"I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear." Joan Didion
Annual Essay Competition: Introduction
Our country is facing daunting challenges under the scourge of HIV/AIDS, road accidents, suicide and passion killing, alcohol and drug abuse. These have led to horrible lost of lives and property leading to immeasurable lost of man power. While this war rages, new strategies are devised on daily basis to curb their catastrophic effects.In almost all schools programs have been put in place to sensitize learners on their adverse effects.Lately, we have noticed (with happiness), that some schools have also started encouraging programs that allow teachers to interact with parents to make sure information emanating from the schools on HIV/AIDS reaches the child clearly and on time.
Again, the church is not observing these developments apathetically. They are also up in arms, drawing the attention of both the government and the entire populace on the need to look up to God for the ultimate solution.
Merit and Fame Computer Systems wants to join forces with our community in this fight but from an entirely different angle. We want to stimulate an inward looking attitude: we want the students to look within themselves to seek answers to the problem. By so doing, they would seek information beyond the narrow boundaries of the classroom by sticking together to ask questions among themselves and provide the answers. An essay competition would surely lead the students to research and interact with their parents, teachers and fellow students and by so doing discover many of the things they need to know to take precaution.
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Read the Following Before Entering the Competition
Goals of the Competition |
Who could Contest? |
How Would the Essay Be Judged? |
Writing a Winning Essay | Method of Entering | Prizes to be Won | Fill Entry Form (5 mins) |
Download Entry form (2kb) | Writing Guidelines | Contact Us/ Comments
Writing a Winning Essay | Method of Entering | Prizes to be Won | Fill Entry Form (5 mins) |
Download Entry form (2kb) | Writing Guidelines | Contact Us/ Comments
"Learn as much by writing as by reading." Lord Acton
- To provide a creative platform for the youth of the country to show their social consciousness by sharing their knowledge and concern with others on globally challenging issues.
- To sensitize them and the citizenry about the enormity of these issues.
- To develop an attitude of involvement in issues affecting their community
- To inspire young people to aspire to high standards of academic scholarship in research, creative writing and reasoning skills.
- To promote serious discussion among high school students, teachers, and national leaders about the issues affecting them.
Method of entering the competition- two steps:
- All contestants must feel an online form which would help capture their details and particulars. The forms would as well be made available to all schools and could be collected from the receptionists in the respectives schools. Please send the filled form along with your essay.
- All essays must be typed with double spacing in Microsoft Word and sent as an attachment to:celine@gabscafe.com, where there is no access to Internet,the essay should be posted to The Essay Competition Team, P. O. Box 602375 Gaborone West, Gaborone
Entry Deadline: Now Changed to 30th November 2006. Write Your Essay, Fill Your Form
and Send them To: Essay Competition Team Box 602375 Gaborone. Hurry Now!!
Additional Information
- The essay must not be more than two thousands (2000) words in length.
- Entry deadline: 30 October 2006.
- All essays received would be acknowledged.
- Any essays received after the above date would not be considered.
- Write your omang or passport number on the top right corner of your essay.
- Do not write your name or the name of your school on the essay.
- All information necessary to participate in this contest is contained in this page
Download the text only version in MSWord (52k)
Fill Entry Form (5 minutes)
Download Entry form (2kb)
Guidlines on How to Write Award Winning Essays
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"A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?" George Orwell (1903 - 1950)For the purpose of this competition, an essay is a three part paper that outlines and develops a position in response to the essay contest question. Though researching the topic to find examples that support your points is important to writing your essay, we expect more than a research paper, a narrative description of an event or circumstance or statement of opinion.
Your essay should contain the following:
- An introduction, which introduces the subject and contains an explanation of your position. The objective is to demonstrate that you understand the essay contest question and have formed a response to it.
- A body, which develops your argument using research analysis. The process of analysis may include comparing and contrasting, differentiating among several ideas or events and occurrences, critiquing a variety of perspectives, interpreting results, or drawing inferences. Be sure to identify the sources of your information or ideas.
- A conclusion, which summarizes the research and analysis presented in the essay and sets forth your conclusion. Drawing on ideas already presented, you should demonstrate that your conclusion support the position you put forward in the opening paragraphs. Your aim is to convince the reader that your position is reasonable and valid.
Guidlines on How to Write Award Winning Essays
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How would the essays be judged?
"All writing should be selection in order to drop every dead word" Ralph Waldo Emerson.Your essay would be judged based on the following:
- Focus: examines how well your essay responds to the questions asked. Does the essay provide specific and thorough response to all the questions asked? An excellent essay provides specific and thorough response to all the questions.
- Organization: looks at the structure of your essay and strength of your proposal.Does the essay have an organized structure? An excellent essay has introduction,a body and a conclusion.
- Analysis: this considers how well your arguments are supported. Are the discussion points argued coherently and supported with research? In an excellent essay all of the arguments are strong, well detailed and extremely well supported by convincing and accurate evidence.
- Conclusions and recommendations: this part examines how well conclusions and recommendations are expressed and how closely they follow from the analysis. Conclusions and recommendations should not present new information that is not a part of the analysis. An excellent essay provides a coherent and comprehensive summary based on the analysis.
- Originality: looks at creativity in writing. Does the writer use ideas creatively? In an excellent essay, the writer proposes and develops creative ideas through the selection of cases and or examples, to present novel analysis and alternatives throughout the entire essay.
- Voice: considers how well your writing engages the reader. Is the essay compelling or engaging? An excellent essay fully captures the reader’s attention. The flow of the essay keeps the reader engaged through out the entire essay.
- Style and Mechanics: this examines how well the essay is written in terms of grammar, spelling, and punctuation, as well as word choice and sentence construction. Is the essay well written? A winning essay uses standard writing conventions correctly, e.g. grammar, spelling, punctuation, with no errors. There are no errors in word choice and all sentences are well constructed.
- The best essay would attract a cash prize of P1000.00 and a free six months training in computer studies or office administration worth P2500.00 (The student would choose which of the courses is most suitable to him or her)
- The second best essay would attract a cash prize of P600.00 and a free 3 months training in computer studies or office administration worth P1500.00 (The student would choose which of the courses is most suitable to him or her)
- The third best essay would attract a cash prize of P350.00 pula and a free 3 months training in computer studies or office administration worth P1500.00 (The student would choose which of the courses is most suitable to him or her)
Guidlines on How to Write Award Winning Essays
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There Would be Three Major Prizes to be Won: First, Second and Third prizes.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic is a reality and is causing havoc to the youth and the nation as a whole. What factors encourage/influence the spread of this disease, what steps can you take (as a student) to prevent the spread, and in your opinion, in what unique ways can the government help in fighting this epidemic.
Download the text only version of this document in MSWord (52k)Fill Entry Form (5 minutes)
Download Entry form (2kb)
Guidlines on How to Write Award Winning Essays
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Please Note: all submitted essays would become the property of Merit and Fame Computer Systems and their partners and would not be returned. They could be used for advertising, promotions, road shows etc as may be necessary. No further compensations or consultations concerning the use of the essays would be made to the contestants once the competition is over. The award winning essays could be published in national newspapers after corrections and adjustment have been made.