University of Minnesota First-Year Writing Awards

The University of Minnesota is excited to announce that we are accepting submissions by self-nomination for our First-Year Writing Awards:  Writing from Experience and Writing with Sources.  Both awards reflect our programmatic focus on multimodal composing, the writing process, and rhetorical awareness.  

Both awards invite self-nomination only.  We welcome students who were enrolled in WRIT 1201 or WRIT 1301 in Spring 2022, Summer 2022, and Fall 2022 to submit compositions you wrote in the course to these award categories. You may not submit the same piece of work for both awards, but may submit different pieces to be considered for each award.  

All Submissions to the Writing with Sources and the Writing From Experience Award will automatically be considered by the selection committee for the  Scott Jacobson Spirit Award which recognizes a piece of student writing that best embodies the virtues of our beloved colleague Scott Jacobson: vitality, concise wit, and humor. 

Award recipients will be notified by email in the spring.  Recipients will receive a prize and have their essay published on the FYW Program website and in the Digital Conservancy.

Writing from Experience Award

Submission requirements:   

• Reflects and develops the significance and meaning of a personal experience.
• Produced for a 1201 or 1301 course
• Produced in any mode or genre 
• Demonstrates rhetorical awareness through strategic choices 
• Submissions via google form

Criteria for Award: 

• The essay uses personal experience to powerfully and effectively deliver a message.
• The essay is highly adapted to meet the needs of the rhetorical situation. This essay is highly successful in engaging the intended audience. Both macro-level (message, organization, flow) and micro-level choices (word choice, sentence structure, style) enable the intended audience to think about the topic.
• The organization, content, and presentation of the essay effectively communicate a purpose, message, or takeaway.

Submit Your Essay

Writing with Sources Award

Submission requirements:

• Uses sources as a critical strategy to develop the argument or purpose of the piece.  
• Produced for a 1201 or 1301 course.
• Produced in any mode or genre
• Demonstrates rhetorical awareness through strategic choices.
• Submission via google form

Criteria for Award:

• The composition introduces a question that is engaging and of significance to a target audience and explores the question in substantive and illuminating ways.
• The essay skillfully integrates a range of sources to inquire into and develop insight into the question(s) raised by the essay.
• The essay is highly adapted to meet the needs of the rhetorical situation. The essay is highly successful in engaging the intended audience. Both macro-level (mode, genre, message, organization, flow) and micro-level choices (word choice, sentence structure, document design, style) enable the  intended audience to  to think about the topic.
• The organization, content, and presentation of the essay very effectively communicate a purpose, message, or takeaway.

Submit Your Essay

Winners:

Winning submissions are available to read via the University Digital Conservancy.