Writing Walk-In Service - Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines

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Prizes for Student Essays

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Prizes for Students in First-Year Writing Seminars

Elmer Markham Johnson Prize
This prize is given in memory of Elmer Markham Johnson, who taught first-year English at Cornell and served as Chancellor of Telluride House. (Fall)
[Application]
James E. Rice, Jr. Awards
The generosity of the Adelphic Cornell Educational Fund, with the support of Susan A. and Robert N. Cunjak '96, allows us to offer two James E. Rice, Jr. '30 Awards of $300 each. Honorable mentions, if any, will receive $100. Publication of winning entries in next year's Discoveries is also possible . Judge Rice, a leader in civic and philanthropic activities in Tompkins County for over fifty years, was a student of Elmer Markham Johnson. (Fall and Spring)
[Application]
Adelphic Award
The Adelphic Award is sponsored by the Adelphic Cornell Educational Fund. Each semester an award of $300 is made for the best essay written in a First-Year Writing Seminar by a student whose native language is other than English. Honorable mentions, if any, will receive $100. Publication of the essay in next year's Discoveries is also possible. (Fall and Spring)
[Application]

Gertrude Spencer Prize
The Gertrude Spencer prize of $350 each will be awarded to a graduate student instructor and his/her student for work together that led to the student's finished essay. The teacher may, for example, have designed a sequence of readings accompanied by journal entries, one-paragraph analyses of texts, a rough draft, and a revision, culminating in a student essay. The essay itself may well be one that is significant not because it is "perfect" but because it shows that the student improved significantly in understanding of the discipline and in ability to write within the discipline. (Fall and Spring)
[Application]
Gertrude Spencer Portfolio Award
This prize, in the amount of $350 to the graduate student instructor and $350 to his/her student, is given in memory of Gertrude Spencer and will be awarded each semester to a student and instructor in recognition of excellence in the development of a portfolio of the student's essays. (Fall and Spring)
A portfolio (including a minimum of four essays and no more than seven) might display the growth in the student's writing ability over the course of the semester; it might show the excellence of the student's work in a variety of modes of writing; it might display the excellence and development of a student's work with a particular topic.
[Application]

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Prizes for Upper-level Students

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Prizes for Instructors

Fall 2008 submission deadline – Friday, December 12, 2008 unless otherwise noted.

Knight Award for Writing Exercises
The Knight Award for Writing Exercises, each semester in the amount of $350, recognizes instructor excellence in short exercises designed to improve student writing. Appropriate topics may be drawn from the whole range of writing issues, large to small scale, such as development of theses, use of primary sources, organization of evidence, awareness of audience, attention to sentence patterns (e.g., passive/active voice; coordination/subordination), attention to diction, uses of punctuation, and attention to mechanics (e.g., manuscript formats, apostrophes). Exercises may be developed for use in and/or out of class. (Fall and Spring.)
[Application]
James Slevin Assignment Sequence Prize
The James Slevin Assignment Sequence Prize of $500 will be made to the teacher submitting the best sequence of writing assignments used in a First-Year Writing Seminar. (Fall and Spring.)
Assignment sequences in a writing course are built around a series of essay topics, but submissions should also include a rationale and a description of your plans for eliciting and responding to student drafts and revisions. You might also describe your ideas on how you ready students for each essay assignment, for example by engaging them in preparatory writing exercises, including informal writing designed to help students understand the material on which they subsequently write formal essays. Reflections on what worked well, and why, and on what you would change another time would be welcome.
[Application]
Teaching Portfolio
Each spring the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines will give a $750 award for the most outstanding teaching portfolio submitted by an instructor of First-Year Writing Seminars.
Gathering materials for a teaching portfolio can help you to become a better teacher. Good teachers continue to learn to teach throughout their careers, and self-reflection can be an important part of that process. You can maintain and develop a portfolio, then, for your own learning and record-keeping purposes. Having a teaching portfolio may also help you get a job, or get promoted. Information about constructing a portfolio is available at the Knight Institute, 101 McGraw Hall.
[Application]
Recognition of Achievement in Teaching
An award for TAs of First-Year Writing Seminars, the winner (one per year) will receive $1,000 and the Knight Institute's "Recognition of Achievement in Teaching" certificate. All other meritorious applicants will receive a certificate.
To receive this recognition, a TA must:
- have taught a minimum of two FWSs
- have taken part in at least two of the following activities: Peer Collaboration Project, Essay Response Consultation Program, TA Mentorship, or Writing Program facilitator positions;
- develop and submit a Teaching Portfolio;
- have a course leader or faculty mentor submit a recommendation;
- (optional) have attended, or facilitated, a workshop offered by the Office of Instructional Support, or have had a class session videotaped by the OIS; and
- (optional) have participated in the Graduate Student Outreach Program, through which TAs may teach a mini-course in one of the area's elementary, middle, or high schools
  
  Applications and supporting materials should be submitted by
  TBA.
[Application]

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Teaching Fellowships

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The winners will be announced to the Cornell community, and copies of winning submissions will be made available to interested persons.