Some new thoughts about the SOP and writing samples

I've been talking with a couple people this week who are in the process of applying for GGD and other various programmes for the November deadline. The SOP and writing samples reflect a fairly constraining and conservative structure that makes innovation and setting yourself apart rather difficult, and I've posted several times about these required documents. But what follows are some suggestions of a more existential nature that reflect my own writing style that bridges policy and theory.

Ideally you want to leave a positive impression with the people who read your SOP and writing samples so much so that they offer you admission. The best way to do this is to write about something that you know well and will change the way the readers view a certain subject. An intrigued person will always want to read more.

This may sound slightly corny, but when I've been at my most successful, I've been able to do this and get pretty good results.

Engage with the structure of something you know well, yet are somewhat skeptical of (being a true believer in this something will make deconstructing it impossible). The European Union or another multinational organisation. Capitalism. Neo-liberalism. Wall Street. A Party. The political system of a particular country. Step outside of its temperality and visualise where and how asymmetrical relationships within it exist. Something no one else may have yet observed, or at least put together in a certain way. Gaps, intended or accidental, in how its policies may be set up. Then write about it as a writing sample or the research proposal in the final portion of your SOP.

The best examples of this process being accomplished can be seen in literature. Here are several books that have informed my writing process and policy analysis (this beats out dry readings of ontology and epistemology in qualitative research methods):

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Labyrinths collection of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

And in the philisophical realm of course the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault.

In the realm of film, I was recently introduced to a 1990's independent film called SLC Punk! that, in its own way, pulls this off as well. On television, the comedies Arrested Development and Community and the drama Life on Mars (original UK) would also be recommended in this fashion.

This post was a little different but hopefully it will help you out.

My thanks to Michael and Evan for intoducing me to some of the aforementioned works.