Writing sample cover sheet

[ristastic]

I'm in the process of constructing a cover sheet for my writing sample.

I'm in the humanities, and using 2 chapters from my Master's thesis that together equal about 20 pages. I'm just trying to figure out what to include on the cover sheet. A full abstract? A table of contents? A quick paragraph about what I've included and how it fits into the rest of the paper? The two chapters I'm including are the first and a middle one, so it's fairly self-explanatory. I don't want to do any unnecessary explanations or make the cover letter another point of worry!

Any suggestions, or better yet, examples, would be greatly appreciated!

[peppermint.beatnik]

I'm in the process of constructing a cover sheet for my writing sample.

I'm in the humanities, and using 2 chapters from my Master's thesis that together equal about 20 pages. I'm just trying to figure out what to include on the cover sheet. A full abstract? A table of contents? A quick paragraph about what I've included and how it fits into the rest of the paper? The two chapters I'm including are the first and a middle one, so it's fairly self-explanatory. I don't want to do any unnecessary explanations or make the cover letter another point of worry!

Any suggestions, or better yet, examples, would be greatly appreciated!

I'm in the same position. So far I've put my thesis abstract on the cover page, along with "This paper is a excerpt from my Masters thesis, which I completed in 2008."

I didn't want to put too much unnecessary explanation as I thought the paper should stand on its own.

[ridgey]

I'm in a similar position. My cover page says "Excerpt from masters thesis entitled 'I done a good thesis'", with "I done a good thesis" in larger type to look like a title. Then at the bottom of the page I have a "Note for the reader" explaining that I have appended the abstract and table of contents of my thesis for context.

[ristastic]

I'm in a similar position. My cover page says "Excerpt from masters thesis entitled 'I done a good thesis'", with "I done a good thesis" in larger type to look like a title. Then at the bottom of the page I have a "Note for the reader" explaining that I have appended the abstract and table of contents of my thesis for context.

About how long was your abstract? I have a super-long version that I turned in as part of my requirement, but I'm thinking this should only be about 300 words or so?

[ridgey]

About how long was your abstract? I have a super-long version that I turned in as part of my requirement, but I'm thinking this should only be about 300 words or so?

I used the actual thesis abstract. It was pretty short though, less than a page 1.5 spaced.

[margaretlouise]

I used the actual thesis abstract. It was pretty short though, less than a page 1.5 spaced.

Hi guys. I'm in English, and since my sample was listed as my MA thesis on my CV, I just put the following on my cover page: (Another thought: make sure you put a footer or a header on each page with your name as well as the page number so that if pages get scrambled up in the shuffle, readers will be able to figure things out)

My Name

Imagining an Idiosyncratic Belonging: Representing Disability in Chris Ware’s Building Stories (excerpted)

1234 Address Street

Chicago, IL 60657

(773) 555-1234

email@email.edu

(25 pages, exclusive of appendices and bibliographic material)

[JerryLandis]

I am going to submit the introduction and last of three chapters from my thesis, which I am currently writing. I haven't yet written the other 2 chapters or the conclusion (or, at this moment, the last couple hundred words of my third chapter...). I don't even have a title yet, so I'd better think of one my tomorrow! I hate writing abstracts, and since I haven't even finished writing this thesis yet, I'm sure writing an abstract for this would suck more than usual. So I don't think I'll include one - the relevant information is in my introduction, which hopefully they will actually read.

What I do plan to include on my cover page is my name, my application number, the program I am applying to, 'Autumn 2010,' and the title once I think of one, plus something along the lines of "This is an excerpted introduction and chapter from my current undergraduate thesis" and then an outline/table of contents (maybe on a second page) so that they can see the overall structure of my thesis and how the excerpted material fits in.

Now all I have to do is finish writing the thing so I can submit it by tomorrow!

[Medievalmaniac]

I guess I'm in the minority here, but as a teacher myself, although I require cover pages for my students' papers, I would HATE to have to deal with them for applications on top of it - they're a royal PITA. Consequently, I didn't do a cover page for my writing samples. I simply added a header with my full name, my status (PhD Candidate) and the title and origin of the work in question (Writing Sample #1: Chapter One of MA Thesis with Relevant WC Entries; Writing Sample #2: Unrevised Paper Delivered at XXXX Conference, 2009). I figured since I'm sending it in with the rest of my application, it's being filed with the rest of my application.

I don't know....I was trying to put myself in the shoes of the committee members...can you imagine paging through all of those writing samples, even after cutting down the final number of applications to be decided on? That's a loooot of paper. I was going for making it even slightly more streamlined/easier on them.