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Hypophora is a figure of speech in which a writer raises a question and then immediately provides an answer to that question.

I am about to write a Statement of Purpose. In the SOP, I need to answer some questions:

  • What have you already done?
  • What are you working on now?
  • What might you want to work on in the future?
  • How does my department fit your research goals?

Each paragraph, of course, will be an answer for each question. Instead of writing those paragraphs normally, I would like to start them with the questions they will answer for. In short, I will use hypophoras to start those paragraphs. However, I'm afraid that using them a lot will be counterproductive. Should I use hypophoras at the beginning of every paragraphs?

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Ooker
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2 Answers2

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If these questions are explicitly given to you as worded, I think you can make them into section headers, and organize your responses under them.

The hypophora as you reference it describes situations where the writer is raising a question in order to discuss it, not answering a question which someone else has posed.

Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
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Do you have a style guide for what you're writing? That should give you advice on using things like headers.

I would advise against using headers or hypophoras if you can - writing is much more eloquent if you can answer the questions without labelling them. For example:

'I have written a series of novels about...'

'I am now working on a new novel about...'

'These projects will lead me towards...'

'I feel this course will be of benefit to me because...'

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Kristina Adams
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