Writing Samples 2015

[queennight]

It always startles me how fully funded MA programs are never offered at quote/unquote 'top-tier' programs. It seems strange to me that many smaller universities are able to fund, but larger institutions refuse to do so. (I say this from the perspective of somebody at a partially funded program, where funding wasn't even guaranteed.)

[lyonessrampant]

Many top tier programs don't have funded MAs because that creates a trade-off for funds between their Ph.D. students and their MA students.  The tradeoff also comes in terms of professor/department time and resources as well.  Because the MA is a shorter degree, and because MA students generally need more guidance/support in their coursework and scholarship, a large MA cohort can take up time and resources that many top tier programs would rather invest in their Ph.D. students.  Most of the funded MAs are either at programs that do not offer the Ph.D. (and so need MA students to teach) or at programs that may have a Ph.D. program but it is small and insufficient for covering teaching/tutoring needs.  I'm not saying any of this is good, but it does help explain why most funded MA programs are where they are and also why the infamous U of Chicago MAPH and NYU MA programs are often criticized for being cash cow programs that use their brand name to attract MA students who pay a lot of money that can then be redirected to fund Ph.D. students and other things.

[1Q84]

There's also a rhetorical difference between a statement like "I argue" or "I would argue" or, even, "I would suggest" versus "I think" or "I feel." As someone who works in/around affect, "I feel" or "I think" never appear in my writing - unless they're in quotation marks. I'm not at all averse to "I" in an essay - as has been mentioned, arguments aren't disembodied things even when the subjectivity creating them never directly announces itself; &, after all, the lack of that self-reflexivity & awareness is partly what got certain approaches into, shall we say, awkward waters - but I do veer on the side of circumspection re: if & when it is used. I reserve it for the cruxes of arguments and/or when engaging with scholarship or readings I am critiquing.

 

How about "I believe"?

 

PS. Thanks to you all, I just went through my WS and removed about 100000000 instances of *I* and *we* 

Edited October 29, 2014 by 1Q84

[__________________________]

How about "I believe"?

 

PS. Thanks to you all, I just went through my WS and removed about 100000000 instances of *I* and *we* 

 

lol, yeah I'm about to do that myself.  Not gonna drive myself crazy over it though.  I just remember when I was writing my undergrad honors thesis, I had an introduction that used "we" a few times describing the sorts of crazy shit I was about to explore (maybe I just grew up watching too many old sci-fi flicks - "there is nothing wrong with your television set... We will control the horizontal.  We wil control the vertical") and my adviser went through it and changed all of them to "I."

 

She was right.  I think "I" is fine sometimes.  If getting rid of "I believe" and replacing it with something just as simple isn't working, I would keep it.  A "One would believe" can sound even more silly than a simple "I believe." 

[Dr. Old Bill]

Here's a fairly comprehensive article from UNC-Chapel Hill (perhaps not the best authority on writing standards these days, mind you...) that sums up what a lot of us have been saying, and provides a general academic perspective on the matter. I still think that "when in doubt, take 'I' out," but it looks like there are many shades to, and perspectives on the issue.

[queennight]

PS. Thanks to you all, I just went through my WS and removed about 100000000 instances of *I* and *we* 

 

The application stress and struggle is so real at this point

[jhefflol]

Meh, as a second-year grad student, I use "I" in every seminar thesis. In fact, in my second-year seminars, I have been encouraged to write, "In this paper I will argue that..." Its one of those style choices that I think the old-school critics avoided, but if you look at the superstars of criticism, they use "I" and the "In this paper I will argue that..." quite frequently. At least, for Early Modern criticism. Greenblatt, Callaghan, Purkiss, etc, all use these techniques. Some might argue that I haven't earned the right to use such techniques yet, but I'm taking it as the whole "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have" type of mentality. I'm emulating the style of critics I most use in hopes of actually becoming on (or near?) their level some day. 

 

And shall we avoid the question of passive vs active voice? Because I feel its in the same vein of argument.

 

ETA: I think we were taught to avoid using "I think" in early undergrad/high school to move more towards formal essays. Removing such words will automatically push an informal essay towards a formal essay. Its lazy and a quick fix, but apparently it works.

 

Also, the whole "I think," "I feel," etc argument...I read an article somewhere that analyzed men and women's academic writing and the findings showed that women were more likely to use such phrases and phrases like "seems," "may," and "might," basically qualifying words, because women were more insecure of their authority in academia. Removing such words asserts your authority. I've personally been working on not including qualifying words recently. 

Edited October 30, 2014 by jhefflol

[1Q84]

The application stress and struggle is so real at this point

 

Hear, hear.

Every new (conflicting) piece of information I read on here has me like:

 

 

Meh, as a second-year grad student, I use "I" in every seminar thesis. In fact, in my second-year seminars, I have been encouraged to write, "In this paper I will argue that..." Its one of those style choices that I think the old-school critics avoided, but if you look at the superstars of criticism, they use "I" and the "In this paper I will argue that..." quite frequently. At least, for Early Modern criticism. Greenblatt, Callaghan, Purkiss, etc, all use these techniques. Some might argue that I haven't earned the right to use such techniques yet, but I'm taking it as the whole "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have" type of mentality. I'm emulating the style of critics I most use in hopes of actually becoming on (or near?) their level some day. 

 

Okay, this has been what all my professors have been saying and, in fact, we spent some time discussing why it was important to use the "In this paper I will argue that..." as a strong way to establish an academic voice. Glad to hear I wasn't the only one. Or maybe it's just an LA thing?

[ProfLorax]

Okay, this has been what all my professors have been saying and, in fact, we spent some time discussing why it was important to use the "In this paper I will argue that..." as a strong way to establish an academic voice. Glad to hear I wasn't the only one. Or maybe it's just an LA thing?

I think the "pro-I" camp has been the overwhelming majority in this thread, so it's definitely not an LA thing! If you're anxious about it, though, skim through some academic journals, and you'll see an abundance of "I" being used to both demarcate one's argument and integrate personal experience with analysis in really interesting ways. 

[Dr. Old Bill]

Hear, hear.

Every new (conflicting) piece of information I read on here has me like:

 

 

 

Okay, this has been what all my professors have been saying and, in fact, we spent some time discussing why it was important to use the "In this paper I will argue that..." as a strong way to establish an academic voice. Glad to hear I wasn't the only one. Or maybe it's just an LA thing?

 

1. Hooray for .gifs!

 

2. It's funny, because it is common to read "I will argue that..." in academic papers. Yet every time I read that sentence, the thought goes through my head: "Then just argue it!" Trust me, I've written my fair share of "this paper will establish that..." and similar sentiments, but a lot of the time I think it's rather silly. If you're going to make a clear argument anyhow, what's the point of prefacing it? Just get to it! Again, I recognize that this is standard, and sometimes even expected in some cases. I just don't understand why.

[jhefflol]

2. It's funny, because it is common to read "I will argue that..." in academic papers. Yet every time I read that sentence, the thought goes through my head: "Then just argue it!" Trust me, I've written my fair share of "this paper will establish that..." and similar sentiments, but a lot of the time I think it's rather silly. If you're going to make a clear argument anyhow, what's the point of prefacing it? Just get to it! Again, I recognize that this is standard, and sometimes even expected in some cases. I just don't understand why.

 

The way it has been explained to me is that at grad level, we are writing 20-50+ page papers to be read by other scholars. Laying out your argument in plain terms early on in the paper will help the reader decide if he or she wants to continue reading. "I will argue that..." comes naturally to me when writing my papers because generally my theses come immediately after a review of literature. Since I have just laid out other scholars' arguments, it becomes organic to state mine just as directly when situating myself among current criticism. 

[karablythe]

Hi all, 

 

I'm applying to a few MA programs and am looking for some advice in regards to my writing sample. 

 

My primary interest is critical theory. I'm fascinated by gender theory, queer theory postcolonial theory, psychoanalysis, disability studies, performance theory... really the list could go on. I'm less particular about time-period, though I do prefer novels of the 19th and 20th centuries. My undergrad thesis (which I will likely use as my WS) deals specifically with post-war trauma, disability, and the performance of gender in the modern novel. I use Jake from The Sun Also Rises and Septimus from Mrs. Dalloway, and examine how each character's physical (Jake) and mental (Septimus) handicap affects their gender identity and consequentially their performance of gender. 

 

My major concerns are...

1. Does this sound like a solid topic for a writing sample? I'm not sure what a crit theory writing sample is necessarily supposed to look like. For example, would it be better if I instead took these two characters and examined them through 3-4 different critical theory lenses to explain how they suffer/cope with their trauma? 

 

2.  I'm extremely interested in cultural studies, postcolonial theory, diaspora, etc. and am worried this paper about upper-class white people and written by white authors will not convey that. I AM also interested in performance theory, gender, and what not, but I most love when all intersect. 

 

Does any of that make sense? Any advice is greatly appreciated! 

 

k

[jhefflol]

Hi all, 

 

I'm applying to a few MA programs and am looking for some advice in regards to my writing sample. 

 

My primary interest is critical theory. I'm fascinated by gender theory, queer theory postcolonial theory, psychoanalysis, disability studies, performance theory... really the list could go on. I'm less particular about time-period, though I do prefer novels of the 19th and 20th centuries. My undergrad thesis (which I will likely use as my WS) deals specifically with post-war trauma, disability, and the performance of gender in the modern novel. I use Jake from The Sun Also Rises and Septimus from Mrs. Dalloway, and examine how each character's physical (Jake) and mental (Septimus) handicap affects their gender identity and consequentially their performance of gender. 

 

My major concerns are...

1. Does this sound like a solid topic for a writing sample? I'm not sure what a crit theory writing sample is necessarily supposed to look like. For example, would it be better if I instead took these two characters and examined them through 3-4 different critical theory lenses to explain how they suffer/cope with their trauma? 

 

2.  I'm extremely interested in cultural studies, postcolonial theory, diaspora, etc. and am worried this paper about upper-class white people and written by white authors will not convey that. I AM also interested in performance theory, gender, and what not, but I most love when all intersect. 

 

Does any of that make sense? Any advice is greatly appreciated! 

 

k

 

1. I think your writing sample is fine. It sounds like you used psychoanalytic, a bit of Marxist, and feminist/gender theories in your paper. The fact that I'm able to name a few theories just by reading a quick summary of your paper shows that it is a good sample for dealing with theory. Theory papers, at least in my experience, usually look like most other papers, except we purposefully write with a theory in mind. I'm sure if you think about it, most of your recent undergrad papers were written taking one theoretical stance or another. Just to give you an anecdotal example, I had to write a paper specifically for my graduate crit/theory class using feminist theory and if I didn't tell you so, I'm sure you would never be able to guess because when looking at my portfolio of papers, they all deal with feminist theory. I hope what I'm saying makes sense. Too much DayQuil, not enough sleep.

 

2. The place to discuss your interests is in your statement of purpose. Your writing sample deals with your area of interest, as it should, so that's good. Just take your SOP as an opportunity to explain the breadth of your interests.

 

Good luck!

[__________________________]

Hey all, is anyone else dealing with untranslated texts in their writing samples?  I have a tiny and extremely nitpicky question about that...

 

I'm working with a lot of passages written in Latin which I translate myself and what I've been doing is putting the longer passages in block quotes (in Latin) and putting a footnote after each block quote with my translation of that passage.  First, does this seem like a legitimate enough way of doing that to you?  Second, and here's the super nitpicky part of my question, would you put the footnote number after the text itself or after the parenthetical line citation (it's poetry) at the end of the block quote?

 

I know it's such a small question, but I have a ton of quotes in Latin and French and this keeps irking me as I'm doing my final revisions for my WS...

 

Example:

 

                                              blockquoteblockquote

                                              blockquoteblockquote.  (109-10)⁹

 

 

 

 

9: "translationtranslation."

 

I'm doing this in MLA, by the way but I've misplaced my MLA book and can't remember off the top of my head...

Edited November 10, 2014 by mollifiedmolloy

[hypervodka]

Hey all, is anyone else dealing with untranslated texts in their writing samples?  I have a tiny and extremely nitpicky question about that...

 

I'm working with a lot of passages written in Latin which I translate myself and what I've been doing is putting the longer passages in block quotes (in Latin) and putting a footnote after each block quote with my translation of that passage.  First, does this seem like a legitimate enough way of doing that to you?  Second, and here's the super nitpicky part of my question, would you put the footnote number after the text itself or after the parenthetical line citation (it's poetry) at the end of the block quote?

 

I know it's such a small question, but I have a ton of quotes in Latin and French and this keeps irking me as I'm doing my final revisions for my WS...

 

Example:

 

                                              blockquoteblockquote

                                              blockquoteblockquote.  (109-10)⁹

 

 

 

 

9: "translationtranslation."

 

I'm doing this in MLA, by the way but I've misplaced my MLA book and can't remember off the top of my head...

 

That's exactly how I've seen it done.

[__________________________]

That's exactly how I've seen it done.

 

Okay, that's what I thought.  Thanks! 

[unræd]

I'm not going to touch the "where to put the footnote" question since you're doing MLA, and I use/am more familiar with Chicago.

 

But assuming space isn't a major concern, are you sure it's wise to relegate the translations to footnotes, especially if there are so many of them? My writing sample has Old English, Latin, German, and some Old Saxon thrown in just for shits and giggles, and I translate everything right in the body of the text, in the "original language" ("translation set off by parentheses") way that's standard in the field if you aren't putting your translations in footnotes. It does take up more room (but you can translate the poetry in block quotes as prose in block quotes, which takes up much less), but it's what I was advised to do.

 

I know you're applying to more medieval studies programs, but I'm loath to give a WS to an English adcomm that might have Victorianists, Modernists, Postcolonialists and a bunch of people on it who don't necessarily have reading knowledge of those relatively obscure languages and then make them have to flip down to the bottom of the page and back up constantly to follow your argument. And that's not a dig on those fields: there are plenty of medievalists who would sit on a MS adcomm who won't necessary have Occitan, for example (which I think you're also working in, correct?) or whom I wouldn't think would want to spend time on translating while reading scores of writing samples, or who come from fields outside literary study, where language work isn't as much of a daily reality. Sure, having to flip down to the bottom of the page, read a chunk, and go back up isn't terrible, but isn't very streamlined, either. In editing my own sample, I was told (by medievalists) to make the linguistic parts as easy as possible for any potential generalist readers, who might not have any medieval languages, including Latin--to put translations in the body, and to translate every little tiny scrap of language, even if it seems perfectly transparent to you. I was surprised, when I went back through, how many single words I'd left untranslated because they seemed so clear! (I briefly even considered putting the actual text of secondary literature not in English--German articles and whatnot--in footnotes, and just leaving my translation in the body, but while it's certainly acceptable/normal to see I couldn't bring myself to do it. I might, though, for the programs with really small WS sample sizes!)

 

Plus, look at this way--if you're using your skills in translation as a selling point, put them front and center: showing them the Latin and your English right next to each other on the page will also make it easier for those with Latin on the committee to see just how wicked hot your language skills are!

Edited November 10, 2014 by unræd

[__________________________]

I'm not going to touch the "where to put the footnote" question since you're doing MLA, and I use/am more familiar with Chicago.

 

But assuming space isn't a major concern, are you sure it's wise to relegate the translations to footnotes, especially if there are so many of them? My writing sample has Old English, Latin, German, and some Old Saxon thrown in just for shits and giggles, and I translate everything right in the body of the text, in the "original language" ("translation set off by parentheses") way that's standard in the field if you aren't putting your translations in footnotes. It does take up more room (but you can translate the poetry in block quotes as prose in block quotes, which takes up much less), but it's what I was advised to do.

 

I know you're applying to more medieval studies programs, but I'm loath to give a WS to an English adcomm that might have Victorianists, Modernists, Postcolonialists and a bunch of people on it who don't necessarily have reading knowledge of those relatively obscure languages and then make them have to flip down to the bottom of the page and back up constantly to follow your argument. And that's not a dig on those fields: there are plenty of medievalists who would sit on a MS adcomm who won't necessary have Occitan, for example (which I think you're also working in, correct?) or whom I wouldn't think would want to spend time on translating while reading scores of writing samples, or who come from fields outside literary study, where language work isn't as much of a daily reality. Sure, having to flip down to the bottom of the page, read a chunk, and go back up isn't terrible, but isn't very streamlined, either. In editing my own sample, I was told (by medievalists) to make the linguistic parts as easy as possible for any potential generalist readers, who might not have any medieval languages, including Latin--to put translations in the body, and to translate every little tiny scrap of language, even if it seems perfectly transparent to you. I was surprised, when I went back through, how many single words I'd left untranslated because they seemed so clear! (I briefly even considered putting the actual text of secondary literature not in English--German articles and whatnot--in footnotes, and just leaving my translation in the body, but while it's certainly acceptable/normal to see I couldn't bring myself to do it. I might, though, for the programs with really small WS sample sizes!)

 

Plus, look at this way--if you're using your skills in translation as a selling point, put them front and center: showing them the Latin and your English right next to each other on the page will also make it easier for those with Latin on the committee to see just how wicked hot your language skills are!

 

Ah, what a wonderful response.  To be honest, I hadn't thought through all those factors.  I had originally been putting the English translations in de-versified brackets after the block quotes, but changed to footnotes for reasons of preserving space.  I'm also not dealing with Occitan in this sample (I ditched that writing sample a little while ago - but my, are you perceptive!), and I guess I've been sort of, probably mistakenly, been treating Latin as a lingua franca.  Ah, the woes of the medievalist!

 

I will probably switch to this method and as a result have to do some more page count chopping.  The paper is by turns theoretical and philological--discussing the Latin itself is pretty important to certain arguments I make: the use of alliteration in certain parts of the poem that can't necessarily be translated, the recurring use of certain Latin words denoting, by turns, pagan and Christian conceptions of holiness and homeliness, and a discussion of a couple corrupted lines.

 

In the end of the day, yes, I think I am actually applying to more English programs than MS programs, simply because MS programs are very, very outnumbered by just about every other type of program in this country.  Your points are perceptive and useful, and I'll definitely start adjusting it to be more accessible to non-Latinists. 

[unræd]

The paper is by turns theoretical and philological--discussing the Latin itself is pretty important to certain arguments I make: the use of alliteration in certain parts of the poem that can't necessarily be translated, the recurring use of certain Latin words denoting, by turns, pagan and Christian conceptions of holiness and homeliness, and a discussion of a couple corrupted lines. 

 

I have to say, it sounds fascinating! 

 

And in re page chopping, it might be the case that if you resize your line spacing to, say, 1.9 instead of double, you can knock off a couple of pages. I don't know. So I hear. Never tried anything like that myself, for Yale's app. Nope. No sir.

[__________________________]

I have to say, it sounds fascinating! 

 

And in re page chopping, it might be the case that if you resize your line spacing to, say, 1.9 instead of double, you can knock off a couple of pages. I don't know. So I hear. Never tried anything like that myself, for Yale's app. Nope. No sir.

 

Brilliant.  Somebody learned something from undergrad!

 

And thanks!  I hope it's fascinating.  I've been obsessing over this poem--I told myself I was too busy to write a new paper for a writing sample this semester, but somehow that's what I ended up doing.  Partly because I love the poem, partly because I was so sick of all my other papers I could have worked on for a WS.

[Dr. Old Bill]

1.9 for Yale you say? I wonder what will be thought of someone with a 1.8. I don't know who would be daft enough to do that, of course. No idea.

[ProfLorax]

And in re page chopping, it might be the case that if you resize your line spacing to, say, 1.9 instead of double, you can knock off a couple of pages. I don't know. So I hear. Never tried anything like that myself, for Yale's app. Nope. No sir.

If you do this, I suggest submitting your paper as a PDF file. I'm currently grading a bunch of 101 papers, and I can tell very quickly if things have been tempered. If I can't tell just be looking at the document (though I usually can), I can tell because when I download a file onto Word, I can see what margins, fonts, and line spacing the students chose. Y'all know my stance (there's always fluff to cut!), but if you find yourself adjusting and playing around with the layout, consider uploading a PDF.

[unræd]

If you do this, I suggest submitting your paper as a PDF file. I'm currently grading a bunch of 101 papers, and I can tell very quickly if things have been tempered. If I can't tell just be looking at the document (though I usually can), I can tell because when I download a file onto Word, I can see what margins, fonts, and line spacing the students chose. Y'all know my stance (there's always fluff to cut!), but if you find yourself adjusting and playing around with the layout, consider uploading a PDF.

 

Oh, definitely--way ahead of you! And, yes, I do feel appropriately skeezy about it, and that's absolutely the only sort of format manipulation I'm doing, and the only school for which I'm doing it. Everybody else is getting the whole thing, or a chunk!

[Dr. Old Bill]

Oh, definitely--way ahead of you! And, yes, I do feel appropriately skeezy about it, and that's absolutely the only sort of format manipulation I'm doing, and the only school for which I'm doing it. Everybody else is getting the whole thing, or a chunk!

 

Yes, I'm in the same boat. I wanted my Yale application to be 15 pages including the back material. I'm sure it wouldn't have been an issue if it was 16 or 17 pages, given the amorphous nature of page counts vis-a-vis appendices and references, but I figure that since there's no pre-set standard other than page count for the WS, a minor formatting tweak or two isn't remiss. For instance, changing Times New Roman 12 pt to Arial 12 pt adds about a page and a half to a 15-page document. Surely there will be some applicants who submit their 15 pages in Times New Roman 12 pt, just as there will be some who submit in Arial 12 pt. This means that the page counts will be the same, but the Times New Roman person will be able to pack in another 500 words or so. I made a conscious decision (thanks to a Grad Cafe thread) to change my SOP and WS from Times to Arial for the second half of my applications. This had the partially welcome, partially unwelcome effect of expanding my page counts. Tweaking to make things easy to read and within the guidelines is just as much of a kindness to adcomms as it is to you, I think.

 

Oh, and yes -- make everything a .pdf before you upload it. It just makes sense.

[__________________________]

Huh, I guess making a PDF would make sense -- it's a little more "permanent" feeling.  I'm not sure how real that feeling actually is though or if I'm just someone who always imagines everything going wrong with computers.  I'm hoping not to have to bust out any cheats on this; my undergrad adviser, who I was very close with, was always pretty hardcore about the idea that there's always something that can be cut and would dock whole grades off papers if there was one word over the limit.  So I'm kind of used to cutting some fat off the page . 

 

However, when you're applying to several programs that all have different WS length requirements, it's a pain.  I've got two programs that want no more than 15 pages, a few that want 15-20, one that's 15-25, one that wants 12-20, one that wants "no more than 30 pages" and two that want "around 20" pages.  Which isn't as bad as some people's apps I guess.  My writing sample is going to end up looking like a Lego construction, taking two excerpts of projects and connecting them together thematically with a note about context.  I'll remove the second half for some apps and keep it for others.  I think it's UPenn though that says "no more than 30," which always throws me off -- am I screwing up if I submit something that's like 20 pages?