The D'Artagnan Award
The Xavier Writing Program, in conjunction with the Writing Center and the Dean's office, is excited to sponsor The D'Artagnan Award. This award acknowledges notable talent from first-year writing courses (ENGL 101 and ENGL 115) and awards prizes for the top three entries in any genre. The name for this award was chosen specifically because D'Artagnan, like our first-year writers, had to work hard to improve his skills, overcome obstacles, and rise to the challenge of new situations that require maturity and development. These students likewise become leaders for future students, as their work will become a tool to guide future first-year writers on their educational journey.The award winning compositions, along with a selection of other exemplary models of first-year student writing, will be compiled and published in a text that will be required for all first-year writing courses beginning in the Fall of 2016. This publication will include:
- Examples of excellent student writing to serve as models for incoming first-year students
- Resources for students, such as information about the library, Writing Center, academic integrity policies, commonly used terms, and other pertinent information
- Reflections from the student writers themselves on their writing processes to give new college-level writers insight into the challenges and strategies that past students have employed
- Pedagogically aimed questions to examine student selections in class or as part of genre analysis exercises to help students gain awareness of what constitutes effective writing at Xavier