Writing your motivation letter

Now, let’s talk about how to go about writing your motivation letter.

First off, read the guidelines on the University website often, they will set a word limit and they’ll expect you to abide by that limit. So, if they say 500 words, please don’t write 700, these are busy people and you really don’t want to irritate them because after all, these are the people who will decide whether you get a place at the University or not. 

Secondly, read the course content on the University website. Have a look at the units that you study in year 1, year 2, years 3, etc, and then pick out one or two of those units and say how excited you are about delving into those units in greater depth at University. 

This always looks good because it shows the admissions tutors that you actually know what you’re talking about and you know what you’ve applied for. 

And then brainstorm ideas, make a list of ideas that you might potentially want to include in your motivation letter and then you’re going to have to set some priorities because you probably have too many ideas. 

It’s a little bit like planning an essay for English class. You may have to reject some of the ideas and this means setting priorities. Next up, write the first draft of your motivation letter and then, this is very important, get someone to give you feedback because feedback is the way that you can improve. And finally, of course, you’ll need to proofread very carefully because you don’t want to send-in a motivation letter that has errors in it. 

So good luck with your motivation letter writing.