It's probably one of my biggest disadvantages in applying that I don't really have teaching experience and I don't have experience working with children. orz I'll definitely consider your advice while I write my SoP, though.
In a way, I don't have much of a compare and contrast pool, since pretty much everyone I know who applied (and with whom I'm still in contact)got in, so it's hard for me to tell what doesn't work. I don't really know what kind of writing style works for something like a SoP, or what phrasing works well, so I probably do need to have someone read it over (even though I'm always embarrassed to think about people I know reading things I've written.)
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In a way, I don't have much of a compare and contrast pool, since pretty much everyone I know who applied (and with whom I'm still in contact)got in, so it's hard for me to tell what doesn't work. I don't really know what kind of writing style works for something like a SoP, or what phrasing works well, so I probably do need to have someone read it over (even though I'm always embarrassed to think about people I know reading things I've written.)