NEO•GRIOT

Call for Entries:

The Waheed Samy Award

for Excellence in Arabic Writing

($1,000 top prize | worldwide)

Deadline: 20 April 2013

The American University in Cairo (AUC) and the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) are happy to announce the launch of The Waheed Samy Award for Excellence in Arabic Writing for advanced learners of Arabic.

This award is established in honor of Dr. Waheed Samy who was member of the Arabic faculty at the University of Michigan, the CASA program, and the Arabic Language Institute at AUC. During his teaching tenure at these institutions, Dr. Samy placed much focus on teaching writing and authored Arabic Writing for Style: al-Kitaba wa-l-uslub (1999) as a resource for prospective writers of Arabic. Dr. Samy passed away unexpectedly in February 2012 causing the field of Arabic to lose a teacher of great talents and remarkable commitment and devotion. It is our hope that this award will help commemorate Dr. Samy’s memory and enhance the position of writing as a main ingredient of Arabic learning.

The award will be presented annually to a student of Arabic as a Foreign/Second Language who has distinguished herself/himself in the area of writing. Competition for the award will be open to students in Arabic programs in the US and abroad. Recipient of the award will receive $1,000 dollars and a commemorative plaque in recognition of their outstanding achievement in Arabic writing.

We invite all students of Arabic at the higher levels of proficiency to apply and we call upon teachers of Arabic worldwide to encourage their students to apply.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Applicant must be enrolled in a regular academic program or an Arabic language program.

• Applicant must possess a minimum of Advanced-High (2+) proficiency or higher.

• Applicant needs to submit 3 representative samples of their writing. Each sample needs to be between 400 and 2500 words. Essays in different genres of writing (narrative, expository, persuasive, etc.) are highly encouraged to demonstrate breadth of writing abilities.

• Applicant will be required to sit for a proctored writing activity in which s/he will be asked to choose one of two topics and write about it. The writing activity will last about 2.5 hours and will be held at the applicant's home institution May 3rd, 2013.

• A letter of endoresment from an Arabic teacher familiar with the student's writing needs to be sent to the committee using the using the following email address: w.samy.writing.contest@gmail.com

APPLY:

To apply to the contest, download the attached application form (below), complete and send to the following email address: w.samy.writing.contest@gmail.com

Please send your zip portfolio and teacher endorsement to same above email address with "writing portfolio of ( name here) in subject blank area.

• An Application form is attached to this page (below).

• Applicants can download the application form, fill them out and then send them to the w.samy.writing.contest@gmail.com .

• A letter of endorsement from an Arabic teacher familiar with the student’s writing needs to be sent to the committee using the e-mail indicated above.

• Deadline for submitting applications and writing samples is April 20, 2013

• Sit in writing activity (to be held at the applicant's home institution) is May 3, 2013

• Award winner will be announced by June 30, 2013

• Award will be presented in October 2013 at the MESA conference in New Orleans.

Download: application form

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries: Dr. Mahmoud Al-Batal at albatal@austin.utexas.edu

For submissions: w.samy.writing.contest@gmail.com

Website: https://sites.google.com/a/aucegypt.edu/arabic-writing-contest/