What is a Writing Sample?
A writing sample is a document used to ascertain your writing capacity and competence. It is requested for several reasons, jobs, schools, internships, and scholarships. It allows the employer or graduate admission office to review carefully your ability to write for the level that’s required of your job. For graduate admission, it is usually required as a supplemental document alongside your personal motivation letter or statement of purpose (note they’re two different things but most times, only one is required). Not all disciplines mandate a writing sample, it is majorly limited to the Humanities, Education, and Social Sciences. In simple terms, a discipline that will require a written thesis and a lot of writing requests for a writing sample. Let’s take a look at some examples of academic writing samples.
Examples of Academic Writing Sample
- Undergraduate Thesis
- Academic Papers
- Journal Articles
- Master’s Thesis
How to Prepare a Convincing writing sample
- Adhere to all Guidelines: Following all guidelines ( they vary according to schools/courses) is the most important step in submitting a convincing writing sample. Your 10 pages should be 10 pages, and the paragraphs and fonts should be adhered to strictly.
- Stay in Line With the Subject: Some schools may request that your writing sample is in tandem with the course you’re applying for. In that case, do not just submit for submission’s sake as that will affect your admission as well as scholarship chances. Ensure that your writing sample is at least close to your course, even if they don’t tally.
- Be Original: Originality is also highly important. Ensure you submit your work and not something you just culled online. It could be your undergraduate thesis or a paper you’ve once published in a journal. You don’t want to give an impression of plagiarism in your application, do you?
- Be Tactical
If you’re using a thesis, the abstract, introduction, and literature review would usually make up the required 10 or 15 pages. Submitting the whole thesis is just like submitting nothing as it would be too cumbersome. In addition, ensure you submit the ungraded ones.
- At the end of your writing sample, include a brief about your submission. Such as ” This writing sample is an excerpt from an article I wrote in the journal Women’s Studies class ‘Gender and American Society.’ It is a collaborative work with a partner and I have included only the section of the paper on ‘Gender and the Family,’ which represents my work” This would give the admission office an idea of what is submitted and why it is chosen. Your name should be on all wiring samples.