2000-2001 ESSAY CONTEST
Subject: The Election Process
After reading the material provided and answering the required questions, decide whether you favor a direct election or the Electoral College and defend your choice. Also include in your essay a description of a campaign reform discussed in 2000, but not mentioned in the required reading, and explain why you think it should become law. Use the Internet for your research, if possible and cite urls.
First Prize
= $100
Second Prize = $ 7 5
Third Prize
= $ 25
Anyone may enter. There are three categories: (1) Schools that submit a minimum of ten essays from one class. Three prizes will be awarded to every school that submits a minimum of ten qualifying entries. (2) Schools with fewer than ten students submitting essays. They will have their essays merged with other schools in the same situation. (3) Individuals of any age. They will find their work displayed as Unaffiliated and their essays will be judged with others in this category. Never will an essay be judged against more than 30 essays in any category.
Print the
Required Reading and
Questions.
Teachers should make copies for each participating student. Students should use
the required reading for background and to answer the questions. Use the
Internet as a research tool.
Papers must be accompanied by
answers to the questions. Make certain students state each question before
giving their answer.
Rules
1. All quotations used in essays must be noted and cited at the end of the work. The only notation in the body of the paper should be quotation marks. No quote should exceed four sentences.
2. All essays must be typed into a computer (English only) double spaced, checked for grammatical and spelling errors and be no less than 750 words nor more than 1,000 words in length. Do not send print copies.
3. We suggest the most computer literate student in the class assume the responsibility of seeing that all essays reach the Foundation via email. Floppies can be brought from home and sent via a school computer and modem or submitted from a home with a teacher's permission. Do not submit essays until all are ready. The body of the email should list the name of every student participant as you wish to see it posted online. We can accept essays as attached documents in Microsoft Word for Windows, Plain text or Rich Text Format or as text copied into the body of an email. We are not responsibile for documents that are lost or distorted during transmission or that reach us in a format that we cannot open.
Please be sure to keep copies at your end until you receive your awards. Please contact us with questions or problems: contest@singerfoundation.org
or 831-625-4223.
Excerpts from the essays will be posted on the Foundation web site as they are read. Entries, upon submittal, become the property of The Harry Singer Foundation.