Essay Contest 2011-2012

• Contest is open to all students who have not graduated from high school or the equivalent, under the age of 18 as of December 31, 2011.
  Students must enter in the district in which they reside. U.S. students attending school on military installations outside of the U.S. are eligible to enter in their last home of record.
• Contestants are eligible for only one Club’s contest during any given year.
• No student who has previously won an Optimist Essay contest scholarship will be eligible to compete at any level of the competition again.
• All contestants must furnish a copy of their birth certificate or passport before participating

Contest Rules

• Participants must write on the official topic
• The first page of each entry must contain a title page containing: the official topic, number of words, writer’s name, address and phone number, name of school and date of birth.
• Essays must be typewritten and double-spaced
• Essays must contain between 700-800 words.
• Each page of the essay must be numbered.  The title page is not numbered. Do not number the title page.  Numbers must be centered and located at the bottom of each sheet. 
• The word number count must not include the title, bibliography or footnotes
• Every word of the essay is counted. Hyphenated words count as 1 word.
• All quotes or copyrighted material must be properly identified.
• No reference must be made in the essay that identifies the student, parents, school, community, sponsoring Optimist Club or District.
• Essays must be written in the official language of the country of the sponsoring club.
• Essays must be stapled in the upper left-hand corner.
• No covers of any type will be accepted.

Sample Title Page

TOPIC:
Name:
Address:
Phone Number:
School Name:
Birth Date:
Number of Words:

Judging and Timing

• Panel of 3 qualified judges – At the club level, Optimist members who are not acquainted with the contestants may serve. However, all other competition levels must use non-Optimist club members
• A number will be assigned each essay.  The number will be placed on the title page as well as on the first page of the essay.
• The title page will be detached from the essay and retained by the Contest Chair prior to giving it to the judge.
• Only judges can assign a penalty or award points.
• Judges must not discuss or compare essays being judged.

Scoring

One scoring procedure will be used for all levels.

• Material Organization – 40 points
• Vocabulary and Style – 30 points
• Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling – 20 points
• Neatness – 5 points
• Adherence to Contest rules – 5 points

Penalties

• Failure to list official topic – 2 points
• Failure to accurately identify total number of words – 5 points
• Failure to type essay and double-space – 5 points
• Failure to stay within the 700-800 word limit – 5 points for each 25 words over or under the limit.
• Self-identification – 5 points or fraction of based on degree of identification

Awards

• Club Level – medallion
• District – Plaque and $2500 college scholarship for 1st place winner
• International level – 1st place: plaque, recognition in The Optimist magazine

  ***Winners of an OI scholarship must claim their scholarship by the age of 25.

Getting Started

www.optimist.org
www.optimistleaders.org

• Use the web addresses listed above to acquire a Club Contest Program Planning Guide which will include:
• Project Timeline
• Job descriptions for the Project Chair, Contestant Coordinator, Judging Coordinator, club Board of Directors

District Essay Chair
Shirley Toliver
313/341-7225 Home
313/520-0460 Cell
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