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Deadline
Submit all manuscripts by 11:59 p.m. Feb. 24, 2023.
Awards
Awards will be given for first, second, and third place in each category. All first-place winners will receive $500, all second-place winners will receive $350, and all third-place winners will receive $200. Payments will be issued by check.
Winners will be contacted by email and acknowledged publicly at the Connections Project Awards Ceremony.
President's Writing Awards is an annual writing contest that recognizes and honors excellence in student writing at College of Western Idaho (CWI). A foundational academic skill, celebration of writing across the disciplines underscores its importance and encourages students to approach it from a variety of perspectives.
Contest Rules
Contest categories are open to all manuscripts produced for coursework at CWI. Submissions that do not meet category criteria or contest rules will not be included in the contest process. Contest organizers and readers will not move misplaced submissions from one category to another, nor will they make edits to help submissions meet guidelines.
- Students must be enrolled at College of Western Idaho to be eligible to submit and receive an award.
- College of Western Idaho staff are eligible to submit writing done for coursework at CWI, but faculty are not eligible.
- Previously published writing is not eligible for submission.
- Students may submit to multiple categories but are limited to one submission per category.
- No submission may be submitted to more than one category.
How to Submit
All identifying information (student name, instructor name and class) should be removed from manuscripts before submission. Send submissions one at a time as .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf files. All submissions must be submitted through myCommons on Blackboard.
Submit your writing on Blackboard*
*Open Blackboard, under the My Organizations group select myCommons, then select Events & Opportunities to locate the President’s Writing Awards portal and submit your work.
Students will need to include the following with each submission:
- Preferred email address
- Student ID number
- Name of year, semester, professor and class the submission was written for
Instructors will certify that finalist submissions were written for coursework at CWI. By submitting to the President's Writing Awards students attest that their writing is free of plagiarism.
Categories
- First-Year Writing: Essays completed for 101 - level courses (e.g., CWID 101, ENGL 101, etc.). Essays should not exceed 10 pages.
- Creative Nonfiction: Essays in this category should be first-person accounts that explore the writer's experiences or observations.
- Fiction: Short stories in this category should be complete, stand-alone pieces of fiction.
- Poetry: Poems in this category are open to any length and form.
- Critical Analysis: Essays in this category should critically evaluate or analyze a piece of literature, a theatrical performance, a work of visual art, a historical moment, a philosophical argument, a social movement, etc.
- Literature Based Research: Research essays analyzing published sources. Must follow documentation styles specific to their disciplines. Essays should not exceed 20 pages.
- Original Research: Reports of findings from original research conducted by the student on a topic through experiments, surveys, observations, lab reports, etc., in the documentation style specific to the discipline.
- Workplace Writing: Documents created for a professional setting to provide instruction, direction, or explanation. Documents may include brochures, grant requests, business proposals, memos, press releases, etc.
Contest Process
Submissions will be read and ranked by a panel of three CWI instructors per category. Finalists for each category will be forwarded to the President of the College, who will determine first, second, and third place winners. Students will be notified by the end of April. Students who are selected as finalists will need to complete and return a W9 form. All winning submissions will be published on the President’s Writing Awards website. CWI reserves first internet rights for publication on the website and rights for using winning submissions for promotional and educational purposes. Publication rights revert to the student writer upon online publication.