Is it advisable to underline some key points in a statement of purpose?

Question

I am an undergraduate student applying to grad schools this year.

I was recently told by my friend (who is already in a PhD program now) that I should consider underlining some key sentences in my SoP, and put them in bold font, since the admission committee most likely won't have the time to read every whole statement, and this would be a good way to catch their eyes on the key points I want to express. It can also expedite the reviewing process so in this sense it is also helpful to the admission committee.

I think this makes sense, but I am still a bit hesitant since I'm not sure if this would be viewed as a poor writing style. Can you give me some of your opinion on this issue? Would this be welcomed from the viewpoint of an admission committee?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

If it's your opinion that your readers won't have time to read your whole document, you might want to consider adding an executive summary at the top of your document. This would take the form of a short paragraph which essentially includes all the key phrases or sentences that you would otherwise have highlighted in bold font throughout your document.

If you make your summary pithy, punchy and exciting, you are more likely to entice your reader to read through the remainder of the document.

One might indeed say that highlighting key phrases throughout your summary is a touch lazy. I wrote a similar document and went through and highlighted key phrases, just as you are considering. Then I wrote an executive summary section as the first paragraph, reusing or paraphrasing the key points. I removed the text formatting in the main text body, rewriting the phrases relating to the key points given in the summary to avoid repeating them word for word. To my mind, the result looked more professional and read much better.

Answer 2

No. Never underline anything. Underlining is left over from typewriters. It instructs the typesetter to put things in italics. Nowadays, you should put things in italics yourself.