Steps in writing a reading plan

Although writing a reading plan is a "painful" experience, in order to have more time to revise, it is better to start preparations earlier.

There are several steps in writing a reading plan: prewrite - preparation before writing, note-taking, outline, and content. , proofreading - check the grammar and article structure, rewrite as much as possible, print (print)

▓Prewrite - the preparation before writing

< p>First of all, you can find good sentences from English books or magazines as good materials for writing, and then list some writing points, for example, What's my academic goal? professional goal? career goal? Why choose to go abroad? Why should we study this field? It will be easier to start writing by figuring out some directions first. It is ideal to think about writing directly in English. If you write the Chinese manuscript first, it will be easy to fall into the thinking logic of Chinese, and it will be difficult to translate it into English later.

Before writing a study plan, you can also collect information such as course introductions, teachers, and course features of relevant schools. After reading in detail, underline the key words and phrases to find out the parts that interest you, and sort out the features emphasized by each school, so that you can use them as reference materials when writing a study plan. In addition, if writing in English is a nightmare for you, I suggest you organize your English resume first so that you can more systematically describe your academic background in your study plan.

▓Note-taking

When you first start writing a reading plan, don’t try to write a complete long sentence or paragraph at once, because of problems with grammar, structure, etc. This may make you unable to write a line even after thinking for a long time; when you first start writing, it is best to write down everything that comes to mind, even if it is a single word, a phrase or a sentence. You should first use your imagination and memory without any burden, write down all the Chinese and English sentences that come to mind, try to expand the possible scope and content of the reading plan, and then sort and select the words you want. It will be easier than carving them out word by word. some.

In addition, in order to organize your thoughts more easily, you can divide the contents of the reading plan into several questions to ask yourself and write down the answers. For example:

˙Why do I miss this department?

˙Why did you choose this school?

˙Why am I an excellent candidate for this department?

˙What special academic experience, motivation, and potential do I have to support my further studies?

˙My plans for the future (including research orientation and career plans)?

˙How will completing this major help my career planning?

▓Outline

After the ideas are almost listed, it is time to organize these ideas and outline them. English writing and Chinese writing are very different in structure. There should be a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph. This sentence should be able to cover the topic scope and opinions of that paragraph. After the topic sentence, there should be supporting sentences to explain the topic and list details. Therefore, making an outline first can help you write in English. The structure of writing to write a reading plan. The method of making an outline is to first determine the topic of each paragraph, and then put the relevant details under each topic in a columnar format. This process is a bit like making a "dendrogram".

▓Write content

If you outline it in the right way, it will be easier to turn it into an article. You just need to write complete sentences, pay attention to the continuation or transfer of sentences in the same paragraph, and use transitional words/sentences appropriately. In addition, it should be noted that the content of the reading plan should avoid just piling up some vague adjectives. The more specific the expression, the better.

In addition, avoid distinguishing between study plan and resume. If you write about your study experience, you just list some "facts", while your study plan should show the "meaning" behind the facts. After you finish writing, you should check whether you only mentioned past deeds and forgot to explain what meaning these deeds brought to you, what they made you think about, what you want to pursue, etc. The meaning behind the facts should be more important than the facts themselves.

▓Proofreading - Checking grammar and article structure

The only way to write a good reading plan is to keep rewriting. After writing for the first time, you can first check the grammar and spelling to the best of your ability. Usually, the word processing software in the computer has spelling and grammar checking functions, but this cannot be fully relied on; it is possible that a word may be spelled correctly but used incorrectly. Furthermore, after the writing is almost completed, you should think about the structure of the article. You can discuss it with someone (preferably a native speaker) or consult an English writing reference book to review your structural problems and then make corrections.

▓Rewrite as much as possible

Generally speaking, if it has not been rewritten more than three times, there is still room for modification in the content of the reading plan. Rewriting a few times will allow you to analyze things from different perspectives and help you clarify some of your ideas.

▓Print

When you have rewritten to a certain extent or are approaching the application deadline, you should print out your study plan. Pay attention to check whether the name of the school, department, and degree you want to study are correct. Be sure not to make mistakes, otherwise it will be difficult to explain to the school.

The content and paragraph structure of the reading plan

Does the reading plan have a certain structure or writing method? Actually, no! But if you don't know how to write, here is a method of structuring an article similar to the "starting, continuing, turning and combining" in Chinese writing, that is, using the "four-paragraph method" introduced below.

First paragraph: goal

Simply propose your future direction and tell the selection committee the reasons, motivations or interests that make you consider future research directions. Use quotes (quotes from famous people or facts) to support your direction. This paragraph may focus on academic, professional & career goals.

Second paragraph: plan

What specific steps are needed to move in your direction? In this paragraph, you can refer to the school's curriculum focus to understand what kind of talents the school wants to cultivate.

The third paragraph: process

Describe what efforts you have made in the past towards such a goal or direction. For example: the focus of your past courses, academic achievements or work experience, etc., and explain what skills or insights you have gained from these processes, which are necessary for your further study. When describing your academic journey, don't just list grades for courses you took, as these are just facts. It is recommended that readers write about how they aroused their interest or achievements in taking a certain course.

Paragraph 4: Vision

Summary your plans for the future, and emphasize the excellent teachers and courses provided by the school, as well as your future academic or professional career feedback on.

Methods of packaging reading plans

This part can be introduced from the following three aspects: content, format, and paper selection tips.

▓Content

1. Topic sentence

Usually the article must have a topic sentence or opening statement to quickly catch the attention of the selection committee. .

2. Hide evil and promote good

People inevitably have advantages and disadvantages. When writing, you should emphasize or express your own advantages. What should be written and what should not be written should be determined appropriately, but don't make it self-defeating.

3. Pay attention to the relevance of what you write to what you have learned

Please note that the selection committee is looking at the "reading plan" rather than the "glorious history". Generally, applicants should write about their research and efforts in fields related to what they have studied. The study plan of those who change fields should focus more on: Why do you want to change fields? What is the correlation between before changing fields and after changing fields? How do they affect each other? Wait for these more convincing factors.

▓Format aspect

After having rich "content", there are some things to pay attention to in format and packaging. Generally speaking, your basic information should be listed in the "upper right corner" of the first sheet of study plan, including your full name in English (same spelling as on the application form), the department and school name you wish to apply for. If you have a second or third page, it is best to indicate your name and page number in the upper right corner of each page. This is to avoid that if the information is scattered or confused with other people's application documents, the school can use the name according to the name. Then put the data together. In addition, it is recommended that you sign at the bottom of the last page to show that you value this information and are responsible for the content. Let the person reviewing the information feel that your study plan is not a document printed in large quantities and posted everywhere, but a study plan you present for the school.

In addition, please leave an appropriate amount of blank space on each page as the margin. Don’t force the selection committee to read the text in order to limit the number of words. The font size should be 10 or 12 points. , consider using Times New Roman as the English font. If you feel that double line spacing takes up too much space, you can consider changing it to 1.5 times the line height so that the layout will not feel too spacious. If you want to write more words on a limited page, you can also consider reducing the characters by 90% horizontally. However, making the article more concise is still more important than the "recipe" of format adjustment.

▓Tips for paper selection

1. Paper selection philosophy: color + poundage = texture

To make your reading plan look more weighty and feel For a more formal look, it can be enhanced with better quality paper. It is best to consider buying paper with a higher poundage, but it should not be too thick, otherwise the printer will not be able to pass the paper. The color of the paper is preferably light, and the commonly used colors are ivory white and beige. Colors that are too fancy will reduce the texture and may give people an unprofessional impression. It is best not to use this strange trick.

There are also many choices in terms of paper materials, such as Borg paper, relief paper, cloud paper, etc. You can choose according to your personal preference.

2. Size issue: Do you want uniformity?

There are two options for paper size, A4 or "letter size". Some people use "letter size" paper because they want to unify the size of application materials. Because common application forms, recommendation letters, etc. all use "letter size" paper. If you print your study plan, resume, etc. on "letter size" paper, the entire application information will be neater and more beautiful when put together, and the paper area will be smaller than A4 size. Although neat documents may not necessarily give a better impression to the selection committee, because your information may be processed separately, that is, the application form and study plan may be sent to different units. If the documents are distributed to different units, there may be no worries about uneven sizes.