Writing Sample Guidelines

1. Choose Your Best Work. The most important guideline is that you should submit a
document that reflects your own writing ability and is the best example of your work
product. You want to choose a document that you substantially wrote, rather than one that
was heavily edited by others. If your first year memo meets these standards and your big
summer research memo does not, choose your first year memo.

2. Consider Page Length. Employers receive many applications, and may not be able to
carefully read them all. As a result, they may be more likely to read a short piece, say
about 10-15 pages long. Indeed, some employers impose a page limit on writing samples.

Some of you have long writing samples, including briefs or journal Notes that you may
want to consider submitting. As with everything, there are differing views on submitting
long works, with some career professionals encouraging it and others taking the position
that, because a long work is unlikely to be read, there is no t much value in submitting it.
One middle ground, and the one we favor, is to submit an excerpt of a long work with a
cover page (an abstract in essence) that puts the excerpt in context. For example, if you
choose to submit the third of four arguments made in a long brief, your cover page should
address the nature of the brief, background facts necessary to understand the arguments, a
short summary of the other arguments made in the brief and, perhaps, why you chose to
highlight the third argument (perhaps it was the one that you wrote most substantially or
perhaps it turned out to be the winning argument). Preparing such an abstract will also
demonstrate to a prospective employer that you are capable of conveying information in a
short and concise manner.

3. Do you need permission? If you are considering submitting a document that you
prepared for an employer (and that was not filed in court), you will need that employer's
permission to do so. Even if your document was filed in court, good practice dictates that
you request the employer's permission. It is also good practice to mention that fact in any
cover page that you may submit with your writing sample -- it will demonstrate to the
employer that you are sensitive to issues of confidentiality and privilege. Some
employers, in particular government agencies, prohibit the use of work product unless it
has been filed in court -- always check.

4. Your sample must be error free. It seems obvious, but you must both spell check and
read (then read again) your work to ensure that there are no typos or grammatical errors.
In the words of one employer: "Typos will be fatal". You get the picture.

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