Writing Sample Advices Needed.

[simayi]

Hi all,

I am new to the forum...and is in the process of applying to a MA Humanities Program in SFSU.

One part I am very confuse is the Writing Samples.

I am not required to write any thesis paper when I was doing undergrad, which is a decade ago.

The school requires a Writing Sample. No length, no any specific requirements. Just a writing sample.

I even called the Department for specific details. They told me I can submit any lengths I want, anything I want.

So I am not sure where to go. Since I saw some posts said 5 pages, some said 25 pages and I am confusing like hell.

Also since I will need to start from scratch, I don't know what to write on. Since my undergrad is accounting, which no long essay. Even essay were just a bunch of balance sheet and cash flow statement.

I was thinking if I should compare 2 ethic theories that I had learned and wrote about them in a local city college class recently (just about a page long about 300 words essay).

Or I should analysis the 2 ethic theories and put in a bunch of personal perspective in it.

Please kindly help.

Thanks.

[oiseauaudio]

Hi there,

I think you could submit the essay you wrote recently for the college class you just took.

I would not suggest writing a brand new paper, unless you feel that you really don't have anything suitable.

Also, I would try to submit something on the shorter side. Personally, I think 25 pages is too long for the writing sample.

Good luck!

[simayi]

Hi there,

I think you could submit the essay you wrote recently for the college class you just took.

I would not suggest writing a brand new paper, unless you feel that you really don't have anything suitable.

Also, I would try to submit something on the shorter side. Personally, I think 25 pages is too long for the writing sample.

Good luck!

oiseauaudio thanks for your advice.

[strokeofmidnight]

Hi all,

I am new to the forum...and is in the process of applying to a MA Humanities Program in SFSU.

One part I am very confuse is the Writing Samples.

I am not required to write any thesis paper when I was doing undergrad, which is a decade ago.

The school requires a Writing Sample. No length, no any specific requirements. Just a writing sample.

I even called the Department for specific details. They told me I can submit any lengths I want, anything I want.

So I am not sure where to go. Since I saw some posts said 5 pages, some said 25 pages and I am confusing like hell.

Also since I will need to start from scratch, I don't know what to write on. Since my undergrad is accounting, which no long essay. Even essay were just a bunch of balance sheet and cash flow statement.

I was thinking if I should compare 2 ethic theories that I had learned and wrote about them in a local city college class recently (just about a page long about 300 words essay).

Or I should analysis the 2 ethic theories and put in a bunch of personal perspective in it.

Please kindly help.

Thanks.

First off, are you talking about the MA program through the Humanities department? or are you talking about an MA program through any of the programs that fall under the broader Humanities umbrella (English, history, languages, etc)? Either way, I don't think that a paper for an accounting will cut it. For the humanities, the writing sample and statement of purpose are *really* important. The writing sample needs to show that you have the research, critical thinking, analytical skills, and background knowledge for your field. The statement of purpose describes the type of work that you're interested in doing...which entails knowing what work is currently being done and how you envision your research fitting into that conversation. While an Humanities program (since it's interdisciplinary by definition) will give you some leeway in the type of paper that you submit (English versus history versus classics, etc), I doubt that that would stretch as far as accounting.

At the risk of assuming too much, based on your questions, it seems that you don't have a firm sense of the type work that you want to do, or the field that you want to enter into just yet. That's perfectly fine--but it does suggest that you might be better off taking another class or two to solidify your interests before applying for graduate school. While MA programs tend to accept students with less thorough training and less well-defined research interests than their PhD counterparts, you are nevertheless still expected to have a sense of the conversation that you want to enter in your field...and of course, which field (or subfields, or areas of interest) you'd want to study.

If you were to apply now, I'd recommend going to your ethnicity studies professor (assuming that this is the sort of work that you're interested in), telling her/him about your plans, and asking him/her for suggestions on how to craft a project that might lead to a good writing sample.

[simayi]

First off, are you talking about the MA program through the Humanities department? or are you talking about an MA program through any of the programs that fall under the broader Humanities umbrella (English, history, languages, etc)? Either way, I don't think that a paper for an accounting will cut it. For the humanities, the writing sample and statement of purpose are *really* important. The writing sample needs to show that you have the research, critical thinking, analytical skills, and background knowledge for your field. The statement of purpose describes the type of work that you're interested in doing...which entails knowing what work is currently being done and how you envision your research fitting into that conversation. While an Humanities program (since it's interdisciplinary by definition) will give you some leeway in the type of paper that you submit (English versus history versus classics, etc), I doubt that that would stretch as far as accounting.

At the risk of assuming too much, based on your questions, it seems that you don't have a firm sense of the type work that you want to do, or the field that you want to enter into just yet. That's perfectly fine--but it does suggest that you might be better off taking another class or two to solidify your interests before applying for graduate school. While MA programs tend to accept students with less thorough training and less well-defined research interests than their PhD counterparts, you are nevertheless still expected to have a sense of the conversation that you want to enter in your field...and of course, which field (or subfields, or areas of interest) you'd want to study.

If you were to apply now, I'd recommend going to your ethnicity studies professor (assuming that this is the sort of work that you're interested in), telling her/him about your plans, and asking him/her for suggestions on how to craft a project that might lead to a good writing sample.

strokefmidnight,

Thanks for the comments.

I am actually talking about the Humanities programs in the Humanities Departments. And I know my interests into the field that I am planning to work on. It just the writing sample requirements, just writing samples.