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The First Amendment Center at the
University of Kentucky is sponsoring an essay contest for college
undergraduates. The contest gives junior and senior undergraduates
at any college or university in the United States the opportunity
to answer a challenging question about an important and
contemporary First Amendment issue. The contest is not
limited to journalism students; students from any majors may
submit an essay.
The essay should be no more than 1,250 words.
The first prize is $1000; second prize $600; third prize, $400.
If the winners are located within driving
distance of Lexington, they may be invited to campus to receive
their award in person.
The deadline for receipt of the essay is
April 5, 2006. Students must mail a hard copy of the essay to
the address below. E-mail submissions (either in the body of an
e-mail or as attached documents) will not be accepted:
Dr. Roy Moore
Executive Director
First Amendment Center
School of Journalism and Telecommunications
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0042
Inquiries: moore@uky.edu
Below are the three topics for the essay. Students may submit one
essay only, based on one question:
- Should the Constitution be amended to allow
Congress to punish the burning of the American flag, which the
Supreme Court has ruled is protected speech?
- Should journalists have the right to keep
sources confidential, which the Supreme Court has ruled is not
protected by the First Amendment under some circumstances?
- Should the First Amendment protect Internet
communication such as blogs, Web sites, chat rooms, e-mail,
and other Internet outlets, the same way it protects
traditional print and broadcasting?
Rules:
1) Students must complete the form titled "First
Amendment Essay Contest" [MS Word]
and will submit that form as the cover sheet attached to the
essay. The student’s name must not appear on any pages
other than the cover sheet. Any essay that includes a student name
on any page except for the cover sheet will be disqualified.
2) Each essay will be assigned a number so that judges will not
know which student submitted the essay. The judges will learn the
identity of the students only after the winners are selected.
3) Although each question allows students to address the subject
from various perspectives, the essay must specifically consider
the issues raised by the question.
4) The essay must be the work of the student. Essay writers
cannot consult with anyone during the research or writing of the
essay. The student may show a draft of the essay to another person
who makes suggestions for light copy editing, but for the most
part, the essay must be the student's work.
5) Students are permitted to do research when preparing the essay.
That research may involve consulting Internet resources, books,
newspaper and magazine articles, journal articles, courts cases,
and other materials.
When such materials are incorporated into the
essay, it is important that students appropriately attribute the
source of the information. Footnotes or endnotes are not
permitted. Instead students will include brief reference
information in parentheses following the statement to be
attributed. The reference information will not count toward the
word limit. Here are examples:
Referring to a court case:
"When the Supreme Court decided in 1972 that reporters did
not have a First Amendment right to keep sources confidential (Branzburg
v. Hayes), it created a difficult situation for all
journalists."
Referring to an act of Congress:
"Congress wanted to make sure that Internet service
providers could not be sued for information they made available
but did not create." (Section 230, Telecommunications Act
of 1996).
A book reference (this example is not from an actual
book):
"Many legal scholars believe the First Amendment is the
most important part of the Constitution." (Jane Doe, The
First Amendment is Real, 2002, p. 50).
6) Students should remember that plagiarism or other inappropriate
uses of someone else's work is a serious offense. While
students are encouraged to consult reference materials as they
prepare this essay, it must be clear in the essay what is their
work and what ideas or words come from another person. Any
evidence of plagiarism will automatically disqualify the essay
from consideration.
7) Although students may consult various materials, the best
essays will be more than a gathering of information from others.
The essays should be well-organized, analytical and creative, and
they should show that students have thought about the issues.
Students are thus encouraged to include their own ideas in
the essay.
8) In answering one of the three questions, students should argue
whatever position they believe is the most compelling. The judges
of the contest will look for originality of thought, strength of
the argument, use of appropriate resources, the quality of the
writing, and other attributes when choosing the winning essays. Essays
taking either a positive or negative stance on the questions
have an equal chance of winning.
9) Students submitting essays agree to transfer rights to
publish or republish the essays to the First Amendment Center. The
Center may publish the winning essays on its Web site or in
printed form. The student retains the right to publish the essay
elsewhere.
10) Essays received after the deadline shall not be
considered. |
