Letter Writing - How to Write a Letter of Intent?

By - J. C. IRO

LETTER OF INTENT

We live in a world where 'study abroad' applications and scholarship awards are on the rise and many of us have one desire or the other to study overseas. These 'study abroad opportunities' and scholarship awards have certain requirements that must be met and one of these requirements is THE LETTER OF INTENT.

'What is a Letter of Intent?'

This in the simplest of terms is an open declaration of your intentions or purpose for wanting to study abroad and in that particular institution you have selected. It is a concise and yet detailed account of your desires - academically, nationally and internationally, your academic background/history, your reasons for certain selections you have made such as - 'why you want to study in that country'?, 'why you chose that particular course'?, 'why you chose to study in that particular institution'? etc. Based on these, there is therefore need to carefully outline all of these in a sequential order in your letter of intent because it can go a long way to helping your application, endorsed and accepted. Letter of Intent can also be called 'STATEMENT OF PURPOSE'. 

What are the 'components' of a 'good' Letter of Intent?

• Your Address
• Your Phone Number 
• Your Date 
• Heading 
• Introduction 
• Academic History 
• Educational Quote from Notable Philosophers 
• State your favorite subject in secondary school or the course you studied at the university 
• State 'why' you chose to study this 'current course' 
• State 'how' your previous course/subject is related to the present one 
• State 'how' your previous or favorite course motivated you to study this present course 
• Give at least 8 or more reasons 'why' you chose to study this course 
• Give at least 5 reasons or more 'why' you chose to study in this school 
• Give at least 5 reasons or more 'why' you chose to study in this country 
• Give at least 3 reasons 'for' choosing to study in this city 
• State your 'aims' and 'objectives' in life 
• 'What' are your 'post-study plans' [NB: you must indicate that you are returning to your home country after undertaking studies successfully]

Writing your 'Address', 'Phone Number' and 'Date'

The letter of intent is a 'formal letter' and just like every formal letter it must have 'two addresses' viz 'the writer's address' and 'the recipient's address'. The writer's address in this case is your address and it must be positioned at the 'top right-hand corner' while the recipient's address is the 'address of the school' and it must be situated at the 'lower left-hand corner' just immediately after your address. See format below for more insight. 

17 George-Weah Street, 

Off  Golf-Course Road, 

Airport Road, Benin City. 

Edo State, Nigeria. 

(phone number)

(date)

Now if you observe the sample above closely, you will discover the following:

• The house address doesn't have the world 'No.', wonder why? This is simply because it is tautological to place that word there as the digit in itself is a number. 

• The address is properly punctuated with commas and full stop at the end. This is because on the basis of 'punctuations' we have two types of addresses - The open and The closed address respectively. A properly punctuated address like the one above is said to be 'closed' and it is the best style for addressing. 

• Finally your address must be in 'block form' and not 'slanted form'. However, more often than not, a letter of intent is typeset and emailed to the school so this mayn't be too much of a problem. 

• Your 'phone number' and 'date' will come at the end of your address and you must close with a full stop. 

Writing your 'heading'

This is like the 'simplest' part of the letter. It is simply writing the 'title' of you letter which should either be 'letter of intent' or 'statement of purpose' depending on which you prefer. It must be written in complete capital letters and not underlined. If written in 'sentence case' or 'small letters' then you are permitted to underline. 

NOTE: A 'sentence case' is a style of heading or title block where just the 'first letter' of every word is capitalized EXCEPT prepositions, articles, conjunctions etc. 

See these examples:

LETTER OF INTENT OR STATEMENT OF PURPOSE 

&

Letter of Intent or Statement of Purpose

The first format above is called BLOCK CASE and the last is called SENTENCE CASE. Your heading must be positioned immediately after your greeting/salutation e.g. Sir/Madam; and this greeting is often two lines away from the recipient's address and it is not paragraphed for any reason. (This is typical of all formal letters). 

Writing your 'introduction'

This section is as important as anything else because how you introduce yourself or your ambition as the case may be, matters. A good introduction gives helps the reader get a clue as to your identity and goals. Hence, a good introduction must contain the following:

• Your name - First name, Middle name and Last name, they must be written in full and usually in block or capital letters. 

• The purpose of your writing - here, you are to state as in an outline, the content of your letter and the information you wish to convey to the reader. 

Writing your 'Academic History'

Hmmmm! Now for those who wish to study overseas, this is one part of your letter you shouldn't joke with. Reasons being that, it is the point/part where the 'school committee' gets a peep into your 'academic past' or 'academic background' and with this information, judge your academic journey thus far and ascertain your fitness level for the current academic sojourn. Hence, how you write and what you write matters. 

The steps below should do you good in this area:

• Be brief and thorough [exhaustive] at the same time. 

• Begin your history from 'primary school education' if you may or preferably you can just make mention of your high school only. 

• Remember to tell your 'favorite subject(s)' as well and how you both got to bond. 

• Cite any academic competitions undertaken and any awards to your credit as a young student. 

• Marry this history of yours to your current ambition in a constructive way i.e. you must tell how your past prompted or drove you into your present ambition academically. 

• Remember to make use of AT LEAST one academic quote or quote on ambition to spice up your letter. 

• Lastly give the reader an insight as to your 'grades' and 'academic performance' in striking exams for example SSCE, GCE, NECO, UTME etc. Also other internationally recognized exams like the SAT & TOEFL, DUOLINGO, IELTS etc. 

The Why's and the Wherefore's

This section contains your reasons for choosing to 'study abroad' for example. So, you have to be very convincing in this area and you will need to equip or arm yourself with key information on your 'choice school/institution' by doing some research work or activity. The why's and the wherefore's include:

• State 'why' you chose to study this 'current course' 
• State 'how' your previous course/subject is related to the present one 
• State 'how' your previous or favorite course motivated you to study this present course 
• Give at least 8 or more reasons 'why' you chose to study this course 
• Give at least 5 reasons or more 'why' you chose to study in this school 
• Give at least 5 reasons or more 'why' you chose to study in this country 
• Give at least 3 reasons 'for' choosing to study in this city 
• State your 'aims' and 'objectives' in life 
• 'What' are your 'post-study plans' [NB: you must indicate that you are returning to your home country after undertaking studies successfully]

From the outline above, it is very obvious that you must do the following:

1. Give a narrative of your academic dream (course of study) and what gave birth to this ambition of yours. 
2. Conduct a research on your selected or dream course and viable areas within the field and its applications. 
3. Conduct a research on the school in view, their history, programs and teaching methodologies. Also find out the caliber of teachers they parade and how all of these is going to give your dream a boost. 
4. Conduct a research on the country where your school is located and what features the country and the city as well possesses that prompted your choosing to study there. 
5. Have your 'aims' and 'plans' well spelt-out. Which involves - your plans after school, what you intend doing with the knowledge acquired from the institution, your plans for the society, your country etc. This information must be well organized and presented. 

All of the above are subject to change and may vary with different institutions and regions of study. However, to a very great extent, adherence to the above steps, instructions and revelations will go a long way to help you secure that admission abroad that you seek. 

If you need 'paid assistance' in drafting an excellent letter of intent or any letter whatsoever, you can contact our writers by CLICKING ME.

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