Winners of CU Write Essay contest announced

Cameron University’s English program has announced the winners of the CU Write Essay Contest.

The contest is designed to recognize and award outstanding examples of each major assignment in the English composition course curriculum sequence. The winning essays are eligible for publication in a future edition of “CU Write: The Cameron Composition Textbook.”

Students who took English Composition I and/or English Composition II during the calendar year 2022 were eligible to submit essays for the contest. A team of nine expert judges drawn from faculty in writing and communication as well as staff from the CU Center for Writers reviewed the entries. No judge knew the names of the students whose work they evaluated, nor was any judge assigned to evaluate work written in their own courses.

Students who authorized publication of their names are:

Gideon Gish, Lawton, received first place in the Critical Thinking Essay category for “Creative and Engaging: An Analysis of Manuel Muñoz’s Essay.”

Second place went to DeRoin Motah, Geronimo, for “Janet Jackson vs. Beyoncé Knowles-Carter: Voices of a Generation of Minorities in America.”

In the category of Rhetorical Analysis, Allyson Taylor, Lawton, earned second place for “Limitations on Imagination.”

Elgin’s Blake Howard earned first place in the Comp II Reflection category for a reflection on his Rogerian essay. Isabelle Teague and Tran Yennhi, both of Lawton, tied for second place. Teague’s entry was a reflection on the Pledge of Allegiance, and Yennhi’s focused on safe pageantry.

The contest is funded by the Helen C. Schutz Endowed Lectureship in English.