Best Essay Award
for the General Education Foundation Programme
About the Best Essay Award
The Office of University General Education is calling for submissions to the Best Essay Award, an essay-writing competition opened to students of the General Education Foundation Programme.
The Best Essay Award, first introduced in 2011 as "Students' Best Work Award", is meant to recognize students' efforts and achievements, and to showcase exemplary works resulting from intensive engagement in thinking and writing in the two Dialogue courses. Students who completed In Dialogue with Humanity and/or In Dialogue with Nature in 2018-19 Summer Term, 2019-20 Term 1, or 2019-20 Term 2 are eligible to compete for the Award.
You may send in your term paper for one or both of the two Dialogue courses submitted in the terms specified above. Entries should be submitted along with the designated online application form, with one form for each submission.
Submission Guidelines
Before sending in your term paper, you are strongly advised to fine-tune it within the more generous word limit given below. Adjudication will be based on the revised works and not the original assignments. Revisions may include:
- Improvement of structure and argumentation
- Elaboration of obscure or undeveloped points
- Correction of factual inaccuracies
- Application of proper citation style
- Improvement of grammatical accuracy and language style
The paper should follow the MLA Citation Style. Each paper must carry a title (given by the student, not the topic assigned by the course teacher).
Papers should be no more than 2,400 words in English or 3,000 characters in Chinese.
Each submission should include: i) a PDF file and a Word file of the same paper with any comments, name or ID of the author removed; ii) a completed submission form for Best Essay Award.
Submissions should be made by July 20, 2020. Submissions that are incomplete or received after this date will not be considered.
Prizes
There will be one Gold Award (HK$3,000), three Silver Awards (HK$1,000 each), and ten Bronze Awards (HK$500 each) for each course.
*The adjudication committee reserves the right to award a fewer number of essays if deemed appropriate.
*Essays selected for the Award will be published as a booklet and also online. Awardees may also be invited to present their essays at a student seminar tentatively scheduled in February 2021, during which the best presenter will receive a book coupon of HK$500.
*Authors of shortlisted essays that are not eventually selected for the Awards will receive a book coupon of HK$100 in recognition of their efforts. Their names will also be mentioned in the website and the booklet.
Adjudication
Shortlisting will be done by the GEF teaching team. Final selection will be conducted by an adjudication committee chaired by the Director of University General Education with external members. The decision of the committee will be final.
Adjudication will be based on the following criteria:
- Soundness of argument
- Originality of ideas
- Strength of organization and structure
- Grammatical accuracy and precision of expression
- Creativity of presentation
- Appropriateness of references
The results will be announced online in November, 2020. Awardees and their departments and colleges will be informed individually. An award presentation ceremony will be held together with the above mentioned student seminar.
Enquiry
For enquiry, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 39433730.
Office of University General Education
June 18, 2020
