Aetna Writing in the Disciplines Awards

The deadline to submit writing for the Aetna Writing in the Disciplines Awards was August 31, 2009. Please check our website in April 2010 for award information for the 2009-2010 academic year.

All of those items must be submitted by August 31, 2009.

The University Writing Center is pleased to announce a new set of awards that will recognize excellent undergraduate writing across the academic disciplines at UConn.

The Aetna Writing in the Disciplines Awards will recognize exemplary academic writing done by students across the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and professional schools. Each of three winners will receive $300, thanks to funding from the Aetna Chair of Writing Endowment, and the papers will be published in Essay Connections, a collection that features the Freshman English prize essays but that will soon to be expanded to include the advanced writing winners.

Research papers, critical essays, lab reports, literature reviews, design projects, case studies—indeed all the genres assigned in UConn courses—are eligible. Writing done as part of W courses is encouraged, but so is writing done for non-W courses. Chapters or excerpts from undergraduate theses are eligible but should be kept to under 25 pages. All students, even graduating seniors, are eligible to submit writing, so long as it was done for UConn course credit.


To have your submission considered, here is what you need to do:
  1. Fill out the submission form (Word).
  2. Remove student/instructor name and course identifiers from the paper (names of instructor and student will remain anonymous until winners are announced).
  3. Obtain an electronic copy of the assignment from your instructor or reproduce it from a hard copy you have.
  4. Make sure that your essay follows appropriate guidelines for your discipline for source documentation and works cited.
  5. Send an email with the following three (3) attachments to writingcenter@uconn.edu
    1. The electronic submission form
    2. The writing assignment to which your paper responds
    3. Your submission (without your name or your instructor's name)

All of those items must be submitted by August 31, 2009.

Three winners will be selected and each will receive a $300 award.

Not eligible are essays written for Freshman English, which should be directed to the Freshman English Aetna Awards (http://freshmanenglish.uconn.edu/students/contests.php), or pieces of creative writing, which should be directed to the awards sponsored by the Creative Writing Program (http://creativewriting.uconn.edu/contests.php). Graduate students are not eligible to submit work for the Aetna Writing in the Disciplines Award.