poeticbrawler

Hi all, I'm going to get some opinions/advice on how to approach the writing sample. I'm applying for PhD programs and the writing sample is optional, but I feel like it's a great chance to show my technical writing skills. They'll get a sense of my writing in general from personal history statements and statements of purpose, but I want to demonstrate my research writing ability. The problem is that I have few examples ready to go. I did an independent research project, but it wasn't released as a paper - only a presentation. I did a fair amount of writing for it (IRB application, etc.) but nothing that makes for an easy to submit paper. There's also no length requirement (minimum or maximum). Should I pull together the pieces I have and turn it into some sort of research summary? What are other people submitting? How long should it be? Google has given me answers ranging from "800-1000 words" to "no more than 15-20 pages." Reaching out to schools has only yielded answers along the lines of "something that you feel represents you well," which is still super vague.

Hi all, I'm going to get some opinions/advice on how to approach the writing sample. I'm applying for PhD programs and the writing sample is optional, but I feel like it's a great chance to show my technical writing skills. They'll get a sense of my writing in general from personal history statements and statements of purpose, but I want to demonstrate my research writing abilities as they stand. The problem is that I have few examples ready to go. I did an independent research project, but it wasn't released as a paper - only a presentation. I did a fair amount of writing for it (IRB application, etc.) but nothing that makes for an easy to submit paper. There's also no length requirement (minimum or maximum). Should I pull together the pieces I have and turn it into some sort of research summary? What are other people submitting? How long should it be? Googling at this problem has given me answers that range from "800-1000 words" to "no more than 15-20 pages." I'm starting to get frustrated. When I reach out to the schools, the most I've gotten back is "something you feel represents your writing abilities" which is, again, incredibly vague. Edit: Apologies if this is the wrong forum. I thought I put this in the writing sample forum rather than the psychology one, and now I don't believe I can delete it. I'd still value any insight folks may have, but otherwise please disregard! Thank you!