STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

halleybird · Hermes

English majors: help!

Shello · Kenneth Cole

I'm not an english major, but I'm guessing that admissions officers are probably not going to read everyone's entire writing sample, so which one would you think is better skimmed over? I think both topics are advanced enough that they would be appropriate as writing samples, but whichever sounds more original and impressive when read quickly might be better.

Personally, I like the concept of the research paper more and think it might be something different than a comparison paper, which they probably will see a lot of, but since you seem to like your ideas better in the shorter paper, I chose that and also because it's more likely that the admissions people will read the entire thing, or more of it.

relrel · Marc Jacobs

well, first off...the first one is about movies, right? that doesn't seem to be very appropiate, even though i realize that the big sleep is based on a book by raymond chandler it doesn't seem to work for a english masters degree. are you comparing the book (bear with me but im not familiar with chandler's work) to american beauty or the movie to american beauty? i think the second paper prolly has more to do with an masters in english. however, since it is 20 pages i would cut it down (does the application ask for a specific length? can you email somebody and ask them thier opinion on length?).

read them both over and go with your gut, which is your better writing? if it is the first one...than i would suggest just getting yourself a chocolate bar and start retyping it over. hope that helps a little!

by the way...i only have two copies of anything i wrote either from undergrad. some of which i prolly would have liked to have but alas...i didn't put anything on disc for some unknown reason so i feel for you. it does suck.

esquiress · Marc Jacobs

#1 sounds fascinating. i was totally into it before i even read what #2 was about and i'm sticking with my first instinct. it also sounds like a quicker read and i think for application purposes, shorter is better.

also, and this is jmo but in the research v. writing skills debate, i'm always much more impressed by how well a person can articulate an argument, because research skills are just much easier to teach aren't they? like if someone has solid arguments and writing skills, their research skills can be easily improved whereas i don't necessarily think the inverse is true. then again, i wasn't an english major so maybe i'm underestimating the importance of research?

as for your professor's comments written on #1, i'm undecided on if that's a bad thing or not. on the one hand, it shows that someone else was impressed by it and that's good. but on the other hand, maybe it would look like you were trying to show off or something? i don't know but couldn't you re-type it so as not to turn in the version w/ comments?

-- Edited by esquiress at 22:10, 2006-01-01

blubirde · Chanel

I agree with esquiress. I was immediately drawn to #1. Can I read it?? It sounds interesting and a bit more out of the ordinary, as opposed to the Bronte paper. The Bronte one sounds good but it doesn't sound like it would stand out in a crown, unlike the first one.

For what it's worth, there's my opinion!

halleybird · Hermes

OK, I decided on the first one. And duh! Of course I can retype it (esquiress, you are so wicked smahhht!). You don't really want to read it, do you blubirde?

I just realized that when I wrote my letter of intent, I said that I wanted to concentrate my grad-school research on the influence of earlier literary periods on modern-day culture. So this fits really well. YAY!

ETA: I am an idiot -- my essay is on High Window, not The Big Sleep. The main character is the same, though. I don't know why I got them confused -- I never read The Big Sleep.

-- Edited by halleybird at 16:37, 2006-01-03