Statement of purpose!

[brassinpocket_]

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

Comments

[tisiphone]

1) Yes, if it is relevant and you can say more about it than just "I worked in so and so lab during this period."

2) Yes, and yes. It doesn't have to be super specific, but something better than "you happen to be around the corner" or "you're cheap" is good!

[brassinpocket_]

OK, I will do this. Thanks for the advice!

[indicolite]

Several of the graduate linguistics schools I looked at say specifically that they are not interested in childhood experiences with language. Your introductory anecdote is a bit long, and, I'm afraid, not unique enough; lots of linguists start by noticing this kind of thing. You should keep to undergraduate experience and later

[indicolite]

P.S.
"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."

I think this paragraph can be reframed better. A lot of your competition will have BAs in linguistics, so there is no use in drawing attention to your handicaps. How about, "Despite my undergraduate university not offering a linguistics major as such, I read independently to supplement my knowledge and worked on the skills from my sociology major that can be transferred to linguistics study." (As of course, you did :) )

[brassinpocket_]

Thank you so much for your advice. I really can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Of course I never meant that linguists don't have the skills needed to analyze the social world! I never meant to imply that, thank you so much for pointing out that it could be taken that way.

I never saw my being a sociology major as a handicap. In fact, I was trying to put a positive spin on it. As in, there are a lot of linguistics majors applying to this program, but I have training in sociology, which I thought would be an advantage for sociolinguistics. I have excelled in statistics, so I suppose I will talk about that without sounding overly quantitative.

You mentioned that you dislike my opening and closing paragraphs. Do you have any suggestions? It is okay if I don't have a "hook?"

Thank you again, so very much.

[roseofjuly]

If you don't see being a sociology major as being a handicap (and I don't either!), I think a better way to frame this then is to talk positively about how your sociology major will lend itself to your study of sociolinguistics rather than to mention that you simply don't need a linguistics degree to get a graduate degree in linguistics. How will your BA in sociology give you a different perspective on your study of linguistics and aid you? Turn it into a strength. Even if you don't see it as a weakness, your sentence structure here indicates that you do.

[roseofjuly]

I think your introductory anecdote is too long and not necessarily relevant. A lot of people recognize sociolingustic differences when people communicate with other groups. There's an earlier post about this in the community - about childhood experiences not really being what universities want because they don't add much to describing why a college should let YOU into their university to study. I think you can take the second paragraph, add a sentence about your father ("...surroundings. I realized I had noticed this phenomenon before - specifically my Bostonian father's dropping of /r/'s around..." etc.) and make that the entire thing about your introduction to sociolinguistics

[mallyns]

By Eskimos what do you mean? Are you talking all arctic tribes, Canadian, United States?

For example it is like saying, "Indian". Even the term Native American is a bit of irritation and offensive.

[indicolite]

The OP is referring to a debunked but enduring urban legend which is too stylized to refer to any particular group of people. So you should pose your question to the people who coined that legend rather than to her; indeed, it is offensive in its original coinage, both to the Inuit and to linguists. I did recommend that she replace that entire paragraph.

[brassinpocket_]

I understand. I was using the term to hightlight not only that "Eskimos" don't have 200 words for snow, but also that there is no one "Eskimo" language or group. I came off as sounding ignorant, but I'm deleting the paragraph anyway, so it doesn't matter any more. Thanks for the heads-up though :)

[sideway]

Yaaaaaay, another aspiring linguistics grad student! (I'm applying for analytical ling, not socioling. But still.)