or the other. So if you can't figure out how to solve it in a reasonable amount of time, I would strongly recommend moving on and investing your time in other ways. 

[Yanaka]

Hey there, I did not receive notifications and did not see your answers, my apologies! 

Well I'm worried about it @fuzzylogician because it messes with the hierarchy of my document. The paragraph about my "political inclination" seems detached from the preceding paragraph, which would not be justified. So I don't want to seem like a bad writer. I'm already done typing all of those parts and, on top of that, Cornell asks for the name and proposed area of study to be repeated on each page, which will emphasize the separation even more  Do you think it doesn't matter?

Thanks for the info about the footnote @TakeruK. And you are totally right, I just tried deleting the 4th footnote. So bless you (even if you didn't just sneeze).  

Edited December 29, 2016 by Yanaka
focus, dammit!

[TakeruK]

Glad the tip worked! Hope you are able to reword a few things to make things line up the way you want it to, but I'd agree with fuzzy to be sure to not spend too much time worrying about it because it's not going to make a huge difference. Personally, formatting issues like this one and the others I mentioned are probably worth around 20-30 minutes of effort, unless there is a strict page limit and this extra space pushes you a few lines over the limit (in that case, definitely fix it before submitting!)

[Yanaka]

Got it. I did forget to mention that there is a 2-page limit and that my SOP is already too long as it is... Thank you @TakeruK  

[fuzzylogician]

33 minutes ago, Yanaka said:

Well I'm worried about it @fuzzylogician because it messes with the hierarchy of my document. The paragraph about my "political inclination" seems detached from the preceding paragraph, which would not be justified. So I don't want to seem like a bad writer. I'm already done typing all of those parts and, on top of that, Cornell asks for the name and proposed area of study to be repeated on each page, which will emphasize the separation even more  Do you think it doesn't matter?

Listen, I am not one to judge. I care about the aesthetics of papers and presentations and have been known to spend much longer than advised on making page breaks look pretty. That said, I really think it makes no difference whatsoever for your admissions chances. Having a paragraph spill over to the next page and having the last line not be justified has nothing to do with being a good or a bad writer. Having pretty page breaks is nice, but not having them in one place will not cause anyone to judge you or decide you're an unfit applicant. So this is probably worth some time investment, but if you just can't make it work, then you need to move on. (Caveat: if this is causing you to go over the page limit, then you do need to fix it. I'd find a way to move the footnote further down or just get rid of it in that case. I'm actually a little surprised to see footnotes in your SOP in general.) 

[Yanaka]

I've been told that my footnotes were surprising. But I have a few of them because there are some French stuff that either need explanations (like this Loi Travail thing), or because I want to give the original, pre-translation quotes I use in my SOP.  Thanks for the insight @fuzzylogician!

Edited December 29, 2016 by Yanaka

[TakeruK]

7 minutes ago, Yanaka said:

I've been told that my footnotes were surprising. But I have a few of them because there are some French stuff that either need explanations (like this Loi Travail thing), or because I want to give the original, pre-translation quotes I use in my SOP.  Thanks for the insight @fuzzylogician!

It's also my opinion that a SOP shouldn't have material that require the reader to look things up. Either you explain them in a way that the reader gets your point, or you don't mention it. I only see your first three footnotes, and to me, it looks like you already have three quotes in the first page, which seems a little surprising (you would want your SOP to be your words, not others). In addition, I don't think footnotes that are just references are useful because:

1. Either you are mentioning a classic/canonical piece of work in your field that everyone knows, so no bibliographic information is needed. For example, if I were to mention the Kepler space telescope in my essay, an instrument launched in 2009 that was responsible for discovering thousands of exoplanets, I would not cite it. I would simply say something like "In four years of operations, Kepler found thousands of new exoplanets." This is a common enough knowledge in my field that I wouldn't cite the paper that announced these discoveries in my SOP.

2. Or, if they need to look it up, they likely will not spend the time looking it up. I can't imagine a professor actually following the bibliographic information to read more about what you wrote, when there are likely many other essays to read. I think that if you ever have to say something that requires someone to read the source material for more information, then you have gone too deep in the SOP. 

In my opinion, the SOP is a weird piece of academic writing. It is an academic work, however, it is way less formal than anything you might publish. Here's how I imagine the tone of the SOP would be: You are visiting a professor at their school because you are applying there. You are sitting down with them for a coffee/tea/whatever, and they ask "Tell me about yourself, your previous experience and your interests in our program." The SOP is the written version of your answer. In this type of conversation, you wouldn't have footnotes and you wouldn't pull out books or articles to prove your point. You wouldn't quote others verbatim unless it's a very important or influential quote in your field that has special meaning (i.e. jargon) between you and the professor. 

The three footnotes (and maybe the quotes that go with them) that are visible in your excerpt seem unnecessary, but I haven't read the whole thing, of course. You aren't making an academic argument in a SOP, so you don't need to go so far as to provide the original text of quotes you translate. Differences in cultures could be important though. I don't know what you have written for Footnote #4, but I think this might be the only one that actually needs a footnote. I remember from your other posts that you are an American living in France but now applying to US grad programs, right? And maybe Americans won't know what the Loi Travail is, so if you are discussing your involvement in the demonstrations leading up to the implementation, it might be helpful to have one sentence explaining that the Loi Travail is legislation protecting labour rights (at least that's what I think it is). I think this is something that is useful to have as a footnote because readers who are familiar with it can skip over it and those who need a little more context can get it. But if this is going to be your only footnote, you can just incorporate it into the sentence as a phrase set off by commas.

However, I'm not in your field and I'm not used to the norms of your field. I only mention this because you said that you were told by others that your footnotes were surprising. If these others are professors in your field, then I would definitely heed their advice. I'm just providing more examples and another perspective in case you find it helpful in hearing more about why footnotes are surprising in a SOP. But I will note one thing---for my field, I find that the academic culture in France* and North America is very different, especially in the level of rigor and precision in writing. For example, PhD theses in North America are often hastily put together at the end of the degree---it's just the concatenation of all your papers with about 10-20 pages of additional writing that provides an introduction and ties everything together. However, in France, the PhD theses are much longer and students will rewrite their published works to fit in the style of their thesis better. They also write much longer introduction that is effectively a very extensive literature review spanning 50+ pages. I mention this because if you are seeking advice for US schools, then find out if there are major cultural differences between the US and France in your field and seek advice from professors with experience at US schools if possible.

(*I mention France here explicitly because a lot of people I work with are from France so I know specific stories/examples from France, but they say this is general to most of Europe)

[Yanaka]

I've been told some of the footnotes are surprising by a member of this forum who's been reviewing my SOP's! Not a professor. I was too afraid to ask a prof. about reviewing my material... 

Thanks a lot for the advice. You are right about the footnotes that you were able to see, as they simply refer to their editor's website (so the committee has all the info that I did not give in the SOP, like date, all co-authors etc.). Those are the ones I've been told are a little weird but that, for some reason, I've been clinging to (probably because I thought they made my SOP look more professional... should I re-write them instead? Or do they not need all that info, maybe?). However, the Loi Travail one I think is useful because it gives a short summary of what it is and what happened, but without burdening the flow of the paragraph. Does that make sense?

Very interesting that you have experience with French academics. I truly hope, since I am applying to Comparative Literature departments and since they have French-speaking and French thought-familiar profs, that the committee will take into account some cultural differences there may be with the US. Even my LOR's will demand that the cultural differences be acknowledged. 

Anyway, I've already sent out my apps to all my favorite schools  So I'll take your advice into account for the very last one (Cornell) but the damage is already done...

[TakeruK]

29 minutes ago, Yanaka said:

Very interesting that you have experience with French academics. I truly hope, since I am applying to Comparative Literature departments and since they have French-speaking and French thought-familiar profs, that the committee will take into account some cultural differences there may be with the US. Even my LOR's will demand that the cultural differences be acknowledged. 

Anyway, I've already sent out my apps to all my favorite schools  So I'll take your advice into account for the very last one (Cornell) but the damage is already done...

I don't think you have to worry. As you said, there will be people that are familiar with international academic conventions. It wouldn't make sense for someone to throw away your application because there are (or a lack of) footnotes. I only mentioned the professors and the difference in style as a possible explanation to any potentially conflicting advice you received, not that you must conform to a certain style! Committees already do many things to account for differences (e.g. grading systems, LOR tone, length of degrees, etc.) so this will definitely be considered too.  

[DBear]

Hehehehe @Yanaka I didn't even notice the gap!

[Yanaka]

1 hour ago, DBear said:

Hehehehe @Yanaka I didn't even notice the gap!

It didn't appear on the SOP for Princeton, because I used a 2.0 interlignage for it, whereas I'm trying to smoosh it all in a 1.5 or less for Cornell's limit of 2 pages! Hahaha

[DBear]

I'm bored if you want feedback!