Santa Clara University © 2009
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Employers don’t need more than about ten pages to evaluate an applicant’s writing skills.
Two or three pages can be more that enough to discern that a writing sample is weak or strong,
but it may take more reading to make finer discriminations. Because the competition is keen, I
make fine discriminations among strong papers. Some applicants resort to overkill, providing a
stack of writing samples. This excess stems from trying to cover all the bases, not knowing what
the employer is looking for. It’s more graceful simply to ask employers what they want.
Some students are not averse to using writing sample that most employers cannot readily
understand. A student should send a writing sample that deals with an arcane subject only to
employers who can appreciate it. Some writing samples have an elliptical quality, because
students have cut them to create more manageable lengths. When students cut a paper, they
should not delete necessary context, and they should annotate the cover—for example, “I have
omitted Arguments III and IV.”
A writing sample should allow an employer to assess the applicant’s work. Sometimes an
applicant’s writing sample appears on its face to be someone else’s work—for example, a sample
maybe a memorandum of points and authorities or an appellate brief signed by a supervising
attorney. If that is the case, applicant’s need to explain their part and the attorney’s part in
drafting the memorandum. In law firms and clinics, students who are doing pleadings are
sometimes given a boiler plate shell from which to start. In such cases, applicants need to explain
what is boiler plate and what is original work. I’ve received writing samples with whole sections
in common from students who clerked in the same office. Anytime applicants use writing
samples containing work that is not their own, they should provide an explanatory note.
When students use a writing sample that is not entirely their own work—a moot court
brief is a common example—they should cross out the part they didn’t write. Simple annotating
the front page with who wrote what doesn’t suffice. Applicants need to make it easy. Unless they
draw an “X” through or excise, the pages they didn’t write, it’s too easy to mistake someone
else’s work for theirs. When students hand over a writing sample during an interview, they can
ill-afford the time it takes to explain who wrote what. Wasting time makes students appear
unprepared. If students need to explain what they wrote, or anything else about their writing
sample, they should write it on the cover sheet.
Students should excise confidential/sensitive information from their writing sample.
Some applicant’s thoughtlessly breach confidentiality. When students fail to redact out
confidential material, it no longer matters whether they write well. They have tainted their
application. When students delete confidential information they should insert fictitious material
to maintain the flow of the text. Otherwise, reading their writing sample will be a real chore.
From time to time, students go awry trying to be memorable. They choose a writing
sample with lurid subject matter, distracting the employer from the merits of writing. When
students resort to shock value, the impression they’re making is unfavorable.
Some students try to gain an edge by putting their application materials in elaborate
notebooks. Documents like appellate briefs that are customarily bound are acceptable. But when
students stick an unbound writing sample in a binder just to dress it up, they create two
problems. One, binders take up room; someone has to strip the writing sample from its binder
before putting it in the file. Two, once employers strip writing samples, the have to do something
with the binders. I have received binders so expensive that I felt obliged to return them.
Discourage students from burdening employers with binders.
I conclude with a bit of advice that many students want to hear, something career service
professionals can comment to every student about every writing sample: “Put your name on it.”