Call for Nominations

Award for Graduate Writing in WPA Studies

The Council of Writing Program Administrators is pleased to announce the call for nominations for its recently created award recognizing outstanding scholarship by graduate students writing on issues in writing program administration. Please review the following description of the award and guidelines for eligibility.

Purpose and Criteria for Selection:  This CWPA Award for Graduate Writing in WPA Studies recognizes outstanding achievements by students of writing program administration and is intended to encourage graduate scholarship in WPA studies. Entries will be judged on innovation, scholarship, relevance, and clarity of writing. Projects examining major trends and issues in writing program administration will be preferred.

Eligibility: Eligible entries must be written by students enrolled in coursework at either the master’s or doctoral level. Entries/nominations for the award must be accompanied by an affidavit* signed by a faculty member or instructor at the student(s)' institution verifying that the student project was completed for graduate credit.

Entries: Entries should be unpublished manuscripts of 5,000–8,000 words or an equivalent multi-media and/or web-based project.  The submission must include a 100-word abstract* or other brief description; manuscript submissions should conform to the editorial and stylistic guidelines of the journal WPA: Writing Program Administration (http://wpacouncil.org/journal/index.html ); other kinds of projects should be publication-ready as appropriate. 

Prize: A certificate and cash prize of $300 for the winning project. In accepting the award and prize, the author(s) of the winning project agrees to submit a proposal for a presentation based on the project for consideration for inclusion on the program of the WPA Summer Conference in the year following receipt of the award.  

Selection Committee: Submissions will be judged in a blind review by a selection committee.

Nominations:  Any WPA member in good standing can nominate a graduate paper or project.

*Application Deadline and Timeline: Nominations are due by May 31, 2009 (or the last day for reporting grades for spring term at the student(s)' school).  Entries will be reviewed and a winner selected by September 1, 2009 and the winner will be notified as soon as possible thereafter. Subsequently, but no later than March 2010, the winner of the award will be publicly announced and will be recognized at the annual WPA Breakfast at the 2010 CCCC. 

*Forms for Cover Sheet, Nomination, Affidavit, and Abstract are provided in the Nomination Packet  available as an attachment below. Website users must be logged in to see and download the nomination packet.