Writing Sample question: Abstract and Cover Page

[SamStone]

Does it seem important, helpful, or worthwhile to include an abstract with your writing sample even if the departments do ask for one? And, if it is not necessarily important or helpful—does it seem like it would actually hurt to include one when they are not requested? How about cover pages?

[rising_star]

I wouldn't bother with a cover page, especially since you should include your last name in the header of each page anyway. An abstract also doesn't strike me as necessary unless your writing sample is an excerpt from a longer piece and you want them to get a sense of what the entire piece covers.

[thatsjustsemantics]

11 hours ago, rising_star said:

I wouldn't bother with a cover page, especially since you should include your last name in the header of each page anyway. An abstract also doesn't strike me as necessary unless your writing sample is an excerpt from a longer piece and you want them to get a sense of what the entire piece covers.

Par contre, I recommend an abstract because it gives a sense of what the entire piece covers even if the piece is short. For instance, my writing sample is atypically shorter than 5000 words. I still include a writing sample so that readers can quickly see what my paper is about, substantiate my abstract with the introduction (which I put just in case adcom members don't work in the philosophy of time), and then readers can see whether I was true to my abstract by the end of the paper or not.

In any case, my advice is motivated from some cynicism: I assume that there will irregularly be at least one adcom member who glances through abstracts before committing to read more than a page of the paper; I also assume that there will irregularly be at least one adcom member who does not at all work in the area in which you are writing, which substantiates my claim that even an introduction may be wise.

[brush]

For what its worth, the first paragraph of my intro is basically an abstract. It's not explicitly labeled, although after reading thatsjustsemantics post I might change that. At least one school I'm applying to reviews the writing samples anonymously, which means you need to have your name on a cover page but nowhere else on the paper. For simplicity, I'll probably just use that same format for all my applications.

Edited December 13, 2015 by brush

[thatsjustsemantics]

12 hours ago, thatsjustsemantics said:

Par contre, I recommend an abstract because it gives a sense of what the entire piece covers even if the piece is short. For instance, my writing sample is atypically shorter than 5000 words. I still include a writing sample so that readers can quickly see what my paper is about, substantiate my abstract with the introduction (which I put just in case adcom members don't work in the philosophy of time), and then readers can see whether I was true to my abstract by the end of the paper or not.

In any case, my advice is motivated from some cynicism: I assume that there will irregularly be at least one adcom member who glances through abstracts before committing to read more than a page of the paper; I also assume that there will irregularly be at least one adcom member who does not at all work in the area in which you are writing, which substantiates my claim that even an introduction may be wise.

correction: I still include an abstract au lieu de 'writing sample', (second line of the first paragraph)

[pecado]

An abstract is, according to my studies -every teacher I had agreed-, mandatory in any philosophical text, no matter how long or how short, although the abstract might be shorter or longer according to the length -if it is a book, the abstract is the prologue or introduction chapter, if your article is 1 page long, one sentence in the beginning might be enough-. You should always put it, so the reader know what to expect, what to seek, what is the general idea you are working towards. So, I am putting an abstract in every text I write, including my sample, even if there is not a request for it. I recommend you to do it, it will show that you know how to write academic articles.

 

Edited December 15, 2015 by pecado