Community Levee Association

2012 Writing Prompt

Today technology allows persons to connect with each other and information in ways never before contemplated. There are certainly many significant and meaningful advantages, but increasingly there is a growing awareness of the potential for repeated use of technology to take on addictive qualities.  Some studies indicate that brain function can actually be altered when exposed to extended usage, impacting communication skills, personal relationships and can even result in addictions as difficult to overcome as drugs or pornography. Education, careers, families, friendships, and communities can be negatively affected in severe ways.

Read the January 11, 2011 Wall Street Journal article “Your BlackBerry or Your Wife” and the November 21, 2010 New York Times article “Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction”. Then choose one of the forms of technology below and submit an essay persuading a group of peers to avoid the dangers of over-use of that particular technology, supported by one multi-media presentation. Be sure to extrapolate the effects from the individual to society at large. Group entries for the multi-media component are allowed. The essay must be no less than 1,000 words and no more than 2,000, and must be an individual effort.

You will be judged both on the clarity of your ideas and the way you present them. Think carefully about your arguments and develop them such that the essay is clear, focused, readable, and persuasive. Also be precise in your grammar and spelling. 

Technologies: Facebooking, Video Gaming, Texting

Multimedia:

1. An original video
2. An original radio ad
3. An original poster

Email essays (PDF format) and multimedia files to info@communitylevee.org. If the multimedia file is too large for email, send CD/DVD to:

            Community Levee Association Scholarship Committee
            521 Clagett St. S.W.
            Leesburg, VA 20175

                Disclaimer: Entrants must guarantee that their essays and multi-media works do not infringe the copyright, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any third party or entity, or violate any person’s right of privacy or publicity. Entrants are solely responsible for their submitted product.

                Competition entrants grant the Community Levee Association permission, royalty-free in perpetuity, to use, reproduce, publish, distribute, and otherwise exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to submitted works, including storage of them on the Organization’s servers and incorporation of them into other works in any media currently in existence or developed subsequently, including published book. Authors are free to re-use their own material.

            The Community Levee Association Indispensability of Virtue scholarship exists to encourage youth to promote virtues that strengthen their community. This $2,000 scholarship will be awarded to a graduating senior in June of 2011, by a member of the CLA scholarship committee. Additional monetary prizes may be awarded as funding allows. 

1. Please send completed application (available in your high school guidance office) in the regular mail to:

                        Community Levee Association Scholarship Committee
                        521 Clagett St. S.W.
                        Leesburg, VA 20175 

2. Please email the essays in PDF (double spaced, 12 point font) to info@communitylevee.org. Audio and video recordings should be in digital format and can be submitted on CD/DVD (mail to the address above.) or via the internet. Poster ads may be either digitally submitted or mailed. All submissions must be either postmarked or received by 11:59 p.m., May 10, 2011.  Absolutely no late entries will be accepted.

Choose one of the virtues found below and submit a short essay and two multi-media presentations from the five elements indicated. Group entries for the multi-media component are allowed. The essay must be an individual effort.

1. Write a short 1000 word essay intended to persuade others to adopt the virtue you chose. You may use examples, personal or otherwise, excerpts from literature, current newspaper or magazine articles, or other similar resources to support your ideas.

AND

2. Develop a two part multi-media campaign promoting the virtue you chose using a combination of any of the five multi-media elements listed. Group entries are allowed for the multi-media component.

1. A written piece suitable for a newspaper editorial or article defending this virtue
2. An illustrated poster with a slogan featuring the virtue you have chosen
3. An original piece of music with original lyrics in support of the virtue you have chosen (please submit in digital format suitable for listening)
4. An original video in support of the virtue you have chosen.
5. A radio ad promoting the virtue you have chosen (please submit in digital format suitable for listening)

                                                                                Topic Virtues
Frugality:
During the recent recession, many families in our community have lost their main source of income and some have lost their homes. Discuss ways that families and individuals can learn to live within their means, save for future expenses and prepare financially for emergencies. How does living prudently benefit individuals, families and our community as a whole? How does spending beyond our means harm us, our families and the community at large?

Honesty:
Being truthful and honest goes hand in hand with more than “not cheating”: a truthful person is true to himself and his fellow man. Discuss the ramifications of honesty and/or dishonesty in personal, family, and/or business and community situations.

Matrimony:
Stable families create stable communities. What are the marital commitments that give couples stability and happiness? As marital vows are honored, what virtues can a husband and wife employ to achieve a satisfying long-term family experience?

Civility:
In order to function as a community, we depend upon vigorous discourse between individuals acting in the interest of the common good. While differences will always exist between thinking individuals, conflicting opinions do not have to manifest themselves in personal attacks or coarse and mean-spirited language. How does a community benefit when civil discourse and mutual respect become the norm for political, social and familial interactions?

Evaluation criteria:

The following five criteria will be used in assessing the submitted material:

1.      Content, logical arguments and originality: 50% weighting

2.      Clarity: 15% weighting

3.      Appropriateness: 10% weighting

4.      Ability to persuade others: 15% weighting

5.      Overall quality: 10% weighting

Disclaimer:
Entrants must guarantee that their essays and photographs do not infringe the copyright, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any third party or entity, or violate any person’s right of privacy or publicity. Entrants are solely responsible for their submitted product.

Competition entrants grant the Community Levee Association permission, royalty-free in perpetuity, to use, reproduce, publish, distribute, and otherwise exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to submitted works, including storage of them on the Organization’s servers and incorporation of them into other works in any media currently in existence or developed subsequently, including published book. Authors are free to re-use their own material.