Most of us are not aware that good motivation letter could be one of the main things that qualify one for a school / job. Good motivation letter requires big investments of time in research and drafting, and then some additional time needed to check and rephrase the letter if necessary. Since good motivation letter can make a strong impact on the overall quality of your application, we have listed below some most useful tips and tricks for writing successful motivation letters.
LAYOUT
Try as hard as possible to make your letter to look nice. Ugly appearance of your letter may distract potential reader of investing time in the consideration of your application. However, good motivation letter layout says to potential reader that you really care about the position and therefore you have put an extra effort to make it look perfectly. Anyway, please note that initial assessment of received application is actually made on the basis of appearance.
EXCELLENT INTRODUCTION
Good layout has to be followed with a good opening paragraph, which shall provide basis to the reader to make the initial assessment of your application. Put some extra efforts to correct the language of the opening, because the reader is most likely to spot mistakes and typos in the beginning of the letter. Latter on you should follow predetermined structure of the letter, which you may see in the separate article.
LANGUAGE
Do not try using too complex language, because it makes it harder to read. In order to convey clear message, letter should be easy to read. Moreover, it should be without errors, typos, etc. This may be tricky if you are non-native speaker. Therefore you may also consider to hire a professional proofreader for English to check your letter before you submit it. To make sure that letter is correct and well written, share the draft with you friends and family. They are likely to point out mistakes you make during writing and offer some suggestions that would improve your letter.
LENGTH
Often companies and schools tend to restrict potential applicants in the terms of the length of motivation letter. You cannot consider this restrictions as flexible. Please not that your application may be rejected immediately if you exceed the number of words stipulated with the Call. If there is an electronic system for the submission of application, in most of the cases system will not accept your application if the number of words is not in line with the stipulated one.
To make your letter “fit” the proposed length, you should consider following strategies:
– deleting irrelevant content – go through the Call again and see if you have wrote everything, and delete the lines that are not directly relevant to the call.
– Use acronyms where possible – only use widely accepted acronyms, for which you believe are familiar to the reader. Do not use company acronyms, or those that relate to internal processes within one Firm.
– Try to rephrase some parts of the letter, by merging several sentences into one.
– Delete the information and content that is repeating in the text.
– If it is really necessary to go further in detail when explaining something, refer the reader to your resume, or to some external content available online.
– Delete the information which are obvious from the other documents you have submitted, such as resume. For example use rather “Graduated from economics”” than “holding graduate degree in economics from the University of Oxford, School of Economics and Management”
POSITIVE ATTITUDE
Your letter should reflect positive spirit and orientation on future. For example you can use following phrase: “I am eager to improve my skills and fully prepared to adapt myself to the new working environment…” instead of “I am not experienced in the relevant field.” Bear in mind that letter should motivate potential reader to consider you application, and invite you for the interview. Would you rather invite positive person or not?
