Writing sample?

[historygeek]

Hi everyone,

I'm writing an honors thesis next year, but it definitely will not be done with it in time to submit it as a writing sample. I have a couple papers that I could use: one is in my field or closer to it, but I'm not sure it's very well-written; my other one is more well-written and (I think) uses a wider variety of primary sources. I could also just write something new that I've had in my mind for a while. What would you do?

For reference, I want to do a transnational history of Italian women in Italy and the United States. The paper more in my field is about the use of Mafia intelligence in the Second World War; it uses the Herland's Report and a newspaper article from 1947. The paper not in my field is about the relationship between food and colonial attitudes in the British Empire and India, and uses cookbooks, a journal from the nineteenth century, a novel from 1848, an advertisement, a journal, and a travel pamphlet. The paper that I would write would be about the constructions of Italian masculinity by Italian and American media.

[WhaleshipEssex]

Have you talked with the professor who will be supervising your thesis about doing something over the summer?

[TMP]

Talk to your thesis adviser about how to get a writing sample ready in time for December deadlines.  Only s/he can offer suggestions which one you might be better off focusing-- a chapter of your honors thesis or the paper with all the primary sources.  Does your honor thesis include any Italian sources?

[historygeek]

9 minutes ago, TMP said:

Talk to your thesis adviser about how to get a writing sample ready in time for December deadlines.  Only s/he can offer suggestions which one you might be better off focusing-- a chapter of your honors thesis or the paper with all the primary sources.  Does your honor thesis include any Italian sources?

Yes! It will include some Italian documents about out migration, as well as accounts about the condition of the Italian poor following the Risorgimento.

[historygeek]

27 minutes ago, WhaleshipEssex said:

Have you talked with the professor who will be supervising your thesis about doing something over the summer?

Yes, I brought it up in our meeting today. He said that would be a good idea, but also pointed out that I may come into contact with some research material during my first semester doing my thesis that would contradict (or broaden) information written in a condensed sample. It, admittedly, freaked me out a little. 

[historygeek]

I should also mention that, the way that my thesis course is laid out, the first semester (fall 2018) will be all research culminating in a 10-15 page prospectus. In spring 2019, I will actually be writing the thesis. 

[TMP]

Then it appears you have choices in front of you.

1) Consider taking a year off so you can really use this thesis as your writing sample as a strong evidence of your potential and ability as a historian.  I didn't use my honors thesis for December deadlines for PhD programs but I did for my March deadlines for the MA programs.  Then I used one chapter of my MA thesis for PhD programs later.

2) Use the paper that you already have that is strong and polish it.  This may mean that you will really have to work on your statement of purpose to demonstrate your interest and skills to carry out your research on Italian-American connections.

It truly is not unusual for people to take a year or two off after graduating from undergrad to devote more energy to producing strong(er) PhD applications.

[historygeek]

6 hours ago, TMP said:

Then it appears you have choices in front of you.

1) Consider taking a year off so you can really use this thesis as your writing sample as a strong evidence of your potential and ability as a historian.  I didn't use my honors thesis for December deadlines for PhD programs but I did for my March deadlines for the MA programs.  Then I used one chapter of my MA thesis for PhD programs later.

2) Use the paper that you already have that is strong and polish it.  This may mean that you will really have to work on your statement of purpose to demonstrate your interest and skills to carry out your research on Italian-American connections.

It truly is not unusual for people to take a year or two off after graduating from undergrad to devote more energy to producing strong(er) PhD applications.

Yikes-- didn't mean to downvote!

Taking a year off would probably be awful just knowing myself: I would find it too hard to get back into the swing of things and would likely lose the motivation. My project that I mentioned about Mafia intelligence is about Italian-American history (the use of the Italian-American Mafia), and I may rework and expand it. 

[canadianrockies]

Just wanted to share my personal experience with a similar issue from this past year, as I had been debating between submitting a paper that was unrelated to my field of interest (both in terms of geography and chronology), submitting the prospectus for my undergraduate thesis, or trying to write and submit a chapter of my thesis before deadlines. For what it's worth, I ultimately decided to submit the unrelated paper and, as @TMP recommends, spent considerable time and effort in my SOP to demonstrate familiarity with the historiography, etc. While this situation was not ideal and caused additional stress, I was accepted into a few of my top programs and my writing sample topic did lead to interesting conversations with POIs! So, based on my own experience (take it as you will), I would recommend sending a paper that really showcases your writing and ability to use primary sources. If this happens to be a paper related to your field, even better!

[psstein]

On 5/10/2018 at 9:00 PM, historygeek said:

Yes, I brought it up in our meeting today. He said that would be a good idea, but also pointed out that I may come into contact with some research material during my first semester doing my thesis that would contradict (or broaden) information written in a condensed sample. It, admittedly, freaked me out a little. 

The writing sample is often not evaluated upon the accuracy of the information within the writing sample. Instead, it's designed to illustrate how well you write, whether you can string a coherent argument together, etc. 

[Sigaba]

On 5/10/2018 at 11:44 AM, historygeek said:

The paper more in my field is about the use of Mafia intelligence in the Second World War; it uses the Herland's Report and a newspaper article from 1947. 

Is the report by William B. Herlands a primary source? Or do you have already relevant materials from the ILA as well as RG 38.4 and RG 181.2.2?

[historygeek]

7 hours ago, Sigaba said:

Is the report by William B. Herlands a primary source? Or do you have already relevant materials from the ILA as well as RG 38.4 and RG 181.2.2?

Yes, the Herlands Report is a primary source that I used! 

[historygeek]

Hi everyone! I decided to write a sample of my thesis (introduction, background, and a chapter). In the introduction, I'm thinking of writing a small section about current historiography. Is this a good idea? How long should this be?

[WhaleshipEssex]

20 minutes ago, historygeek said:

Hi everyone! I decided to write a sample of my thesis (introduction, background, and a chapter). In the introduction, I'm thinking of writing a small section about current historiography. Is this a good idea? How long should this be?

If you didn't include a lit review that'd set off some serious alarm bells. With regards to length, you should think less about how long the review is and more on how complete it is. Are you engaging with the big hitters in your field? Have there been important shifts in the last 20-30 years? How does your work fit in with/challenge what has been said?

[historygeek]

7 minutes ago, WhaleshipEssex said:

If you didn't include a lit review that'd set off some serious alarm bells. With regards to length, you should think less about how long the review is and more on how complete it is. Are you engaging with the big hitters in your field? Have there been important shifts in the last 20-30 years? How does your work fit in with/challenge what has been said?

There's not a ton of historical scholarship that I can find that is relevant to my work. There was an uptick in scholarship from about 1989-2009, and it usually centers around how Italian-American identities existed with contention during the Second World War and assimilation during the inter-war period. These works are going to be valuable to me, but my thesis is ultimately going to be more holistic and focus on identity preservation.  There is also one major piece of scholarship about the geographical location I'm writing about, but the existing work seems to focus more on politics and the quantitative aspect of history, while mine is more focused on social history. 

[frenchlover]

I wouldn't (and didn't) submit my thesis as a writing sample, as it is a large undertaking, and it is difficult to summarize its conclusions without having fully written it. First chapters also tend to be rough. Class papers are shorter, and you have more control and time over how polished they are -- I would just turn in a sample related to the proposed graduate project.

Edited June 4, 2018 by frenchlover

[historygeek]

12 minutes ago, frenchlover said:

I wouldn't (and didn't) submit my thesis as a writing sample, as it is a large undertaking, and it is difficult to summarize its conclusions without having fully written it. First chapters also tend to be rough. Class papers are shorter, and you have more control and time over how polished they are -- I would just turn in a sample related to the proposed graduate project.

I don’t have a relevant class sample, especially one that displays language skills. 

[frenchlover]

Well, in that case, I suppose you have the incentive to write an excellent first chapter -- less rewriting in the end! (I submitted a paper I wrote for a class last fall, when I was applying, in which I was able to meet graduate writing sample expectations without worrying about the larger frame of the thesis.)

Edited June 4, 2018 by frenchlover

[rising_star]

3 hours ago, historygeek said:

Hi everyone! I decided to write a sample of my thesis (introduction, background, and a chapter). In the introduction, I'm thinking of writing a small section about current historiography. Is this a good idea? How long should this be?

I wouldn't try to get all of this done as a writing sample to submit in December. Having one strong chapter is better than having three parts which are weaker. Your introduction should definitely include historiography, as @WhaleshipEssex has already said. If you can't show knowledge of the extant literature on and related to your topic, then your writing sample will definitely fall into the weak category, regardless of whether you engage with primary sources elsewhere. (This background should be a part of your introduction as it lays the groundwork for understanding why you're doing the project you're doing and how that project fits into what has already been done.)

Two more things:
1) If you haven't already, I strongly recommend reading some MA and undergrad history theses so you can get a better sense of how they're constructed and what elements you should include. 
2) Is there any chance you will be drawing on Italian language sources in your introduction/historiography? These don't need to be primary sources but showing that you know the relevant scholarly literature in Italian would strengthen your writing sample.

Good luck!

[historygeek]

9 minutes ago, rising_star said:

I wouldn't try to get all of this done as a writing sample to submit in December. Having one strong chapter is better than having three parts which are weaker. Your introduction should definitely include historiography, as @WhaleshipEssex has already said. If you can't show knowledge of the extant literature on and related to your topic, then your writing sample will definitely fall into the weak category, regardless of whether you engage with primary sources elsewhere. (This background should be a part of your introduction as it lays the groundwork for understanding why you're doing the project you're doing and how that project fits into what has already been done.)

Two more things:
1) If you haven't already, I strongly recommend reading some MA and undergrad history theses so you can get a better sense of how they're constructed and what elements you should include. 
2) Is there any chance you will be drawing on Italian language sources in your introduction/historiography? These don't need to be primary sources but showing that you know the relevant scholarly literature in Italian would strengthen your writing sample.

Good luck!

Thank you!

I actually just wrote about an American journal article and an Italian-language book that offer contrasting views about Italian identity. 

[historygeek]

One more question. Should I explicitly say "this is what historiography exists," or use historiography as references? I had written:

 

In the past thirty or so years, construction and preservation of Italian-American identity has begun to occupy more space in the broader historiographical conversation. Though historical scholarship on the topic is currently limited, the forthcoming trends of identities and mentalities within the context of American ethnic history have given the history of Italian-American identity a position of slow-growing prominence. The current framework centers primarily around the issues of contended identity during the Second World War and the issue of assimilation, particularly in the inter-war period. While valuable to the study of identity, existing scholarship is not necessarily holistic. Carnevale’s “No Italian Spoken for the Duration of the War” in the spring 2003 issue of the Journal of American Ethnic History, for example, focuses on the role that language played in the necessary assimilation during the World War II years.On the other hand, Simone Cinotto’s book, Una Famiglia Che Mangia Insieme, discusses the significance of Old World food traditions in the maintenance of an Italian-American identity in interwar New York.

It seems too... explicit and in your face.

---

 

[psstein]

28 minutes ago, historygeek said:

One more question. Should I explicitly say "this is what historiography exists," or use historiography as references? I had written:

 

In the past thirty or so years, construction and preservation of Italian-American identity has begun to occupy more space in the broader historiographical conversation. Though historical scholarship on the topic is currently limited, the forthcoming trends of identities and mentalities within the context of American ethnic history have given the history of Italian-American identity a position of slow-growing prominence. The current framework centers primarily around the issues of contended identity during the Second World War and the issue of assimilation, particularly in the inter-war period. While valuable to the study of identity, existing scholarship is not necessarily holistic. Carnevale’s “No Italian Spoken for the Duration of the War” in the spring 2003 issue of the Journal of American Ethnic History, for example, focuses on the role that language played in the necessary assimilation during the World War II years.On the other hand, Simone Cinotto’s book, Una Famiglia Che Mangia Insieme, discusses the significance of Old World food traditions in the maintenance of an Italian-American identity in interwar New York.

It seems too... explicit and in your face.

---

 

Please use footnotes. There are places to bludgeon the reader and places to be subtle. Historiography is not where you want to bludgeon the reader.

 

 

[anon4578]

26 minutes ago, psstein said:

Please use footnotes. There are places to bludgeon the reader and places to be subtle. Historiography is not where you want to bludgeon the reader.

 

 

Second this--you can keep the first few sentences but authors, works, etc, in the footnotes. You can fit far more in that space, it looks better, and if you're feeling plucky you can concisely editorialize on the scholarship in the footnote itself.

[historygeek]

20 hours ago, psstein said:

Please use footnotes. There are places to bludgeon the reader and places to be subtle. Historiography is not where you want to bludgeon the reader.

 

 

 

20 hours ago, anon4578 said:

Second this--you can keep the first few sentences but authors, works, etc, in the footnotes. You can fit far more in that space, it looks better, and if you're feeling plucky you can concisely editorialize on the scholarship in the footnote itself.

Thanks for the advice! I wrote a paragraph discussing assertions about Italian-American identity and used footnotes, which I think looks better and let me get a lot more in and I think it's a lot, lot better. It's still a little* rough but that's to be expected. 

Edited June 5, 2018 by historygeek

[Tigla]

For my MA, my advisors gave me a handful of tips for writing the historiography section, which may or may not apply to you. First, keep the arguments broad and concise. The smaller and finer arguments will be fleshed out in the body of your work as you place yourself directly and indirectly against specific ideas and phrases. The introduction is meant to give a broad overview of your work, not a blow by blow account. Second, do not write another introduction in the footnotes. Footnotes are meant to explain your ideas, but also provide further resources for the reader, not to explain finite points in depth. If these finite points are important, then put them in your body, not the footnotes. Lastly, do not fall into the trap of painting a hole in the literature that your work fills. It is a trope that a lot of students use, but rarely applies in practice. Instead, focus on the ways your work expands the literature and our understanding of your topic.

Best of luck with your writing!