Would This Be a Good Idea for a Writing Sample?

[Medievalmaniac]

Hi, all -

I've been trying to come up with a writing sample that really underscores my work as a scholar and shows what I am capable of producing. I am wondering about the wisdom of using a "writing process, fully realized" as my writing sample. I have a signed article that is being released in Brill's Encyclopedia of Medieval Chronicle next week. The work I did researching this article led to a conference paper on the Cronicon Elegiacum (the piece this article is on), which argued for the importance of further study on minor chronicles. The conference presentation includes my transliteration and translation of the text and the facsimile from which it was produced, as well as the presenation. I am now revising this paper as a more academic article.

Would it be a good idea to submit, together as a demonstration of how my work evolves from one form to the next, a writing sample consisting of the encyclopedia article (I have the PDF from the publisher and permission to use it for this sort of purpose), the conference presentation paper and accompanying translation and facsimile of the original manuscript pages, and the academic paper based on the conference presentation? The whole would amount to about 25 pages, which is the cut off for the programs to which I am applying, but it would also showcase in one fell swoop my published, polished writing, my work as a researcher-scholar, my transliteration and translation ability, and how my work is conceived as a natural progression from form to form.

I am wavering between this and a more traditional, here's a sample chapter of my thesis approach. This work is more recent than my thesis at this point, and I just wonder - what do you think? Would that be a good presentation as a writing sample, or should I stick to the safer/more traditional route?

[strokeofmidnight]

I'm not a medievalist (and for your field, this will make a difference), but while this sounds like a creative idea, I'd be wary. Ad-comms frequently skim the writing sample during the early rounds of the application. If they don't "get" your entire project at a glance, your application might not move on. Also, while this would indeed showcase your various skills, it seems to do so by piece-meal...whereas I suspect that part of the point of requiring a single longer piece is to see how these skills all come together. I'd also worry about the repetitiveness of showing the same argument several times, albeit in different ways. An encyclopedia article might also lack the particular voice (and depth) that ad-comms are looking for in a writing sample.

I would either

1) go with the thesis chapter or

2) revise the academic article with an eye towards using it as a writing sample.

Hi, all -

I've been trying to come up with a writing sample that really underscores my work as a scholar and shows what I am capable of producing. I am wondering about the wisdom of using a "writing process, fully realized" as my writing sample. I have a signed article that is being released in Brill's Encyclopedia of Medieval Chronicle next week. The work I did researching this article led to a conference paper on the Cronicon Elegiacum (the piece this article is on), which argued for the importance of further study on minor chronicles. The conference presentation includes my transliteration and translation of the text and the facsimile from which it was produced, as well as the presenation. I am now revising this paper as a more academic article.

Would it be a good idea to submit, together as a demonstration of how my work evolves from one form to the next, a writing sample consisting of the encyclopedia article (I have the PDF from the publisher and permission to use it for this sort of purpose), the conference presentation paper and accompanying translation and facsimile of the original manuscript pages, and the academic paper based on the conference presentation? The whole would amount to about 25 pages, which is the cut off for the programs to which I am applying, but it would also showcase in one fell swoop my published, polished writing, my work as a researcher-scholar, my transliteration and translation ability, and how my work is conceived as a natural progression from form to form.

I am wavering between this and a more traditional, here's a sample chapter of my thesis approach. This work is more recent than my thesis at this point, and I just wonder - what do you think? Would that be a good presentation as a writing sample, or should I stick to the safer/more traditional route?