In the past month I’ve helped three MA students prepare writing samples to support applications to PhD programs. That’s got me thinking about timing: to reach the first application deadlines, students need a writing sample by December 15, or at the latest January 1. As I see it, our students have the following choices: (1) select an academic paper from the first year of coursework, and rewrite that during the Fall semester; (2) take a cross-section of thesis work in progress and create a writing sample from that; (3) select an academic paper from the third semester of coursework, and finish it early enough that it can be revised in December; (4) plan a two or three chapter thesis far enough in advance that one chapter can go out as a writing sample.
All of these choices have obvious problems. To-wit:
1) Given the improvement I’ve seen with the students I’ve been advising this semester (and last year as well), a first-year writing sample isn’t going the students’ best work. And they know this, and it’s frustrating.
2) My student Chris Hazlett has taken this route. This is extra work; essentially, he’s had to back-burner his thesis research while finishing his writing sample. You can’t chase down a new line of thinking, no matter where it takes you, when there’s a deadline to be met. Also, I think writing the sample has made Chris feel that in some ways he’s settling: given the insights and progress he’s made since starting the sample essay, it’s won’t be his best academic work. (That’s good in the long run, because it makes for a better thesis.)
3) The timeline on this is very tight, but I think it’s the best option, because it potentially puts some distance between the student’s thesis project and her sample essay. It also allows presentation of the “best” work.
4) I like this the least. A lot of us are “finding themselves,” so to speak, in their first year of coursework. (I didn’t even know that rhetoric and composition was a discipline of English studies until I started my MA.) So will they be able to do this planning? I’m afraid enforcing this timeline would push too many students to commit to a line of coursework and/or research which might be unsatisfying in the long run. I also think, like Ulmer, that the thesis should be modeled on an academic article, and I’d rather see a 25 page thesis which could be published than a 60 page essay with a literature review, etc.
I welcome all suggestions, and/or pointers for further reading.