<p>When sending a writing sample to grad schools, when the instructions ask for part of a paper, does that mean the author should select any portion of the paper that she thinks would stand alone (in the required number of pages) or should it be the beginning? Also, does one include the bibliography as part of the required number of pages? Additional pages? Or not at all since it was already graded by the undergrad professor? Thank you!</p>
<p>Please don’t move this to the grad schoo, forum.</p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be the beginning, but if it isn’t, I think the typical thing to do is to include a one paragraph summary of the project as a whole to give the reader some context. That’s what I did. Just make sure that the distinction between the summary and the paper proper is clear - I single-spaced the summary so that it was obvious what I was doing.</p>
<p>That only applies, however, if you’re taking an extract of a very long work, like a thesis. If you have a 25 or 30 page paper and the WS is supposed to be 15-20, I’d suggest just finding a way to shorten it. </p>
<p>I can’t remember if the bibliography counts or not, but since the bibliography and notes don’t usually come to more than a couple of pages, it shouldn’t really matter. I don’t think anyone will care if the limit is 20 and you submit 20 pages of text and two pages of notes. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what you mean by “not at all since it was already graded by the undergrad professor.” What does that have to do with anything?</p>
<p>In any case, good luck to your D!</p>
<p>Appreprinticeprof, the sample needs to be five pages, which means that a multi-page bibliography would take up a huge chunk if included in page count. What I meant by asking if it should be included, is that perhaps a writing sample submitted by a student in good standing might carry the presumption of academic integrity and, therefore, the bibliography might need not be included because it wouldn’t be relevant to the context of demonstrating writing ability.</p>
<p>I would think if you’re shortening the paper itself significantly, you’d only keep the bibliography references in there if they were referenced in that portion of the paper. </p>
<p>That sounds like a really good question for to ask admissions though, to be on the safe side.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize you were talking about such a short writing sample. That does change things. Even so, it is never OK to just leave out a bibliography- although if the paper is shorter, I would think the bibliography would be proportionately shorter as well. I agree with 2016BarnardMom. Just call the school - although honestly, I suspect if you didn’t and just gave them 5 pages plus a bibliography, I doubt it would be a problem.</p>
<p>Can footnotes be used in place of the bibliography?</p>