Statement of purpose!
Hello there. I'm writing to you all to request help with my statement of purpose. I'm looking for general feedback, editing, and answers to a few questions. Thanks in advance!
Please excuse the formatting. My final copy will have tabs to start each paragraph and only one line between paragraphs. I can't figure out how to do tabs on HTML but I can't figure out how to do lj-cuts on RichText. Hopefully, this will not impede my graduate studies.
My father, who grew up in suburban Boston, was the first person whom I studied through a sociolinguistic lens. Long before I went to college, I noticed that the prevalence of his /r/’s would vary depending on the person or people to whom he was speaking. On some Saturdays, for example, his hockey buddies would come over and I would hear him complaining about how he “couldn’t hea them because the cahtoons” that I was watching were too loud. However, when I observed him at work while he spoke to his female colleagues, I noticed a significant increase in both his /r/’s and in his grammatical abilities.
I believe that it was this small but telling observation that prompted me to take a sociolinguistics course at my undergraduate institution. It was in this class where I first learned of William Labov’s work on post-vocalic /r/’s. When I read about Labov’s findings, about how the feature varied predictably according to various factors, I immediately connected it to what I had noticed in my own surroundings. My father, I realized, was practicing a well-known phenomenon Labov identified as covert prestige; this realization began my deep fascination with the field of sociolinguistics.
After this point, I continued my undergraduate career as a sociology major. (My College) did not have a linguistics major, but my interest in the subject prompted me to take as many linguistics courses as possible. As soon as I learned that an undergraduate major in linguistics was not required for entrance into graduate linguistics programs, I became ecstatic and decided to apply. I intend to become a professor of linguistics following the completion of my doctoral degree.
In my doctoral studies in linguistics, I intend to draw on Labov’s and other sociolinguists’ work in studying how an individual’s speech correlates with his or her personal characteristics. In particular, I wish to study how societal changes in the United States have affected the way that language is used. Has the shift in gender roles influenced women’s adherence to linguistic norms, especially in domains that remain vastly male-dominated? Has the upward mobility of the African American population led to a decrease in the use of AAVE, or have the dialects’ users taken steps to maintain it?
In addition, I wish to study the phenomena that have resulted from the influx of Spanish-speaking people into the United States. In areas where Anglophones and Hispanophones are heavily intermingled, how common is linguistic overlap in terms of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation? What role does language ideology play in the ameliorating or preventing of overlap that does or does not occur? My extensive research experience has well prepared me to answer these questions.
I made my first sociolinguistic observation long before I knew what a phoneme was or that Eskimos do not actually have two hundred words for snow. Since that observation, my feelings for linguistics have grown from a passing interest to a full-blown love. As an undergraduate sociology major, I was trained to examine the social world critically and objectively. As a doctoral student, I will integrate this training into the field of linguistics.
Here are my questions:
+This particular application also requires a CV or resume. Does that mean I should not list my research experience here and instead put it on my resume?
+Should I list faculty members with whom I would be interested in working? Should I state why I am interested in this particular school?
Please excuse the formatting. My final copy will have tabs to start each paragraph and only one line between paragraphs. I can't figure out how to do tabs on HTML but I can't figure out how to do lj-cuts on RichText. Hopefully, this will not impede my graduate studies.
My father, who grew up in suburban Boston, was the first person whom I studied through a sociolinguistic lens. Long before I went to college, I noticed that the prevalence of his /r/’s would vary depending on the person or people to whom he was speaking. On some Saturdays, for example, his hockey buddies would come over and I would hear him complaining about how he “couldn’t hea them because the cahtoons” that I was watching were too loud. However, when I observed him at work while he spoke to his female colleagues, I noticed a significant increase in both his /r/’s and in his grammatical abilities.
I believe that it was this small but telling observation that prompted me to take a sociolinguistics course at my undergraduate institution. It was in this class where I first learned of William Labov’s work on post-vocalic /r/’s. When I read about Labov’s findings, about how the feature varied predictably according to various factors, I immediately connected it to what I had noticed in my own surroundings. My father, I realized, was practicing a well-known phenomenon Labov identified as covert prestige; this realization began my deep fascination with the field of sociolinguistics.
After this point, I continued my undergraduate career as a sociology major. (My College) did not have a linguistics major, but my interest in the subject prompted me to take as many linguistics courses as possible. As soon as I learned that an undergraduate major in linguistics was not required for entrance into graduate linguistics programs, I became ecstatic and decided to apply. I intend to become a professor of linguistics following the completion of my doctoral degree.
In my doctoral studies in linguistics, I intend to draw on Labov’s and other sociolinguists’ work in studying how an individual’s speech correlates with his or her personal characteristics. In particular, I wish to study how societal changes in the United States have affected the way that language is used. Has the shift in gender roles influenced women’s adherence to linguistic norms, especially in domains that remain vastly male-dominated? Has the upward mobility of the African American population led to a decrease in the use of AAVE, or have the dialects’ users taken steps to maintain it?
In addition, I wish to study the phenomena that have resulted from the influx of Spanish-speaking people into the United States. In areas where Anglophones and Hispanophones are heavily intermingled, how common is linguistic overlap in terms of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation? What role does language ideology play in the ameliorating or preventing of overlap that does or does not occur? My extensive research experience has well prepared me to answer these questions.
I made my first sociolinguistic observation long before I knew what a phoneme was or that Eskimos do not actually have two hundred words for snow. Since that observation, my feelings for linguistics have grown from a passing interest to a full-blown love. As an undergraduate sociology major, I was trained to examine the social world critically and objectively. As a doctoral student, I will integrate this training into the field of linguistics.
Here are my questions:
+This particular application also requires a CV or resume. Does that mean I should not list my research experience here and instead put it on my resume?
+Should I list faculty members with whom I would be interested in working? Should I state why I am interested in this particular school?