Original Essay

Description:

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 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. Interview: Contestants will be interviewed by a panel of judges to discuss their work.

Submission Guidelines:

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

Submit the essay by March 10, 2027 deadline. Email to coraopolisnaacp@gmail.com

Contestant Introduction: State your introduction in full, per the Contestant Introduction Script, before your interview.
Statement of Integrity: Submit a completed Statement of Integrity Form with your application

Required Submissions

• Bio (PDF) → First_Last_Bio
• Contestant Photo (PDF) → First_Last_CP
• Statement of Integrity (PDF) → First_Last_SOI
• Written Project (PDF) → First_Last_WP

When uploading your documents, you must name each file exactly as shown above in order for it to be properly uploaded and integrated into our automated system.

Example: John_Doe_WP (using your own first and last name, followed by the file label
shown for your category).

Note: If files are not received in these formats, they are out of compliance and ineligible until rectified. If they are not corrected before the deadline, the contestant will no longer be able to compete at this year's iteration of the National Competition

Contestants will be judged by the following criteria:

25 Points: General Merit
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.

25 Points: Mechanics
Proper Usage

Punctuation/Capitalization
Spelling

50 Points: Overall Effect

Convincing and compelling

Resonance (motivation, inspiration, provocation, etc.)

Topic/issue significance

Educational value (teaches readers something new)

100 Total Points

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

Good luck