文书一段有趣的开头是读者的福音。首段,一定要想办法抓住读者的眼球,让他们有想要看下去的欲望。万事开头难申请者一定要避开以下两种常见的“烂开头”。
I always wanted to be a doctor because I like science and I want to help people.
这种开头在众多申请者的SOP中十分常见。千万不要说自己always怎么怎么样,没有什么是always怎么样的,用生动的细节写出那些“顿悟”的moment比说自己always怎么样要有说服力的多。
I am honored to apply for the Master of Library Science program at the University of Okoboji because as long as I can remember I have had a love affair with books. Since I was eleven I have known I wanted to be a librarian.
这样的开头废话连篇招生委员会的人在看到这一段之前,就已经知道你在申请这个program,就已经知道你热爱读书(不热爱读书的人会来申请这个program吗?)。所以这样的开头只会让读者觉得无聊,无法从众多申请者中脱颖而出,很可能这样的首段一出现,你的SOP就直接被压箱底了。
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你要写出的是那个你为什么热爱读书的moment。那个“顿悟”的瞬间,那段让你发现“真爱”的经历。这样的一个故事,才能吸引读者的眼球。如果上面这段这样来写,给读者的感受就会非常具体、深刻:
When I was eleven, my great-aunt Gretchen passed away and left me something that changed my life: a library of about five thousand books. Some of my best days were spent arranging and reading her books. Since then, I have wanted to be a librarian.
儿时的经历固然会对我们的职业发展兴趣产生影响,但你最后选择去申请graduate school,却并不是你从小怎样就可以决定的。这应该是一个成熟、慎重的决定。所以不要仅仅说自己从小怎么样,就选择了现在的专业或职业发展目标,而是要强调一个兴趣持续发展、深化、系统化的过程:
I got my first Lego Technic set from my father when I was a six-year-old child. Those interconnecting plastic rods and parts were magical to me. Mixed with imagination, those parts can be assembled into various electrical devices, such as a transformer, an automatic alarm, and more. It definitely opened my curiosity, brought me to a new world without limitations, and most importantly, ignited my passion for electrical engineering and innovation. I have been participating in junior engineering competition ever since. To further develop my passion, I became an Electrical Engineering student at Tsinghua university, and spent a lot of my free time doing research on engineering and innovation theory at innovation management labs.
找出最适合的你的故事,就能写出一个有吸引力的开头。