Sunday, October 10, 2010

Writing Sample- oy!

Figuring out which paper to use for your writing sample is rough.  Really, I should develop multiple writing samples catering to specific programs, but it is a LOT of work pumping up an essay to make you look impressive.  Though there are shortcomings (many) to using just the one paper for all (and maybe my advisor will tsk me for being lazy), namely that the page limits/minimums change from program to program.

But it seems that 15 is a good number to aim for.  The paper I'm hoping to use is the last one I wrote as an undergrad (woot woot!) in my senior seminar on Advanced Zen Buddhist Philosophy.  Impressive much?

Anyway, the paper is 12 pages, but I can definitely see places to add (I'm hoping to bring in Dogen's "Tenzo Kyokun" and "Uji" to make a few more points, as well as make some note on method of writing <-- que graduate student-y).  I'm pretty happy with this paper on re-reading it, because I had forgotten A LOT of the concepts and I figured them out again based on my writings- hurrah!

I've also got a rough CV put together-- meeting with H on Thursday to get it really pumped up.  Way to get things in order, Mandy.  Also have a Statement of Purpose writing workshop coming up in a few weeks.  GRE is also scheduled.  Yes, I really am on top of things.  You know, except the whole asking my third letter of rec. writer (or should I say "potential letter of rec. writer") officially to write my letters of rec.  Bother, I'd better make an appt.  But who has the time?

Plus, I really should meet with my advisor (poor poor overworked advisor) to make sure I've got a good list together.  And to see if my writing sample idea flies.  Maybe I should use something more recent, but I like this paper better...

Anyway, I'm going to sleep- cheerio!

1 comment:

Lee said...

Nice blog! I like your writing way. I'm doing practice GRE here: masteryourgre.com . I hope it's useful for GRE test takers.