Essay_Contest

“Your Life-Your Passion” Organized by the English Language Teachers’ Association of Macedonia (ELTAM) with the assistance of US Peace Corps Volunteers.

For Schools and Youth Organizations in Macedonia

1

What: 2011 National English Essay Contest Who: Students in grades 7 & 8 and years 1, 2, 3, & 4 in both public and private language schools are eligible to participate. Students who study in full immersion English schools or who have spent more than six months in an English speaking country are NOT eligible to participate.

Regional and national winners will be awarded in three categories: (1) 7th and 8th Grade (2) 1st and 2nd Year High School (3) 3rd and 4th Year High School Due Date: Students must submit completed essays to nationalessaycontest@gmail.com by December 23rd, 2011. Late entries will NOT be accepted. If you do not have access to the internet or need to submit your essay in hard copy, please notify your local Peace Corps Volunteer or one of the National Coordinators.

Winners: • Regional and National winners will be announced by February 15, 2012 • All submissions will receive a participation certificate • Regional Winners will receive an award certificate • National winners and their sponsoring teacher will be invited to an Awards Ceremony in Skopje at the Peace Corps Macedonia headquarters. Pending the American Ambassador’s schedule winners may be invited to the American Embassy.

Rules: 1. Each essay must be the individual work of one student. If you are caught cheating or plagiarizing you will be disqualified.

2. All essays should be personal narratives, so no citing is necessary. If you choose to use quotes or information from other sources, it must be cited.

3. Teachers are encouraged to instruct their students on proper essay writing, but they may not assist their students with their essays by giving suggestions, correcting mistakes, or offering other specific help.

4. The essay must be written in English and submitted on time.

5. Each participant may only enter once during this contest.

6. The essay’s minimum length is 350 words. The maximum length is 500 words. Essays over the limit by 10% or more will be disqualified.

7. The submission template can be accessed via FaceBook at National Essay Contest Macedonia OR you can request it via e-mail at nationalessaycontest@gmail.com . Include your personal information on the front page of the essay including: Your Name School Name Address & City Grade Phone Number Teacher or Advisor Name E-mail Address or FB name

2

Write an essay about your PASSION. What causes you to become excited, joyful, incensed 1 or moved to action? Everyone has a special interest, hobby, or cause that they are particularly passionate about from music, sports, collecting stamps or community service. Think about what you are most passionate about. When and how did you develop this passion? How do you pursue it today? How do you plan to continue pursuing your passion? This is a personal narrative so no citing is necessary. If you choose to use quotes or information from other sources, they must be cited or it will be considered plagiarism and the essay will be disqualified.

Teachers should feel free to guide students in discussion of the topic and to share with them the following basic principles of good essay writing. Remember, you should not help them write the essay itself. This includes proofreading it after they write a draft.

Rules: 1. Each essay must be the individual work of one student. If you are caught cheating or plagiarizing you will be disqualified.

2. All essays should be personal narratives, so no citing is necessary. If you choose to use quotes or information from other sources, it must be cited.

3. Teachers are encouraged to instruct their students on proper essay writing, but they may not assist their students with their essays by giving suggestions, correcting mistakes, or offering other specific help.

4. The essay must be written in English and submitted on time.

5. Each participant may only enter once during this contest.

6. The essay’s minimum length is 350 words. The maximum length is 500 words. Essays over the limit by 10% or more will be disqualified.

Tips to get started The Writing Process: 3 Main Steps 1. Prewriting: Generating ideas; Planning and organizing your ideas 2. Writing: Using your ideas to write a first draft 3. Revising and Editing: Checking and improving what you have written 1. Prewriting – getting started – a way to warm up your brain before you write.

Generating ideas – prewriting techniques that are usually used to generate ideas.

Brainstorming – a list of as many ideas as possible (words, phrases, sentences, or even questions) without worrying about how you will use them.

Clustering – a visual way of generating ideas; to show you the connections among your ideas using circles and lines.

Discussion – to talk about the topic with your classmates, friends, family, or other people.

Free writing – if it is hard finding a focus for a broad subject write as much as you can, as fast as you can, without worrying about mistakes.

Planning and organizing ideas – Make a simple outline as a guide. Group the items that go together, and cross out items that do not belong there (irrelevant or not related to the topic). Organize them by order of time, place, or importance.

2. Writing Paragraphs – A paragraph is a group of sentences that all relate to a single topic.

Topic Sentence – The topic of the paragraph is usually stated in the first sentence. It should not be too general or too specific.

Supporting Sentences – Add details to the topic (reasons, facts, personal experience, and examples). There should be enough supporting sentences to prove your point made in the topic sentence. They should be as specific as possible and not repeat the point made in the topic sentence.

Concluding Sentence – Some of the paragraphs have it, and it summarizes the ideas of the paragraph. It is the last sentence.

1

angered with something unjust or wrong 3

3. Revising and Editing – It is impossible to write a perfect paragraph/essay on the first try.

Revising – to look at the paragraph again and find out how it can be improved.

Editing – the final part of the revision step. What kind of changes should be made as it is revised?

Revising and editing checklist for paragraphs: 1. Make sure you have a topic sentence 2. Cross out sentences that do not relate to the main idea.

3. Check to see if the sentences are in the right order.

4. Add new ideas if they support the topic sentence.

5. Make sure you have included transitions to help guide the reader.

6. Check the grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Basic plan of a typical essay Once you know how to write a paragraph, it is not much more difficult to write an essay; an essay is just longer. An essay is a group of paragraphs about a specific subject. An essay makes and supports one main point. However, the subject of an essay is too complex to be developed in a few sentences. Several paragraphs are needed to support fully the main point of an essay.

1. Introduction: Background information – Captures reader’s attention using anecdotes, questions, or facts and statistics.

The Main Idea – It should start with a general discussion of the subject and lead up to the main idea or thesis statement. It narrows down the focus, it tells the reader what the essay will be about, and what points you will be making in the essay.

2. Body – Consists of several paragraphs that support the thesis. Each supporting paragraph develops one point of the essay. The body may have only one paragraph, but it is usually more. You can use as many as you need to say what you need to say.

3. Conclusion – Sums up the essay, without using the same words, the main points of the essay, or restates the main idea of your essay. You should leave the reader agreeing, disagreeing, or at least thinking about your ideas.

Revising and editing checklist for essays: 1. Is your essay easy to read?

2. Is your essay easy to understand?

3. Do your arguments make sense? Are they convincing?

4. Do you use confusing vocabulary when you don’t need to?

5. Do you use repetition to remind your reader of your main points?

6. Do you use transition statements (linking words) to show how your ideas connect to each other?

7. Are there any misspelled words?

8. Did you use your punctuation correctly?

9. Is your grammar correct?

Online Essay Writing Resources www.eltam.org.mk www.bham.ac.uk/english/bibliography/students/essay.htm http://members.tripod.com/~lklivingston/essay/index.html http://educhoices.org/articles/50_of_the_Best_Websites_for_Writers.html http://www.webenglishteacher.com/narrative.html http://www.eslflow.com/AcademicWritng.html

4

A Note on Cheating, Plagiarism, and Receiving Help Cheating and plagiarism are very serious offenses and the National English Essay Contest has a NO TOLERANCE policy.

What is cheating?

When a person deceives, misleads or lies on purpose, or does not follow the rules or regulations, that person is cheating. Specifically applied to this essay contest, any student who does not submit an essay consisting only of his or her own ideas is cheating. The form of cheating most likely to be encountered in an essay contest is plagiarism.

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is when a person presents someone else’s work as his or her own. Examples include copying from a friend or a book, cutting and pasting from essays found on the Internet, or even including a well-known quotation without citing who said it. Any essays that include plagiarism will be disqualified, as well as any duplicate essays (i.e. if two students submit essays containing identical content then both students will be disqualified).

Note: The goal of this contest is for students to be creative and express their own individual ideas and writing style, therefore we suggest that students do not include ANY research or quotations, even if properly cited.

What help may students receive?

Teachers and advisors may help students by teaching them the fundamentals of essay writing and holding writing workshops, but should not contribute to the actual writing of the submitted essay. All ideas and content, structural decisions and word choices must be the student’s own.

Teachers may read the finished essay in order to make sure it follows the criteria for the contest and may advise the student if changes must be made, but they may not aid students with corrections of essay content.

ALL essays will be CAREFULLY checked and if the judges discover instances of cheating and plagiarism that student will be disqualified.

5

Judging Criteria Content relevance 11-15 points The content is relevant and corresponds to the given task from a language and cultural aspect. Ideas are clear and text offers suitable examples. There are elements of creativity in the text.

Structure/format (organization)

Use of lexis (vocabulary/voice)

Use of grammatical structures

Orthography and punctuation

8-10 points Very familiar with organization and structure appropriate to the given task. Ideas logically connected in logical paragraphs.

Uses a range of appropriate linking words.

5-7 points The structure is compatible to the given task. Not much attention is paid to the logical connection of the ideas in the text and the appropriate linking words.

5 points Lexis is rich and appropriately used.

5 points The candidate uses appropriate grammatical structures. With minor mistakes.

5 points Minor spelling and punctuation mistakes.

4 points Lexis is rich although there are minor errors in it’s usage when using more complex statements.

4 points Grammatical structures are used appropriately but there are mistakes when using the more complex structures.

4 points There are spelling and punctuation mistakes that may interfere with the understanding of the text.

4-6 points The content is partially relevant to the task. There is repetition of ideas and the text is full of irrelevant information.

3-4 points The text has an unsuitable format and there is inappropriate use of linking words

3 points Lexis is limited but enables the candidate to express himself/herself in simple language.

3 points The candidate uses simple structures and there are mistakes.

3 points There are spelling and punctuation mistakes that interfere with understanding the text.

1-3 points The content is totally unsuitable to the task. Ideas are unclear and the text contains irrelevant information.

1-2 points The text has no structure, no paragraphs and there is inappropriate use of linking words.

1-2 points Lexis is very limited and inappropriate to the task.

There are a lot of mistakes.

1-2 points The candidate uses simple structures and there are a lot of mistakes

1-2 points There are many spelling and punctuation mistakes that make it difficult for the reader to understand.

0 points Insufficient for assessment

0 points Insufficient for assessment

0 points Insufficient for assessment

0 points Insufficient for assessment

7-10 points The content is relevant to the task. However, one can see that there isn’t suitable knowledge regarding the cultural aspect. The ideas are clear although there are occasional inappropriate pieces of information.

0 points Insufficient for assessment

Grade: ________ City/Town: ___________________________ Name: ______________________________ Score: _________________

6