Having said that, here are the few key things that you should keep in mind when asking women questions:
1.Avoid questions that gives you a Yes/No or simple a monosyllable answer
2.Avoid questions that are too sexual in nature (unless you want to risk getting a face slap or some other trouble)
3.Avoid asking stupid questions
4.Avoid questions that make you look like an idiot
5.Avoid phrasing your question in the manner like you are interrogating her
6.Avoid asking cheesy questions
When to Stop Talking and Make the Girl Want More
Another important aspect of talking to women is to know when to make a quick graceful exit. The first conversation that any guy has with a girl should end with her wanting more of it. To do that you got to keep the conversation SHORT! A common mistake many men make is to over extend their stay. With most guys if the flirting is going well, they’d be thinking… Wow! This is going better than I thought it would. And that’s literally where the mistake lies… they’ll keep talking and talking and talking till the woman gets bored and she’ll make an excuse to leave! Guys! DON’T MAKE THIS MISTAKE! Take your leave after you’ve got her phone number and or email address.
Do NOT wait till a dynamic and animated conversation slide into an uncomfortable silence before you take your leave. If you do that then the effect of the earlier conversation will be lost. Learn to read the direction the conversation is heading and take your cue from there. The best time to exit is when she is comfortable and appears to be very interested in your conversation. This is the time she is most likely to part with her email address or phone number.
Give her some excuse that you need to be on your way and would like a means to contact her. Once you’ve got her contact information, bid your good bye and end the conversation. REMEMBER: You’ve got to leave her wanting MORE!
Let us revisit Brad and Tanya’s conversation again:
“Tanya, it’s been great talking to you but I really have to run or I’ll be late for my next appointment. Looks like the bank draft will have to wait but I’d really like to continue this conversation we are having here. Do you have a phone number or email address where I can reach you? Then maybe we can continue this conversation here over coffee or maybe dinner” Brad asked.
………….
What you’d do is: walk up to her and said, “I’m on my way out but I can’t help noticing you and not come over and say hi. My name is Steve.” She says “Hi, I’m Lisa.” And you say “I have to go but I would like to get to know you so, can we like exchange email addresses?” If she says yes, get her email and leave. If she says no, then say “Hope to see you around, Lisa.” Then leave.
The colour of the dress brings out the blue of your eyes. You look very beautiful.”
•What is in your opinion the most romantic movie you’ve seen to date?
•What is the most romantic / memorable scene in that movie?
•What is your idea of a romantic getaway?
•What is your idea of a perfect first date?
•What does it feel like to be pmpered by someone you love?
•What would you consider a real fun thing for a couple to do together?
•What does it feel like when you realize that you are falling in love?

One secret that has been true since time immemorial is that women have always found alpha males irresistible. The Alpha Male has something about magnetic that causes a lot of women to fall for him.
Women’s getting attracted to an alpha male is as natural as males getting attracted to a woman with a pretty face or curvaceous figure.
Do have any idea about who is an alpha male and how to be so? The first step is to become aware of the characteristics of an alpha male. The following features will be invariably found in all alpha men.
• Exuding confidence at all times irrespective of the condition they face.
• Is aware of his demand, but never proves his superiority to those around.
• Sought and viewed as an expert to handle every situation
• Leader who initiates and grooms people.
• A very good company for women.
The first step about knowing the characteristics has been done. Now is the time to put effort into acquiring such a personality. This can be done if you have the right attitude and the right body language. Following are 5 simple steps by which you can become and show your alpha male characteristics to the world.
Step 1 : Get rid of “Beta Male” personality
There are certain traits and mannerisms which are negative and make you a beta male. This is what you have to shun as a first step into transforming yourself into an alpha male. These mannerisms are:
• Folding your arms
• Being restless
• Dropping shoulders
• Hands in the pocket attitude
• Hesitating
• Constant fiddling
Now having discovered which of the above traits you have you can start getting rid of them. This is a very good beginning into acquiring an alpha male personality.
Step 2 : Exude confidence
Confidence is a huge magnet which attracts all women. The body language is the primary tool through which you can display your confidence. A very easy way to have a lot of woman fall for you.
Be calm and composed under all circumstances. This is a key feature of an alpha male. No matter how bad or how good a situation is you will never lose your head.
If you lack confidence take strong steps so that you become more self confident. This is a must for all of us. Women can detect in a few seconds if the guy is confident or not. Introspect and know the causes which deter you from being confident and work to eradicate them completely.
Step 3 : Just do it
Beta males are very often nervous when dealing with women. This is because they are worried on the results of the conversation. The alpha male on the other hand, is not worried about what he will get. He is not bothered if he will ruin his chances, but focuses on having a great talk with the woman.
Keep in mind that it is not a situation where in you will die if you don’t achieve. Its is not a do or die case. Relax, enjoy and strike an engaging conversation with the woman of your interest.
Your appearance will tell her all about what you think and desire. Let those beta male traits vanish and stop getting tensed about you being able to attract her or not. This will all get reflected in your body language. Just show her your alpha male traits – be relaxed and have a great conversation with her just for the sake of it!
Step 4: Take a chill pill
As told earlier, alpha male is relaxed , cool and enjoying every minute of the conversation. So it is important for you to be comfortable in attitude when in the company of women.
This is easy to achieve. Be sure to have a direct eye contact. When conversing with a woman make sure you look into her eyes. Looking somewhere else and talking will tell her that you are not interested in her.
Know how to be comfortable and relaxed at all times. Breathe through your stomach and not your chest. This will help you to be relaxed when you talk to the woman of your interest.
There are no shortcuts for this step. You have to train yourself to be relaxed at all times. If you are relaxed and comfortable woman will also enjoy your company which is a very good beginning to attract someone.
Step 5: Plan and execute
Mistakes can happen anywhere and unknowingly too. A beta male always wants to impress people around him. This is perceived negatively by all woman. This shows that you have an inferiority complex and will never help you build attraction. Beta male has this inherent feature of trying to impress and help all who ask for it.
This does appear positive but is not at all natural for an alpha male. But do not interpret this wrong. Alpha male is not one who is arrogant and insensitive. What I mean is that you should avoid portraying yourself as inferior. Move at your own pace and if possible even slower. Deliberate each move you make and people will definitely notice this. They will respect you and will never coax you to follow their style of working.
In brief, if you want to attract women into your life the only option for you is to become an alpha male. Learn how to transform into an alpha male and you are sure to reap the benefits which are sure to be unbelievably good. Over a period of time, it will become very easy for you to attract and seduce women.

1. Why do you want to become popular? – is it because you just want to get into a group? Do you want to impress people and be a member of a certain class or do you intend to make more friends so that you can enjoy? Do you want to impress, attract and seduce the opposite sex with ease? You can become popular through various means and you may need to do a lot, but first you have to evaluate if all those things you need to do are really worth for attaining popularity.
2. Be at ease with what you are and have a confident body language: others will notice you if you are confident and will come to you. Once you are at ease with being lonely and satisfied with what you are, you will be able to make friends easily.
3. Carve out your own image: many are of the opinion that wearing different clothes and having a different hairstyle are enough to make you popular. On the contrary, frequent changes in your style make you look as if you are toiling at it. Hence presnet yourself in a fashion that all can see the best in you. For example, a short hair cut might help you highlight your eyes or lips or smile or a jeans you wear will show the level of confidence you posses. Change is a good way to present yourself. But find out the fashion which is not of out date and which would suit your personality too. The most confident people are those who don’t hesitate to try out new things.
4. Be proud of how you look and strive to be fit: Be clean if you want to attract people. Shower, brush and use perfumes and deodorants. Do not make people uncomfortable when they are with you. Odor is one thing people don’t like. Also to appear fresh wash your face as often as possible. Also, you can reduce the sprouting up of acne every now and then. Girls may use a moderate amount of make up.
5. Be passionate: get involoved in some events like athletics, community service or some other avocation. When you become a member of a group you develop bonding with your team-mates. This bonding can inspire and instill confidence in you. Don’t worry about people. Just get involved in what you think you can contribute your best in. eventually people will recognize you talent and you will get the due credit. You need not be a popular football player or cheerleader to become popular. There are many other ways to become popluar.
6. Never hesitate: Don’t hide your talents. Show all facets and particularly those which people around you are not aware of. This will make you popular and people will be interested in forging relationship with you. If you show this talent to a large number of people, you can spread your name faster. But do not be boastful. Humility is the key here.
7. Be aggressive and social: Friends will not come to you, particularly if you are known to be a person who is shy and not the social kind of. Even if you do not like being in the company of people, you have to break out of that belief and try to be social. Do not hesitate any chance to talk to a person – be it a queue you are standing or the person sitting next to you in a hall.
The quickest and the most reliable way to develop healthy aggression and improve social skills is to reprogram your subconscious mind with subliminal messages. You will notice positive changes in your behavioural habits after 5-8 sessions of subliminal training. No effort on your part is required- just download any of subliminal messaging programs, select affirmations from categories related to confidence and charisma and start the session. You can download free version of subliminal program in our subliminal messages section.
8. Talk: try striking a conversation to 3 people whom you don’t know daily. Just go them and ask them any doubt you have. And when you talk to them, have a smiling face. Don’t think what the other will think about you, just go ahead and find a reason to talk to him/her. The moment you allow these thoughts to come, you will never be able to talk to anyone new. Don’t underestimate yourself or the person you intend to talk to. Have a personality which makes people want to talk to you.
9. Share some part of your life: This doesn’t have to be something big or great. Just narrate some anecdote or experience you have had in your life. Make them feel when you tell them. If possible narrate something funny which will elevate their moods. This will people to behave naturally when around you. They will be able to express themselves freely when around with you.
10. Be a relationship man: Don’t treat people as items. They are people, with souls, hobbies, intersts etc. Learn about them and praise them for their talents. People love to be praised because it increases their self esteem. So if you want to get noticed- show interest in other people, rather than making people think of you as interesting. Also try to make friends and forge relationship with new people always.
11. Mix up with people: never lose contact with your old friends. Never let them have the opinion that you don’t need them because you have found some replacement. Don’t stick to one group. Be a member of every group, so that others think you are a person who can get along with anyone. Don’t remove anyone, otherwise you would create enemies, which will certainly not help your popularity.
12. Do things you have never tried: try out things you have never done earlier. If you want people to notice you do something that you have never tried out ever earlier. It could be doing crazy things like dancing like mad at a formal venue .but don’t give others the opinion that you are doing this to garner attention. Be natural. You will be amazed to know how good you feel and you will gain a lot of affection and respect from people around you. They will recognise you as a person who thinks independently and will follow what his mind says. However, be sure you do not become a joker or an entertainer to them. Have some dignity to yourself.
13. Don’t think too much: being popular is a state of mind. It is also called “charisma”.If you try too hard to become popular, people will dismiss you.
To develop irresistable charisma try subliminal messages (Do you remember Rule #7? If not, scroll up and read it again). Try subliminals, and I guarantee that you will boost your popularity in a week or so: It is a fact proven by numerous experiments with my students. You can download our free version of subliminal messaging program that has tons of predefined affirmations.
Popularity is how people see you. So the best way for people to see you as a genuine person is to be true always. Use these tip in an intelligent way and you will see the surge in your popularity soon.
Ugly dates beautiful women
You can find a variety of women in this world. There are the ordinary kind of woman and there the ones who throw you out of gear. They have an absolute charm which captives men. Their hair, grace and personality is all makes you a puppet in their hands.
What is the secret in getting this kind of women?
The path to success is certainly never easy. Men usually tend to focus on the physical beauty of a woman. If you gather a group of 100 men and bring a hot woman amongst them, it is for sure that all will be ready to sleep with her. Women on other hand are different. If you try out similar thing with a group of women, very few will readily agree to sleep with the hot guy.
This is because women give more importance to the emotional connection with a guy. For them what they feel when they are with the guy is more important than how hot the guy looks. This is why men who don’t look good are able to date beautiful men. They are able to make the woman feel good with them.
What do they do? Letting a woman know that she has emotionally earned your interest is a super reliable way to start her attraction mechanism. Tell me if this approach sounds familiar. Man spots a hot woman. Buys her a drink so as to able to start a conversation. Compliments her and if things go fine asks her out for dinner. Obviously the dinner is on him.
How does the woman feel emotionally about this whole affair? She feels that the man is desperate and has to buy her attention. He compliments her because he wants her to know that he is interested. Buying dinner is in a way buying her attention because he is not complete or competent enough to find out some other unique way.
Don’t get me wrong. Complimenting is good and being able to provide for someone is also good. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help you create attraction when you meet a person for the very first time. Even if you do the same thing in your further meetings, building attraction is a very remote possibility.
Attraction usually occurs in the first 30 seconds of communication, and 85% of it happens within the first three minutes of being with someone. For it to happen, you have to show your woman that you are worth it. Never let her know that you need her attention. This will make her feel that you are scared and in need. Let me fix that for you. Be aware that you don’t need anyone’s acceptance. There are way too many hot women in this world and she is not the only option available to you.
There are too many woman you can easily date with. Show the woman that you are no in need of her approval. Instead show that she is the one who needs to get approved. You have show the woman that you are above her. A woman will never date a guy who is below her worth, she will definitely fall for a guy who is above her worth.
There are numerous ways to prove that you are worth her. I have detailed these techniques on my website. For now, I give you one of those. When you meet a lady, instead of complimenting say something that will embarrass her. Yes, believe me. Having embarrassed add a tinge of humor so that she doesn’t think of you as a jerk.
For instance, when you see a woman with a nice shirt, walk up to her and say “ nice shirt. Did you buy it new?”. This approach makes the woman feel that you are totally confident of your affairs and also you are not afraid of her beauty. Hope you get what I want to convey to you.

Seducing women: alpha males and bad boys have more chance
Would you classify yourself as a good boy or a bad boy?
How you see yourself can hold the key to your success with women.
The difference between the two is their way of going about life. It is this that makes the bad boy attract women and even take them home.
So what does the ‘bad boy’ do to attract a lot more woman?
What does a bad boy do?
These guys have an Alpha Male personality. This kind of guys do not care if they are successful with women or not. And they show it in their attitude. He has a strong personality not at all bothered about success with women.
In brief, they have ‘take or leave’ kind of outlook.
Remember the difference I pointed out between the bad and the good guy. The good guy is strong, whereas the nice guy always wants to pitch in his agreement to whatever the woman says.
Nice guys are always predictable and hence uninteresting.
So in order for you to enable to attract women form the very first meeting you have to portray a bad boy personality.
But what if you are a nice guy and don’t know how to become a bad guy?
Don’t worry it is very simple. There is a technique known as disconnector technique which you can use with women. When you are talking to women, instead of agreeing with them, make a statement which shows your disagreement with them.
The secret
This technique works because when you say you don’t agree you say that you are not intimidated by the woman. When you use this technique, there will be tension between you and her, but this will work to your advantage.
When you have the guts to show your disagreement with a woman you show a personality that is strong and confident. She will be attracted because till now she has never faced a guy who has disagreed with her and told her so. By using this technique you display that you have your own way of thinking and standing up for yourself.
But be cautious. You need not counter everything that she says. You need not argue with her everytime she puts forth her view.
So discuss those topics where you are strong. Then tell her your views about the same.
If you use this disconnector technique, you will definitely be able to connect with her. This shows that you have a brain of your own. Once you master this trick, you will attract a woman within the initial few minutes of your first meeting.
So the next time you are talking to a woman, don’t suppress your opinion. Voice it openly. Use this disconnector technique in a cocky/funny way so as to create a tension that is advantageous to you.

10 signs women attracted to you
Flirting is an art form. You need to practice it to attain mastery over it. It consists of giving out not so evident signals at the correct time. But there are lot of resources for guidance on the topic of flirting available these days. But flirting is only a part of the ordeal. You should also have an understanding of the flirting gestures that a woman also drops subtly to know if you are successful with her.
Women naturally are experts at giving subtle indications. So it is upto the man to decipher these indications which could be a word, eye movement, body language etc. Be alert always when in the company of your woman.
Caution:
Below are 10 points which will help you know that a woman is flirting with you. But any of them need not be so always. It could be that the woman you are with has this tendency to be the centre of attraction and hence seeks help from such flirting actions.
Or her nature might be to be friendly with everyone. One way to know about her behavior is to notice her, but this is only possible if you are in a position to observe her constantly. If her nature is to be friendly then don’t interpret these as flirting.
The below mentioned indications are true irrespective of the situation they are displayed – be it a coffee café, club or restaurant. Be vigilant to spot these.
Her gaze is always on you
Observer her gaze. Does she always look at you when you are looking at her? Does she turn her gaze away when you look at her? These are sure indications that she is entertaining you. If she doesn’t match your eye contact then she is shy and you need to make her a little more comfortable. Just walk to her and introduce yourself.
She passes you a smile
Smile is undoubtedly an open invitation and an inidication that she is open to friendship with you. Many people smile while in the company of those they enjoy being with. Spot the sparkle in her eye? Well then she surely is cherishing your company and all you have to do is to make her enjoy all the more.
She puts in a lot of effort so that you notice her
If she takes an unnecessarily long route while going to some place, this indicated that she want you to notice her. For example, on her way to restrooms she deliberately passes through where you are seated eventhough the restrooms are nowhere near you. This is a very clear open invite. If she passes on a smile you are totally into her already.
She fondles her locks
For a woman her hair is a very important part to show off her beauty. That is why women are very particular about their hair cut. Hair has an amazing power of seducing you. If you see her throwing her hair seductively or twirling and fondling with her hair, she is deep into you and is flirting with you for sure. So make the dash for her!
But do notice other subtle body language which she displays. Some women are comfortable showing their neck, some cross their hands so as to show that they are well endowed. Many women just dangle their shoes off the curvature of feet, since many men link that curvature to their body. But if she is locked in her arms, she is happy maintaining a distance from you rather than being close to you. So be alert to pick up such indications.
She starts conversation
Nothing could be as evident about her interest in you if she starts the talking with you. If she opens up with a line like, “I think I have seen you somewhere”, this is a clear indication that she wants to have a conversation with you.
If she asks you open ended questions I am sure you will definitely know her intentions since this is a weapon men use very often. She might go a step further, whispering and disclosing secrets by bringing her face closer to you. The underlying motive may be to give you a taste of the perfume she has put on.
Is she playing all the tactics you were supposed to use?
She likes your jokes
If you tell her a funny story, look out for the way she reacts. If she puts her head back and openly laughs or simply says “Is that really funny?” then she is open for you. If she is interested in you, she will intently listen to you which you definitely know through her body language (open mouth, eyes focused on you etc)
Inquires about your hobbies
Does she ask you about hobbies? She may even ask about specific activities. This are subtle indications to meet up on another occasion. Or it could be just to drop you a hint that she too is interested in some activities and wants you to ask them. But one big green signal is if she asks is you like dancing, movies or dinner.
She praises you
Woman are not very liberal when it comes to appreciate anyone. But if she happens to do just that, then you should be proud of yourself. If the compliment is about your body then it clearly shows her interest in you. another way to show her interest is when she repeats your name, showing that you have embedded yourself deep into her mind and she is ready to get more intimate with you.
Is open about sexual issues
Some women love discussing things that excite them sexually. They show off their wild side by doing so. If she broaches sexual topics with you, she is trying to take the conversation ( to say the least) towards becoming a verbal foreplay. But they wont be very open about it. Remember, subtlety is what they are expert at and is also what you should follow. A careless slip of tongue and you could reverse the favorable tide.
She makes physical contact with you
A woman touching you while talking is another indication of her interest in you. This can be a simple touch on the hand or the knee. A simple touch of knees under the table will tell you that she likes touching you and is ready for more levels.
Another weak signal is if she portrays the same body language as you do. If you are talking with your elbow on table, she would also do that. This very often does not happen consciously. Nevertheless, this does show that she in matching your frequency.
Start Flirting
But be cautious, since these indications could be just keeping you as a friend. So be alert for about 4 such indications. If she displays any 5 or more of such signs you have definitely captured her imagination and have a free way into her mind.
Now that you have known the theory about how to recognize flirtations of a woman, time is to practice them. But as everything, practice is needed for mastery over it. Be alert but don’t overdo it. Don’t be too focused on spotting these signs. Remember to enjoy the company with her and relax. If you are not able to decipher, she will make her signs stronger for you to understand her true intentions

1. HAVE A LIFE THAT YOU ARE PROUD OF … one that you invite others to share with you. Be completely comfortable and content with all of your relationships. Alpha Males are sexy because they don’t depend on anyone else to tell them ‘who they are’. An Alpha Male is first a MAN. A man works hard for what he has. A man takes the lead in situations, from his career to in the dating arena. A man is responsible and accountable for all of his actions. The Sexy Alpha Male is proud of who he is and what he does. Because of this, he is confident; and we all feel more comfortable around and attracted to those who are confident.
Step2
2. USE YOUR MIND TO CONTROL YOUR EMOTIONS Alpha Males may be emotional, but they do not show it. They are able to control their emotions through their sense of reason and good grasp of reality. A man who has no control of his emotions… like “anger”, “anxiety”, or “embarrassment”… is NOT sexy. Take an objective view of every situation. Act as though you are a ‘watcher’ standing outside of yourself. When you do this, you will show that you are in control of yourself. A man who is in control of himself, and doesn’t sweat the small stuff, is incredibly sexy.
Step3
3. BUY SOME GOOD COLOGNE I can’t stress this enough, but your sexual scent is one of the most important parts of being sexy. Try on a few different cologne, after-shave, and deodorant combos until you get one that is uniquely YOU. Watch how people respond to you when you are wearing certain fragrances. Since a lot of women are NOT attracted to looks alone, the way you smell makes a huge difference in how sexy they find you.
Step4
4. LET WOMEN KNOW THAT YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO THEM SEXUALLY. This is so important if you want to stay out of the Friend Zone with a certain someone. You make women aroused when you show sexual desire and act like you want them. But of course, you can’t do this in a ‘creepy’ way. Just be natural and have fun with it. Throw sexual innuendos into the conversation. Check out attractive women as they walk by… Have a little bit of that testosterone-driven-on-the-hunt-for-chicks vibe. A man who’s not afraid to show that he likes women is SEXY.
Step5
5. BE MASCULINE WITH A HINT OF SOMETHING ELSE Think James Bond or Simon Cowell and mix it with something else. Masculine geek. Masculine violinist. Masculine playwright. Mix masculinity with something a tad softer. People who pull this off: Will Smith, Tim McGraw, even Alex Trebek from Jeopardy has this. Try it. It will give you an air of depth… as long as you remember mostly MASCULINE + HINT of something else.
Step6
6. STARE INTO PEOPLES’ EYES Don’t hold back… especially after you say something that you really mean. Maintaining confident eye contact is a key component of attraction. Not only does the person you are speaking with feel ‘heard’, but you are also showing DOMINANCE. Male dominance is sexy.
Step7
7. CHECK YOUR POSTURE Yep, your mom and your elementary school teachers were unknowingly preparing you to be sexy in the future. “Head up, shoulders back, good posture, no fidgeting.” That’s right.
Step8
8. SAY WHAT YOU THINK, WANT, AND NEED Disagree with people if necessary. Stand up for yourself. Decide that your opinions matter and then express them. Be unashamedly unpredictable. Since most people have a hard time articulating their needs and wants (and worse yet, are afraid to stand by their convictions) you become a break from the norm by speaking your mind. “A break from the norm” perfectly describes a Sexy Alpha Male.
Step9
9. FIND YOUR BEST QUALITY AND SHOW IT… ALL OF THE TIME If you have strong shoulders, show them in a nicely tailored jacket. If you have a beautiful mind, talk about what you dream about. Work whatever you’ve got. When you focus on the really great things about yourself, the other things fade into oblivion. You are only sexy in others’ eyes if you are sexy in your own eyes first. So focus your attention on what’s awesome about you, and others will pick up on it.
Step10
10. MAKE THE DECISION TO LOVE YOURSELF You become sexy with this one simple tip. When you love yourself first, you will be coming to people out of an overflow of joy rather than neediness. Choosing to love YOU makes others follow suit. So fall in love with you and be the Sexy Alpha Male who gets everything he wants! For more tips on How to Love Yourself, visit www.firstloveyou.com/love-yourself.html Happy Relating~

How to use “used to” in English

There’s a big difference between used to live – to talk about past habits or states and is used to doing – to talk about something that you are now familiar with.

For example, a common mistake is “I am used to study.”

Do you mean that you used to study, but you don’t study any more, or do you mean that you know about studying?

Avoid making mistakes by remembering the verb pattern.

Used to + verb describes a past habit or state.

For example:

He used to smoke, but he doesn’t now.”

To be used to + verb with ing describes something that you are now familiar with.

For example, “Five years ago, I didn’t know about the internet. Now I am used to working with it.”

We use ‘get used to’ to say that an action or situation becomes less strange or new.
It took them a long time to get used to their new boss.
Have you got used to driving on the left yet?
She is getting used to waking up early for her new job

Structure of be used to

Be used to something
Be used to doing

subject + be + used to + object

Use of Be used to

The be used to expression is for talking about something that is familiar to us or easy for us. For example:

• I am used to driving on the left.

It means that it is not a problem for me to drive on the left of the road. I am Japanese. In Japan, people drive on the left. Now I am living in the USA where people drive on the right. Of course, I drive on the right in the USA, but when I go to Japan it is easy for me to drive on the left because “I am used to it”.

Look at these examples.

• I am used to hard work.
• I am used to working hard.
• He is not used to New York.
• He isn’t used to living in New York.
• Are you used to fast food?
• Are you used to eating quickly?

Tenses

We can use be used to in any tense. We just conjugate the verb be in the tense that we need. Look at these examples:

• When we lived in Bangkok, we were used to hot weather.
• I have been used to snakes for a long time.
• You will soon be used to living alone.

Used To

[used to + VERB]

Example:

• I used to go to the beach every day.

It is better not to use “used to” in questions or negative forms; however, this is sometimes done in informal spoken English. It is better to ask questions and create negative sentences using Simple Past.

USE 1 Habit in the Past

“Used to” expresses the idea that something was an old habit that stopped in the past. It indicates that something was often repeated in the past, but it is not usually done now.

Examples:

• Jerry used to study English.
• Sam and Mary used to go to Mexico in the summer.
• I used to start work at 9 o’clock.
• Christine used to eat meat, but now she is a vegetarian.

USE 2 Past Facts and Generalizations

“Used to” can also be used to talk about past facts or generalizations which are no longer true.

Examples:

• I used to live in Paris.
• Sarah used to be fat, but now she is thin.
• George used to be the best student in class, but now Lena is the best.
• Oranges used to cost very little in Florida, but now they are quite expensive.

English Grammar Secrets

Used to

‘Used to do’ is different from ‘to be used to doing’ and ‘to get used to doing’

Used to do

We use ‘used to’ for something that happened regularly in the past but no longer happens.

• I used to smoke a packet a day but I stopped two years ago.
• Ben used to travel a lot in his job but now, since his promotion, he doesn’t.
• I used to drive to work but now I take the bus.

We also use it for something that was true but  no longer is.

• There used to be a cinema in the town but now there isn’t.
• She used to have really long hair but she’s had it all cut off.
• I didn’t use to like him but now I do.

to be used to doing

We use ‘to be used to doing’ to say that something is normal, not unusual.

• I’m used to living on my own. I’ve done it for quite a long time.
• Hans has lived in England for over a year so he is used to driving on the left now.
• They’ve always lived in hot countries so they aren’t used to the cold weather here.

to get used to doing

We use ‘to get used to doing’ to talk about the process of something becoming normal for us.

• I didn’t understand the accent when I first moved here but I quickly got used to it.
• She has started working nights and is still getting used to sleeping during the day.

I have always lived in the country but now I’m beginning to get used to living in the city.

The movement towards a global economy and unprecedented explosion of free trade and exchange worldwide has brought about immense opportunities to develop newer tools, instruments and methodologies in the field of financial management. It is this challenging environment to which I intend to contribute by evolving meaningful and optimal solutions to various problems of finance. Thus, my goal is a career in International Finance and/or academic research wherein I could advance analytical approaches to financial management.

To achieve my career goals, I need to learn much more about current developments and techniques in finance, financial markets and financial applications and acquire hands-on experience of financial analysis. A Master’s Degree will provide me with theoretical understanding, an in depth idea of practical approaches in aiding managerial decision-making and research skills to enable me to develop an expertise in the core areas of financial strategies and global corporate financial operations. I would like to probe specific problem areas such as the application of quantitative analysis to understanding various issues in global finance and improving decision-making and effect of increase in global communications on international finance decisions. My research interests are Foreign exchange markets, hedging foreign exchange risk, international capital budgeting, corporate financial strategy including mergers and acquisitions.

Strong quantitative skills, familiarity with computer applications and experience gained while working on various school projects have helped me to develop sharp analytical abilities and have given me the confidence to tackle advanced problems on a macro level. In addition, the experience gained while marketing Darwin Bug Traps or while studying the marketing strategy of Tastee Ice-cream and advanced level qualifications in French have developed good interpersonal and communication skills. I look forward to applying these abilities to the immense opportunities available at Hyderabad University (HU).

I have selected the M.A. program of HU because of its outstanding faculty and research facilities, emphasis on a collaborative learning environment, flexibility in curriculum, study abroad opportunity and a global perspective to various key issues. I hope to become a part of this dynamic culture which will give me a leading edge to work effectively in diverse teams and situations.

What else is important for the Admissions Committee to know about you in considering your application ?

Outstanding academic performance in my school and college, active participation in academic as well as extra curricular activities and work experience have helped to develop strong quantitative and analytical abilities and good leadership and communication skills. These have prepared me to handle complex problems and have given me the confidence to pursue graduate studies.

Part time employment since November 1994 as a sales executive with Darwin Inc, a company manufacturing pest traps has been a rewarding experience. My responsibilities include contacting and approaching prospective customers, procuring orders and follow up with existing customers. I also take active interest in organising and managing promotional activities such as exhibitions and seminars of the company’s products. These efforts have paid off as is evident from the long list of satisfied and regular clients. Their feedback to the company has resulted in development of newer models. My interpersonal and negotiation skills are nurtured by this employment.

Two months as a summer intern with Tastee Ice-cream Ltd. gave me a unique opportunity to work in a large organization. I was assigned to study the marketing strategy, especially as compared to those of new entrants like Baskin Robbins and Walls, and recommend appropriate changes for improving the performance of the company. With the liberalization of Indian economy, competition has increased manifold. Therefore, my study emphasised competitiveness with respect to cost structure, pricing policies and quality. This has helped me to understand the impact of globalization on market scenario and importance of being efficient to maintain competitive advantage. I am happy to say that a number of suggestions have been well accepted and implemented by the company.

In addition, recently, as a part of our project work, we, a group of 3 classmates, were assigned to submit a report on AIDS awareness in the city of Coruscant. The project entailed collecting primary and secondary data, analyzing it and recommending effective AIDS awareness programs. This project was particularly fulfilling because I learnt various aspects involved in research work such as working under time and cost constraints and analyzing and quantifying the subjectivity of certain responses. Our project report has been greatly appreciated by the faculty and has been selected for presentation to The Alderanian State AIDS Awareness Society.

Fluency in French, participation in intercultural exchange program in France and visits to USA have given me an understanding of diverse cultural aspects and parallel differences that exist between the Western and Eastern Societies. Hence, through practice and formal training in languages, communication has become my strongest characteristic. Advanced level qualifications in French has resulted in a teaching position at Alliance Francaise in my city. In addition, tutoring children in their studies has helped me to identify their difficulties and has motivated me to present information in a way that helps students discover ideas on their own.

This background has assisted in identifying academic interests that I would like to pursue and I am sure that the MSMBA Program of Hyderabad University will give me a leading edge to work effectively in diverse teams and situations

Bonfire of the Vanity

Spotted: Little Jenny Humphrey packing her bags and moving out of Brooklyn. That’s what happened on last week’s episode of Gossip Girl, as J let the success of her impromptu fashion show go straight to her bangs. Also moving on to greener pastures was Nate, who fled to the Hamptons after Dan found out about his fling with the wannabe fashion icon. D may be willing to play Judge Judy and executioner when it comes to N, but he doesn’t deserve the moral high ground after sending his story about Chuck to his advisor. How far is Dan willing to go for a recommendation letter?

Tonight’s episode of Gossip Girl introduces the hilarious Wallace Shawn as Eleanor’s DeVito-esque love interest, Cyrus Rose. There’s nothing like watching B stress over a romance.

Jenny (Taylor Momsen) has gone to live with Agnes and her mom, which Rufus is pretending to be cool with. If he stays calm, it’s possible J will come home on her own. While Rufus deals with a lonely household, Dan gets a recommendation letter from his advisor, who was impressed with his story about Chuck. The only problem is that a man from New York magazine wants him to write an expose on Bart Bass. Will Humphrey risk the wrath of the Bassholes to advance his career?

Blair (Leighton Meester) wants to plan her 18th birthday party, but instead she has to meet Eleanor’s new beau, who she hopes will become her dashing new stepfather. B is expecting Cyrus to be a Clooney clone, but instead he’s awesome character actor Wallace Shawn! Blair feels like dying and killing the man at the same time. I’d personally love it if Wallace Shawn became my stepdad, but maybe I’ve just seen The Princess Bride one too many times.

Jenny and Agnes pitch their designs to a fancy business manager, but the meeting doesn’t go well. Agnes makes a scene by arguing with J over minor details, which is something she’s been doing time and time again. Later, Agnes fails to show up at another meeting because she’s too busy dealing with a hangover. That’s when J decides to meet with the man on her own. He says he’ll be happy to work with her if she just gets a permission slip signed by a parent. Meanwhile, Chuck tries to bond with his dad by buying him hockey tickets, but Bart is too busy for his son.

Serena (Blake Lively) is thrilled that Aaron wants her to pose for him, but B just wants to rant about how terrible Cyrus is. He’s more Danny DeVito than Cary Grant, and he even has a catchphrase! While Blair experiences her weekly meltdown, Dan meets with Bart Bass, claiming that he wants to learn more about the construction business. Bart agrees to let him shadow him for a couple days a week, and even invites Humphrey to a hockey game. That Basstard.

“I am Grace Kelly, Grace Kelly is me,” B mutters to herself as Cyrus rants about the high price of flowers. Cyrus has gone out of his way to buy Eleanor tickets to a Cyndi Lauper concert, but B isn’t thrilled that her mom will be singing along to “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” when she’s supposed to be attending her b-day bash. Eleanor decides the star of Vibes is more important than her daughter, which inspires B to destroy Cyrus’ reputation. She arranges a dinner meeting with the man to grill him for some juicy scandals, but he ends up telling her a touching, heartfelt story about a woman he fell in love with in Vietnam. His love for her was so strong that he broke things off with his wife, which is a fact B immediately passes on to her mother. Of course, she leaves out the part about it being touching and heartfelt, instead making it sound sleazy and awful.

After doing some digging, Dan (Penn Badgley) discovers that Bart Bass intentionally lit a building ablaze in order to collect insurance money. He asks Bart if the rumor is true, at which point he Bart reveals that he’s been agonizing over someone’s death for 20 years. Before Dan can figure out who or what he’s talking about, Chuck interrupts and reveals that Dan is fishing for info for a magazine story. Bart offers to pay Dan off, but Humphrey is too good for bribes.

Serena takes some beautiful pictures with Aaron, and though she thinks they’re sharing something special, the fact that he meets with a hot model afterwards leaves her confused. That’s kind of boring, so let’s talk about Blair’s 18th birthday party, which, thanks to Cyrus, features a very special concert from Cyndi Lauper! B is so inspired by Cyndi’s presence that she runs off to put in a good word for Cyrus with her mother. I always knew that “She Bop” could bring people together.

Agnes figures out that Jenny has been setting up a business behind her back, which turns the model into a crazy pyromaniac. She gathers all of J’s dresses and starts a bonfire with them. She also kicks J out of her apartment, leaving her homeless. While Jenny mentally plots Agnes’ demise, B shares a nice moment with Cyrus. He planned Cyndi’s entrance so Blair would feel terribly guilty about revealing his secret, and his plan worked perfectly. The lawyer actually outmaneuvered Blair, which immediately earns her respect.

Serena walks in on Aaron having dinner with a model, and he explains that he didn’t know they were exclusive. Ah, that old line. No matter how many women Aaron charms, he still seems totally boring to me. While S storms away from the snooze-inducing artiste, Little J asks Rufus (Matthew Settle) to sign the papers for her business. He refuses, so Jenny is back to slumming it on the streets. The next day, she decides she wants to become an emancipated minor to get around the parental signature issue.

As Gossip Girl wraps up, Dan sends his story to Bart, inspiring the man to speak to his son. He explains that he doesn’t hold Chuck responsible for his mother’s death, though he finds it hard to be close to him because he’s so reminiscent of his mother. While Bart vows to spend more time with Chuck, Blair learns that Cyrus is moving in. Eleanor is willing to take a chance on love with Mr. Rose, and Serena is willing to do the same with his son. She agrees to give boring Aaron (Boron?) another chance. Wake me up when he’s gone.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am very pleased to recommend Martha Holden for admission to your university program. As her guidance counselor for three years I have watched this young woman develop both academically and personally into a mature individual ready in every way for her college years.

Martha is bright, energetic, compassionate and genuinely well rounded. Her grades have been consistently above average in all of her courses, and she has actively participated in a diverse assortment of extracurricular activities ranging from track and field and chorus to the school yearbook and our drama club.

Martha has also spent considerable time outside the school involved in the community.  This has included work with Meals on Wheels and volunteering 10 hours a week at one of our area’s shelters for battered and abused women.

They think so much of her at the shelter they have offered her a paid internship for next summer. Previously, this internship had never been awarded to anyone before the end of their college sophomore year. Despite all the preparations that will be required for going off to college next fall, Martha told me she is absolutely thrilled about this opportunity and feels it will enhance her university studies.

Unlike many students who are not sure which field to pursue, Martha has made clear to us all that her goal is to do Social Work. To this end she has worked tirelessly in our pilot program for mentoring Special Education students mainstreamed into our school.

In closing, let me take a moment to recount an incident which I believe speaks volumes about the superior nature of this candidate. Two years ago I was returning from lunch to my office when I saw ahead of me in the hallway 90 pound Martha, arms stretched out between two 180+ pound students, one a Special Ed student and the other a school bully. Other students were standing by motionless or laughing while Martha showed the leadership and courage to immediately put an end to the embarrassing fight that had erupted.

It is clear to me as I hope it is to you that this young woman, Martha Holden, is an exceptional candidate, one that would contribute greatly to any program. I wholeheartedly recommend her and wish her the very best in all future endeavors.

Sincerely,

Jean Atkins
Senior Counselor
Alexander Hamilton High School

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Sample college recommendation (graduate)

To Whom It May Concern:

As Principal of George Mason High School I am delighted to recommend to you a stellar member of our teaching staff, Mr. Samuel Cohen, and to write this letter on his behalf. Sam has taught American History at the school for three years. He is one of our most popular and effective instructors and has already won several teaching awards.

He came to us directly upon completion of his bachelor’s degree, but immediately settled in as if an old pro. Sam is a master of all of the ingredients of successful teaching, especially the ability to inspire.

This gentleman is highly professional in both dress and demeanor. To my knowledge Sam has never come to work without both a suit and tie, more times than not a bow tie. The majority of others at the school, both teachers and students, dress differently and lean to more informality. Never once, however, has Sam’s manner of dress elicited the slightest comment. Why? It is simply because Sam’s attire seems entirely natural given his dignified comportment.

That comportment in turn is driven by Sam’s love and respect for American History. Sam views himself as the messenger for something serious and important, and this is reflected in the way he teaches and in the way his students respond.

Reaction to Sam’s classes has been overwhelmingly positive. So much so that more than once it has been reported to me that study hall students have been spotted lingering outside the door to Sam’s classroom listening to his lessons.

Sam’s impact has even been felt outside the school with the parents themselves. His section on the importance of voting has inspired students to cajole their parents to register to vote. Several have mentioned this to me at parent-teacher meetings. One even called the school to have me pass on their thanks to Mr. Cohen.

The only thing that we in the school administration have ever worried about in regard to Sam is the prospect of funding his bottled water. Sam is such a passionate and prolific speaker that he needs a steady supply to maintain his voice. So far we have gotten a pass on this, as students have bought it for him, including what must have been a year’s supply on his last birthday.

It will be a sad day when we announce that Sam will be pursuing his graduate degree on a fulltime basis. We can only hope that he keeps his promise and returns to us as soon as the ink is dry on his new diploma.

Sincerely,

Harold W. Brown
Principal
George Mason High School

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Sample fellowship recommendation

To Whom It May Concern:

It gives me great satisfaction to recommend John H. Smythe for the Salem-McKenzie Fellowship in Specialized Journalism. I was John’s professor in three undergraduate Communications courses and worked closely with him at both our college radio station and campus video center.

Like a number of my former students, John has kept in touch. Through his letters I stayed abreast of his television news career in Sacramento and witnessed his development as a professional journalist.

It came as a wonderful surprise last year when John announced his intention to return to school for his master’s degree. Knowing John I am sure he has exhibited the same enthusiasm for his graduate studies as he did with us.

John is highly charismatic and has a terrific on air presence. More importantly, he thinks critically, reasons well and has all the instincts of a good reporter.

His grace under pressure became abundantly apparent to me during John’s junior year. John hosted our weekly TV interview show, “Live on the Mall”, which is fed via closed circuit across the university. As John was discussing campus politics with the president of the student government, a fire broke out in one of the dormitories. John immediately headed toward the blaze and began covering the story. Back at the video center the technician called all the local television stations, three of which wanted John’s feed and went live with it for more than half an hour. The fire was quite unsettling and involved considerable damage as well as loss of life. John’s calm professionalism shown through so much that his feed was also picked up briefly by two national cable news channels.

John also has a good feel for balanced and objective reporting. Case in point, while John was with us a supremacist group sprang up on campus. Although not sanctioned by the university, the group was allowed to conduct a rally. This drew protests from the vast majority of the student body. Nevertheless, John felt it important for freedom of speech to interview the group’s leaders on his show.

The interview, conducted on the mall, drew a large demonstration with animus directed not only at the group’s leaders but also at John. A number of John’s friends held this against him, but he unequivocally believed what he did was right. I would go so far as to say it was not only right but a reflection of mature journalistic judgment.

It was a real honor to witness John’s development here at the university and it has been a joy to watch his growth since then. I cannot imagine a better recipient of this fellowship. I enthusiastically recommend him to you.

Sincerely,

David P. Kroger
Professor of Communications
Davis University

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Sample chef recommendation

To Whom It May Concern:

It is with pride that I recommend Gina Marie Sullivan for a responsible position in your pastry department. I am chef-proprietor of River’s Edge Inn, a restaurant in Hudson Valley, New York.

Gina Marie has been with my establishment for more than four years. She began while still in high school working an entry level position in my kitchen. Upon graduating she came on board fulltime doing food prep and working the hot line. Occasionally she would help me with our breads and the signature desserts for which River’s Edge is well known.

Over time Gina Marie became more and more interested in the pastry end of the business, learning from me but also from experimentation and independent study. She has a definite flair for pastries, and has surpassed my abilities in many respects.

It is only right that she be allowed to develop her talent to the extent of its limits. I understand and support her desire to seek employment in a large Manhattan kitchen.

Let me say that I have no doubt she can adeptly meet the challenges. She has shown me repeatedly that she is profoundly dedicated and responsible. She has done double shifts, worked on most holidays, and filled in a number of times for wait staff.

Gina Marie is also the personification of calmness in tough situations. Two months ago she spent all day creating five fabulous Gâteaux de Madame (Génoise cake filled with Chantilly cream and covered with shaved chocolate). This was for a party of thirty-five. As the cakes were leaving the kitchen, all on one cart for presentation effect, one of the two attendant waiters tripped and knocked over the cart. Her creations crashed on the floor. Not concerned about recrimination, and in no sense panicked, Gina Marie proceeded immediately to review ingredients on hand in the kitchen. She managed in short order to produce thirty-five parfait glasses of Romanoff complete with ripe strawberries, Grand Marnier and a garnish of fresh whipped cream.

Even though it would continue to benefit my restaurant and its customers, I would feel guilty and be doing her a disservice to persuade her to stay. And so I refer to you a genuinely talented young lady whom I feel is already evolving into a first-rate pastry chef.

Sincerely,

Chef Bernard Salinger
Owner, River’s Edge Inn

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Sample engineer recommendation

To Whom It May Concern:

It is a distinct pleasure to recommend to you my esteemed business associate and long time friend William J. Marshall. In my capacity as Vice President of Marketing at Lacotex Corporation I have worked closely with William for more than a decade.

As Director of Engineering William has managed the design of more than two hundred Lacotex products. His work has been a major factor in our company’s continued success in the machined components industry. He has proven consistently that customer need and company profit are not mutually exclusive.

Like most manufacturing businesses, our company is organized into functions. Engineering interacts with virtually all of them. There are natural tensions between the functions which if not managed correctly can prove disastrous. William has always understood the old axiom that we rise or fall together and has made teamwork with others job number one for his department.

I can remember the nature of our weekly management meetings ten years ago before William arrived. We would spend most of the allotted two hours pointing fingers at each other any time problems needed to be solved. When William came on board the meetings changed dramatically. He showed us all how to get beyond the blame game.

William has a zest for life and has a variety of interests. He can relate to people in many ways and on many levels, and would have made a great sales executive. In fact, William’s people skills have saved the day for on more than one occasion.

A particularly difficult account springs to mind. It was a company run by a hard-boiled individual that neither I nor any of our sales people could ever seem to get close to and consequently could never sell much to. We asked William to join us on a call to this difficult customer. In the course of the sales meeting William noticed a picture of the man beaming with pride as he stood next to a young woman in a basketball uniform. William asked about the picture and then struck up a long conversation about the subtleties of women’s basketball and what turned out to be the man’s daughter. To make a long story short we left hours later with new business in an account that has grown to be our fourth largest.

I could continue on with more glowing accounts of William, but will instead simply say that I really do think the world of him and respect him greatly. It saddens us all the William must leave us so he can relocate to help with his aging in-laws.

I would without any reservation recommend William to you. He would be a tremendous asset in any company.

Sincerely,

Frank Pierce
Vice President, Marketing
Lacotex Corporation

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Sample librarian recommendation

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter provides me the opportunity to recommend my Assistant Director, Jennifer Alistair, for the position of Library Director at the Main Library in the Farris County, Colorado Public Library System.

Jennifer came to us upon finishing her Master of Library Science degree and first worked as a Reference Librarian. After three years she was promoted to Assistant Director, a position she has performed well in.

With her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Jennifer has been invaluable as we have transitioned to a digital environment.

She chaired the countywide committee that reengineered our Information Management and Delivery System two years ago. She also worked on the follow-up committee to oversee the implementation of changes. Through her efforts and those of others on the committees, countywide we are slated to save more than $2 million dollars annually while simultaneously providing much improved, state-of-the-art services to patrons.

Jennifer is well prepared for the social interplay that goes hand and hand with the director’s job. She displayed an infectious zeal during her tenure as Reference Librarian and was very popular with the public. She has aptly administered the twenty-five individuals in her areas. Through her committee work she has also shown considerable ability for managing disparate forces both inside and outside the library.

Jennifer is rightly seeking additional challenge and since there are currently no opportunities in our system it is only natural for her to look elsewhere. For this I commend her.

Bright, dedicated and skilled, Jennifer garners my unequivocal recommendation. She is ready and fully prepared to assume the duties of Director at your library.

Sincerely,

Amanda Wrigley
Director, Central Library

references letters

writing references letters – for employment, personal, character – free reference letters samples, templates and examples, request for reference template

reference letters structure/template

• Addressee name and address if known
• Date
• Salutation (‘To whom it may concern’, or ‘Dear Sir or Madam’, or ‘Dear <title> <surname>’)
• Confirm dates, job title(s) capacity, and salary and benefits details if required/appropriate.
• Confirm that the person’s performance and attitude was (at all times) satisfactory/exceeded expectations or standards.
• Briefly explain the person’s responsibilities (optional)
• Briefly describe their skills/qualifications/strengths/characteristics (optional)
• State that you would willingly re-employ the person if the opportunity arose (optional, and very re-assuring for the reader)
• Offer to provide more information if required (optional)
• Yours faithfully (or ‘Yours sincerely’ if writing to a named addressee)

N.B. It’s a matter for your own discretion how much praise and positive information to include in the reference letter, hence the optional items.

employment reference letter template sample

Date

To whom it may concern,

I confirm that (name) is/was employed as (position) with this organisation from (date) to (date/the present day), and was/is paid (salary, plus bonus and benefits as applicable).

Their job of (position) carries the following responsibilities (describe briefly the job). (Name) is skilled in (details of skills) and is also (characteristics – eg reliable dependable, a good communicators, etc).

I would happily re-employ (name) as I consider him/her to be a valuable member of the team, who consistently achieved good results and delivers all expectations.

Yours faithfully, etc

character references or personal reference letters

Certain situations require character reference letters of a more personal nature, such as character testimonials or references relating to court proceedings, or for a position in non-business organisations such as councils, trusts, clubs, or societies. In these cases follow the same principles: do not defame a person in writing or verbally when providing a reference; state only positives or nothing at all. If you need a personal or character reference always ask the writer if it would help to provide them with a draft. Writing reference letters is time-consuming and difficult for many people – offering to provide a draft may sound cheeky, but it is often necessary and much appreciated by the reference giver (incidentally called the ‘referee’).

Be aware that offering to provide a written character reference relating to a person’s court proceedings may lead to your being asked to appear in court as a character witness – so be sure that whatever you write you’d be comfortable stating it in a court of law.

example and template for personal or character reference letter

Date

To whom it may concern

I confirm that I have known (name) for (number) years.

(State relationship – social, business, working together in some other capacity, club, activity, project, etc.)

At all times I have found (name/him/her) to be (state characteristics – eg, dependable, reliable, hard-working, conscientious, honest, peace-loving, courteous, etc – to be as helpful as possible think about what the reader will most prefer to see, in terms of satisfying concerns, or seeing evidence of relevant required skills or characteristics).

I’m happy to provide further information if required. (optional)

Yours faithfully, etc.

See the section dealing with Data Protection and ‘Subject Access Rights’ in relation to references. This is essential for employers, and very useful too for individuals, in terms of rights of access to references.

character reference letters for court appearances

Here’s an example of the sort of letter you can write if asked to provide a character reference for someone you know who is to appear in court on a criminal charge. First ensure that you are personally comfortable with the responsibility of providing the character reference and potentially being called to appear in court as a character witness (the accused legal team should normally advise you on how best you can help – if in doubt ask). When using the sample letter below you can substitute the relevant character aspects of the accused that you wish to endorse or support, and which should logically relate to, and counter, the type of behaviour alleged in the court charge. If the charge relates to violence you should try to endorse and describe peace-loving attributes; if the charge relates to dishonesty, obviously try to endorse and describe honesty attributes. Integrity endorsements are obviously helpful for any situation because they hopefully support the validity of the accused person’s own statements in court.

N.B. It is important to bear in mind that whatever you write you should be comfortable and capable of reliably repeating, and potentially providing examples, if required, under oath in court. Both the prosecution and defence sides have the right to force witnesses of all sorts to appear personally in court, and while most written statements and letters do not lead to a requirement to appear in person, the possibility of the need arising always exists.

sample character reference letter (written by the character witness)

Obviously, change gender as applicable.

(date)

To whom it may concern (or Your Honour, or as advised by legal team)

Person’s Full Name (heading)

I have known (name) for (number) years as (state relationship – business associate, staff member, socially, etc).

I can confirm that he is a man of great integrity, is extremely dedicated to his family and work, and is entirely peace-loving. (substitute character descriptions as applicable).

Furthermore, (add further character descriptions and/or examples of the person’s behaviour and/or history supporting the above testimonial.)

For your information, I am (personal statement building your own credibility – details of position held and any other details that help build your own credibility, particularly any experience in judging the characteristics or behaviour referenced above).

Yours faithfully

Name

Position (if applicable)

trade reference letters – sample – quality of service

You may be asked by one of your suppliers to provide a trade reference letter, which they will present to a new customer seeking assurances of quality of service, reliability, etc. (See below for a sample reference letter relating to payment and credit-worthiness) Here’s an example of a trade reference letter relating to quality of service. Use a letterheaded sheet, and date it. The subject of the trade reference letter could be a company, a sole trader or freelance supplier. Use the name of the person or the company as the heading.

Letters like this typically begin with ‘To whom it may concern’, which enables the reference to be used for different people requesting one.

Then insert the heading, and follow with your reference statement(s). It will help you to write the letter if you ask the supplier what they feel will be most useful to include. Be honest, and as generous in your praise as you can be. (As with any reference request, if you cannot say anything positive, say nothing at all.)

If you are writing a letter like this on behalf of your organization for one of its suppliers, ensure you obtain necessary approval from a director or appropriate authority (typically a finance or purchasing director), and in certain circumstances (for significant or very important references) you could actually ask the person in authority to sign the letter and send it in their name.

trade references letters sample – quality of service

(date)

To whom it may concern

New Company Ltd (the supplier or person who is the subject of the reference)

I confirm that I have dealt with New Company Ltd since 1998, during which time they have provided my business with excellent support in the areas of website engineering, site optimisation, search engine analysis and site submission. Their work has been a major factor in our website’s success, helping it to become one of the most visited resources of its kind on the Internet.

I can confidently recommend New Company Ltd as a solid and reliable supplier, and experts in their field.

Yours faithfully

(name and title)

trade reference letters sample – credit worthiness

This is an example of a trade reference letter relating to a person’s or organization’s credit-worthiness and reliability for making payments. You may be asked by one of your suppliers or customers for such a reference letter, which they will present to a new supplier who is seeking assurances of their financial reliability and credit-worthiness. Use a letterheaded sheet, and date it. The subject of the trade reference letter could be a company, a sole trader or freelance supplier. Use the name of the person or the company as the heading.

Letters like this typically begin with ‘To whom it may concern’, which enables the reference to be used for different people requesting one.

Then insert the heading, and follow with your reference statement(s). It will help you to write the letter if you ask the supplier what they feel will be most useful to include. Be honest, and avoid negative comments as this amounts to defamation. (As with any reference request, if you cannot say anything positive, say nothing at all.)

If you are writing a letter like this on behalf of your organization for one of its suppliers, ensure you obtain necessary approval from a director or appropriate authority (typically a finance or purchasing director), and in certain circumstances (for significant or very important references) you could actually ask the person in authority to sign the letter and send it in their name.

(date)

To whom it may concern

New Company Ltd (the supplier or person who is the subject of the reference)

I confirm that New Company Ltd has been a customer of ours since 1998, during which time they have always made payments reliably, in full and on time.

Yours faithfully

(name and title)

request for reference (from past employers and referees) – examples and template

This template is for employers seeking references from current or previous employers or other character referees for job applicants, candidates and interviewees. The template can be amended for sending to other nominated referees (eg., character reference providers).

When seeking a reference about a potential new employee or job candidate you should ask permission of the person involved.

Failing to do so undermines trust and confidence before the new person has even started the job, and sends a signal that the employer does not have strong ethical standards. Failing to divulge information relating to data obtained and held about an individual also has implications in the UK under the Data Protection Act and individual’s rights of access to references.

In any event, being open and cooperative about seeking references displays trust, and demonstrates positive and ethical standards – all of which of course are very appealing employer qualities in the eyes of most employees, and especially high calibre employees. Good practice assumes that employees should always be informed clearly through appraisals and other processes as to their weaknesses, failings and transgressions. Keeping such information secret only stores up problems for the future.

Sending a template or ‘pro-forma’ containing relevant criteria makes it easier for the reference provider than simply asking to provide a reference, which stumps many referees. Better to ask them exactly what you want to know. Sending a specially created form for references therefore increases your chances of getting a reply at all, and also getting the answers about the person’s characteristics and history that you most need.

As with all of the free templates on this page, employers should check with their relevant employment law department or advisors before creating, adapting and using letters and forms relating to references and recruitment, so that legal implications can be properly considered. International employment law varies around the world, and changes over time, for example the Ageism legislation effective in the UK in October 2006. When requesting and providing references it is important to act within all relevant laws relating to discrimination (gender, race, disability, etc) in addition to the laws surrounding libel and defamation, etc.

Feel free to change any of the criteria or positioning statements in the sample template below, especially if sending it to referees who are not previous or past employers (character referees, for example). For most references the criteria listed below are too many. Delete what you don’t need so that you don’t waste people’s time providing information that is not needed.

In addition, you can also show a form like this to each job applicant to get their agreement that it’s okay to send it to their referees/past employers. You could also (if you’d like to be very progressive and open about this) even ask the applicant or job candidate if they’d like anything else of relevance to be added to the form, as might enable the clearest and most helpful outcome from the exercise. Little is gained from being secretive about things, whereas much can be gained from being open and up-front.

Either incorporate this template within a letter or attach it to a covering letter, and send it to the nominated reference provider(s).

You will improve response rates if you send a stamped addressed envelope with the reference request.

Additionally (in the UK) you can help inform yourself and others about how the Data Protection Act relates to employment references (and other types of references, such as for education) by reading and enclosing a copy of the official Good Practice Notes relating to Data Protection and References, explained and available in the Data Protection and Access Rights section below.

Communicating and agreeing clear expectations with people will always greatly improve your success in everything you do, especially in sensitive areas such as requesting and giving employment references.

request for reference template

Adapt and amend this template to suit the situation – and seek approval from the person concerned for the final version. Leave sufficient space for comments between each point. If you include every possible criteria on your ‘master’ form, you can delete the criteria which do not apply for each reference request situation.

(your logo, address, etc)

Confidential – Request for Reference

date……………

name of applicant…………..

The above has applied for a job as ………………………….. with us and has suggested you might provide a reference, or has agreed that we can contact you for one. I’d be grateful for you to provide whatever details you feel able to according to the criteria below. Please don’t write anything that might compromise you or your organisation (if applicable), although where clear evidence exists of significant negative history, especially of a serious nature, then we’d be grateful for such information.

If you’d prefer to speak on the phone please call me on ………………

Delete/ignore as applicable.

1. The above person was/is employed with us as ………………………………………. date(s) ……………………

(provide estimates if precise dates are not readily available)

2. General character

3. Attitude

4. Relationships with others/peers/subordinates

5. Team-working

6. Personal integrity and honesty

6. Reliability

7. Calmness under pressure

8. Competence (state skills if appropriate……………………..)

9. Ambition

10. Overall performance in past role(s) with your organisation

11. Qualifications/Training attained

12. Why did the person leave?

13. Would you re-employ the person if a suitable vacancy existed?

14. Any other comments?

15. Under the Data Protection Act (UK) the person named above would normally have access to the information provided here if requesting it from the receiving organisation. The organisation providing the reference is exempt under the Data Protection Act – but the organisation receiving the reference is not. If there are strong reasons for protecting confidentiality (risk to referee, etc) please state them here. For your information the law relating to data protection and references is explained at www.ico.gov.uk.

16. Please be aware also that references are subject to legislation relating to equality and discrimination, which from 1st October 2006 also includes age.

Respondent’s/Referee’s signature ……………………………………….. date……………………..

Respondent’s/Referee’s name and title………………………………………………………………..

On behalf of (employer/organisation, if applicable) ……………………………………………….

Please return this form to ……………………………….

Reference number ………………………………………..

Contact details of sender of this request (email, phone, etc) ……………………………………………….

Please make a copy of your reply for your own records and if in doubt about anything you’d like to state on this form please seek advice before writing and sending a response.

Thank you for your assistance.

data protection act and employment references

The law in the UK (Apr 2006) is that employers giving references are exempt from the ‘Subject Access Rights’ section of the Data Protection Act, but employers receiving references are not, unless there are extremely strong reasons for preserving the confidentiality or anonymity of the reference provider (a personal risk to the referee, for example). In most cases reasons for withholding information will not outweigh the individual’s rights to ‘subject access’ as the Data Protection Act defines it. The arbiter in cases where a dispute might arise, is the Information Commissioner (ICO), being the government department responsible for ensuring compliance with the 1988 Data Protection Act.

See the ICO’s Good Practice Notes on ‘Subject Access and Employment References’ from the ICO website (April 2006). This good practice note clarifies how the Data Protection Act 1998 applies to employment references. The recommendations also apply to other types of reference, such as those provided for educational purposes. This document is ICO copyright and reproduced with permission.

You can enclose a copy of the Good Practice Note with the request for reference if you feel it will be helpful for the recipient, in which case check with the ICO that you have the up-to-date version (link below).

The practical implications of the Data Protection Act are that regardless of a referee’s request (or perception) that the contents of a reference will be withheld from the person who is the subject of the reference, it is unlikely that the receiving organisation can do this, should they actually want to. People requesting, giving and receiving references need to understand this, and also need to understand the details of of the Data Protection Act relating to employment references. Read the Good Practice Notes.

If you’re in a real hurry the ICO summarises ‘Recommended Good Practice’ relating to References and Data Protection as follows (from the ICO website, extracted April 2006):

“In most circumstances, you should provide the information in a reference, or at least a substantial part of it, to the person it is about if they ask for it. Even if the referee refuses consent, this will not necessarily justify withholding the information, particularly where this has had a significant impact on the individual, such as preventing them from taking up a provisional job offer. However, there may be circumstances where it would not be appropriate for you to release a reference, such as where there is a realistic threat of violence or intimidation by the individual towards the referee. You should consider whether it is possible to conceal the identity of the referee, although often an individual will have a good idea who has written the reference. If it is not reasonable in all of the circumstances to provide the information without the referee’s consent, you should consider whether you can respond helpfully anyway (for example, by providing a summary of the content of the reference). This may protect the identity of the referee, while providing the individual with an overview of what the reference says about them.”

If you need any more information about this or any other aspect of data protection, and to check for updates to the Good Practice Notes, contact Information Commissioner’s Office; in my experience they are lovely helpful people.

Website – www.ico.gov.uk
Phone – 01625 545745
E-mail – mail@ico.gsi.gov.uk

http://www.businessballs.com/referencesletterssamples.htm

Little Jenny Humphrey has been stirring up a lot of trouble on Gossip Girl lately.  Thanks to the devil on her shoulder named Agnes, Jenny dared to walk away from her job at Waldorf Designs in last week’s episode.  Not only did J find the confidence to strike out on her own in the fashion world, but she also had the audacity to plant a kiss on Nate.  Some viewers found their shocking make-out session hot and steamy, while others found it completely creepy.  Speaking of romance, Blair and Chuck decided to put their mutual lust on the back burner so they can continue doing what they truly love, which is scheming against one another.

On tonight’s Gossip Girl, Jenny and Agnes plan an impromptu fashion show, and Blair babysits a bratty teenager with sex on her brain.

Spotted: Jenny and Agnes pretending to be Project Runway contestants in Brooklyn.  While J throws together some awesome dresses for a fashion show, she tells Agnes that Nate has been ignoring her since last week’s May-December smoochfest.  Meanwhile, Blair and Serena meet with a Yale donor who only seems to be interested in S and her burgeoning fame.  S volunteers B to hang out with the donor’s Harry Potter-loving teenage daughter, thinking it’ll earn B some extra Yale points.  Young Emma seems like an angel, but she’s really a Lohan in disguise.  She’s on a mission to lose her virginity, and if B doesn’t help her she’ll make sure she never gets into Yale.  Blair being blackmailed by a conniving teen?  We saw how well that worked for Jenny Humphrey.

Dan and Nate walk into the loft just as J is preparing to leave with her variety of dresses.  Busted!  Dan ponders telling Rufus that Jenny is an unemployed layabout, but his sister begs him not to.  He eventually decides to tell his dad the truth, but they arrive too late to stop J, Agnes and Nate from heading to the fashion show.  Jenny is going to be grounded for about 85 years after everything is said and done, which should make some Gossip Girl fans very happy.

Blair convinces Emma to attend a charity ball instead of scheming to pop her cherry, but when Chuck runs into the girl he tells her the ball will be a total snoozefest.  “It looks like you just hooked yourself a Bass,” he replies after she bluntly asks him to deflower her.  He whisks her off in a limo and prepares to work his magic, then returns later to tell B that the girl bolted after he turned her down.  The back of the limo is a sacred place, and he just couldn’t bring himself to sex up a strange youngster in such a sacred environment.

B and S find the teen flirting with a skeezy guy in a club, but she once again slips away before they can stop her.  The potentially slutty daughter may be gone, but B soon sees her professionally slutty mom making out with a strange man in the corner.  Considering that the man isn’t her husband, B knows she has some juicy blackmail material on her hands.  I think I hear Yale calling!

Jenny sneaks into a party thrown by the New York Philanthropic Society and prepares to unleash her fashion show in front of the unsuspecting elite.  Nate poses as her date to stop her from getting tossed out, and even dares to kiss her in front of all the attendees.  A nosy onlooker snaps a photo, and that’s all it takes to get Gossip Girl talking.  Dan sees the photo online and prepares to crash the party to kick some Archibald ass.  He heads to the shindig with Rufus and Vanessa in tow, then ditches them to confront Nate in private.  Humphrey somehow resists bashing his former BFF’s face in, but it’s obvious that both their roommate situation and their bromance is over.  Say goodbye to the homoerotic undertones!

Blair and Chuck track down Emma and try to convince her to leave her boy toy behind.  She’s determined to swipe her V card before her friend Muffy does, but Gossip Girl has already reported that Muffy’s been stuffed.  Emma agrees to flee once she realizes she’s lost the big V race, but what she doesn’t know is that Chuck convinced GG to file a false report.  Blair bonds a bit with Emma over their shared familial issues, but nearly unleashes the blackmail material on Emma’s mom after the woman acts like a total bitch toward her daughter.  B is tempted to destroy the family, but she chooses the high road and simply asks Emma’s mom to spend more time with her kid.  It’s not often we see B toss aside juicy blackmail information, so we should really mark this day in the history books.

Fashion show, fashion show, fashion show at night!  The lights go out in the middle of a speech honoring Lily and Bart Bass at the New York Philanthropic Society, allowing Jenny’s models to storm the place to promote her designs.  It seems like a totally awful and disrespectful thing to do, but it does earn Jenny a few fans.  One person who isn’t won over is Vanessa, who refuses to join the cheering section after she spots Little J making out with Nate.  Jenny tries to run after her, but instead runs into Rufus, who is ready to hand his daughter over to the cops to teach her a lesson about all the trouble she’s caused.  Lily kills the idea by refusing to press charges against Jenny, forcing the cops to leave empty handed.  She actually thought the stunt was brave and exciting, which isn’t what Rufus wants to hear.

The next morning, Nate moves out of the loft, Blair receives a call from the dean of Yale, and Serena enjoys a visit from Aaron.  She thinks he has a harem of different girls that he’s hanging out with every day, but he swears he only has eyes for her.  As S swoons over her good news, B cheers over the fact that Emma put in a good word for her with the dean.  As Gossip Girl comes to an end, Dan decides to head to the dark side and finish writing his story about Chuck, Jenny moves out without telling her family, and Nate skips town to stay with his mom.  Once you’ve hooked up with every woman in New York, I guess it’s time to get out of the city.

The overall application package will represent who “you” are to people whom you will most likely not know personally. The written expression of your qualities as an applicant will often be a very important way for committee members to get to know why you are an acceptable candidate for their program. Thus, it is essential to take great care in preparing the personal statement part of your application. Because graduate schools make important selection decisions that are partly based on what you say in this personal statement essay, the writing of it can be an intimidating prospect.

This handout offers some points to consider as you undertake the writing of an application essay.

Start Early! Be Thorough!
If you have begun your application process early, take the time to investigate thoroughly each institution to which you are applying.

· Go to the library and locate/browse-through/read texts or abstracts by the school’s faculty members who work in your field or area of interest.

· Study and re-study the application materials sent to you very carefully; in particular, read through the school catalog and required course offerings.

· Find out if the school and program have web sites where you can learn more about them.

Taking these steps will familiarize you with the department, and allow you to weigh its specific strengths and weaknesses in comparison to those of other schools. While conducting your inquiry, take notes so that you will have something to base your personal statement essay on. Additionally, if you happen to know anyone — a friend, family member, colleague, or teacher — who has graduated from a school that you are considering, ask her or him for information as well. Although such people may be very helpful, be careful not to let their advice sway you too much, unless you are quite sure that they are particularly familiar with the department in question, and that their knowledge of it is up to date.

What to Include
The piece of writing that each school requests may be very different from that of others; some programs may even ask for more than one personal essay. Before you begin to write, study very carefully the essay directions on the application materials sent to you by the school and by the specific department to which you are applying. While some programs leave the content of the personal statement essay fairly “open,” others may place explicit content and length restrictions on it. Try to make sure that you have a good idea of what you are being asked to write about.

Whatever the particular form of the essay asked of you, there are a number of basic areas committees are interested in. When evaluating your application, each reader will ultimately have this question in mind: “Why should we let you into our school?” In order to answer this question, try to do the following:

· Clearly state your short and long term goals; tell how university “X” can help you meet them.

· Describe your areas of research and professional interest. You might indicate how your proposed studies are located within a broad field. For example, someone applying to a composition and rhetoric program might say, “I hope to examine the relationship between rhetorical invention strategies and demonstrated ability to write for members of diverse discourse communities.” Or, someone applying to an engineering program might say, “My particular interests are in optical communications, networks, and signal processing. As an undergraduate research assistant, I studied the principles of wavelet transforms, one of the most recent signal processing techniques, and I developed software models using Matlab to simulate the transform process. Currently I am investigating new applications of wavelet transforms. University X’s program in electrical engineering provides the direction and environment in which I can pursue my work in optimal communications networks and signal processing.”

· Give specific reasons why you are interested in a particular field, as well as why you have chosen this particular school to apply to.

· Refer to past experiences, both academic and “real world,” that are relevant to graduate study.

· Articulate what is particularly valuable about the perspective that you will bring to the prospective field of study and the specific department.

· Demonstrate your ability to think and express ideas clearly and effectively.

· Show motivation and capacity to succeed in graduate education.

· Write concisely and try to keep your readers interested. Remember that they are reading many application essays and therefore, you need to be considerate of their needs.

· Offer other information that demonstrates your need and desire to be accepted by the program.

Why this School?
Once you have developed a sense of the faculty’s interests and the department’s special features, you can make it clear in your application exactly why you want to attend that particular school. What is it about the department’s curriculum structure or general approach to the field that makes you interested in being a student there? Don’t waste your valuable personal statement essay space, or your reader’s valuable time, telling the reader how wonderful or prestigious their institution is; people on the admissions committee already know this. They want to know about you.

Nonetheless, if there are special programs or institutes at the school that seem appealing to you, briefly mention that you are interested in becoming part of them. For example, state that you “want to be a member of the XYZ Group for Blank and Blank Studies because . . .”, but don’t tell them how great, well respected, and world-renowned this part of the school is.

If, during your research on the department’s faculty, a faculty member strikes you as someone whom you might be interested in working with, indicate this in your essay; be concise and specific about why you want to work with this person in particular. A word of caution here: Do not try to use this as a way to “butter up” the admissions committee, because if there is any reason to believe that you are not sincere, your application may be adversely affected. Again, mention the person and how their work relates to your interest, but don’t load this personal statement with what might be interpreted as false or superfluous praise.

Personal Information
Some applications may ask you to give a personal history, telling about experiences that you have undergone which have led you to decide to pursue graduate education in a certain field of study. (If personal information of this sort is not required, then you are under no obligation to provide it.)

The information that could be included in a personal-type statement is limited only by your own imagination and life history, but you should be highly selective about what you include. There are two things to watch out for: (1) saying too much and/or (2) not saying enough.

Some applicants may ramble on about themselves in a manner that may appear self-indulgent and not very appealing to the committee. Remember, this is an application essay, not an autobiography. Conversely, some applicants tend to say too little, perhaps hesitating to promote themselves too explicitly or not knowing what about about themselves would be interesting to people whom they don’t know. In such cases, perhaps focusing more on what you want to do than on what you have already done (let your record speak for itself), may help in getting beyond self-inhibition.

Generally, keep in mind that the points about your life that you highlight should be somehow relevant to both your own interest in the field of study, as well as to the concerns of the admissions committee. In judging what information to include or exclude from your essay, try to balance academic, work-related, and personal information in a manner appropriate to your situation, goals, and the application requirements.

Additional Considerations
If you have additional, relevant information about yourself that does not easily fit into the essay, or into any other section of the university’s application, you may want to include a condensed resume or curriculum vitae with your application package. This is especially applicable to those who have worked professionally since having graduated from school. Relevant items here might include work experience, publications, and presentations, as well as language and computer skills.

Also, if you have experienced times of great hardship or extenuating circumstances that have negatively affected your academic performance at any time, provide a short explanatory statement. This is another one of those places where caution should be exercised: you want to explain the cause of your poor grades, etc. without alienating the reader by overdoing it. Once again, be specific and concise.

(Re)Writing
Although some people may be able to write an essay from start to finish in one sitting, most would probably not be particularly satisfied with the results of such an effort. Outlines, including a list of possible components to include in the essay, are often a good way to get started on your essay. Some writers prefer to start writing one paragraph at a time, re-arranging their ideas for orderly flow later on. Whatever method you use (only a few out of many have been mentioned here), make sure to allow time for revision — don’t start your essay the night before you have to send it out!

Ask others to read your essay and give you honest feedback; tell them that it is important to know what areas they find unclear or unnecessary. Don’t feel shy about asking for or receiving criticism; remember, the effectiveness of your personal statement essay depends on your being able to present yourself in a manner that is attractive to admissions committees. Comments such as “it’s good” are not going to be very helpful to you because they will not help you to improve your essay.

The Writing Center is available to offer suggestions on beginning, revising and finishing your application essay, so make use of this valuable resource. Also for ideas on form and style selected application essays that students have written in the past are on file for you to browse through at the Writing center.

After considering responses to your work, revise your essay until you are satisfied with it. (Remember to spell check the final draft). Also, make sure that your name and possibly the essay title — for example: “Personal Statement” — is included in a header on the first page, and that your last name is on a header or footer for each additional, numbered page (in case the first page gets misplaced).

Additional Resources
For more advice on how to approach application essay writing and personal statements in particular, there are a number of extended treatments of this subject, some of which may be available at your library or graduate studies office. The graduate center at RPI has at least two books, as well as shorter documents within graduate school guides, that may provide you with a more comprehensive picture of application procedures than could be articulated in this brief handout.

what are your career goal and potential obstacles?

Several years ago while taking a Drawing and Design class, a project was assigned to create a functional child’s toy out of ordinary household items, otherwise known as junk. This construction assignment transformed into my personal mission because it demanded a skill set I was not comfortable with. In the end, it was not just the first place ribbon that affirmed my feeling of triumph, but the fact that my perseverance led to the achievement of my personal vision and goal. My hand-made creation became a symbol of what I was capable of. I will pursue my career goals with the same determination and tenacity I have demonstrated.

My ultimate career aspiration is to become a successful executive in a global company playing a leadership role in customer focused marketing, driving revenue and profit. This goal has been shaped and grounded by many diverse marketing assignments I have benefited from in marketing research, customer relationship management, and market intelligence at Xerox Corporation.

Upon completion of my MBA degree, I hope to immediately join a business-to-consumer firm where I can apply my graduate education and marketing research knowledge in the consumer-packaged-goods industry. I expect to become a contributor to the delicate intricacies involved in successfully executing a consumer product to market. At first, I wish to own a piece of a product’s go-to-market strategy and then eventually gain greater participation. At the same time I will have advanced my competence in several facets of marketing. In five years, I anticipate a managerial position asserting a greater role in not only my individual responsibilities and output, but a team’s motivation and productivity as well. I foresee myself wearing the different hats of my past managers, encompassing what I found to be their positive traits with my own personality. I await that challenge.

Realistically, one must expect obstacles on their path to success. An aspect of my personality that could potentially inhibit me is impatience. Impatience strikes many of us at any given moment then quickly subsides. Mine is derived from unrealistic expectations. Whether the unrealistic expectation is of family, the workplace or life in general, it occasionally leads to disappointment or irrational decisions. As an example of such an expectation, I instantly remember my customer relationship management (CRM) project I managed when I worked for the retail organization at Xerox. The CRM concept was new and brilliant. The psycho-graphic, demographic and behavioral enriched customer data we were receiving was revolutionary to the organization. I was elated. For the first time we had detailed data on who our end users were and their purchasing behaviors at certain retail chains. My job was to communicate and educate all the specific findings and the CRM concept to the appropriate decision-makers on the marketing staff. I simply expected everything to promptly change. Disappointment overcame my enthusiasm. My “road show” lasted a couple of weeks and I was convinced that this sought after customer information would give our marketing programs another perspective it needed. Nobody jumped. Nobody even blinked.

I later discovered that being a “change agent” within a large organization or anywhere takes time, small steps and even more, patience. Several months after the CRM program was introduced it caught the attention it deserved. By then, I was awarded a new position in the corporate organization at Xerox.

Knowing that impatience is one of my shortfalls, I have to make a conscious and deliberate effort in recognizing it in my behavior. I do not believe it will ever be completely conquered but it can be contained. I need to dissect a larger goal or project into smaller pieces. With this strategy, my expectations are more grounded and measurable as progress is eventually made. I am convinced this will certainly help neutralize my impatience. In addition, feedback from peers and my increasing experience will greatly improve my efforts.

My strategic business marketing experience at Xerox Corporation coupled with my short term goal of consumer marketing experience will build the solid foundation needed to reach my long-term career goal. The MBA degree from the Robert H. Smith School will ultimately give me the tools I need to succeed. I will maximize my MBA experience by utilizing the cross-functional curriculum, the study abroad opportunity and the corporate/ community network the program has established. With both my perseverance and consistently being aware of the obstacles that lie before me, I hope to fulfill my career aspiration of becoming a true marketing leader.

Essay Critique and Examination

Harvard Business School is looking for students who show a logical progression from past career experiences to future educational and professional goals. Your essay should show your interest in obtaining an MBA by explaining how a degree from Harvard fits snugly within your long-term career goals and past professional experiences.

Some initial questions to consider:

2) What is it specifically about a Harvard MBA that will help you attain those goals?

3) Why is now the perfect time for you to obtain an MBA from Harvard?

Stage 1: Overall Theme, Flow, Topic, Organization

Thematically, your essay is strong. But, you need to present professional goals in a clearer fashion. How will your past experience influence your future career path, what is your greatest limitation, and how do you believe you can overcome your impatience by working with more manageable goals?

Caution: Word Length

Unfortunately, your essay is too long. Not only do you exceed the 2 page / 500 word limit, you often get tangled up in your own phrasing and language. I have tightened the language of your essay in order to make it easier to read and more direct.

Make sure you are impressive in the context of your essay and not just in your language. Various word usage is awkward and this makes your writing seem as if you are pulling teeth. For example, in a particular sentence, you use both “new and brilliant” and “revolutionary”. For all practical purposes, these two phrases are identical. I deleted the first to make the sentence tighter. It is more important that your sentences be clear than how large you demonstrate your vocabulary to be.

Caution: Relevancy

I am confused as to the relevancy of your first paragraph. How does this experience relate to your career goals or to your impatience? Your anecdote shows that you are capable of rising to any challenge, even if that challenge is outside your area of expertise, but you never go on to connect this idea to the rest of your essay. In order to save word space, as well as streamline the essay, I have eliminated this paragraph and have inserted its general ideas throughout your essay. If, in fact, you do feel that this paragraph is essential to your essay, then you must find a better way of connecting it to your larger themes.

Caution: Passive Voice

Throughout your essay you use the passive voice. Your writing would seem more confident if you replaced weak, passive verbs with strong, active ones. You are not merely a pawn acted on by outside forces. I have gone through and changed verbs to an active form wherever possible.

One additional overall comment involves the theme of your essay. You seem to focus on a particular position that you hope to achieve (i.e. In five years, I expect a managerial position…). This is not a strong argument in the eyes of the Harvard Admissions Committee – they hope to provide you with skills in a particular field, not vocational training. In other words, you need to show that you are looking for more than just a job, but rather the knowledge base that will provide you with the means by which to achiethat position.

Structural Revision

I have switched the order of your (new) first and second paragraphs, since the second paragraph seems more general and introductory than the first.

Stage 2: Sentence Level Nuts and Bolts

Often, I find that your discussion of your past experience is quite vague. For example, in your third paragraph you write: At the same time I will have advanced my competence in several facets of marketing . What facets of marketing do you mean here? I have deleted this sentence because it seems to make the paragraph rather long. Throughout the essay, I have worked to eliminate vagueness, keeping only the most salient points.

You use quotation marks twice in your essay, for “road-show” and for “change agent”. This punctuation is actually unnecessary, if not outright distracting. I have removed them.

Make sure you identify your pronouns. Your sentence, “I do not believe it will ever be completely conquered but it can b contained,” would be more understandable if you wrote “impatience” instead of “it.”

Also, I noticed that you use “my” very often throughout the essay. This shows that your sentence structures and word choice are not varied enough . I have gone through and added novel structures in order to eliminate this repetition.

Rather than talk about your impatience as incurable, why don’t you talk about how you can use it to your benefit? I have changed the end of your essay to include this idea.

Overall, your essay is descriptive and well conceived.

All The Best
Team IvyEdge

Revised Essay 2 – Career goals and potential obstacles

Upon receiving my MBA degree from Harvard University, I will use my graduate education and marketing research knowledge in the context of the consumer-packaged-goods industry. First and foremost, I look forward to the challenge of successfully bringing a consumer product to market. Although I will begin working on a product’s go-to-market strategy, I eagerly anticipate gradually increasing my managerial context within the company. In addition to these future responsibilities, I am excited about managing a team’s motivation and productivity.

My strategic business marketing experience at Xerox Corporation, coupled with my short-term goal of success in consumer marketing, will build the solid foundation needed to reach my long-term career goal of playing a leadership role in a global company. I am particularly interested in customer focused marketing and am confident that my determination, perseverance and tenacity will lead to the successful achievement of this personal vision.

My greatest obstacle is likely to be my impatience, which is a direct result of hightened professional expectations. When I think of impatience, I recall the customer relationship management (CRM) project I managed for the retail organization at Xerox. The CRM concept was revolutionary, as was the psycho-graphic, demographic and behavioral enriched customer data we received. For the first time, we had detailed data on the identity of our end users, and on their purchasing behaviors at certain retail chains. My job was to communicate both these specific findings and the greater CRM concept to the appropriate decision-makers on the marketing staff. Because of my impatience, I expected everyone to promptly change. After several weeks of my road-show, disappointment overcame my enthusiasm. Although I was convinced that information would give our marketing programs a novel and necessary perspective, nobody jumped- nobody even blinked.

Later, I discovered that being an agent for change within a large organization takes small steps and, most importantly, patience. Several months after the CRM program was introduced, it caught the attention it deserved. As a result, I was awarded a new position in the corporate organization at Xerox.

My awareness of this shortcoming allows me both to recognize it in my behavior and to use it to my benefit. By dividing a larger goal into fundamental pieces, my expectations become more grounded and my progress more measurable. My impatience will help to accomplish smaller goals more quickly, and the lessons of increasing experience will encourage my efforts.

I am confident that an MBA degree from Harvard will not only give me the tools that I need in order to succeed, but the necessary personal insight into my own inner workings. I will maximize my MBA experience by taking advantage of Harvard’s cross-functional curriculum, the study abroad opportunity, and the corporate / community network the program has established. Through perseverance and consistent awareness of the obstacles that lie before me, I hope to fulfill my career dream of becoming a true marketing leader.

cautions

A Few Pointers. Opinions differ as to what constitutes the best approach to this essay, so it’s hard to offer much guidance here. In general, though, try to keep these ideas in mind:

· Originality. Try to guess the top 3 most common personal statement topics and then avoid those themes. In particular, skip the “Why I want to be a lawyer” dissertation — instead, tell an original story or relate an original experience that is not inconsistent with a desire to attend law school. This is just another way of saying “show don’t tell,” but it’s important. Many personal statements look like a string of clichés, and nobody wants to read that. Plus, law schools get a bazillion personal statements about how the applicant wants to go to law school because law is a force for change, law can make a difference in people’s lives, underserved communities need lawyers as champions, public interest law is a noble form of service, etc., etc. It will not help you to write such an essay, no matter how well written it may be! There is only one exception to this rule: alumni/ae who have been away from academia for many years may wish to address the “why law?” question directly (more advice for alumni/ae).

· Avoid Corny or Flashy Tricks. Don’t write an epic poem about your quest to enter law school; don’t draw a picture as your personal statement; don’t write in stream-of-consciousness style; don’t write a short story in which you’re on trial and the admissions committee is the jury…. You get the idea.

· Keep It Personal. It’s called a “personal” statement for a reason! Many, many students try to impress admissions officers with essays on philosophy, Russian politics, the need for prison reform or whatever. Don’t bother! An extremely well-written essay on current events or an academic subject might win awards but it will NOT get you into law school. Stick to subjects that are personal to you. Here’s a test: if your friend or roommate can read your essay and say, “yep, that sounds like you,” then you’re on the right track.

· Don’t Recycle Your Resume. Some students make the mistake of devoting their personal statement to summarizing their accomplishments. Your personal statement can certainly concern something impressive you’ve done, but don’t let it just recycle your resume. Think of your personal statement as an opportunity to add something new to your application file. If it helps free you from worrying that your accomplishments won’t be clear, you can simply include a copy of your resume in your application – even if the school doesn’t ask for it! Use your personal statement to give the admissions committee an idea of who you are beyond your resume.

· Contribution to the Law School Community. Remember: law school admissions officers are looking for interesting students who will make their school a more vibrant community for other students and staff. They’re looking for diversity in interests, backgrounds and experience. Think about your personal statement as a chance to step outside of the GPA/LSAT numbers in your application and illustrate why you have the kind of background and experiences that will make their school a better place for other students.

· Make It Easy to Read. Write clearly. Use declarative sentences in the active voice wherever possible. Organize each paragraph around a topic theme or idea, like you would in a closely argued paper for a tutorial. Do not try to distinguish your essay with its physical features — use a regular font (e.g., Times New Roman), ordinary margins, white paper, etc.

The Harvard Law Dean of Admissions has given students a few very valuable tips for the personal statement. First, he prefers statements that focus on the past, rather than the future. He wants to hear what you have done, not what you might do in the future. In light of that, two of the best questions to ask yourself when writing your personal statement are “what are your 3 biggest accomplishments?” and “what is the thing that is most important to you?” This will get you well on your way to writing a statement that is interesting, personal, and of the appropriate scope.

georgia tech personal statement

For the past four years I have been studying the relationship between humans and computers from many perspectives: computer science, human computer interaction, human factors, even tech support. It’s only in the last two years that I have found psychology, and it has had a huge influence on how I think about computation. I worked on several fascinating independent projects in psychology, one with Whitney Tabor developing an argument against Lakoff and Johnson’s ‘Metaphors We Live By’ and another with Michael Turvey studying the philosophical difficulties semantics pose for an automatic formal system that tries to pull salient information from large information spaces. In both cases, knowledge brought from courses in computer science, on topics like graph traversal algorithms, context-free grammars and theory of computation, allowed me to engage these topics quickly and in interesting ways–topics like connectionist networks, the psychology of language, and the relationship between syntax and semantics.

Still, it has been a long road to understand the connection between these projects and my ongoing research in computer science. For my honors thesis project, I put my psychology research methods to work assembling a coherent quantitative measure of usability and using it to gauge the success of a dominant user interface philosophy in my lab. I gained valuable experience soliciting participants with medical knowledge, securing funding to compensate them, negotiating lab space, writing custom data collection software and running the study.

The project also helped me to understand that it is critically important not just to improve the relationship between computers and people, but to understand it theoretically. And I believe such an approach can illuminate some big questions in psychology in a fresh light. Unlike human-human communication, in which referents are manifested in the massively complex natural world, referents in human-computer communication often exists in a formal information space that a computer can more easily “understand.” I would like to investigate what happens when we try to formalize and constrain natural languages so that computers have a chance at understanding them. This brings to bear many important questions in psychology: how language is formalized, what types of computation are necessary for language processing, and how automatic formal systems deal with semantics, among others.

Because of the mixture of HCI and cognitive psychology, and especially applied cognitive psychology, the Georgia Tech psychology program is an ideal place for me to do this work. More specifically, I would enjoy working with Zenzi Griffen in language production–in particular, the types of computation necessary for language production and comprehension. There’s a post-doc too: Horton

Much of my extracurricular work has focused on the human side of computing. As an undergraduate I created and a web site with several other students that drew as much as 25% of our undergraduate population on busy days. That success was achieved by focusing not on the technology, but on how the strengths of computer systems could fit into niches in the behavioral patterns of students on campus. And my work as a support technician for UConn’s psychology department provided ample opportunity to observe how computing fits into people’s lives.

In addition to these experiences, I have a few accomplishments worth of becoming sound-bites. As a freshman, I was invited into UConn’s select Concert Choir. In 2000, I tied for first place in UConn’s Undergraduate Calculus competition at the intermediate level. And after graduating this spring, I successfully completed a 200 mile solo backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail. And I co-authored a paper which was accepted as a poster to the 2003 User Modeling conference. This and my other research projects have really been my biggest accomplishments as an undergraduate.

My credentials in computer science go back further than my credentials in psychology mostly because I found psychology relatively recently. But the work I have done in both psychology and computer science has led me down this path

sample tips

So how does one determine the style of one’s college admission essay? Personally, I like to pretend that I am a teacher telling a story to a class of extremely interested students. I like to write in short sentences so the material won’t be too much to digest. I also like to use fun, sparkly vocabulary words every now and then (note: fun words, not huge, multisyllabic words). To demonstrate what I mean, let’s describe an old tree. Remember, there is a class of kids hanging on every word you say…

The tree at Grovsvenor’s Park is massive and knobby, with spotty bark and a mysterious hole in its center.

Given that trees aren’t the most exciting subject for an admission essay, I think the above sentence was charismatic enough to hold the class’s attention. I poured on the adjectives, without injecting any awkward SAT words. You get more mileage out of interesting, easily-understood words like “knobby.”

Continuing on:

No one ever knew how the hole got there; it just seemed to be a natural part of the tree. Though it was too small to stick your head into, there were rumors that it led to a massive treasure trove underground.

Are you starting to become interested? That’s not just because of the mention of hidden treasure. It’s because the writer has brought you into his neighborhood fantasy. Did you notice that? Probably not–that’s because his style was even, assured, and believable. As a narrator, he did his job.

In your own college admission essay, you should do the same thing. Find your own style. Be eerie, or eccentric, or bad-ass. Be yourself. Write as if you’re speaking, except with better grammar. Once you have your style down, just keep writing. As long as it’s distinctly yours, and not the style of a famous author or favorite magazine, it’s bound to catch the interest of the admissions office.

College Admission Essay Mistake # 10

Using the same essay for all of the colleges you apply to

All colleges have their own identity and mission statement. Pay attention to what their ideology is and think about what you can do to cater to it.

College Admission Essay Mistake # 9

Plagiarizing other students’ work

DO NOT COPY FROM OTHER PEOPLE’S ESSAYS! Many students assume that if they copy directly from other people paper’s and sources that no one will find out. This assumption is definitely wrong. Often, the papers they copy from are littered with errors, and they don’t take the time to check.

College Admission Essay Mistake # 8

Using a thesaurus for too many words

This mistake can lead to a big awkward tangle of an essay. Many times if you use a thesaurus and extract overly verbose words, they will stick out like sore thumbs in your essay, and the first assumption the reader will make is that you used a thesaurus.

College Admission Essay Mistake # 7

Not streamlining the essay with the application

Many applicants do not pay attention to the unity of their essay and their actual application. It is jarring to the reader if the essay seems to portray a different picture of the student than the application. This can also happen when you plagiarize; things do not match up, and the reader will quickly discredit you.

College Admission Essay Mistake # 6

Trying to impress the essay reader

Do not try to impress the admission officer. They will be able to sense a pretentious voice beneath descriptions of grand earth-shaking events and ontological musings. Write about what you know and draw from your own life experience.

College Admission Essay Mistake # 5

Picking an inappropriate topic

In an attempt to be clever many people resort to self-deprecation and end up painting a less than flattering image of themselves. You may think it would be witty to write a paper about your less than perfect grades in high school, but this can come off as not taking responsibility for your actions.

College Admission Essay Mistake # 4

Making an essay into a resume

Many times people want to impress the reader so much that they completely ignore the essay prompt and make the essay into a list of their accomplishments. Unless this is specifically what they asked for, just don’t do it.

College Admission Essay Mistake # 3

Brownnosing

If you are sending a school an application, they will simply assume that you want to attend. You don’t have to “lay it on thick” by lauding their campus and faculty.

College Admission Essay Mistake # 2

PROOFREAD!

You CANNOT edit your essay too much. Write several drafts and edit each draft thoroughly for syntax, grammar, spelling and general structure. Admissions officers will immediately discredit you for making petty errors that would be easily fixable.

College Admission Essay Mistake #1

Not answering the question

The admissions committee uses certain essay prompts for a specific reason: they want you to answer it! So beware of steering away from the point and running off on tangents.

sample motivation letter

Dear sir/madam:

I am writing to apply for the XXX scholarship for artists.

I graduated in architecture in March 2003 from the University of XXX, Faculty of Architecture in XXX, XXX. My degree focuses on architectural design and urban planning. I also took several courses in urban management, which provoked my strong interest in issues that affect urban development and future of urbanity.

The urban metropolitan areas are interesting to study because they are places where different cultures and urban practises encounter each other. In the age of economic globalisation, multimedia communication and transnational migration these urban areas are increasingly changing. On another level, this phenomena influence people’s lifestyles and as a result their dwelling practices are changing. This affects the Eastern European cities as well as Western European cities. Generally, the urban spaces are in need of new strategies that deal with the problems facing urban development. I am interested in studying the urban condition globally and analysing the urban design strategies and practises of urban space creation.

My diploma project was based on research that I conducted on the new political, economical and social circumstances in my country that affect the urban living. The focus of the project was creation of a new type of collective residence in an urban area that would be able to accommodate the changed life style practises of the urban dweller. In addition, I have successfully participated in domestic and international open competitions that are dealing with the subject of urban condition on different levels. I have a passion for research and am especially interested in further developing my skills in urban research.

The XXX in XXX, to which I am interested to apply, has been offering a one-year postgraduate program focusing on urban topics since 1999. The design-oriented XXX deals with the future of urbanity. The program is both international and interdisciplinary. It is the objective of the XXX to develop unusual strategies that transcend purely scientific analysis or design- and planning methods. The one-year XXX is divided into two parts: an orientation phase that concentrates more on theory and analysis and a project phase that focuses on the development of methods and strategies. I am very exited by my decision to pursue my Master’s Degree at the XXX. I believe that their approach will enable me to acquire knowledge and skills that will help me meet new professional challenges.

I have made the necessary contacts with the XXX contact person Ms. XY to ensure that I am eligible to apply for the academic year 2005.

With a solid foundation in academic theory on urban planning and intensive research gained through the Master’s Degree program in urbanism at the XXX, I am confident that I will have the skills, knowledge and contacts that will enable me, as architect and urban planner, to deal with the complex issues of the urban condition in my country.

Thank you very much for considering my request. I look forward to your positive response.

MOTIVATION STATEMENT

Since I was in Senior High School, I have believed that mathematics is an important factor in a life. All human activities in several fields such as information technology, economics, physics, social and others will run well if they are cited in a good mathematics framework. This circumstance stimulated me to attend faculty of mathematics and natural science. I choose statistics as my specialization even though at this time, there weren’t many people know about statistics and few students choose statistics as their specialization. I saw in several developed countries such as The Netherlands and Belgium, the mathematics degree-holders not only have many opportunities but also were cited as important scholar in their societies.

As a student at XXXX Department faculty of XXX of XXX University, I had numerous opportunities to do many activities. From XXX to XXX I had chances to become a lecturer assistant in mathematics and statistics laboratory. My resposibilities are taught and supervised students in the following subjects; Basic Programming, Computational Statistics, Statistical Methods and XXX.

Besides studying, I was active in the student senate and became the head of research and development division. In XXX I, in a team, became the third winner of Indonesian student research competition. Overall I am pleased with my academic record and I believe that it has prepared me very well for graduate school.

Presently, I work as a XXX for XXX. My responsibilities are teaching, conducting research individually or in a team and etc (mention your responsibilities)…… Working as a statistics lecturer needs deep knowledge of fundamental mathematics and experiences in advanced research of applied statistics. Even though my undergraduate programme has given me a strong background in the fundamentals of various mathematics especially statistics, this is not enough for me to be a professional lecturer. I have to continue my study to enrich my skills and broaden my knowledge.

Currently, our institution which one of the functions is to XXXX to the government of Indonesia, has formulated its Long Term Plan known as the XXX PLAN, which directed toward the establishment of the Integrated National XXX System. This plan is including the development of statistics in various fields such as economy, demography, agriculture, and health. It leads the need of statistician who expert in those fields. Today, there is no Master of Science in XXX in our institution. These circumstances persuade me to apply Master of Science in XXX under XXX Scholarship programme.

Master of Science in XXX is needed in Indonesia because of the following reasons:

It will improve education in XXX and Indonesia in general, and strenghten the establishment of the Integrated National System

I will fill the masters of XXX scarcity and strengthen the sustainable development of Indonesia.

Considering all factors above. I believe that the chosen study will benefit Indonesia in general

I consider myself to be a good candidate for XXX Scholarship because I am young, energetic, hardworking, visionary, and motivated person who believes that I can do something for the benefit of my country to whom I have been working. I did my best with all maximum efforts I could give for my institution. But this is not enough. Frankly, I am not satisfied yet with what I did. I believe that I can do much better if I am trained and developed through a master of science in Belgium.

POLISHING – THE ‘IN THEIR SHOES’ CHECK

Give your Statement of Purpose an Edge at EssayEdge.com!

Put your essay away for a day or two. When you take it out, lay it face down for two minutes while you put yourself in the admissions committee’s place. Imagine yourself to be a professor or graduate student who is going through a few hundred applications and classifying them into ‘yes’, ‘maybe’ and ‘no’ piles. Think of how you would look at SoPs and try to read yours through a stranger’s eyes. What do you see?

• Remember that for graduate school, your essay need not be great writing. What the school is looking for is a competently written statement of goals and interests that demonstrates how you think, whether you have thought through this decision to apply, and whether your interests and strengths fit in with the program you are applying to. To this end, they expect to see the following in an essay –

· What areas are you interested in and why,

· How well defined your interests are,

· Are these interests based on experience (academic or on the job) that the school may find useful,

· Where do you see these interests taking you,

· How do you think graduate school will help you,

· What experience have you had that will help.

Does your essay cover these points? Does it do so in an honest and interesting manner? Many of the students applying will have backgrounds similar to yours, so avoid cliched ideas.

• Are you repeating information that is available from the resume? Do so very sparingly, and only if you are making a point about your learnings or achievements during that experience. Weed out all other information that sounds like repetition (it will only irritate the reader), or can be included in your resume, or does not actively contribute towards making a point in your essay.

• Does your essay have an interesting beginning? This need not be witty, but should persuade the reader to stay with you.
• Have you talked about specific incidents that illustrate your interest or familiarity with the subject, or show something about you? These incidents might include, for example:

• A college or work project that was instrumental in confirming your interest in the field (be sure to include a recommendation from your guide!),
• Extra-curricular activities that brought out useful aspects in you (leadership skills or team activities are particularly helpful for business school applications!),
• A book or person who had a strong influence on you.

• Does the essay bring out your personality? Or could it have been written by just about anybody?
• Have you mentioned why you are applying to that particular school? Does this section of the essay demonstrate that you have researched the school and the program? DON’T stop at the standard formula phrase, ‘I am applying to XYZ because of it’s great reputation in _______.’
• Does your essay flow smoothly? If it is choppy and abruptly jumps from paragraph to paragraph, your readers will have a tough time keeping up. Make it easy on them – smoothen the transition between paragraphs.
• Is the tone too formal or not formal enough? Be professional yet informal – the tone you would take with your Principal or Head of Department, for instance.
• Does the essay end well? Does it leave the reader with a sense of completion? Avoid usage of cliches like, ‘ I hope the admissions committee finds my application up to their expectations’.

This self-check will yield a few ideas for improvement. Use it at least 3-4 times during this last stage of polishing up your SoP.

source:http://www.statementofpurpose.com/ee/scholarship3b.html

This article contains three parts:

• Step One: Brainstorming
• Step Two: Selecting a Topic
• Step Three: Writing the Essay

Step One: Brainstorming

By EssayEdge.com: Our Editing Makes the Difference

Scholarship essays vary dramatically in subject. However, most of them require a recounting of personal experience. These tips will be more helpful for writing personal essays, like for the National Merit Scholarship, than for writing academic essays.

The most important aspect of your scholarship essay is the subject matter. You should expect to devote about 1-2 weeks simply to brainstorming ideas. To begin brainstorming a subject idea consider the following points. From brainstorming, you may find a subject you had not considered at first.

o What are your major accomplishments, and why do you consider them accomplishments? Do not limit yourself to accomplishments you have been formally recognized for since the most interesting essays often are based on accomplishments that may have been trite at the time but become crucial when placed in the context of your life. This is especially true if the scholarship committee receives a list of your credentials anyway.

o Does any attribute, quality, or skill distinguish you from everyone else? How did you develop this attribute?

o Consider your favorite books, movies, works of art, etc. Have these influenced your life in a meaningful way? Why are they your favorites?

o What was the most difficult time in your life, and why? How did your perspective on life change as a result of the difficulty?

o Have you ever struggled mightily for something and succeeded? What made you successful?

o Have you ever struggled mightily for something and failed? How did you respond?

o Of everything in the world, what would you most like to be doing right now? Where would you most like to be? Who, of everyone living and dead, would you most like to be with? These questions should help you realize what you love most.

o Have you experienced a moment of epiphany, as if your eyes were opened to something you were previously blind to?

o What is your strongest, most unwavering personality trait? Do you maintain strong beliefs or adhere to a philosophy? How would your friends characterize you? What would they write about if they were writing your scholarship essay for you?

o What have you done outside of the classroom that demonstrates qualities sought after by universities? Of these, which means the most to you?

o What are your most important extracurricular or community activities? What made you join these activities? What made you continue to contribute to them?

o What are your dreams of the future? When you look back on your life in thirty years, what would it take for you to consider your life successful? What people, things, and accomplishments do you need? How does this particular scholarship fit into your plans for the future.

If these questions cannot cure your writer’s block, consider the following exercises:

1. Ask for Help from Parents, Friends, Colleagues, etc.

If you cannot characterize yourself and your personality traits do not automatically leap to mind, ask your friends to write a list of your five most salient personality traits. Ask your friends why they chose the ones they did. If an image of your personality begins to emerge, consider life experiences that could illustrate these particular traits.

2. Consider your Childhood.

While scholarship and aid officers are not interested in reading about your childhood and are more interested in the last 2-4 years of your life, you might consider events of your childhood that inspired the interests you have today. Interests that began in childhood may be the most defining parts of your life, even if you recently lost interest. For instance, if you experienced extreme poverty, the death of a loved one, immigration, etc., you might want to incorporate this into your scholarship essay. Analyze the reasons for your interests and how they were shaped from your upbringing.

3. Consider your Role Models

Many applicants do not have role models and were never greatly influenced by just one or two people. However, for those of you who have role models and actually aspire to become like certain people, you may want to incorporate a discussion of that person and the traits you admired into your scholarship or financial aid application essay.

4. Read Sample Scholarship Essays and Admissions Essays

Before writing a poem, you would certainly read past poets. Before writing a book of philosophy, you would consider past philosophers. In the same way, we recommend reading

application essays to understand what topics other applicants chose. EssayEdge maintains an archive of over 100 free sample application essays. Click here to view sample essays that worked.

5. Goal Determination.

Life is short. Why do you want spend 2-6 years of your life at a particular college, graduate school, or professional school? How is the degree necessary to the fulfillment of your goals? When considering goals, think broadly. Few people would be satisfied with just a career. How else will your education fit your needs and lead you to a fulfilling life?

If after reading this entire page you do not have an idea for your essay, do not be surprised. Coming up with an idea is difficult and requires time. Actually consider the questions and exercises above. Without a topic you feel passionate about, without one that brings out the defining aspects of you personality, you risk falling into the trap of sounding like the 90 percent of scholarship applicants who will write boring essays. The only way to write a unique essay is to have experiences that support whatever topic you come up with. Whatever you do, don’t let the essay stress you out. Have fun with the brainstorming process. You might discover something about yourself you never consciously realized.

Step Two – Selecting an Essay Topic

By EssayEdge.com: Our Editing Makes the Difference

Having completed step one, you should now have a rough idea of the elements you wish to include in your scholarship essay, including your goals, important life experiences, research experience, diversifying features, spectacular nonacademic accomplishments, financial need, etc. You should also now have an idea of what impression you want to make on the scholarship committee.

You must now consider topics that will allow you to synthesize your important personal characteristics and experiences into a coherent whole. While most scholarship essays allow great latitude in topic selection, you must also be sure to answer the questions that were asked of you. Leaving a lasting impression on someone who reads 50 essays a day will not be easy, but we have compiled some guidelines to help you get started.

Consider the following questions before proceeding:

o Have you selected a topic that describes something of personal importance in your life, with which you can use vivid personal experiences as supporting details?

o Is your topic a gimmick? That is, do you plan to write your essay in iambic pentameter or make it funny. You should be very, very careful if you are planning to do this. We recommend strongly that you do not do this. Almost always, this is done poorly and is not appreciated by the scholarship committee unless a creative approach is explicitly recommended. Nothing is worse than not laughing or not being amused at something that was written to be funny or amusing.

o Will your topic only repeat information listed elsewhere on your application? If so, pick a new topic. Don’t mention GPAs or standardized test scores in your essay if they are mentioned elsewhere.

o Can you offer vivid supporting paragraphs to your essay topic? If you cannot easily think of supporting paragraphs with concrete examples, you should probably choose a different essay topic.

o Can you fully answer the question asked of you? Can you address and elaborate on all points within the specified word limit? If you plan on writing about something technical, make sure you truly can back up your interest in a topic and are not merely throwing around big scientific words. Unless you convince the reader that you actually have the life experiences to back up your interest in neurobiology, the reader will assume you are trying to impress him/her with shallow tactics. Also, be sure you can write to the scholarship officers and that you are not writing over their heads.

o Can you keep the reader’s interest from the first word. The entire essay must be interesting, considering scholarship officers will probably only spend a few minutes reading each essay.

o Is your topic overdone? To ascertain this, peruse through old essays. EssayEdge’s 100 free application essays can help you do this. However, most topics are overdone, and this is not a bad thing. A unique or convincing answer to a classic topic can pay off big.

o Will your topic turnoff a large number of people? If you write on how everyone should worship your God, how wrong or right abortion is, or how you think the Republican or Democratic Party is evil, you will not win the scholarship or aid award. The only thing worse than not writing a memorable essay is writing an essay that will be remembered negatively. Stay away from specific religions, political doctrines, or controversial opinions. You can still write an essay about Nietzsche’s influence on your life, but express understanding that not all intelligent people will agree with Nietzsche’s claims. Emphasize instead Nietzsche’s influence on your life, and not why you think he was wrong or right in his claims.

o In this vein, if you are presenting a topic that is controversial, you must acknowledge counter arguments without sounding arrogant.

o Will a scholarship officer remember your topic after a day of reading hundreds of essays? What will the officer remember about your topic? What will the officer remember about you? What will your lasting impression be?

After evaluating your essay topics with the above criteria and asking for the free opinions of EssayEdge editors, of your teachers or colleagues, and of your friends, you should have at least 1-2 interesting essay topics. Consider the following guidelines below.

1. If you are planning on writing an essay on how you survived poverty in Russia, your mother’s suicide, your father’s kidnapping, or your immigration to America from Asia, you should be careful that your main goal is to address your own personal qualities. Just because something sad or horrible has happened to you does not mean that you should win a scholarship. You don’t want to be remembered as the pathetic applicant. You want to be remembered as the applicant who showed impressive qualities under difficult circumstances. It is for this reason that essays relating to this topic are considered among the best. Unless you only use the horrible experience as a lens with which to magnify your own personal characteristics, you will not write a good essay.

2. “Diversity” is the biggest buzzword of the 1990′s. For this reason, so many applicants are tempted to declare what makes them diverse. However, simply saying you are a black, lesbian female will not impress scholarship officers in the least. While an essay incorporating this information would probably be your best topic idea, you must finesse the issue by addressing your own personal qualities and how you overcame stigma, dealt with social ostracism, etc. If you are a rich student from Beverly Hills whose father is an engineer and whose mother is a lawyer, but you happen to be a minority, an essay about how you dealt with adversity would be unwise. You must demonstrate vividly your personal qualities, interests, motivations, etc. Address specifically how your diversity will contribute to the realm of campus opinion, the academic environment, and the larger society.

3. Don’t mention weaknesses unless you absolutely need to explain them away. You want to make a positive first impression, and telling a scholarship officer anything about drinking, drugs, partying, etc. undermines your goal. EssayEdge editors have read more essays on ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) than we would ever have imagined. Why admit to weakness when you can instead showcase your strengths?

4. Be honest, but not for honesty’s sake. Unless you are a truly excellent writer, your best, most passionate writing will be about events that actually occurred. While you might be tempted to invent hardship, it is completely unnecessary. Write an essay about your life that demonstrates your personality.

Step Three: Writing the Essay, Tips for Success.

Even seemingly boring topics can be made into exceptional scholarship essays with an innovative approach. In writing the essay you must bear in mind your two goals: to persuade the scholarship officer that you are extremely worthy of receiving college assistance and to make the officer aware that you are more than a GPA and a standardized score, that you are a real-life, intriguing personality.

Unfortunately, there is no surefire step-by-step method to writing a good essay. EssayEdge editors at www.EssayEdge.com will remake your essay into an awesome, memorable masterpiece, but every topic requires a different treatment since no two essays are alike. However, we have compiled the following list of tips that you should find useful while writing your scholarship essay.

1. Answer the Question. You can follow the next 12 steps, but if you miss the question, you will not win the scholarship.

2. Be Original. Even seemingly boring essay topics can sound interesting if creatively approached. If writing about a gymnastics competition you trained for, do not start your essay: “I worked long hours for many weeks to train for XXX competition.” Consider an opening like, “Every morning I awoke at 5:00 to sweat, tears, and blood as I trained on the uneven bars hoping to bring the state gymnastics trophy to my hometown.”

3. Be Yourself. The scholarship committee wants to learn about you and your writing ability. Write about something meaningful and describe your feelings, not necessarily your actions. If you do this, your essay will be unique. Many people travel to foreign countries or win competitions, but your feelings during these events are unique to you. Unless a philosophy or societal problem has interested you intensely for years, stay away from grand themes that you have little personal experience with.

4. Don’t “Thesaurize” your Composition. For some reason, students continue to think big words make good essays. Big words are fine, but only if they are used in the appropriate contexts with complex styles. Think Hemingway.

5. Use Imagery and Clear, Vivid Prose. If you are not adept with imagery, you can write an excellent essay without it, but it’s not easy. The application essay lends itself to imagery since the entire essay requires your experiences as supporting details. Appeal to the five senses of the scholarship officers.

6. Spend the Most Time on your Introduction. Expect scholarship officers to spend 1-2 minutes reading your essay. You must use your introduction to grab their interest from the beginning. You might even consider completely changing your introduction after writing your body paragraphs.

· Don’t Summarize in your Introduction. Ask yourself why a reader would want to read your entire essay after reading your introduction. If you summarize, the scholarship officer need not read the rest of your essay.

· Create Mystery or Intrigue in your Introduction. It is not necessary or recommended that your first sentence give away the subject matter. Raise questions in the minds of the scholarship officers to force them to read on. Appeal to their emotions to make them relate to your subject matter.

7. Body Paragraphs Must Relate to Introduction. Your introduction can be original, but cannot be silly. The paragraphs that follow must relate to your introduction.

1. Use Transition. Applicants continue to ignore transition to their own detriment. You must use transition within paragraphs and especially between paragraphs to preserve the logical flow of your essay. Transition is not limited to phrases like “as a result, in addition, while . . . , since . . . , etc.” but includes repeating key words and progressing the idea. Transition provides the intellectual architecture to argument building.

1. Conclusions are Crucial. The conclusion is your last chance to persuade the reader or impress upon them your qualifications. In the conclusion, avoid summary since the essay is rather short to begin with; the reader should not need to be reminded of what you wrote 300 words before. Also do not use stock phrases like “in conclusion, in summary, to conclude, etc.” You should consider the following conclusions:

· Expand upon the broader implications of your discussion.

· Consider linking your conclusion to your introduction to establish a sense of balance by reiterating introductory phrases.

· Redefine a term used previously in your body paragraphs.

· End with a famous quote that is relevant to your argument. Do not try to do this, as this approach is overdone. This should come naturally.

· Frame your discussion within a larger context or show that your topic has widespread appeal.

· Remember, your essay need not be so tidy that you can answer why your little sister died or why people starve in Africa; you are not writing a “sit-com,” but should forge some attempt at closure.

1. Do Something Else. Spend a week or so away from your draft to decide if you still consider your topic and approach worthwhile.

1. Give your Draft to Others. Ask editors to read with these questions in mind:
   • What is the essay about?
   • Have I used active voice verbs wherever possible?
   • Is my sentence structure varied or do I use all long or all short sentences?
   • Do you detect any clichés?
   • Do I use transition appropriately?
   • Do I use imagery often and does this make the essay clearer and more vivid?
   • What’s the best part of the essay?
   • What about the essay is memorable?
   • What’s the worst part of the essay?
   • What parts of the essay need elaboration or are unclear?
   • What parts of the essay do not support your main argument or are immaterial to your case?
   • Is every single sentence crucial to the essay? This MUST be the case.
   • What does the essay reveal about your personality?
   • Could anyone else have written this essay?
   • How would you fill in the following blank based on the essay: “I want to accept you to this college because our college needs more ________.”

1. Revise, Revise, Revise. You only are allowed so many words; use them wisely. If H.D. Thoreau couldn’t write a good essay without revision, neither will you. Delete anything in the essay that does not relate to your main argument. Do you use transition? Are your introduction and conclusions more than summaries? Did you find every single grammatical error

· Allow for the evolution of your main topic. Do not assume your subject must remain fixed and that you can only tweak sentences.

· Editing takes time. Consider reordering your supporting details, delete irrelevant sections, and make clear the broader implications of your experiences. Allow your more important arguments to come to the foreground. Take points that might only be implicit and make them explicit.

· Have your Essay Professionally Edited. The application essay is too important not to spend $50 for its improvement. Editing houses like EssayEdge at http://www.EssayEdge.com will significantly improve your essay’s style, transition, voice, grammar, and tone; EssayEdge will also make content suggestions to ensure your essay is unique and memorable.

Hence I took admission in Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (PGDBA) at AB Institute of Management Studies (ABIMS), New Delhi, which is one of the prominent Business schools in India. During PGDBA, I developed a strong penchant for quantitative-oriented subjects like Portfolio theory, Derivatives and International Finance.
During the first year of PGDBA I learnt how Derivatives can play an important role in optimizing a Portfolio’s performance and in managing risk. This exposure left me wanting for more knowledge in the area of Risk Management. Because of my penchant for the rigor in Derivatives and Risk Management I took my summer internship at LTCM-securities, one of the leading investment banks in India. During my project I learnt about various risks associated with Infrastructure Projects and how they were mitigated using different risk models and structured finance products. It was at this time that I realized the importance of mathematics and programming as invaluable tools in Finance. I had always felt that applying my technical knowledge to the field of Finance would be highly satisfying. This internship, thus, helped me crystallize my goals as I decided to make a career in Risk Management.

In India with the onset of liberalization since 1991 and deregulation of the interest rates, the Indian corporations and financial institutions are exposed to various kinds of risks. The Government and the Reserve Bank of India have initiated appropriate reforms to develop derivatives markets and financial markets on the whole. This has suddenly increased the demand for professionals who can not only understand but also develop new financial instruments to evaluate and hedge the risk. I believe that in order to use financial engineering pro-actively and dynamically for optimum hedging a finance professional should be well versed with the mathematics that underlie the financial theory.

In the future I see myself, as a Finance professional, designing structured financial products by incorporating cutting edge methodologies and sophisticated tools in order to cater to the above mentioned requirements. To achieve this I would like to gain exposure to the latest practices adopted in the field of Financial Engineering and Risk Management. To this end I would want to work with a leading investment bank or in the treasury of a commercial bank, which would enable me to help corporations manage their risks. I would like to bring this acquired expertise back to India and use it to help companies thrive in a dynamic environment.

I believe that my educational background has instilled in me the qualities required to meet the rigor of this demanding profession. Graduation in Engineering has provided a strong foundation in Mathematics and Computer Programming. Mathematics was one subject in which I had always excelled right from my school days. During the course of my Engineering education I took up a project with MH Electronics, a firm which is a vendor of Indian Ocean Research Organisation (IORO). This was because the project, which I was offered, required extensive use of C programming language and MATLAB. This project of developing the software for a video-processing card (Frame Grabber) for the first time gave me a real world experience of programming. This association helped a lot in consolidating my programming skills, especially in C-language. Thus, it inculcated in me problem solving and analytical abilities.

Thereafter the two-year program in Business Administration has not only given me a sound and firm grounding in finance but also taught me the invaluable skills to manage, lead and collaborate effectively with people. It also developed in me the ability to analyse problems from a business perspective keeping in mind the constraints and limitations of the real world.

I strongly feel that M.Eng in Financial Engineering program at Kingston University is a highly structured program because it provides the right balance between theory and practice. The annual workshops at the Centre for Applied Probability and Computational Optimization Research Centre would give me ample of opportunities to apply my knowledge to real world problems.

I bring along a strong grasp of fundamentals in Finance and Engineering, an insider’s experience of an emerging financial market, a penchant for teamwork and leadership and a zest for challenges. I would like to take with me in addition to the knowledge of the latest theory and practices in the field of Financial Engineering, a network of strong and lasting relationships with my teachers and fellow-students.

I hope my background and qualifications are found suitable for admission to M.Eng in Financial Engineering program at Kingston University, USA.

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