John D. Wilson Essay Contest 2008
Contest Rules

In 1984, the Mu Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa established the John D. Wilson Essay Contest to recognize excellence in undergraduate writing. All current undergraduate students at Virginia Tech interested in competing for this prize are asked to submit an analytical or interpretive essay, as stipulated by the explanation and rules below.

The selection committee will award a prize of $500 for the best essay. The winning essayist will also be honored at the annual Phi Beta Kappa initiation ceremony at 12:00 noon Friday, May 9, 2008. All interested undergraduate students should read the following criteria and rules carefully.

Deadline for Submission: All essays must be submitted to Mikhelle Taylor at the College of Science Administration Building (0405) no later than 5 p.m., Friday, April 11, 2008. Essays will not be sent back to entrants after the judging.

Contest Rules (1-8):

1. The essay for this contest should be an analytical or interpretive composition posing an argument or presenting a point of view. It must be written for a well-educated lay audience. Essays must be between 1,500 and 3,000 words in length. The following criteria and rules must inform the composition.
   
   
2. The submitted essay must be the original work of the author, written while the author was an undergraduate at Virginia Tech. Work previously presented for academic credit is eligible.
   
   
3. The student must be enrolled at Virginia Tech for Spring Semester 2008, in order to be eligible for the prize.
   
   
4. Students may submit only one essay each year.
   
   
5. Prior recipients of this prize and essays that have won major Virginia Tech writing prizes are ineligible for the competition.
   
   
6. Submissions may not be fiction, poetry, drama, a web site, highly technical, only a report of empirical research, or only a review or synthesis of the existing literature on a subject. The committee reserves the right to reject submissions that, in their opinion, do not constitute essays.
   
   
7. Submissions must be typed or computer-printed, double-spaced, and reproducible. Submissions that cannot be easily read will be automatically excluded from consideration. The pages of the essay must be consecutively numbered in the upper right-hand corner.
   
   
8. The official entry form must accompany each essay. The entrant’s name and address must appear only on the official entry form, not on the pages of the essay.

Criteria for Judging: Essays will be judged according to the following criteria:

1. Coherence of the argument
2. Clear, logical organization
3. Forceful, fresh, compelling, and competent prose
4. Comprehensibility to the well-educated lay reader

Phi Beta Kappa reserves the right to withhold the award if none of the entries meets contest standards and to rescind any award if the winning essay is later shown not to conform to Contest Rule 2, 3, 4 or 5 above.

Entry Forms may be obtained at the College of Science Administration Building (Upper Quad, 8 a.m.-12 noon, 1-5 p.m., M-F) or the University Honors Program Office, 1st Floor, Hillcrest Hall (8:00-5:00, M-F).

Student Entry Form