Guilford College Writing Manual

WRITING COURSES BEYOND FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH

The college offers a full complement of specialized writing courses. These include Creative Nonfiction, Journalism, Poetry Workshop, Playwriting Workshop, Fiction Workshop, and others.

You will also find courses throughout the curriculum tht give special emphasis to writing. Common characteristics:

• Often, he use of a writing text in addition to the regular course texts.
• Both formal and informal writing (the latter may take the form of a journal).
• A specified number of papers, each of which goes through a drafting process. Minimum of 15 revised pages.
• Comments by the instructor and/or peer editors on preliminary drafts.

STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

"Tis a pleasure indeed to see oneself in print."
Lord Byron

Students can hone their writing skills by working on one of the college's two excellent student publications:

1. The Guilfordian

The Guilfordian is the student-run campus newspaper. Appearing weekly, it usually contains 12 pages of campus news, features, and editorials. The student editors are eager to train new writers: prior journalistic experience is not required. Working arrangements are flexible; student writers can put in as much or as little time as they wish.

The newspaper encourages potential staff members to come to weekly general staff meetings at any time during the year.

In 2008 and 2014, The Guilfordian was named "most outstanding college newspaper of 2013-2014" in its size category in the American Scholastic Press Association.national competition.

2. The Greenleaf Review

The Greenleaf Review is Guilford's award-winning literary magazine. It appears twice a year and features student poetry, literary prose, photography, and graphic art. Student editors and staff meet throughout the year to choose the best work available in each genre.

Offices

Offices of The Guilfordian and The Greenleaf Review are located in the Publications Suite on the first floor of Founders Hall.

Benefits of working on a student publication:

• improve writing and editing skills
• experience the comradery of working in a small, well-knit group to create an artistic product
• have the opportunity to lead. Editorships come with experience. These build both character and resumes.
• work with state-of-the-art desktop publishing equipment

ANNUAL WRITING CONTESTS

Each year the academic dean offers awards for superior writing done in courses by Guilford students.

The awards are:

• Dean's Award for First-Year Writing 
• Dean's Award for Narrative/Reflective Writing by a Sophomore, Junior, or Senior 
• Dean's Award for Scholarly/Critical Writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences 
• Dean's Awards for Writing in the Physical and Natural Sciences 
• Sue Keith Award for Fiction 
• Betty Place Prize for Poetry 

Students are invited to submit entries by 4:00 P.M. of the Friday before spring break. Entries are limited to one per student per contest and should be placed in one of the boxes placed around campus or in Parag Budcheca's office mailbox in Archdale Hall.

Descriptions of the awards:

(1) Dean's Award for First-year Writing Award ($100)

Submissions may deal with any subject in any field and may range from personal and original response to more conventional scholarly writing.

We will judge the essays on clarity, sensitivity, and insight--criteria which are as appropriate to an autobiographical essay as to scholarly work.

See also the general entry specifications below.

(2) Dean's Award for Personal/Reflective Writing ($50)

Sophomore through senior classes.

We will award first prize to that essay which best fuses voice, style, and compositional skill in a non-scholarly context. Suitable essay types include narration, description, reflection.

(3) Dean's Award for Scholarly/Critical Writing ($50)

Sophomore through senior classes.

We will award first prize to that essay which explores an academic topic with the greatest originality and insight and the most engaging style.

(4) Dean's Awards for Writing in the Physical and Natural Sciences

(2 awards)

One award recognizes excellence in science writing for a general audience. Essays submitted in this category may present issues, controversies, phenomena, or experiments. They may take the form of arguments or explanations.

The other award recognizes excellence in reporting a scientific investigation or experiment that the author has done as a Guilford student. This essay should address a scientifically sophisticated audience.

We will judge the essays on suitability for intended audience, value to intended audience, clarity, and scientific accuracy.

(5) Sue Keith Award for Fiction

Fiction is an ancient and difficult art. The Sue Keith Award for Fiction will celebrate the writer who best demonstrates a mastery of that art. Please submit one short story (no longer than 20 pages) for consideration). Attach a separate page with name and contact information.

(6) Betty Place Prize for Poetry            

Presented to that student who demonstrates, with passion and precision, a control of that art. Students must submit three poems. Each poem should include a separate cover sheet including name and contact information. Do not identify yourself on the pages including the poems.

Specifications for entries in all contests:

• Authors should present their essays in the format appropriate to the academic discipline in which it was prepared, or in the case of an interdisciplinary essay, in the standard form most appropriate to the essay.
• All entries must be typed and double-spaced. A removable cover sheet should contain the title of the essay, the student's name, and the name of the contest for which the entry is being submitted. If the essay was previously submitted for a class, the student should submit a clean copy (i.e., one that has not been marked by an instructor).
• There are no length specifications.