Entries are hereby invited from Nigerian undergraduate students for the first edition of Naija Writers’ Coach Annual Essay Competition. The contest is intended to serve as a national platform for Nigerian students to express their opinions on pressing national issues, and advance workable and sustainable solutions to them.
WHAT SHOULD MY ENTRY TALK ABOUT?
The theme is: “Does The Nigerian Education System Prepare Students For The Work Environment?”
WHAT HAS INFORMED THIS THEME?
It has been observed that there is increasing importance and preference attached to educational certificates in Nigeria over the acquisition of critical life skills, educational values and practical work-place know-how, and as such, many students graduate still unemployable. Students who are most affected by this trend are invited to share their views on the malady and all other issues related to it.
WHO CAN ENTER?
Absolutely any Nigerian undergraduate!
WHAT ARE THE PRIZES?
The sum of N15,000, N10,000 and N7,000 would be awarded to the first, second and third prize winners respectively. Also, all the 10 finalists shall be entitled to receive the Naija Writers’ Companion – a collection of 3 awesome softwares and 3 ebooks on writing – worth N4,000.
WHEN WILL THE SUBMISSION OF ENTRIES CLOSE?
Submit your entry on or before 20th April, 2013 (by 11:59pm)
HOW WILL THE ESSAY COMPETITION LOOK LIKE?
- Each entry must be an essay. Poems, short stories, fictions, etc. are not acceptable.
- Each entry must be between 600 and 1,000 words.
- No co-authored work would be accepted.
- Submissions should be made through the form here as MS Word attachment, font size 12, Times New Roman, double line spacing. Fill in all required fields in the submission form and click on “Finish Survey”. You should receive a “Thank you” message upon a successful submission. Submissions by email would not be accepted.
- All received entries would be acknowledged by email within 24 hours of submission. If you do not receive an acknowledgement after 24 hours, please try to resend your entry.
- Each entrant must ensure that his/her essay is free from plagiarism.
- The deadline for submission of entries is 20th April, 2013 (by 11:59pm) when the submission form will be taken off.
- All essays received and which are publishable would be posted on the Naija Writers’ Coach between 21st April and 25th April, 2013.
- After the publication of the entries, voting would commence and last till 13th of May, 2013.
- Voting would be enhanced on the entries through Polldaddy.
- On the 14th May, 2013, the 10 most popular entries (finalists) based on the number of votes received would be forwarded to the panel of judges for grading.
- On the 24th May, 2013, the 3 winners would be announced on this blog, our Facebook page and Twitter handle, @Oxygenmat. Winners would also be notified by email.
- If you tweet about the contest or your essay entry, we recommend you use the hashtag, #NWCoach
Each entry which makes it to the final will be judged based on:
- Content: This encompasses quality and relevance of arguments, innovation and advancement of a personal opinion, originality and practicability of recommendations.
- Organization: Logical and orderly presentation of points
- Endearing and grammatical expressions: This encompasses concord, diction, etc.
- Mechanical accuracy: This entails avoidance of punctuation and typographic errors.
The distinguished panel of judges comprises:
- Dr. Mahfouz Adedimeji | Ilorin, Nigeria | Chairman, Editorial Board, University of Ilorin Bulletin | Lecturer, English Department, University of Ilorin.
- Abimbola Adelakun | Texas, USA | Columnist, The Punch Newspaper, Nigeria | Author, “Under the Brown Rusted Roofs”.
- Akinde Hafiz | Lagos, Nigeria | Editor-in-Chief, Minbar Al-Haqq Magazine, Lagos | Award-winning writer.
For submissions: via the online submission form
Website: http://naijawriterscoach.com/
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