The Alabama Penman Creative Writing Contest 2008
sponsored by the
Alabama Department of Education
The Alabama Penman Creative Writing Contest consists of competition in two divisions, Grades 7-9 and 10-12. Students in either division may compete in the essay, poetry, and/or short story categories. PROCEDURES FOR ENTERING THE CONTEST School Level Each school selects a winning entry in each category and sends these entries to the local superintendent or system coordinator by April 1. (Private schools see instructions below.) Each school system selects a winning entry in each category and submits these to the district director in its State Board of Education District by April 8. (Private schools may request of the local public school superintendent that their school winners be included in public system judging OR contact other private schools in the region, have a regional judging, and send firstplace winners to District.) District directors select a winning entry in each category and submit these by April 21, 2008, to: Mr. J. Steve McAliley Classroom Improvement Alabama Department of Education P. O. Box 302101 Montgomery, AL 36130-2101 Advisory council selects state winners, which will be posted on the department Web site in May 2008. CONTEST REQUIREMENTS 1. For system entries going to district level, four hard copies must be provided as well as the original included on a disk typed on a Macintosh or Windows platform and saved in rich text format (rtf), if possible. Those entries winning first place at the district level must be in a format that can be e-mailed to the Alabama Department of Education (to stevemc@alsde.edu) by the student, school, or system or sent on disk as described above. All entries should be single-spaced in Times or Times New Roman Font, size 11 or 12, and are limited to 12 pages maximum. All entries must be the student’s own work and must have been written during the 2007-2008 Academic Year. The cover page of the entry must show the following: student’s name, home address, home e-mail address, grade level, school, school system, teacher’s name, teacher’s or school’s e-mail address, category being entered, and title. Title of each entry must appear on the first page of the text with no other identifying marks or information. Teachers and judges are to ensure originality at each level. Entries not following requirements may not be eligible for judging.
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System Level
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District Level
Schools, school systems, and districts are encouraged to offer prizes at each level of competition. Awards and publicity help to further the contest goal of rewarding excellence in writing. CRITERIA FOR SELECTING WINNERS All entries in the writing contest will be judged according to a focused holistic reading using the following criteria: significance of content; word choice, imagery, and style; form or organization; grammar; and mechanics.
State Level
For further information, contact Mr. J. Steve McAliley, Alabama Department of Education, P.O. Box 302101, Montgomery, Alabama 36130-2101, (334) 242-8059 or by e-mail at stevemc@alsde.edu. District Directors will be posted on the SDE Web site in March, or the list may be obtained by e-mail from Mr. McAliley. Principals/headmasters: Please duplicate and share with each English/language arts/composition teacher