The Program in Rhetoric and Composition has extended the deadline for the Jessie O'Kelly Composition Contest submissions until Tuesday, April 1. Each spring, the Jessie O'Kelly award celebrates the effort of students in composition courses by recognizing a successful paper from the previous year. To ensure that Spring Break does not interfere with the submission of the many stellar composition papers that qualify, this year's deadline is now the week that classes resume. Here are the details:

The award's monetary prize is $500.

The criteria for submission:

• Students must be currently enrolled as full-time undergraduates.
• Papers must have been written for Composition 1 or 2 or Technical Composition 2, or the Honors or online versions of these courses.
• Students must have taken the Composition course in spring, summer or fall 2024.
• Students must have been a first- or second-year student when taking the Composition course.
• Papers must be at least three pages long, in a recognized academic format (MLA, APA, Chicago, IEEE or other) and incorporate multiple outside sources.
• Students should include their university ID number with each submission.
• Students may submit more than one paper.

Submit your papers via email, with "Jessie O'Kelly [your name]" in the subject line, to rhetcomp@uark.edu by midnight April 1, 2025. Submissions will be judged by Program in Rhetoric and Composition teaching staff, who will select winners.

Jessie O'Kelly was a beloved faculty member of the English Department, and at her death, former colleagues and students endowed this award in her memory. The Program in Rhetoric and Composition is proud to have maintained this recognition of outstanding student writers for the decades since the award's inception.

Please contact LewEllyn Hallett at lhallett@uark.edu or Kat Gray at katg@uark.edu if you have any questions, but submit only to rhetcomp@uark.edu.