Here is a sample statement of purpose, which is short and succinct. Its to the point and does not have sentences taken out of fantasy novels. Its a SOP which reflects why the candidate is a good fit for graduate education.

During my undergraduate education, I have had the benefit of taking a variety of courses
in the computer science curriculum. Though these courses have given me a solid foundation in
several advanced topics of computer science, I often wished there was more time during the
semester to go into more depth within a subject. What drew me to the graduate program at
was the balance between breadth and depth. Students have the opportunity to have a
degree of expertise within their specialization while also remaining versatile in other areas of
computer science. The course requirements for the systems specialization mirror the approach I
have taken in my undergraduate coursework, taking classes in many different areas to become as
well-rounded as possible.

I have had extensive experience in the field of systems in my compilers, operating
systems, digital systems, security, and networking classes. One constant throughout most of
these courses was the importance of higher-level thinking. For each course,my project group had
to submit a design document that outlined our approach. This forced us to think beyond trivial
implementation details and focus more on the big picture. We had to abstract the core problem,
debate alternative solutions, consider the trade offs and limitations of our design, and defend our
decisions to the course staff before we could start implementation. These designs became very
important later on since we had to build systems that relied on our past checkpoints. The
projects I have done have varied from implementing a variation of TCP, designing and
implementing a secure messaging protocol on top of TCP, working with networking at the
hardware level using a wireless chip, and creating a parser for the entire JavaScript language.

Beyond my coursework, this semester I have been doing research with Professor . My project revolves around an online community for the Pattern-Annotated Teaching
Tool(PATT), a curriculum editor application targeted for professors. Our team is responsible
for the annotation/threaded commenting system for PATT files. At a high level, the program
allows professors to structure and design courses with certain pedagogical patterns in mind. The
PATT community will allow novice instructors to upload their course plans and receive
interactive feedback and tips from more seasoned professors in the same field.
Many of my undergraduate projects were designed to work on a limited scale, due to
limited resources and time. In my graduate work, I would like to explore the scalability,
reliability, and security issues involved with creating large distributed systems. Reliability and
performance are often taken for granted in undergraduate projects, but become crucial in real-
world applications. I would like to learn in more depth the most recent advances in the
technologies and techniques that play a crucial rolein the design of large real-world systems.
Also, I would like the opportunity to explore how to apply my broad knowledge in computer and
system designs to solve challenging system problems.

After I receive my Masters degree, I plan to pursue a career as a system architect in the
software industry, working in the design and development of web-based applications and
technologies. My work in research and in the Ruby on Rails course I am taking has shown me
the impact and broad range of possibilities for online collaborative applications. Additionally,
various summer internships have taught me the importance of thinking abstractly and evaluating
alternatives when tackling a new problem. Unlike undergraduate work, projects in industry and
graduate work often do not have clearly defined or concrete requirements. There are no right or
wrong answers, but there are good or bad answers. I worked as a software engineer at XYZ Corp and as part of my stint there, I came up with a prototype of how tagging could be used to improve search results within system constraints. This prototype was a hit with the product’s customers and is pitched in demos to prospective customers. I believe that graduate school will give me
the opportunity to integrate my insights from various fields into a unified approach that will
make me a better computer scientist.