Professors in Literatures in English are used to students submitting brilliant critical essays, but we also know that they are engaged in exciting writing projects outside of class, too, in many different genres and forms of media. Our new initiative, the Collected Writings Portfolio Award, is a way to recognize the many excellent types of writing our students produce. To receive the award, students submit a portfolio of their writing and a critical reflection on their writerly practice. To qualify, students must take a new class, “ENGL 3801 Advanced Writing: Audiences, Genres, Media,” which teaches them how to extend their skills across a variety of rhetorical situations by devising three distinct projects for different audiences and in different genres and media forms. When the awards committee met recently to assess the portfolios, they were struck by the breadth and quality of the students’ submissions. In addition to striking personal essays, trenchant op-eds, and illuminating cultural criticism, students showed their flair for poetry and short fiction, and their media savvy with video essays and virtual galleries. Eleven students received the inaugural award, and their portfolios are a testament to the work the students have done both in and out of the classroom.
Award winners for this and other department writing prize competitions can be found on the Department Awards for Students page.
