Original Essay

Creating an essay with your own unique perspective, analysis, and interpretation on a pre-selected topic.

Overview
Put your thoughts on paper and write a thought-provoking essay on a pre-selected topic. Your entry will be evaluated on content, organization, style, and overall impact.

Showcase Your Writing Skills! This competition is an opportunity to demonstrate your ability to research, analyze, and articulate ideas effectively. Good luck! Notes for Judges ● This competition is interview based and requires advanced screening of the contestants materials in order to adequately interview them on the day of the competition. Each contestant will only have an allocated time allotment of 10 minutes. ● You should not under any circumstances engage with the students before or after the competition until the Awards Ceremony has concluded. ● You must provide honest constructive feedback for each contestant that you are judging. ● Scoring Rubric: ○ 95-100 - Qualifies as a Gold Medalist ○ 90+Up - Qualifies as a Silver Medalist ○ 85+Up - Qualifies as a Bronze Medalist ■ Please take heed that the identifying word here is “Qualifies”. There can be multiple contestants that can qualify as gold medalist and if that’s the case the highest score will receive the gold, and silver and bronze will be allocated to the next two highest scores. ■ In the event the highest score is a 90 then there is no gold medalist and there’s only a possibility for a silver and bronze medalist as long as the remaining scores land within the 85+Up region.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. Original Essay: Submit one original, notarized essay.

2. Formatting: The top of each page must include the contestant's name, page number and unit name and number (Coraopolis NAACP #26AB-B).

3. Length: The essay must be typed, double-spaced, and not exceed 6,000 words.

4. Preparation: Contestants should be prepared to answer questions from the judges.

Submission Guidelines:

Ensure that all submissions are original and adhere to the specified guidelines.

Submit the notarized essay by March 20 deadline. Email to coraopolisnaacp@gmail.com

Showcase Your Writing Skills!
This competition is an opportunity to demonstrate your ability to research, analyze, and articulate ideas effectively. Good luck!

Contestants will be judged by the following criteria:

General Merit (25)
Ideas - advances (or considers) existing knowledge while offering a fresh or novel analysis.

Organization, clarity, and flow
Wording - effective use of language, claims, and argumentation

Flavor - (author's) voice/perspective (emotive?) style, depth, creativity.

Mechanics (25)
Proper Usage

Punctuation/Capitalization
Spelling

Overall Effect (50)

Convincing and compelling

Resonance (motivation, inspiration, provocation, etc.)

Topic/issue significance

Educational value (teaches readers something new)