[LIT] Writing Contest?

[davehoh at comcast.net]

I used to do this kind of thing when I was education writer/editor for my local paper, before becoming a teacher. We ran contests for short stories, editorials, editorial cartoons and poetry. Poetry got the biggest response, but the editorials seemed more suited to the purpose of the newspaper and continued the longest. We called it Student Voices. There was a monthly topic, sometimes in the form of a prompt, and we accepted submissions from 7th through 12th graders. I forget the word length, but it was rather short. There were nominal prizes, and a nice end-of-the year celebration to which everyone was invited, sometimes in conjunction with an NIE workshop for teachers. 



A major paper in our area published student essays (personal or topical) on a weekly basis in their youth section, which I haven't seen for awhile, so it may have gone defunct.   



If it's a community paper, rather than a big-city paper, they might like the idea of publishing a student Op-Ed piece on a weekly basis. They would want to open that up to all the high schools in the area, I'm sure. With staff's shrinking, they may not be up for a contest, but they might go for something. Big city papers are tougher to sell on something like this. 



Dave Hoh 

New Jersey  


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "TLP" <tlinsb71 at gmail.com> 
To: "MT" <MiddleTalk1 at LISTS.NMSA.ORG>, "Lit Site" <lit at literacyworkshop.org> 
Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 3:51:12 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: [LIT] Writing Contest? 

I was thinking of sponsoring a writing contest for my students so they 
can have the motivation of a different audience. I thought I would ask 
the local newspaper if they would be interested in publishing some 
"winners."  Has anyone done this type of thing? I am wondering about 
catagoties...Editorial, short story, poetry, humor. I would like to 
see some end of the year excitement on writing for someone other than 
me! 
Tena 

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