Sources in Writing Sample

[OmniscienceQuest]

I'm reworking a final paper as my writing sample for PhD programs in History and the first section (5 pages) works closely with the primary source under consideration but then the first section that follows, which is supposed to bring in additional info to contrast against Main Source, consists of 4 sub sections which are all sourced from articles in the Encyclopedia of American History. Is that a red flag? It's a series of summaries of slave rebellions -- would it be any different if I found one book on slave rebellions and all 4 sections were footnoted with references to that one secondary source? This is a short paper, not a thesis where each of those sections (here only a paragraph or two each) would draw on primary sources. Is there an easy way to adjust this to make it a bit more professional? Am I overly stressed out about this or is my concern fair?

[Sigaba]

1 hour ago, OmniscienceQuest said:

Encyclopedia

Is that a red flag? 

 

IME/IMO, yes. Academic historians frown on the use of encyclopedias even though some contribute and edit them.

Is there any way that you can "reverse engineer" the citations and find the primary source material in a less controversial format? 

[OmniscienceQuest]

Thank you. I think the paper might be stronger if I omit that section entirely but it leaves me with 6 pages written a week before the application is due. God, maybe I really was born to be a barista.

[OmniscienceQuest]

The application asks for a 10-25 page sample. Do you think anyone seriously gets in with a 10 page sample? Maybe a published 10 page paper, methinks.

[Sigaba]

46 minutes ago, OmniscienceQuest said:

Thank you. I think the paper might be stronger if I omit that section entirely but it leaves me with 6 pages written a week before the application is due. God, maybe I really was born to be a barista.

You have plenty of time if you put together a reasonable game plan.

• Budget the next day to doing additional research and taking notes.
  • Use Jstor to find secondary works on slave revolts.
  • Go to a library and make some good decisions and lucky guesses on which published secondary works.
  • Jot down ideas that will help you flesh out your argument.
• Using the writing tactics that are comfortable, flesh out your essay on days two and three.
• Walk away from it on day four.
  • Work on other aspects of your applications on this day.
  • The one and only one thing that you might do for your piece is to decide upon a title.
• Proofread for clarity on day five in the morning.
  • Make revisions in the afternoon/evening of day five.
  • After finishing your revisions, proof your citations to make sure they're up to speed.
• Final scrub for typing errors and grammatical mistakes on day six.
  • For this scrub, try reading the essay backwards, word by word, punctuation mark by punctuation mark.

If you've not already done so, try your best to identify the historiographical debate your piece addresses. What are the competing scholarly viewpoints on slave rebellions? What kinds of evidence do historians marshall to make their arguments? How do your primary source materials help to confirm or correct any of the competing views? Does the study of slave rebellion have relevance today?

Along the way, make sure that you define your terms and establish your boundaries. Why rebellion and not revolt? Which rebellions are you discussing and why? If you're using specific rebellions to make broader generalizations, say so. If broader generalizations about slave rebellions do not match up to the rebellions you're discussing, say why they don't.

Whatever you do, make sure that you get enough to eat and enough to sleep. Make sure you do what you can to take care of yourself emotionally. Make sure that you save your essay often with a backup copy on a cloud. Or two. Yes, the next week is going to be a bit of a grind, maybe even the most significant challenge you've faced yet as a historian. Focus on doing the best that you can under the circumstances. If you come away from the experience knowing that you did the best you could under the circumstances, you've done well.

 

Edited November 6, 2018 by Sigaba
Funky formatting.

[Sigaba]

3 minutes ago, OmniscienceQuest said:

The application asks for a 10-25 page sample. Do you think anyone seriously gets in with a 10 page sample? Maybe a published 10 page paper, methinks.

All that matters is the sample that you're writing. You are competing only against your own potential and the time you have left. Do not worry about what anyone else has or hasn't done with ten pages. Seriously, think to yourself " I'm going to kick their asses." And proceed to do just that.

[OmniscienceQuest]

Okay. I can do this!

[AfricanusCrowther]

They'll be looking to see if you know how to talk about historiography. One of the tricks of the trade is that you don't actually have to read all of the literature you're citing (although of course it's desirable) as long as you know generally where it fits on a grid of scholarship about the topic. Recent review articles on the subject should lay this out neatly (I wonder if Marjoleine Kars' 2016 AHR article lays out the lay of the land nicely?). If you can include a footnote that says "For scholarship that views slave rebellions through the prism of A, see: B, C, D, and E; X and Y, by contrast, have recently urged historians to consider Z," then you've done a lot to show that you understand how historical scholarship in general works.