How Do I Develop Writing Samples for a Grad School Application?

Letter Thirty-Three: Dear Developing Writing Samples

Most importantly, the writing samples are demonstrations of your words, your understandings, your conceptualizations and that (usually, though I can’t speak for all) matters much more than where the writing lives (journal, magazine, blog, etc). If one type of writing, or one setting was most important to them, they would have specified that you need to submit an essay or a manuscript or a policy brief for the application, but because they didn’t, it’s most likely indicating that the content matters most above all.