Fact sheet
1. DIRECTIONS
Write a 1000-word essay, in French, on the following question:
In your opinion, is competition useful?
- Your essay must have 3 main parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
- Your arguments must be supported with research.
- The essay can be written in the first person. (Yes, it’s okay to use the word “Je”!)
- The essay should present your personal point of view, and give the reader a glimpse of your experience, thoughts, and/or feelings.
- Read the
Evaluation Grid to find out how your essay will be evaluated.
Are you having a tough time getting started? Here are a few questions and ideas to help you out:
- Do you consider yourself a competitive person?
- Is it important to always be the best in everything?
- In your opinion, what is the most competitive field? The least competitive?
- Ask your friends and family to give you their point of view on competition. Do you agree with them?
- Are there situations where competition can be harmful?
- Think about competition around the world. Your could write an essay
on competition in relation to a specific field such as sports, nature,
music, the arts, education, culture, business, international relations,
etc.
How to submit your essay
- To enter the contest, you must submit your essay using the online entry form.
- Your essay must be in plain text (no bold characters, no italics, no underlining, and no formatting other than capital letters and spacing between paragraphs).
- To make end notes, do not use exponents (2 ) and do not use the end notes function in Microsoft Word or other similar software. Instead, write the numbers in parenthesis, as illustrated in the example below.
- We suggest that you copy your text from a word-processing software such as Microsoft Word, paste it in a software such as Notepad to make sure the formatting is okay and in plain text, then cut and paste the text in the appropriate field in the online entry form.
- The title of your essay must be in capital letters and you must leave a space between every paragraph. Please follow
this example.
2. CATEGORIES
In the entry form, please indicate which category you belong to. Your essay will be judged against essays of other entrants in the same category. French for the Future reserves the right to verify that you have categorized yourself in the correct category. If you categorize yourself in Category 1, but should really be in Category 2, you will be disqualified.
Category 1: French as a Second Language (“FSL”):
Choose this category if your first language is not French, or if you are currently enrolled in Core French, Extended Core French, Basic French, French Immersion, or any other version or type of FSL program, available in your province or territory of residence.
Category 2: French as a First Language (“FFL”):
Choose this category if :
• your first language is French;
• you speak, write and comprehend French with native fluency; or if
• you regularly speak French at home with one or both parents.
3. PRIZES
You must rank the available prize scholarships in their order of preference on your entry form with your most preferred scholarship ranked as no. 1.
If your essay is selected as being in the top 28 entrants of your category, you will be eligible to win the scholarship you have ranked the highest that has not been already awarded to an entrant with a higher ranking essay within your own category. For example, if you are the second place winner in your category, you will be eligible to win the scholarship you ranked highest, unless it is unavailable as it is has already been awarded to the first place winner. In such a case, the scholarship that has been ranked second highest will be awarded to you.
4. EVALUATION
Each essay will be judged by a panel of three judges. All essays will be evaluated using the contest’s
Evaluation Grid. Each essay will receive a score from the judging panel, which will be the average of the scores given to the essay by each judge. In each category, the 28 essays with the highest scores will be selected as potential winners for the category. The essay with the highest score in each category will be the first place winner, the essay with the second highest average score will be the second place winner and so on to the twenty-eighth place winner.
5. TIMELINE
Date
|
Activity |
September 14, 2009
|
Contest launch
|
January 11, 2010 at 11:59pm
|
Deadline to enter the contest
|
January 12 - March 15, 2010
|
Essays are read and judged by the selected judges
|
March 16 - March 22, 2010
|
The 28 winners in each category are notified by email
|
April 12, 2010
|
Formal announcement of the winners on the French for the Future Web site
|
Click
here for the official rules and regulations.
Bonne chance!