Looking for authentic writing opportunities for your students? How about ways to recognize their work? Scope’s writing contests are just the thing! With each issue of Scope, students have the chance to enter one of several writing contests and win a gift card or a fantastic book hand-picked by Scope editors. Find all the current contests here.
Share these 7 tricks with your students to increase their chances of winning!
1. Follow the Rules
It sounds simple, but so many entries we receive get disqualified right off the bat because they are sent in after the deadline or lack the requested contact information or are sent in the wrong format. If an entry is to be considered, it must follow ALL the rules listed on the writing contest entry form (like this one). All entries must be submitted in a .doc, .docx, or PDF format. Google Docs cannot be accepted.
2. Be Passionate and Energetic
Our contest judges read your students’ entries with love and care. But when there are hundreds or thousands of entries, your students can stand out by writing with pizzazz—with energy and passion. Vary sentence structure, use vivid verbs, etc.
3. Relate to Personal Experience
We love a submission that answers the question while relating back to the writer’s world. Has your student ever experienced anything like what the characters or people he or she is writing about experienced? How would your student feel if he or she were in the character’s shoes? We award brownie points for answering the question while seamlessly tying in anecdotal life experiences (when it makes sense for the type of writing task, of course).
4. Read the Writing Prompt Carefully
Sometimes a prompt includes multiple questions or asks students to use evidence from more than one text. So remind students to read the prompt carefully and follow the directions.
5. Cite Text Evidence
Make sure your students cite their sources. (In most cases, the source is us.) Call us vain, but we adore it when students write such things as, “In the Scope article ‘Lost in Death Valley,’ Kristin Lewis claims that [insert text evidence here].” It makes our citation-happy-hearts soar.
6. Use the Support Material
To help students organize their ideas and gather text evidence, most contests come with support activities, like this one. These activities can be found on the Resources tab for each article and story.
7. Proofread
Have students check their entries for spelling and grammar while making sure the writing flows from one idea to the next.
Check out the contest page for a list of current contests and prizes.
Best of luck! And as we say to our winners, “Keep on reading and writing!”
