sample of writing

[e.lehavi]

Hi Everyone!

First timer in this forum

I’m applying to Biomedical engineering at UBC for either Msc or MEng.

i was asked to submit a sample of my writing and im wondering if I need to submit a full seminar paper or something lighter like a lab report for example?

I’m currently in my 4th year of my bachelor’s degree (advanced materials engineering) so i haven’t finished my seminar yet - so i don’t want to submit an unfinished work...

[fuzzylogician]

The goal of the sample is to showcase (i) your writing and (ii) your research ability. So ideally, you have a paper that lays out a question or puzzle, does some lit review and discusses what we already know and why this issue is important, does some novel work to answer the question or solve the puzzle, then discusses the results, what they teach us, and how it should affect our thinking going forward. Many students will not have something quite like this from their undergraduate degree, so they'll end up picking something that is the closest. It's important that the paper is well written and ideally you want at least one professor to have read and commented on it, and for you to have integrated the changes they recommend. It's also important that the paper actually showcases some original thoughts, and isn't just you summarizing what others have said without adding anything of your own. All this said, I would not recommend submitting unfinished work, that would not look good. In terms of how long the paper should be, this varies quite a bit; if nothing more is said, I'd go for roughly 20 pages, but probably anywhere from 15 to 25 would be fine (but keep in mind that there are great differences between fields and here I could be totally off, because engineering could be very different from what I am familiar with, in the social sciences. If in doubt, ask the department.)

[TakeruK]

Hello! I was surprised to hear that an engineering program at UBC would require a writing sample and I did a quick check of both the MSc and MEng application requirements and no writing sample is listed. Where did you find the writing sample request?

If the application form asks for an upload of the writing sample, then it might just be the program using the University-wide generic form that will ask for everything even if it's not required. This might especially be true if the writing sample request says "optional". If you only see the writing sample request in the application form, I recommend contacting the department directly to check if it is required.

If you have found the requirement somewhere else that is more official and directly linked to the department, then it is worth asking the department for more details on what they are expecting. My field doesn't really do writing samples and science/engineering majors do not usually write 20 page papers (which is the typical length for the social sciences and humanities writing samples). Naively, I would recommend submitting a polished version of a final paper you wrote for one of your 4th year undergrad classes (i.e. talk to the prof after they have graded it to see if they have useful feedback for you). In the sciences/engineering fields, I think a final term paper is something around 6-10 pages. It should follow a lot of the same things fuzzy said though---you want to ensure that you demonstrate you can do a good literature review, that you can communicate scientific results, that you can perform a critical analysis of your work and others, but also that you have done some of your own original work/thoughts too. At most North American schools, a final paper like this is the result of a mini-project you've worked on for a few weeks, so it's not like you have publication level results to discuss, but definitely something you have spent a considerable amount of time and energy.