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ADR Short Story Contest

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Writing Project for Schools & Students

Short Story = A brief exploration of a subject in prose expressing a personal view or interpretation of a subject or topic.

Schools may submit students’ short stories online to the foundation before or by March 1, 2020. Students should be 12-18 yrs. old.

Student Requirements:

  1. Only one short story written per contestant should be submitted on or before March 1, 2020.
  2. Submissions must be made to the school’s designated judge.  
  3. The top of each page must include the contestant’s name, page number, and story title.
  4. The Short Story should have a single storyline, no subplots, no more than three or four characters and a short time scale.
  5. The story must be double spaced and between 1000 and 1500 words.

School Requirements:

Schools serving students ages 12-18 may register to participate using the form below during the Fall 2019 semester.

  1. Each school must provide a contact person and their e-mail.
  2. The 1st place winner’s short story must be written in English or be translated into English in order to be published in the American Diversity Report
  3. The 1st place winner’s story must be submitted online by May 1, 2020. Directions will be provided to the contact person.
  4. The names of the 2nd and 3rd place winners and the titles of their stories will also be mentioned in the American Diversity Report.
  5. A minimum of one judge per school is required. The judge may be a teacher, administrator, or published author in the community.
  6. We suggest that our Short Story Writing Guide be used to assist students in their writing.

Scroll down for  Short Story Writing Guide
Download

Judges Criteria

Judges will use the following criteria and report the  students with the highest totals of points (1st, 2nd, and 3rd place) by May 1, 2020.

General Merit (25 pts)

  1. Ideas (single storyline, no subplots, 3-4 characters, short time scale)
  2. Organization (consistent writing style, consistent mood, tone and space)
  3. Wording (appropriate language, brief descriptions)
  4. Flavor/Engaging

Mechanics (25 pts)

  1. Word usage
  2. Punctuation/Capitalization
  3. Spelling

Overall Effect (50 pts)

  1. Minimum background
  2. concise dialogue
  3. no lengthy preamble
  4. no contrived ending

WINNERS:

Judges report 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place winners
Awards courtesy of English with Mary Moore LLC

1ST PLACE- TROPHY AWARD
Story published in the American Diversity Report

2nd and 3rd PLACE = Certificate Awards
Names & story titles mentioned in the American Diversity Report

___________________

**SHORT STORY WRITING GUIDE – SPECIAL DISCOUNT – ONLY $3.50 usd – get DOWNLOAD


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Race & Ethnicity, Uncategorized

“Affirmative Action” for the Rich and Privileged! – by Terry Howard & Elwood Watson

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LATE BREAKING NEWS: The college admissions scandal, in which 50 people including celebrities have been indicted for scheming to get the children of rich and privileged parents into top schools. It involves parents who, prosecutors allege, bribed and cheated their kids’ way into prestigious universities.

A mother’s remorse: My daughter received multiple mailings from Stanford, Harvard, Yale and other prestigious schools based on her high SAT scores as a 10th grader. Her dream was to apply to Stanford. She decided to focus on academics and her musical instrument, and practiced hours each day in order to achieve a skill level high enough to be accepted via auditions into the most competitive youth orchestra in the entire southeast United States. She focused on volunteer work with a group providing music enrichment to under-privileged children and started attending a state school as a dual-enrollment student when she was a senior in high school. Her academics were stellar, and her final SAT scores were exceptional (good enough to earn her the same scholarship that valedictorians get in our state). She was contacted for interviews at Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton, as well as several other prestigious schools but she was devastated to receive rejections from those schools that had given her some hope. As a parent, I am angry!  We spent so much time and energy on her applications and extra activities. We are just a middle-class family, but it was an amazing idea to dream that our daughter could get accepted to one of these schools. Seeing the news yesterday made me sick to my stomach. All the hard work that my daughter did was never going to be enough to overcome the privilege that those kids are born with. I tried as hard as I could as a parent to try to level the playing field for her but it turns out it is much more unequal than I ever could have imagined.                                                                                                                                                            – A white mom, March 13, 2019 

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Authors I-Q, Of Women, Uncategorized

 Sadie Hawkins Day: An Example of Cultural Delusion – by Eileen Meagher

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Sadie Hawkins Day!  I didn’t know anything about it. The vibrations though with which the name permeates our culture and whatever the holiday celebrates have always seemed a wee bit strange and but also lighthearted.  It is celebrated on November 13th and since today is November 13th I feel oddly compelled to inform myself of the wisdom or lack of wisdom passed on by this “Holiday.” It would appear to be a very American holiday, but the Scots and my Irish ancestors might argue with that since they celebrate something comparable on February 29th called of course “Leap Year.” But that is another story!

The Sadie Hawkins Story

The American story is that Al Capp, a famous and brilliant cartoon artist of the last century,3 depicted in his daily cartoon, Lil Abner, the trials and tribulations of a hillbilly town called Dogpatch.  The most powerful and the richest man in Dogpatch was named Hezekiah Hawkins who had a daughter named Sadie and at the advanced age of 35 she had not married.  Sadie was also “the homeliest gal in all them hills” and her father was scared that she would spend her life at home as a spinster, a terrible and humiliating fate for any woman in Dogpatch.

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Uncategorized

Empowering Arab Women in the Workplace – by John White

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How Silatech created 600 jobs for women in Somalia … An update on International Women’s Day, a day that recognizes the social, cultural, and economic achievements of women. Once celebrated in only a few countries where women fought for equality, the event has now spread to all groups, countries, and organizations everywhere.

In Lahore, Pakistan, NPR followed the women in their first-ever march for equal rights on International Women’s Day. Hundreds of women came together for the same reason, giving women a proper education so they can obtain successful careers. Journalist Haleema Shah spoke with one of the thousands of women there who defined freedom as, “the ability to own a business and the understanding that such endeavors should not be considered avenues to indecency.” Women’s social standing is changing with the help of a new program created by the regional social organization in Qatar, called Silatech.

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Authors A-H, Of Women, Uncategorized

Juggling Balloons and Life- by Terry Howard

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March is Women’s History Month. I had that in mind when I started writing on the significance of that recognition. That is until I came across an eye opening piece, “The boys are not right,” in the February 21 issue of The New York Times by Michael Black. He wrote it in part in response to the recent shootings in Florida where 17 students lost their lives. The shooter –as is the case with the majority of mass shootings in America – was a young man.

Men feel isolated, confused and conflicted about their natures. Many feel that the very qualities that used to define them — their strength, aggression and competitiveness — are no longer wanted or needed; many others never felt strong or aggressive or competitive to begin with. We don’t know how to be, and we’re terrified.

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Uncategorized

And in walked Morgan – by Terry Howard

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I didn’t know Morgan Spurlock. Never heard of him.

Until one recent Wednesday night. You see, several friends knew that I was toying with the idea of publishing something new in response to the recent explosion of sexual harassment/assault charges emerging almost daily against high profile men. And before the ink is dry on this piece more allegations are probably forthcoming.

But before I get to Spurlock’s “confession,” here’s a feedback request I sent out recently to a number of people, male and female, whose views I greatly value:

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