What to write in a motivation letter
How to write a Personal Statement for university | Motivation Letter | Letter of Intent
hello friends hello nerds welcome
everyone to this video now tis the
season for applications so I'm assuming
you clicked on this video because you
need to write a personal statement slash
motivation letter slash letter of intent
for university that you're applying to
and you don't want to just read any
letter but you want to write the best
behemoth greatest everything that has
ever come out of your brain maybe you
don't consider yourself the best writer
because you're in science or engineering
or whatever but that's why I'm here for
you and that's what I'm gonna help you
because I've done it I've done it too
many times more than I can count
I was gonna say I've done a hundred
times but that would be a clear lie but
I've done it a lot and I've written some
really really great motivational letters
so today I'm gonna share with you how to
write a personal statement now in this
video this is gonna be a lot of
information and actually I have a lot
more information to share that will not
fit into this video so I made a freebie
that you can download it's at the end of
the video so if you watch to the end
I'll tell you how to get that freebie
and in addition to the freebie at the
end of the video vlog missus just
started today and I'm gonna be doing
vloggers I'm gonna be doing vlogmas this
month and everyday when I published my
vlog I'm going to include a question
answer about a personal statement so
throughout the month of December feel
free to write on the video feel free to
email me at Jessica at stubborn and calm
feel free to DM me on Instagram with
your questions and if it's a question
that I have an answer in this video and
that isn't in the freebie to follow then
I will be sure to answer it in one of my
daily vlogs for vlogmas so I know what
your first question is it is what is the
difference between a personal statement
a letter of motivation or motivation
letter or letter of intent blah blah
blah you've scoured the Internet you
hundreds of different blog posts that
all give you different information one
blog post says that a personal statement
focuses on your past projects whereas a
motivation letter focuses on your future
goals but then you go to a university
website and they say write a personal
statement and make sure to include your
future goals then you're like okay well
is that supposed to be a motivation
letter because I've written a motivation
letter but they said I think want a
personal statement so is that different
or sometimes they don't give you any
guidelines at all so what's the answer
the answer is that there is no strict
format to a personal statement or a
letter of intent or motivation letter
it's not like a persuasive essay or a
poem where there are strict rules for
how to write them okay and in my mind
they're all different and they're all
the same and you're like just why do you
have to make things so complicated it's
because we're writing the best letter
ever the way we approach writing a
personal statement and a motivational
and a motivational letter will be the
same so in that sense you don't need to
worry about what the difference is but
even though the approach is the same for
all of the letters that doesn't mean
that all of your letters are going to
end up being the same you're not just
gonna write one generic letter that
could be sent as a personal statement as
a motivation letter as a letter of
intent because let's be real you want to
get accepted to the top University so
you need a top notch letter that means
you can't send the same letter to every
University a letter of motivation a
personal statement a letter intent
they're all the same because your best
application letter will contain elements
of all three of those letters that's how
you write the best application ever so
with that out of the way this is how
you're going to write your best personal
statement letter of motivation letter of
intent most important part the research
before you can start writing you need to
know what you're gonna say okay you
can't just your way through a
personal statement
especially in science and engineering if
you're just gonna be writing frivolous
sentences full of fluffy smart words the
admissions committee is literally gonna
pick up your letter rip it in half and
throw it in the trash you need to know
what you're gonna say before you write
or else they're just gonna end up
writing so how do you do that
how do you figure out what you're gonna
write research that's the first step so
what are you gonna research well first
go to each University you want to apply
to check what their requirements are
maybe one University says oh we want to
hear about your goals then you're like
okay that's a good thing I know now I
know kind of what I'm gonna start
writing another University says to pick
which professors you want to work with
the next thing I want you to do and this
is definitely going to be the longest
part of your research journey and of
writing your entire personal statement
it's going to be research the
institution and the different labs so
that's what I did for every single
University I applied to I went through
their different fields you choose what
fields you like but we're not done now
what you do is you go through the
different labs within that field so
there's not just gonna be one lab in the
fluid dynamics thermodynamics subset
there's gonna be another 20 labs oh okay
this professor is doing droplets okay
that's kind of cool
oh this professor is doing water
splitting okay that's pretty cool and
just find some research that sticks out
to you why are we doing this because
first you need to know what you're gonna
write and then you need to be specific
about it schools don't just want to let
anyone into their school they want to
let people that are motivated driven and
know what they want so you need to
demonstrate that in your letter of
motivation so that's stuck 1 out of 4
but trust me it's gonna it's the longest
step out of the 4 the second step of
writing your personal statement is plan
now you've done the research for the
institution you know exactly what you
want and you know why you want it now
you need
you frame that research to fit into your
personal statement so like I said
earlier there's really no correct way to
write a personal statement but in
general you should have an introduction
some middle body paragraphs and a
conclusion now we're not going to worry
about the introduction or the conclusion
in this section we're just going to
worry about the middle paragraphs so in
order to figure out how to frame that
research that you just spent like an
entire day doing think about using that
research to answer the following
questions why do you want to study a
masters how will this program benefit
you what are you aspiring to do in the
future and how will this master's
program help you achieve those goals
how can your work contribute to the
department and university so for example
how oldest master's program helped you
achieve your future goals
well my future goal is to cure cancer
using I don't know lasers good example
because it's specific and attending this
University and working under the
supervision of Professor X what helped
me achieve my goal because as you can
see from this paper Professor X does
work in laser technology applied to
cancer and I believe that his knowledge
will help me further my goal or
something like that if you want to be
specific and you want to be able to
answer these questions using the
research you've already done in the
previous section the next step step
three is going to be to write now start
with your body paragraphs and just start
writing take your questions and answers
from the plan part and try to fit them
together to create like a cohesive story
so it might start off with like here's
my past qualifications here all the
projects I've done moving into your
goals and aspirations and how the school
will help you achieve those so try to
fake those
answers together and create a cohesive
story don't worry so much about having
the perfect letter on your first draft
just start writing to avoid writer's
block to have your creative juices
flowing and then you can always go back
and edit later after you've written your
body paragraphs move on to the
conclusion it shouldn't be really more
than two sentences so don't really don't
worry about it too much pick one of your
strongest points that supports your
argument your argument being why you
should be the one to attend this school
program or whatever maybe it's because
of how motivated you are to reach your
goals and how this school helped you
achieve your goals that's the one I
picked but pick whichever one you like
and then finish off the letter and
that's it now after the conclusion move
on to the introduction the introduction
I like to leave for last because I don't
want you to just sit down to start
writing the introduction and already get
writer's block after the first sentence
it's nice to have a little anecdote at
the beginning if you can to hook the
reader about why you want to be an
engineer or scientists or blah blah but
if you really can't think of one then
just move on get straight into
specifically why you want to study at
this university finally we've reached
the last step number four and that is
review I have created a checklist which
you can just click the link below in the
description enter your email address and
this perfect personal statement
checklist will get sent to your inbox so
the checklist it says things like do you
have any cliches wipe that off of your
personal statement and check it over the
checklist there's like a lot of
different things on the checklist so in
the review section just go through the
checklist and apply the edits to your
personal statement finally get three
different people to review your personal
statement and at least one native
speaker if you can now I know I'm a
native speaker but please do not send me
your personal statement I do not have
time to go through it by on Wednesday I
we'll be doing a live stream on YouTube
so if you have any questions about the
personal statement bring them to me if
you're working on your personal
statement this weekend or throughout the
month of December you can tag me on
Instagram and I will share that on my
story so then we can all suffer together
and laugh at how we have no lives and we
are just spending the month of December
applying to universities just a quick
recap research plan write and review
click the link in my description and
enter your email and I will send you a
checklist that will help you in your
review process tag me on Instagram I
will share your struggle with the entire
community and join me for the YouTube
live on Wednesday if you like this video
please give it a thumbs up if you have
any questions about the personal
statement leave them in the comments
below I'm sure everyone would love to
hear about it if you want to see more
then please subscribe
