The Philosophers' Cocoon

In our November "how can we help you?" thread, a reader writes:

I am writing in response to the thread that got going earlier on diversity statements and their length. One respondent mentioned that all of their materials were just one page, and I'd like to hear from others if this is true of them as well, and also from perhaps hiring committee members that this is what they prefer. I'm especially interested in the proper length of a research statement.

In my own case, my diversity and teaching statements are one page. However, my research statement is longer. I've had friends who have been hired share their research statements with me, and they were very long, like, five pages singled-spaced long. Now I know someone can say, "Well, that whole thing isn't going to get read." But I guess my response is, so? It's all there if they want to read it. My statement is fairly long, but I also have a little roadmap that tells them what area of my research I discuss in each section. So if they want to jump around, they can do that. Is that bad? Would that annoy you if you were a hiring committee member?

One more thought here (I know this is already long-winded): Wouldn't it be the case that shorter research statements speak in broad brush strokes? And isn't that not great? I'm imagining a short statement that just spends three or four sentences describing each project, or just says things like, "My next project explores the rationality of anger; I argue X." The end. I guess my issue with this tricky document is figuring out how to say enough for the reader to see your ideas are not half-baked, but not so much that it starts to read like a scholarly article.

Help?

Great questions! I'll be very curious to hear what other readers who have served on search committees think. However, here are a few quick thoughts of my own.

The first thing I'm inclined to think here is that, all things being equal, shorter is better. Search committee members can be really strapped for time, and to be frank, it can be positively frustrating to come across a file with a 5 page research statement. I can easily imagine a reader not making it past the second page, particularly if the material is dense and other candidates' research statements are 1-3 pages.  My own sense is that 2 pages is about right for a research statement, and that two pages is more than enough for a candidate to provide both the 'broad strokes' of their research program as well as some important details. On that note, I think it's important to bear in mind the purposes of a research statement. The primary purpose is to simply introduce the reader to your research program, exciting them about what you are doing and showing them that it promises to lead to publications sufficient for tenure. The details of your research? That's what the writing sample is for! When I was on a search committee, I distinctly remember coming across a dossier where everything was 'short and sweet', as it were. It was an absolute revelation. I loved that dossier: it was well-trimmed of all 'unnecessary fat.' Finally, as someone who has served several times as a job-market mentor (in the Cocoon's mentoring program), I have to say that most of the research statements I've helped candidates work on were far more verbose than they should be. It takes a lot of work to have crisp, concise materials–but my sense is that it can make a real difference. Similarly, I was told by my job-market consultant that a teaching statement should be no more than 1-2 pages, which also seems right to me.  

But these are just my thoughts. I'd be curious to hear from other search committee members. And what about other materials? How long should a teaching dossier be? What about writing samples?