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A motivation letter, or sometimes called letter of motivation or motivational letter, is actually a letter being send together with your professional resume to support your application for job, University admission or internship. The motivational letter is actually a personal statement which should persuade selection panel, or human resource clerk that you are perfect candidate for a position. Writing a impressive ‘Letter of Motivation’ might help you to get the post with an ease. 

Usually when you apply anywhere you need to fulfill some specific kind of requirements which usually include writing a formal application, letter of motivation, research proposal etc. Usually it is hard for grad students to write a crisp, clean and clear letter of motivation. To be honest, you may find several posts on the internet which do tell you how to write professionally. They are good enough to clearly tell you what points should be included, what not and many other things to learn about professional writing. Still, when I look back at my graduation days, I know even after reading many instructions I was not able to write ‘to-the-point’. According to me , writing skill is not something that you can part in binary like- ‘I write perfectly’ or ‘I can not write even a word’. It is something that you learn and get better with the the time. So, I am not going to pin-point the suggestions because you can get it many where but some ‘to-the-point’ things which you may use directly in your letter.

Ideas and main points

Start with writing down some of the main ideas, important points you would like to approach in your letter and later build around them, enrich their content; an example would be :

1. Make your goal clear; provide a short preview of the rest of the letter;
2. Why do you think that the university and the Master's program are interesting and suitable for you? ;
3. Focus on some of your strongest qualifications, past experiences (international experiences are always relevant) and qualities; organise the middle paragraphs in terms of the qualifications most relevant to the programme, you can also refer to your CV for more details;
4. Conclude by restating your interest and show appreciation for the chance to prove yourself in the letter (in some cases you can ask for a personal interview)

How to start-
Your very first line should not be just a line but an impression and reference. None would want to read you unless he knows what it is about. Just like this post. If I would not have written that it is about writing a motivation-letter, you probably would not get annoyed. So start by writing what your letter is about. It could seem like this-

Letter Of Application

Your Address And Contact Details

Receiver’s Address

Dear XYZ

I would like to apply for the…..

or

I am writing here to apply for the…

or

This is regarding your advert. published….

Then Tell Background like-
As my resume reveals, I have Bachelor`s degree from XYZ University and currently, I am…..

Be sure to signify your institution/University like-
I am privileged to obtain my postgraduate education in Bioinformatics at XXX which is known for its enriching academic ambiance where learning and research complement each other.

Then tell about your professional experience like-
Being taught by eminent faculty, I have developed a big interest and passion towards Bioinformatics and managed to have a strong foundation in ……

After that tell how this position would help you, like-
The opportunity to participate in this study would foster….

Assure them that you will make use of whatever you learn there, like-
I plan to ensure the further dissemination of the knowledge and experience gained by this opportunity in…

Close the letter with usual formality, like-
I, hereby enclose a copy of my CV/Resume (whatever it is, there is a difference we all know it) with the hope of consideration. Looking forward to hearing from you.

All the things written above is just my view. You still should see and learn which can be done by one thing and that is -reading about it. Then , please try to write yourself, do not copy /paste. Whatever is written in the post is just to have an idea about the things that should be included in the letter of motivation. You need to write accordingly with a wise choice of words.
Hope this was helpful. You may comment or ask anything if you want to.