If you are going to or have already applied for a master’s degree at one of the universities, you may find a letter of motivation in the list of documents required for admission. College paper help will tell you what it is and how to make your letter bright, concise, and memorable in this article.
A letter of motivation is a brief statement from an applicant to the admissions committee. Examiners will select from among the many worthy applicants whose background and motivation will allow them to meet the program’s objectives to the fullest extent. And motivation letters help review each applicant to select the right ones: making sure the program will give the person what he or she came for, and that the learning process will be interesting and mutually enriching.
The task of the applicant – to show that he chose a particular master’s program for a reason, clearly understands its role in his professional development and strives to master this program. And to confirm that he has all the necessary knowledge and skills to master it.
In fact, the motivation letter is an additional channel of communication between the candidate and the admissions committee, and it is important to use this opportunity to show your interest, literacy, competence and commitment. In the experience of some of our students, motivation letters and essays written with full dedication outweigh even failure to meet other selection criteria.
Speaking of essays, sometimes universities ask you to write an essay instead of, or in addition to, a motivation letter. It is important not to confuse the two documents – they have different objectives.
A letter of motivation reveals the applicant’s personality, goals and expectations, and describes his or her successes and plans. The motivation letter assesses the applicant’s background – the skills, knowledge and achievements he or she has at the time of admission.
The essay in turn should show the applicant’s ability to reason logically, structure information, and draw conclusions. It will assess how the candidate is able to argue their point of view, work with information, analyze it and conduct logical reasoning.
The essay is also a good opportunity to show the volume and depth of knowledge of the subject. As a rule, it is written on a topic set by the university.
How to start writing a letter
To make it easier for you to focus and not forget anything, we advise you to start with a plan.
Letter Preparation Plan
- look at the list of requirements and conditions of a particular university – usually, they are on the website of the educational institution in the relevant sections;
- outline the structure of the letter;
- make a list of your achievements that are worth mentioning in the letter;
- think of arguments that will show your interest in the program;
- write the text;
- let the text lie down for several hours, and preferably days, then edit it;
- arrange the text in accordance with the requirements of the university;
- before submitting, check for typos, stylistic inaccuracies, check the list of requirements again and make sure you haven’t forgotten anything.
Schedule more time to work on the letter so that the text can be set aside for a couple of days and then re-evaluated. You can even write several options, then compare them and choose the best one. Write down in notes all the ideas and theses that come to mind – so you do not miss the really good ideas.
Honestly and about a living person
Don’t be afraid to use vivid language and vivid metaphors and make original judgments. Write honestly about your emotions, feelings, and expectations of learning. Don’t be afraid to share your dreams and plans for the future. Imagine telling about yourself to an older comrade with whom you are close, but without being pannibalistic.
Write a story that reveals your personality, and illustrate your arguments with details from life. And don’t forget the logic and consistency of your presentation.
Avoid clichés and corny images – they prevent your text to show your personality. Also, if possible, it’s best not to joke about controversial topics: there is a danger that members of the admissions committee will misunderstand and misjudge the joke.
Understood: the ABC method for describing skills
To get away from simply listing skills, you can use the ABC method – its essence is to describe each skill by answering three questions:
A-Activity
What have I done/am doing?
- During my undergraduate studies, I managed the student media.
- I was the main organizer of the section on project activities in the educational camp for students.
B – Benefit
What skills did you gain in the process?
- Through this, I have gained team management skills and know all the stages of digital content production.
- Through this, I gained experience in creating my own product and project and team management skills.
C – Course
How does this relate to the chosen course?
- This is important for the direction of “Media Communications”: now I know how the media industry works.
- This is important for the specialty “Digital Product Management”: I can extrapolate my experience to another scale and apply it to product management.
Logic and Consistency
It is best to develop a thought sequentially, without long digressions and jumping from one topic to another.
The text should be simple and clear. At the same time, you can and should use professional vocabulary – the main thing is that you do it appropriately and well understand its meaning.
Literacy and text design
Literate and well-formatted text is an important part of the applicant’s image.
Divide the text into small paragraphs, avoid long ornate expressions – in complex participles and de-particular clauses there is a high risk of losing the idea or getting confused with punctuation.
It is better to issue a document in a single color and font solution, on a plain background.
Some universities regulate fonts, indents and margins, so always check the list of letter requirements before applying. But if there are no specific requirements, you can use universal recommendations:
- work in Google Docs – so you will be able to edit the text from any device and store it in the cloud, and give access via a link. Such a document can be saved in pdf or docx format and sent by mail;
- use Times New Roman or Arial font, 12 point, line spacing – one and a half, text color – black or dark gray, no highlighting, no italics or underlining;
- break the text into semantic paragraphs without intervals between them, with standard indents using the Tab key;
- justify the text.
