Writing Sample: Full Length (23 pp) with "recommended" pp?
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2014 9:26 pm
Anonymous because I've discussed this issue openly with classmates and would prefer to keep my handle private.
In a UT forum on clerkships, a group of judges (Cir, Dist, and SSC) generally agreed that they prefer the entire writing sample over an excerpt, within reason. My entire sample would be 23 pages if I don't excerpt it. Further, not excerpting it means I can provide just one or two short sentences of context on the cover page, rather than a lengthy cover page of the sort the judges also agreed they would not want to read.
So here's my question: Would it be appropriate to provide an entire writing sample and then on the (now very concise) cover page say "Should you desire a shorter writing sample, I recommend section II, '[title of section],' beginning at the top of page 8 and concluding on page 16"?
[ETA: I have confidence in the quality of the entire writing sample, so I would not be worried about judges (or clerks) saying "well in that case I'll read pp. 17-23." The section I recommend, which I've used before as my excerpt, happens to be the one that least requires the reader to have the context of the entire document.]
In a UT forum on clerkships, a group of judges (Cir, Dist, and SSC) generally agreed that they prefer the entire writing sample over an excerpt, within reason. My entire sample would be 23 pages if I don't excerpt it. Further, not excerpting it means I can provide just one or two short sentences of context on the cover page, rather than a lengthy cover page of the sort the judges also agreed they would not want to read.
So here's my question: Would it be appropriate to provide an entire writing sample and then on the (now very concise) cover page say "Should you desire a shorter writing sample, I recommend section II, '[title of section],' beginning at the top of page 8 and concluding on page 16"?
[ETA: I have confidence in the quality of the entire writing sample, so I would not be worried about judges (or clerks) saying "well in that case I'll read pp. 17-23." The section I recommend, which I've used before as my excerpt, happens to be the one that least requires the reader to have the context of the entire document.]