The annual First-Year Program Writing Showcase has returned and is calling for submissions. Coordinated by First-Year Writing Director Erin Workman and Assistant Director Victoria Hohenzy, this event is dedicated to celebrating the work of first-year students and their teachers, honoring projects ranging from essays to field work. Here’s what you need to know about the showcase.
The Event & How to Submit
Open to the public, students enrolled in first-year writing courses within the past academic year present their projects to faculty, peers, and family who attend the event. To be considered, students must fill out the entry form through the University Center for Writing-based Learning, at which point a panel of judges will determine the best works to showcase. Applicants are limited to submitting work from following courses taken in the last four quarters:
- FYSW 102
- First-Year Writing WRD 102, 103, 103x, 104, and 104x
- Focal Point Seminars LSP 112
- Discover LSP 110 and Explore Chicago LSP 111
- Honors 100, 110, 111, and 180
- Quantitative Reasoning LSP 120
Submissions in the past have come from many different programs, including but not limited to The Theatre School, College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, College of Communication, and the College of Computing & Digital Media. Many topics have been touched on, from studying maternity and paternity leave to commentary on the Illinois public school system. While mostly essays, Students have presented a variety of works; for example, Stephan Durrant from WRD 104 submitted and presented an ePortfolio that compiled all his work on the subject of mass tourism. Students with group projects and multimodal works are also highly encouraged to submit.
Selected writers will receive not only public recognition for their work but also a $50 award and the chance to receive other awards. One award is the Library Research Prize for essays only, granted to three writers who discuss information literacy along with an additional $50. The Writing Center will be hosting a workshop for selected students to help them remediate their projects into poster presentations, where materials for helping to produce these posters will also be provided.
Victoria Hohenzy is highly optimistic about the showcase and is excited for the experience these students will have.
“The Showcase is an opportunity for students to be publicly recognized for the outstanding work they’ve done in their First-Year courses. Academic writing and research can be rather solitary activities, and we want to remind students that they are part of a community at DePaul. We also want them to take pride in the work they’ve produced and see the ways in which that writing has value beyond the classroom. It’s a celebration of writers and writing.”
The showcase will also see a guest speaker, this year inviting Dr. Beverly Moss from Ohio State University. After her speech, attention is turned back to the students as they receive their awards.
Students with significant work from their first-year writing courses should highly consider entering an application. Not only is it an opportunity to experience a slice of academic development, it’s also a chance to become connected with the larger community of DePaul University.
Interested in showing off your work? To be considered for the showcase, undergraduates must submit by April 3 through the Writing Center.