Youth Tour
Washington D.C. Youth Tour
The 2012 Washington Youth Tour Writing Contest is open to high school juniors enrolled in the seven public high schools in the Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative service area. They are: Bledsoe County High School, Grundy County High School, Marion County High School, Richard Hardy Memorial School, Sequatchie County High School, South Pittsburg High School and Whitwell High School.
Every short story should be titled "Electric Cooperatives: iPower the Future".
Download the 2012 Resource Booklet Here
This year's assignment is to write a short story describing how your electric cooperative energizes your community by taking an active role in improving lives across its service area.
- Submissions must not exceed 900 words, including articles ("a," "an" and "the"). The exact word count must be included on your cover page.
- They must be type-written and double-spaced.
Your teacher will give you the deadline for turning it in to him/her. He/she will grade the stories and return the best 4-5 to the students who wrote them to make corrections. These top stories from each high school will be turned in to SVEC without names for judging. After being judged by a panel of judges, the co-op will contact the teacher to identify the winners.
A first, second and third place winner will be named from each school. The first place winner will receive an all expense paid trip to Washington, D.C., June 15-21, 2012 as a participant in the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association's Washington Youth Tour. The second and third place winners will each receive a $50 savings bond.
One story will be selected from the seven first-place stories to be entered in the state-wide contest. The awards at the state level are college scholarships - $3000 for 1st, $2000 for 2nd and $1000 for 3rd.
Getting Started
Be creative in your writing, utilizing the information in the booklet you received from your English teacher and your own distinctive voice. Write concisely, making each word or phrase work to support your theme. Establish this theme early and refer back to it throughout your story. As always, use correct grammar. Your writing will be judged on the three factors below.
1) Appropriate treatment of the theme and knowledge of the subject: 50%
To gain full credit in this category, you'll have to effectively weave the information relating to the theme throughout the short story. Judges will see indications of additional research, a grasp of what information is vital to making your story believable and credible and creative ways of presenting that information.
2) Originality: 35%
Use a different, entertaining, effective way of presenting information that will educate the reader and get the writer's points across..
3) Grammar and composition: 15%
Refer to your English textbook to check for correct grammar and composition.
Sources of Information
NRECA Washington Youth Tour Website
2008 SVEC Winning Short Story/1st place State Winner
