Writing Award Ceremony

Peggy Proudlock

Comp 227

Professor P.F. Potvin

October 5, 2009

Writing Award Ceremony

I attended the Writing Award Ceremony on Thursday, September 30, 2009.

It was held in the auditorium of the CASL Building. The room was large and appropriately 50 people attended. The ages were both young and elderly, and the people attending varied from students, relatives, and facility members. Professor Potvin hosted the event with enthusiasm and dignity. I understand this was his first time hosting this event, and his calm mannerism and improvising in awkward areas during the ceremony

allowed for a smooth presentation.

There were several categories of writing presentations in which there were

three winners1^st,2^nd,and 3^rd place. The categories were Poetry, Fiction, Creative

Non-Fiction, Research Writing and 1^st Year Writing-Honorable Mention. Some

students were present to receive their awards and some students were not present. I enjoyed the readings immensely and the creativity was amazing. I particularly enjoyed

the male student who read “Tornado Township,” with his expressions and ease of speaking. The words used in the poem were fabulas and enabled the listener to picture

a tornado. He drew you into the presence of this type of storm with his word usage.

He described the storm beautifully. I particularly loved the placement of the words

on his paper shaping the poem into a tornado. I was very disappointed he did not win

1^st place. The female student who received 1^st place for her poem entitled, “Hitchiker,”

presented well , but I felt the poem was of fair quality. It was very short and basically

lacked substance. It was very short and had a twist ending. I realized that one does

not necessarily have to write a long poem for it to be effective and beautiful. The point

I grew to realize after analyzing the writings, that a person can create a story, a point

of view and whimsical creativity in a short span of words.

In the Fiction category the winning piece was entitled, “Swing On A Spiral,”

which was extremely well written and very interesting. It was about a battered wife

and her experiences in this type of setting and her innermost feelings regarding this

stressful life.

In the Creative Non-Fiction category I enjoyed the 2^nd place writing, “Social Challenged,” dealing with home schooling and emotions felt pertaining to this type of

education.

I was very disappointed the students receiving the awards were not present.

I felt this is a great honor and one should be involved not only in the writing but the

ceremony in which the writing is honored. Disrespect was felt by me, in the sense

of an emotion of “blowing off” this event. I feel if a student enters a contest a sense

of responsibility should go with the entrance. One should honor and respect this contest

enough to attend and participate to the fullest. If a student is shy, arrange to have the

paper read by someone else. Not attending the event, demonstrates the displaced value

one has on the event.

New rules should be put into place to allow the contestants to be mandated to

attend and read their selection, or have someone else read it for the audience. As a viewer

I felt the literature that was not read was meaningless to me. The title of the pieces and award placements had no real value for me. Actually, it made me feel sorry for the contestants that read their wonderful and valued pieces of literature, and did not receive 1^st place.

Professor Potvin, the chairperson for the Writing Award Ceremony was also

put in an awkward position, announcing awards and calling the names of the winners

and no one responded. Because Professor Potvin is professional and shows tremendous

dignity for his field, he covered the situation very well. I would love to attend next year

and see the way the award ceremony is presented with new changes being considered and

possibly put in place.