Eligibility and Conditions: This essay competition is open to senior high school students in Canada or Scotland taking any World or Immigration History course. There must be commitment and guidance from their World or Immigration History teachers. The students must receive some academic credit for their essays and their essays must also be graded by their teachers accordingly as a culminating activity. The McCowan Initiative will arrange for third party adjudication of all worthy submitted papers for the purposes of the essay competition. There must be at least five very serious student competitors in total per year. There is no obligation to award a prize if there are fewer than five submissions.

Length / Rules: Minimum 2,000 words; Maximum 3,000 words (excluding notes and bibliography). MS Word^TM doc or docx format. Title page must include: contestant’s name, address, phone number; name, address, phone number of contestant’s school; name of teacher and course title. The essay must not indicate the grade received, nor show any comments by the teacher.

Criteria: Depth of analysis and interpretation of primary source and other data; quality, clarity and originality of writing, soundness of central theme, strength and organization of argument.

Deadline: Entries must be emailed to bmccowan@netrover.com by May 1 of the school year.  The winning essay will be announced to the winner’s school by June 15.

Prize: The McCowan Initiative will provide two prizes: $400 and $200 Cdn.  The Award will be presented at the school’s Academic Awards Ceremony.

Publication: Any submitted essay may be published, with credit, by the James McCowan Memorial Social History Initiative or by the Scarboro Heights Record in either print or on-line format at www.scarboroughrecord.com.  The essay may be edited for publication at the discretion of the McCowan Initiative.

Entry Form