Optional Writing Sample

[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.

[TrešnjaMonkay]

What do you mean when you say your independent research project wasn't "released" as a paper, only a presentation?  Your write up for it is in presentation format, and more brief than a paper?