Does a writing sample page limit include bibliography and figures?

[summertouch]

Hi there,

Does anyone know if the page limit is supposed to include bibliography and figures in my writing sample in general? Just heard back from Stanford that yes it is supposed to include both, but I'm wondering if this is the case with other schools as well.

Some schools said it's ok to send my entire M.A. thesis, which is more than 100 pages. As for schools with a limit, I'm really finding it difficult to take an excerpt from my thesis. For now, I've reduced each chapter first, so that I could select parts of it later to send in.

My another question is.. I heard that your bibliography is what really matters. It shows your scholarship and what kind of research you have done. My bibliography is 8 page in total and I'm wondering how on earth I could reduce this to fit many school's page limit! So what I have on my mind now is to send the conclusion of my thesis only (which is about 5 page) and perhaps send the entire bibliography with it. I feel that the conclusion of my thesis is perhaps the strongest and most important part of my thesis and that it sums up the whole writing concisely. Do you think this is a good idea? Or should I try not to waste my page on sending a long bibliography? I've pretty much given up space for figures, obviously.

For those of you who had submitted writing samples, especially shorter versions of your theses, please help me!

Thanks.

[manetdejeuner]

E-mail each of your schools---that's what I did because I wasn't sure whether to include images or a bibliography. Some of them want images, some of them don't, but most seem to want a works cited page(s). Just check with each individual school.

Hi there,

Does anyone know if the page limit is supposed to include bibliography and figures in my writing sample in general? Just heard back from Stanford that yes it is supposed to include both, but I'm wondering if this is the case with other schools as well.

Some schools said it's ok to send my entire M.A. thesis, which is more than 100 pages. As for schools with a limit, I'm really finding it difficult to take an excerpt from my thesis. For now, I've reduced each chapter first, so that I could select parts of it later to send in.

My another question is.. I heard that your bibliography is what really matters. It shows your scholarship and what kind of research you have done. My bibliography is 8 page in total and I'm wondering how on earth I could reduce this to fit many school's page limit! So what I have on my mind now is to send the conclusion of my thesis only (which is about 5 page) and perhaps send the entire bibliography with it. I feel that the conclusion of my thesis is perhaps the strongest and most important part of my thesis and that it sums up the whole writing concisely. Do you think this is a good idea? Or should I try not to waste my page on sending a long bibliography? I've pretty much given up space for figures, obviously.

For those of you who had submitted writing samples, especially shorter versions of your theses, please help me!

Thanks.

[summertouch]

E-mail each of your schools---that's what I did because I wasn't sure whether to include images or a bibliography. Some of them want images, some of them don't, but most seem to want a works cited page(s). Just check with each individual school.

Thanks for your reply! I went ahead and emailed each department. They all seem to demand varying lengths indeed. Thanks.

[manetdejeuner]

Your welcome. It's seems like a lot of schools don't even have a required length---I'm trying to condense my 100 page B.A. thesis into about 15-20 pages or so. I might end up with two versions---one 15 and the other closer to 30.

Good luck!

Thanks for your reply! I went ahead and emailed each department. They all seem to demand varying lengths indeed. Thanks.

[summertouch]

OK. So now that I know the page limit, I'm thinking I don't have enough space even for text for most of schools. I am seriously considering skipping the figures since what seems most important is really my writing skill and perhaps not including images won't matter. Any thoughts?

[georgica2]

OK. So now that I know the page limit, I'm thinking I don't have enough space even for text for most of schools. I am seriously considering skipping the figures since what seems most important is really my writing skill and perhaps not including images won't matter. Any thoughts?

The figures were the first things I cut with my writing sample when I had page limit issues. Assuming you're working with relatively well-known works of art (the sorts of things art history professors would be familiar with and can be googled with relative ease) it shouldn't be a problem. Remember, they're assessing your ability to write and conduct art historical research, not reviewing the essays for publication. I included a brief footnote on the first page of my writing sample stating that I'd removed the images for the purposes of page limits.)

Also, I think that the text is more important than the bibliography (eg, I would NOT suggest sending 5 pages of text with a 10 page bibliography.) Simply listing sources doesn't say much about your ability as an art historian; they're just as concerned (if not more) with how you utilize and interpret the material. For schools that don't want your entire thesis, maybe choose a chapter that you think best highlights your writing/research skills with a cover letter that summarizes the project as a whole and how this particular excerpt fits in.

[summertouch]

Thank you so much for your advice, georgica2!

I followed your advice and first removed all the figures to fit page limits. Now I'm wondering about schools that required me to send my entire MA thesis. In my thesis, I have about 30 pages of figures and I'm wondering if it's really necessary to color print them. If I just stick black and white, it's going to cost me much less, especially given that at least 6-8 schools are asking me to send my entire MA thesis. Any tips?? Thanks!

[cleisthenes]

The figures were the first things I cut with my writing sample when I had page limit issues. Assuming you're working with relatively well-known works of art (the sorts of things art history professors would be familiar with and can be googled with relative ease) it shouldn't be a problem. Remember, they're assessing your ability to write and conduct art historical research, not reviewing the essays for publication. I included a brief footnote on the first page of my writing sample stating that I'd removed the images for the purposes of page limits.)

Also, I think that the text is more important than the bibliography (eg, I would NOT suggest sending 5 pages of text with a 10 page bibliography.) Simply listing sources doesn't say much about your ability as an art historian; they're just as concerned (if not more) with how you utilize and interpret the material. For schools that don't want your entire thesis, maybe choose a chapter that you think best highlights your writing/research skills with a cover letter that summarizes the project as a whole and how this particular excerpt fits in.

Ditto. Your bibliography is most definitely not the most important element of your writing sample! I can tell you that my bibliography was less than two pages (of course, I had ample footnotes). Try to make the bulk of the total material you submit consist of your best scholarly writing. Emphasis on the writing. (If you happen to be in search of a discipline where bibliographic skills probably count for a lot more, try library science.)

I think part of the issue OP is encountering is simply that a whole MA thesis is not an ideal WS. If you can extract and modify an excerpt & still have it be cohesive, then present a trimmed-down bibliography relevant only to that excerpt, you're probably better off than submitting the whole thing or just a hacked-off piece of it bleeding into a pool of citations. Better yet, use an article-length paper and edit it down to 20-25 pages (you should have something like thing or be able to produce one).

Why 20-25 pages? Obviously some schools ask for me. My personal opinion is that given how ridiculously busy everyone is, if you send more, it had better be *really* good. At least that's how I know many would probably take it, given the already jam-packed nature of their lives! Think about this, you want someone to WANT to read this. Give them something of a manageable length and you dramatically increase the chances that will actually happen (and that all your brilliant ideas will see the light of, well, at least consideration).