About the Contest
The Dorothy Clark Hobson Essay Contest encourages students of The W to write a scholarly paper or personal essay related to the Common Reading Initiative. Winners of the Hobson Essay Contest receive a cash prize and are recognized in March. The contest winners, as special guests, will be recognized in March and their essays will be published online and in the institutional repository. Essay contest winners will receive cash prizes:
- First-place is $250.00
- Second place is $150.00
- Third place winner, $100.00.
Judging Criteria
Essays will be judged on the following criteria by a faculty and staff committee:
- Adherence to contest requirements and essay topics
- Connection to the authors ideas and themes
- Clarity and organization
- Grammar and mechanics, and especially
- Specific details and thoughtfulness
Submission Guidelines
- Only one submission per currently enrolled full-time undergraduate MUW student will be accepted.
- All essays must be submitted electronically as Word documents to the Common Read Initiative Committee (commonread@muw.edu) later than midnight on March 18, 2023.
- Essays must be between 700-1250 words in length.
- The cover page of the essay must include the following information: first name, last name, e-mail address, telephone number, and the following statement: “I testify that this essay is my own original work, and I understand that if my essay is selected as one of the winning essays, my essay will be posted to the CRI website and published in other appropriate venues, if available, without any other remuneration other than the published prize.”
- No identifying information, such as the author’s name, should appear anywhere else other than on the cover page.
