Two pieces for writing sample??

[captiv8ed]

I am trying to decide on this.

I have one piece that I just reworked for a conference. It isn't screaming "Original research!!!" But I do have some non participant observation and analysis in it. The professor who I submitted it to said it is excellent, and my advisor suggested I use it as my sample.

I also have a briefing paper that I cowrote with my advisor (who is pretty famous) and I am lead author. It was written for a mainstream audience, but it uses scholarly sources and has analysis of a current issue. The paper was required reading for several introductory college classes around the country (!!) So I would like to include it. Also, I refer to it often as the springboard for the work I want to do in grad school.

Should I use both? They are each about 8 pages before citations.

[rogue]

I submitted two samples for one of my apps. One was a research paper with original research, a long bibliography and a ton of citations. It was my scholarly sample. The other one didn't really qualify as scholarly, but it was published in an anthology and included some original ethnography. I also included a short note explaining why I submitted two pieces (and I mentioned in the note that someone on the ad com suggested I send both). All my other apps are just getting the research paper, with the published essay simply noted on my CV.

If you can't get away with sending in both (say, a school specifically prohibits multiple samples), I'd send whichever is your strongest work (it sounds like the first one), and mention the other in your publications section on your CV, and maybe in your SOP if you have room.