What was your writing sample?

[Straparlare]

Trying to pass the time until I hear back, I've been reading through past threads and came across one where people talked about how they looked as an applicant - school, gpa, gre, sop, ws, etc. - and what I enjoyed the most was reading the different topics people had as their writing samples. It really made me wish I could track them down and read them  so I thought that it might be fun to talk about the different topics we used as our writing samples this application season!

My WS was a paper I wrote for a graduate seminar I was lucky enough to take last Spring in Comp Lit. Coming from public sphere theory, I argued using postcolonial literature that the ideal public sphere remains distant in a broader societal sense and that it is most closely approximated in public spheres which are insular (as among those oppressed by a larger society). I'd be fascinated to hear what other people did 

[gyeum]

My writing sample was the introduction of (current) undergraduate thesis. It outlines the most prominent theorists on the topic of language in postcolonial African and contemporary African American literature and posits that we can better understand the production of cultural discourses (I'm really using a cultural studies methodology) about language in Sub-Saharan African and the United States through the ways that writers resist and manipulate language.

 

My thesis is superrrr theory based, and my research interests are, no surprise, literary and cultural theory.

[Straparlare]

17 minutes ago, gyeum said:

My writing sample was the introduction of (current) undergraduate thesis. It outlines the most prominent theorists on the topic of language in postcolonial African and contemporary African American literature and posits that we can better understand the production of cultural discourses (I'm really using a cultural studies methodology) about language in Sub-Saharan African and the United States through the ways that writers resist and manipulate language.

 

My thesis is superrrr theory based, and my research interests are, no surprise, literary and cultural theory.

Sounds super interesting! Did you choose a specific form of literature (poem or novel) or go with a mix?

[gyeum]

6 minutes ago, Straparlare said:

Sounds super interesting! Did you choose a specific form of literature (poem or novel) or go with a mix?

I use a variety of media. One chapters is about novels, another about novel to film adaptation. It's one of the reasons I'm somewhat nervous about my thesis defense. My methodology is mad unorthodox.

[Straparlare]

@gyeum isn't every methodology the first time someone uses it? I bet it'll be amazing! Good luck!

[imogenshakes]

This is fun! 

My WS is the seminar paper that I wrote during my second semester of my MA. It argues that the A-text (1604) of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus was not published for any of the reasons scholarship has claimed to this point, but instead because it's publisher had developed a specialization in publishing religious/satirical/moral works and recognized DF as fitting within that framework. The play was actually the only playtext he published, so I figure there must have been a reason why he'd publish a bunch of religious pamphlets and Middleton and then randomly choose a Marlowe play.

[imogenshakes]

6 hours ago, gyeum said:

I use a variety of media. One chapters is about novels, another about novel to film adaptation. It's one of the reasons I'm somewhat nervous about my thesis defense. My methodology is mad unorthodox.

It seems to me that unorthodox methodology means you like to think outside the box and push boundaries, which is a necessary component of scholarship. I bet you'll be great!!

[ProfessionalNerd]

My writing sample was my thesis proposal. I took a bit of a risk, but I used it anyway. Some school allowed me to submit a 2nd WS, so for them I submitted a post-colonial reading of an experimental text from a Black-British writer. 

Edited February 9, 2017 by ProfessionalNerd

[KikiDelivery]

My writing sample is an excerpt from my thesis. I did a queer and ecocritical reading of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Talents, and how the novel challenges the construction of nature as heteronormative by centering queer liberation as part of climate justice.

[ThousandsHardships]

I used a paper I wrote during the last semester of my master's that analyzed gender identity in a short story where two transgender people enter a heterosexual relationship with each other. I won't go into detail about what I wrote, but I chose this paper because it had amazing and detailed feedback from a professor that I've always known to be brutally honest, and the text I talked about was within the time period that I wish to specialize in. The only caveat was that I was applying to programs in French literature, and this paper was written in English. Grad students in foreign languages and literatures are typically allowed to write in English since the idea is that we'll end up publishing in our mother tongue. It felt like the easy way at the time (this paper was due a mere days after my M.A. exam and I didn't even need the class), but in the long run I essentially ended up having to translate my entire writing sample...

[CrunchyMamademic]

Such great papers!

I had two writing samples. My literature sample was a queer reading of novels by Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster. I examined the ways the two authors used physical spaces to shape the sexuality of their characters. This was a portion of my Masters thesis.

For Composition/Rhetoric, I wrote a new piece on supporting community college students who need remedial writing courses. I focused on the ALP program as a way to improve graduation rates of these at-risk students, and provided practical applications for designing a successful course.

Is anyone planning on doing something with a writing sample? I'm hoping to tidy up the C/R sample and submit it for publication. I published the Lit sample two years ago.

[ThousandsHardships]

@CrunchyMamademic If my future faculty mentor supports the idea (one prospective mentor did mention this as a possibility), then I will edit it for publication. However, I was told by faculty at both my M.A. school and my prospective school that 1) if you publish too early you risk making a reputation for yourself before fully maturing as a scholar, and 2) publications are important for tenure and yet new assistant professors rarely have time for research and writing among their other responsibilities, so it might not be a bad idea to hold onto a few publishable papers until after you get a tenure-track position, such that you get the research output while still being able to dedicate yourself to your other responsibilities. Not sure what other people's opinions are on this.

Edited February 9, 2017 by ThousandsHardships

[imogenshakes]

55 minutes ago, CrunchyMamademic said:

 

I had two writing samples. My literature sample was a queer reading of novels by Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster. I examined the ways the two authors used physical spaces to shape the sexuality of their characters. This was a portion of my Masters thesis.

 

Can I ask which Forster novels? I wrote two papers on Maurice during my MA, one of them was a queer eco reading of it and I think we'd probably have similar approaches, from the sounds of it.

[biyutefulphlower]

So many interesting papers~

My WS was a portion of my Master's thesis, which focused on the French graphic novel Sky Doll.  I used Feminist Sci-Fi critique to analyze at how the creators challenged definitions of what it means to be human and/or a woman through their cyborg heroine (who was built to be a replacement goldfish sex-doll).

@KikiDelivery - Your paper sounds fascinating!  I read Parable of the Sower a few years back and absolutely loved it, though I haven't gotten around to Parable of the Talents yet.  Octavia Butler is just the best~  

[anxiousphd]

3 hours ago, KikiDelivery said:

My writing sample is an excerpt from my thesis. I did a queer and ecocritical reading of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Talents, and how the novel challenges the construction of nature as heteronormative by centering queer liberation as part of climate justice.

No wonder you're getting acceptances-- this sounds really great!

[KikiDelivery]

55 minutes ago, biyutefulphlower said:

So many interesting papers~

My WS was a portion of my Master's thesis, which focused on the French graphic novel Sky Doll.  I used Feminist Sci-Fi critique to analyze at how the creators challenged definitions of what it means to be human and/or a woman through their cyborg heroine (who was built to be a replacement goldfish sex-doll).

@KikiDelivery - Your paper sounds fascinating!  I read Parable of the Sower a few years back and absolutely loved it, though I haven't gotten around to Parable of the Talents yet.  Octavia Butler is just the best~  

 

34 minutes ago, anxiousgrad said:

No wonder you're getting acceptances-- this sounds really great!

Thank you both! Yes, Octavia Butler is absolutely one of my favorite writers! I hope to continue exploring her works for my dissertation. I find the Parable series particularly relevant and urgent right now. 

[CrunchyMamademic]

2 hours ago, ThousandsHardships said:

@CrunchyMamademic If my future faculty mentor supports the idea (one prospective mentor did mention this as a possibility), then I will edit it for publication. However, I was told by faculty at both my M.A. school and my prospective school that 1) if you publish too early you risk making a reputation for yourself before fully maturing as a scholar, and 2) publications are important for tenure and yet new assistant professors rarely have time for research and writing among their other responsibilities, so it might not be a bad idea to hold onto a few publishable papers until after you get a tenure-track position, such that you get the research output while still being able to dedicate yourself to your other responsibilities. Not sure what other people's opinions are on this.

That's really interesting, @ThousandsHardships, and it sounds like pretty sound advice. My MA thesis advisor encouraged publication and conference activity from the beginning. I can absolutely see the benefit of holding on to some good things so that you aren't tapped out and pressed for time on the tenure track, but in my own experience I feel the nudge to start publishing and getting "out there" before I finished my program was really helpful in terms of my career (I'm FT faculty, non tenured, right now and a few years out of my MA).

[CrunchyMamademic]

1 hour ago, imogenshakes said:

Can I ask which Forster novels? I wrote two papers on Maurice during my MA, one of them was a queer eco reading of it and I think we'd probably have similar approaches, from the sounds of it.

I wrote about Maurice! I love that novel. In my thesis, I focused on the homoeroticism of the natural world and intellectual sexuality.

[imogenshakes]

28 minutes ago, CrunchyMamademic said:

I wrote about Maurice! I love that novel. In my thesis, I focused on the homoeroticism of the natural world and intellectual sexuality.

Awesome! When I wrote on it, I used Stacy Alaimo's theory of transcorporeality to argue that Maurice's absence from the narrative at the end of the novel was a "becoming with" his environment and an ultimate acceptance of himself as a natural being. There's that whole crazy primrose thing at the end where Clive perceives him to have dissolved into a pile of its petals...I just got obsessed about the novel from that point.

I'm just so excited other people have done work on this. Every time I ask my colleagues they're like "What now?" haha

[Kilos]

I varied my writing sample depending on the program/school I was applying to. The rhetoric program I applied to got a tailored excerpt from a huge 40+ page research project I wrote/presented on comfort levels/instructional anxiety and success rates/productivity in writing tutorials and classroom composition instruction; it focused on the relationship between comfort and metacognition--the science behind the way in which comfort levels can directly affect (boost) self-efficacy and (decrease) writing anxiety--and how practitioners can go about making the tutorial experience a more comfortable one for all involved. It was geared towards writing centers and tutoring, but I branched it off to directly address comp/rhet instruction. 

For another program I used an essay exploring the way in which absurdist authors/playwrights (Beckett/Stoppard and a few others) use intricately developed personal relationships as a bulwark to defend their characters (and subsequently their readers/viewers) from unmitigated nihilistic despair. It included a bit of a deep-dive into the foundations of the Absurd, exploring some of Camus' and Kierkegaarde's work/theory. I actually regret using this essay, as I think I could have used something more fitting, but it was easily the most enjoyable thing I've ever had the pleasure of writing, and I felt that my enthusiasm may have shone through in the finished product. /shrug

p.s.: totally blown away by some of your topics/ideas/theses. It might just be my impostor syndrome piping up, but for a few brief moments here I felt completely out of my element! You guys are awesome. It's no surprise you're all headed off to amazing programs.

Edited February 9, 2017 by Kilos

[jrockford27]

For programs that allowed longer samples, I used the first and third chapters of my undergrad honors thesis.   The first to give an idea of my theoretical chops, and the third because I felt it best represented my critical capacity, research interests (at the time), analytic skills, and my scholarly voice.  For programs that limited the size of the writing sample I simply used the third chapter, because I felt the latter issues were more important in terms of establishing my fit in a program.  I included a very brief explanatory note that summarized the gaps associated with using excerpts from a larger piece.

Edited February 9, 2017 by jrockford27

[Pezpoet]

I've been out of school for six years. So, I crafted an entirely new sample, which makes me pretty nervous. I had academic friends read it over, but it didn't go through any official academic gauntlet. 

I wrote about Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red, attempting to illuminate how the instabilities of identity (such as sex) engender a space inclusive of uncertainty, limitation, and reckoning, wherein the self actually thrives. Queer Geryon is my vehicle to illustrate this.

All your papers sound great, y'all. Sending lots of strength and confidence to everyone this week!

[ProfessionalNerd]

28 minutes ago, Pezpoet said:

 

I wrote about Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red, attempting to illuminate how the instabilities of identity (such as sex) engender a space inclusive of uncertainty, limitation, and reckoning, wherein the self actually thrives. Queer Geryon is my vehicle to illustrate this.

 

I absolutely adore that text. I bet that your paper is quite interesting!  

[Straparlare]

@Kilos Your absurdist paper sounds fascinating! The paper sounds like a topic I generally would approach xD good luck to you!

@jrockford27 if you care to share, what was the topic of the thesis?

[jrockford27]

Ha, it seems like a century ago now that I wrote it, but the topic was on the interplay between films in stabilizing or destabilizing the cultural memory of the Vietnam war in the United States.  Relied heavily on Althusser and an intransigently modernist conception of both national identity and opposition.  Six and a half years later I'd be a bit embarrassed if I had to read it again.  It involved Apocalypse Now, Rambo, and No Country For Old Men as principal texts.

As I think frequently happens when folks go straight to PhD from undergrad, I'm worlds away from the subject matter now, and the argument was exceptionally vulgar.  But I think something that a lot of folks forget when applying to grad school is that if you already knew everything you were supposed to know, if you were already a brilliant fully developed scholar, you wouldn't need to be in a PhD program.  What seemed to matter most to the program was not whether I was already a real smart well-read guy (I was certainly not), but whether I seemed like I could find an interesting trajectory given time, mentorship, and resources.  

My program director said to me the other day that he was really surprised, in a good way, about the direction I ended up going.  Every program differs, but I don't think a writing sample needs to be a ready-to-publish, immaculately conceived and executed document that provides a segue directly to your dissertation.  It should show them something about you and what kind of scholar you would like to be.

Edited February 9, 2017 by jrockford27