Shakespeare School Essay Competition: 14-25 years old
Official sponsor: Fischer International
Get thinking, get involved, share your creative ideas with us and you’ll be rewarded!
Eligibility:
- the contest is open to ALL youngsters aged 14-25
- to enter the contest, you have to leave an interesting and original comment to one of the posts from Shakespeare School blog
When you fulfil these requirements, you are officialy registered as participant in this competition and you can start writing your essay!
Essay Topic:
Writing a blog is no easy job. Think about the most famous blogs in the blogosphere and why not, even about your own, then write a 250-300 word essay about what makes a blog successful.
You may refer to:
- qualities of the ideal blogger
- the main function of a blog: that of online diary, therefore subjective and personal, or that of public conscience, consequently objective and militant
- tips and tricks to increase the number of comments/visitors
- predictions about the future of blogging: will blogs become so successful so as to replace mainstream media?
The creativity of your ideas expressed is more important than perfect English grammar.
Prizes:
1st Prize
- a 27 hour English summer course at Shakespeare School “Preparing students for international exams” : CAE (Certificate in Advanced English) or IELTS (International English Language Testing System), worth 450 RON
- course materials, worth 80 RON
- 1 copy of Practice Tests for CAE/IELTS (Pack + Audio CD) and 1 Fischer International document bag
2nd Prize
- a 27 hour English summer course at Shakespeare School “Preparing students for international exams” : FCE (First Certificate in English), worth 450 RON
- course materials, worth 80 RON
- 1 copy of Cambridge Advanced Dictionary + CD ROM and 1 Fischer International document bag
3rd Prize
- books from Fischer International one reader pack, consisting of 5 books
- a document bag offered by Fischer International
+ 5 Special Prizes x 1 book from Fischer International
Important notes:
- participation is FREE OF CHARGE
- all submitted essays will receive a Certificate of Participation to our essay competition
- winning essays and other essays of merit will receive an Essay Award Certificate
- all winning essays will be posted on Shakespeare School blog
Guidelines:
- all essays must be written in English
- all essays must be original and unpublished
- word count: approx. 250-300 words
- please use the information below as a guideline for your cover page. All requested information must be included as indicated:
Name :
Age:
School:
Telephone number:
E-mail address:
Judging criteria
- Essays will be judged on clarity, originality, creativity
- Judges: essays will be evaluated by a panel of judges comprising Shakespeare School staff
Deadline
All essays must be submitted by June 1, 2009.
How to submit
- E-mail a copy of your essay as a Microsoft Word Document to office@shakespeare-school.ro
- An e-mail will be sent confirming the receipt of your submission
We will announce the winners on the 10th of June, 2009.
More details about Shakespeare School summer courses can be found at http://www.shakespeare-school.ro/ .
GOOD LUCK!
Comentarii (59)
They say that childhood is a limited period of our lives, that it starts at a certain moment and then stops throwing us in the arms of maturity…I totally disagree, we are children for all our lives and if we forget this we will soon become tired of life, sick of so many problems, old when we are still young…
I like so much this kind of initiative and I think is very important for us to think about blogging, to discuss, becouse now almost everybody has a blog, especialy teenagers, and our “cool” level depends a lot of the succes of our writings. Although there are only a few that got tallent in this area, most of the bloggers convert a blog into a private diary. I think this is unusefull and not interesting, but I’ll say more in my essay. Greets, Andreea
You’ve got very interesting point of views! Mikey mouse, maybe you’ll tell us your real name?
if you want to enter the essay competition of course….good luck and may the best essay win! pls come back with other comments, suggestions, or any kind of feedback (positive/negative), it really brings added value to our posts!
Nowadays, blogs represent a new way for teenagers to express their feelings and thoughts. It isn’t quite easy to write a blog. For some, this represents just an online diary. Personally I do not agree with this. For me, if it is a diary, it should be personal, not for everybody. It’s true that there are some well-made blogs, which represent not only a diary, but one interesting web site on which you could find useful information. About this things and many others I’ll write in my essay.
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman;">Communication is essential in the life of a child, whether it is done with his parents or his friends. Sometimes communication does not exist in the life of a child and children tend to either replace it with other bad things or just shut themselves off from the world. Children and not just them, people in general need to express their feelings because their whole lives are like a war between the people around them and their inner selves. They need to discover themselves and in their journey to the center of their heart they often seek the approval of others, to know that they are on the right track. I suppose that when you feel that you want to show the world who you really are a blog is the perfect place to express yourself and open up the pages of your heart for the world to see. Even though it may sound like a diary I don’t believe it is, after all no one considers the work of great writers as diaries and all who create a blog are writers at least somewhere in their hearts.</span>
@ Alis: wow, this is actually a very insightful comment! the no.1 rule if you want to have a blog: you should be able to write well. so, have you considered the idea of starting up a blog? because writing seems to be your “thing”.
katalina, you are resourceful and full of ideas! keep up the good work
. try to organise your ideas and you will be able to submit a good essay!
great andreea, you've sparked my curiosity! can't wait to see your ideas. "almost everyone has got a blog"->why don't you have?
I bet Shakespeare would make a great blogger if he were still among us.
Go blogging!
I think that blogging is a very interesting choice and I congratulate you for this. There are many persons who definitely have lots of things to say with respects to blogs and I must confess that I am one of these persons because I have had a blog for almost one year now and I’ve started to form my own “theories” about this phenomenon. I just have to gather all my ideas in an essay…
i have got 2 remarks to make: 1) please sign yourself with your full name. bec there may be other participants named Irina, Oana, Andreea, etc as well….2) it is not absolutely necessary to leave a comment at this post in order to enter the essay competition. you can comment our other posts too, after all it’s for you whom we write for! so we would appreciate your feedback.
that’s true!
never thought of that. very nice comment
you are the first blogger to enter our essay competition, hooray for you!!!
we are new in the blogosphere so sharing your ideas with us will be really useful! i’ve checked out your blog, you’ve got a very original writing style! really liked it 
keep it up!
<span style="font-weight: bold;">On a blog, you don't have to be who you really are although everyone is encouraging bravery. You can be your neighbour next door, or that princess who used to write poems for the king, you can be the one who listens to everyone, or the other, who speaks to people. You might change opinions, ways of living and attitudes, and by blogging, you are given the opportunity to show your real feelings, to forget shyness…Through simple sentences, people have changed the world, because the walls that are always surrounding words can be broken and then, people will see, will feel, will understand who you really are: a soul that's waiting for another one like him.</span>
I feel somewhat reluctant about blogging, as I considerate it a form of exposure, especially if one posts pictures of himself or gives details, such as their full name and date of birth. I find that many people use the internet to communicate and make friends, at the same time ignoring the risks, which I consider enormous, of talking to dangerous, disturbed people.
What i cannot seem to understand is why people feel the need to share their feelings and ideas with the world. Is it the need of approval, or is it the need to find themselves in the opinions of other people? Some blogs are meant to guide the visitors in certain aspects, such as music or film, theatre or books. The downside is that usually, the users do not posses the requirements of being a critic of any kind. So how do these blogs help us?
I can’t wait to work on my essay
It is rather strange how this blogo-mania has taken over so many young people, politicians, and public personalities in general. I find it really difficult to maintain an updated blog, and moreover, I find it hard to sustain a sincere one. therefore, I think that I will make as basis for my essay the trust/mistrust that people allow to blogs.
Nice theme anyway!
really profound and inspiring!
thank you for your wonderful comment!
you’ve raised some really interesting questions! i guess in your essay you will talk mostly about personal blogs. but what do you think about a company blog, is it too much exposure for us? what do you think of our blog?
we’re glad that you like the theme we’ve chosen! it’s great that you have plenty of ideas where to start from! Inspiration!
company blogs are a way of advertising, not a way of telling the whole world what we dreamt last night. so they’re quite ok, like fliers and commercials. and when they’re as interactive as yours, and tend to form a community, it’s a great thing.
Hello! Does this mean that i can start writting my essay?
Hello! Does this mean that i can start writting my essay?
Of course you can start writing your essay! as we’ve said in the essay competition announcement: once you enter your comment you are officialy registered in our competition and you can start writing your essay and send it to office@shakespeare-school.ro! good LUCK! and keep an eye on our blog for interesting news
Thank you so much:D!
well i must confess that we have <span style="text-decoration: underline;">not </span>started this blog as a way of advertising, but as a way of communicating and receiving feedback from our students, their parents and anyone interested in learning English!! we also want you to keep updated with the latest news in this domain, ask for your opinions and suggestions. after all, the purpose of any blog should be to create a dialogue, not a monologue. so we're happy you are now part of this community!
As soon as I found out about this new interesting challenge from the official site of the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, I thaught it would be great to participate!
The theme you have chosen is quite special because as you said, writing a blog is no easy job. Creativity may be considered a very important factor, but the way we try to express our feelings can’t be exactly described.
Your blog is very attractive and you gave me a few ideas for “What makes a blog successful”. From my point of view as long as you try to do your best in what you have to do, your work will surely be appreciated!
I hope to enter the contest because I’ve always loved to express what I feel – it is an art that I try to handle as much as I can.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you very much for your comment, we really appreciate your thoughts!
we’d really like to find out new suggestions for our blog- what would a student from ASE expect to read here about learning English? we’re quite new in the blogosphere that’s why we need your feedback in order to meet your expectations! 
we do our best!
of course you can enter the contest. once you have shared your ideas with us, you are officialy registered as a participant in this competition! we wish you good luck and we look forward to receiving your application! keep in touch until then, hope to get other interesting comments from you!
It is vital to know English well nowadays because it is very important and gives you many good opportunities.
I admire your work and the way you try to motivate us to keep up the good work with our English – this contest will encourage many students to develop their interest in English and this will have a positive impact on them.
In my opinion learning English is the best thing that we can do and we must try to find new ways to improve our skills every day.
We are required to prove good knowledge of English if we want to succeed!
i am happy you're so excited and enthusiastic about learning English! we want to make this contest a tradition, year after another with more attractive prizes involved! good luck in writing your essay & stay tuned!
This is a realy catchy topic, i heard many times people talking about blogging vs mass-media. this kind of topic is usually discussed in conferences about communication or put in practice in workshops. i think that is a lot to speak about it and not even in 100 pages you can’t say everything about blogging. it is a good idea to see more opinion about blogging, maybe in this way more people will make the difference betwwen blogging like a form of amateurism and the real journalism.
This contest is a very nice way for teenagers to exercise their English knowledge and also their blogging knowledge. I’m in the blogging area for awhile, almost an year and a half, and I haven’t seen any contests like this yet. Hope further ones will come.
great! i’ve read all your 1000-words “about me” page and you’ve got a reaaaally catchy writing style!
did you write in your essay about your own experience as a blogger? because you’ve definitely learnt a lot about blogging during this time…
No, my essay is about blogging in general. I thought it’s better to speak about blogging in general than to speak about my own experience. Thanks for your opinions about my blog, hope you’ll step by from time to time
Nowadays people use many ways to communicate: email, blog, yahoo messenger, phone, not to forget the letters. Each way has different advantages as speed of sending message, free of charges for emails, dialogue for phone calling. Blogs on their turn have a wider range and allow many people to express what they feel. There are many blogs and I am interested mainly in education, nature and history ones. In order to prevent certain comments, some sites require to register and then choose a password. In this way the morality increases, but the number of persons that comment decreases because of the burocracy. Anyway some internet forums become so big that a person makes another topic and doesn’t observe a similar topic has been already created. The diversity of subjects may require an off-topic section. Anyway personal blogs usually deal with specific subjects(life, work, free time).
The blog from this site is interesting, up to date and presents how important is to teach English to young persons. I consider that the level of the pupils / students rises in this educational structure. It would have been great if I had known about this institution earlier. So may I participate to this competition?
Well, i am quite interested in English, so i see this is the place for me. I think it is a very good idea for schools and various institutions to have not only a site but also a forum or a blog. It has become quite obvious that people mostly use the internet for information, which finally led to a huge flow of information which, in the end, can either be true or false. So the best idea is to go directly to the source.
I have noticed that many firms and service providers have a blog, which i consider useful as a way of sending feedback and posing questions which might turn out to be very frequently asked. Still, the majority is made up of personal blogs, which, as you guessed, is my main target of discussion, as I find it opens a world of possibilities for debate.
Is it okay to broaden up the subject, or should we try to stick to the points given as much as possible?
I think it’s a great competition with a very interesting topic , it will certainly catch the attention of many young and creative minds. Blogging rapidly gained popularity especially among teenagers, it replaced the old, stained diaries and gave us another way of expressing ourselves. So why not write about it?
It sounds great!
Thanks for your essay submission! We are happy you enjoy our blog! you can come back more often!
I would also like to remind everyone something I’ve said before: if you want to enter our essay competition it is not absolutely neccesary to leave a comment at this post (about the essay competition)! please feel free to comment on any other article, we will still take into consideration your registration! we will appreciate your feedback! thanks :*
This competition is a very interesting idea and i think that these kind of competitions helps us ,the teenagers, to better organize our ideas and also to give the best of our English knowledge.
I am willing to start writing my essay.
Actually by reading all these comments i can easily say that i am not the only one who is enthusiastic about this competiton.
Good luck to everyone!
hey ioana! sorry for my late reply. well, it’s perfectly fine to broaden the subject, you shouldn’t feel constrained by the points given. in fact, their only purpose is of guidance. we’ve even mentioned: “you may refer to…” not MUST refer to! so please feel free to let your creativity fly!
i’m so glad you’ve enjoyed our topic! now you just have to put your young and creative mind to work and share your ideas about blogging with us!
thanks for your feedback! being enthusiastic is one of the first conditions to be fulfilled before entering a competition! and i believe that if you put a lot of enthusiasm and passion into a competition (of any kind), the chances to win increase significantly! so i wish you success and stay tuned on our blog!
successful*
I’ve sent you my essay today but I haven’t received any e-mail confirming the receipt of my submission yet.
I want just to make sure that everything is all right.
Thank you for everything.
The ideal blogger does not need to show its age but can entertain, and revive any lost interest in internet sites, to poeple of all ages. He opens through a simple window a door into the depths of his soul and wonderful imagination and invites the reader to join and complete the wonmderland with his own ideeas no matter how unusual, silly, funny, witty or outrageous. Every new coment, counts a new reader and a new brick in the wall of blogging.
Andrei C.
thanks for your submission ionela! in weekends we usually check our e-mail less often- only twice a day!
that’s way it took a few hours until we confirmed the receipt of your submission. good luck with the exams at ASE!
wow andrei, that’s a very interesting point of view! to me, it seems you’re really talented! we hope that your new comment counts you as a new reader of our blog…
what I think about blogging? Well..I consider it to be a different world. I like to call it a place where you can find yourself and where you can escape from the routine.
So, congrats for your idea!
Chivoiu Ioana
Thank you for everything!
Having a blog means you have to be a good writer,to be very original,and commercial,too beacause you have to make the other people to read what you are writing and to make them to find themselves there.
On the other hand,I consider internet a form,a source of ”mechanisation” of what we are feeling or thinking.That’s what I’m going to write in my new essay:the bad and the good parts of having a blog!
:* GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE AND MAY THE BEST WIN!!!
Does the life worth to be lived online?
The fact that so many people are somehow present in our virtual social circle is a stupid pressure. More status you post to them because you feel a bad desire to show that your life is active, lively, happy. All fun and feel good. You get to do reviews live concerts when in fact everyone should sing the lungs or you write to them that you are at a date with a brunette instead you should be there: In the Zone. Analyzing and always trying to describe to others what we lose this is: time, emotion. We are too caught up to document and archive this present,that when I gave post,he is already past.Mandici Razvan.
What I think about blogging?
Well, I like the idea of sharing your knowledge and talking whith others about things you like or not. I think looking from many points of view helps you to take better decisions and that’s a way you can get them.
On the other hand, I hate the fact that not everyone is honest when they post a coment. I agree whit you, too: it’s very hard to express our feelings simply by using words.
Mostly, I thing blogging is a god idea but it needs improvement .
whith you*
with*
sorry
I think this is a very interesting competition.I like very much to read books and watch TV movies.I would like to win the trip in England.
Good luck to everyone!
this competition seems to be very interesting. i like challenges especially if are related to what I like:English. I want to wish good luk to everyone! :*
This contest is so great
!!!(Foldes Anamaria)
I think that having a blog sometimes proves to be easy because on the internet you can find as many tips and triks as you whant about blogging or all that stuf.
i hope that in the next edition of the contest you will let us use more words than 250 because I wished that I could’ve made a bigger esay.