Essay Contest Encourages Writing From Batavia to Blue Ash From: University of Cincinnati Currents Date: March 3, 2000 By: Dawn Fuller Phone: (513) 556-1823 Archive: Campus News A woman turns away from her violent past and a track toward prison by making the decision to move to another city and enroll in college. A man, a college dropout, realizes the career path he chose was not fulfilling to him, and writes his resignation while on a stakeout to repossess rented furniture. He too would pursue a higher education, enrolling at Clermont College. Both of these personal and painful stories led these students back to school, and became the subject of prize-winning essays that were published for a textbook that can be used in UC's English Composition classes. The Access Committee on English Composition is now sponsoring and taking entries for the third annual Student Writing Contest. The essay competition for the 1999-2000 academic year is open to students taking preparatory or first-year English Composition at UC's five access colleges: the College of Applied Science, University College, College of Evening and Continuing Education, Raymond Walters College and Clermont College. "These students really work for this contest," says committee chair Barbara Wenner, associate professor of language arts, University College. "A lot of these students are non-traditional students. They're older - some of them are mothers returning to school. There's really a broad range of applicants." The categories for the writing contest reflect what students would be assigned to write in class. The essays can be interpretations of other written works, or they can look back on a student's personal experience. Students can submit essays based on traditional research from the library or electronic research, and there is also a category for multi-genre research essays, which can be composed from library research, interviews, or personal observations. Students also can choose to place their essay in an open category competition. A new category has been added to the third annual Student Writing Contest and offers a $500 scholarship to the winner. The "Just Community" category scholarship is awarded to the student with the winning essay that interprets UC's Just Community Readings, distributed to every new UC student. In addition to the $500 scholarship in the Just Community category, the contest offers $100 cash awards for first prize, $75 for second prize, $50 for third prize for each of the four categories and UC Bookstore gift certificates for honorable mentions. There is also a $200 cash prize for "Best of Show." Students must submit their essays and completed application forms to their English Composition professor or English department by April 24. The submissions must also have a reflective cover letter. Students can get application forms from their English professors. Winners will be honored at an awards ceremony around the end of the month of May. Winning essays from the first two years were published by McGraw-Hill Companies and edited by Wenner and Marlene Miner, of Raymond Walters College. Bravo! Prize-Winning Essays from First Year Composition, can be used as a textbook for English Composition classes at the access colleges.