A Voice for Animals

A Voice for Animals High School Essay Contest

The 20^th Annual High School Essay Contest is now Open!

Please read the Official Rules and Advice for Authors before preparing your essay! Submit your essay online using the form below.

Prizes totalling $6500 will be awarded to high school students whose essays best promote the humane treatment of animals, including:

$1000	Best personal and active involvement in a project or venture that directly impacts animal welfare
$1000	1st Prize
$600	2nd Prize
$400	3rd Prize
$750	1st Prize (15-16 year old)
$400	2nd Prize (15-16 year old)
$250	3rd Prize (15-16 year old)
$500	Best Essay by a 14 Year Old
$500	Best essay from an entrant outside the United States
$250	An Essay We Couldn't Ignore
$200	Best essay by an African entrant about African animal issues

The contest is co-sponsored in part this year by the Animal Welfare Institute and the Palo Alto Humane Society .

Official Rules

Eligibility

You must currently be attending high school or be home schooled and under 19 years of age on the date the contest opens for entries. No exceptions. The contest is open to all eligible students regardless of your nationality or country of residence.

Subject Matter

Your essay must:

examine either the mistreatment of one animal species or one cause of animal suffering, occurring anywhere in the world, and possible measures to reduce it;
be the original work of the author and not previously published;
show clearly which animal issue is being raised and why you chose this issue. What solution/solutions are you suggestions are you making to help remedy this issue? Your solution/solutions need to be original or unusually insightful. If your solution/solutions are not original they must be presented in a way that might reach a new group of people. Significant weight and points will be given by the judges to these solutions;

cite all sources. Essays without citations will be disqualified except if the subject includes personal involvement in relieving animal suffering. In that case citations substantiating the personal involvement will be credited.

Format

Your essay must be no less than 1400 words (1200 words for personal involvement essays) and no more than 1500 words excluding citations, page headers and footers. Shorter or longer essays will be disqualified.
Your essay must be written in English.
All citations must appear at the end of the essay.
You must include your name and essay title at the top of each page. Do not include any contact information (e.g. e-mail address or telephone number) in your essay.
The pages of your essay must be numbered.
Your essay must be double-spaced.
We will only accept essays in the following electronic formats:
- Microsoft Word (".doc", ".docx")
- Microsoft Works (".wps")
- Microsoft XML Paper Specification (".xps")
- OpenDocument Text (".odt")
- Portable Document Format (".pdf")
- Rich Text Format (".rtf")
- Plain text (".txt")
Your essay must be submitted online using the form on this page. The form is only visible after the contest opens! (Essays submitted any other way will not be accepted. e.g. submitted via e-mail or the postal service.)

Judging

Judges’ decisions are final. (Please read the Advice for Authors to see what the judges will be looking for.)

Entries which satisfy the requirements for both the Personal Involvement prize and the main prize will be considered for both prizes, but each entrant may be awarded only one prize.

Deadlines

Entry deadline: Wednesday, March 31st 2010 (11:59pm PDT)

Results announced: Monday, May 31st 2010

Advice for Authors

The judges offer the following advice based on essays from earlier contests:

Read the rules! Every year we must disqualify a number of entries because they did not obey the rules.
Find an original subject. We have received many essays about puppy mills, animal testing, zoos, horses, dolphins, seals and dog fighting. These essays are acceptable, but they must be of a very high standard to impress the judges.
The judges will be looking for:
- Personal initiative.
- Original ideas in the topic, the presentation, or the suggested responses to the animal suffering.
- Suggested responses to the animal suffering.
- An examination of the animal suffering that is both broad and deep.
The judges expect that your essay will:
- have effective opening and closing paragraphs. The essay needs to be well organized and the argument adequately developed with paragraphs structured around the main parts or points. Use appropriate examples, facts, descriptions, and/or quotes;
- be well-structured with good word choice and fluid writing. Check spelling, grammar and punctuation. The essay must be free of blatant errors; research that is adequate for the topic and with quality references – references from Wikipedia do not carry much weight.
The judges will give extra credit for:
- Research into the cruelty or problem.
- Personal involvement in responses to the cruelty or problem.
The judges will take an especially harsh view of plagiarism. Don't do it! Cite all your sources.
No credit is given for pictures in your essay. Do not waste your time including them!
Make sure the font you choose is legible. Decorative or script fonts are hard to read for more than a sentence or two, and with the number of submissions we receive we cannot spend time reading hard to read scripts.
Learn from previous winners! Look at their essays to see how they stand out. Then write a better essay than all of the previous winners!
Make sure the file you upload is your actual essay! Each year we receive quite a few files which are clearly not the author's essay file. Due to the number of essays submitted we are unlikely to have time to contact you about your mistake.

Entry Form

First name:

Last name:

Age:

Address:

City:

State:

Zip/Postal Code:

Country:

(if not U.S.A.)

E-mail address:

Phone:

School:

Year in school:

Essay title:

Essay file:

Click the Browse button and select the essay file to be uploaded as your entry.

How did you hear about the contest?

I have read the official rules and confirm that my essay obeys them.

I certify that this essay is my original, unpublished work.

I understand that the Humane Education Network reserves first U.S. serial rights to winning entries.

I have read the Humane Education Network privacy policy.

(Optional) This essay describes my personal involvement in improving the humane treatment of animals.

Previous winners

Select a winning essay and click the Read Essay button. The essay will open as a PDF file in another window.
(Essays shown in gray are not currently available online.)

Questions?

If you have any questions at all about our high school essay contest, please send e-mail to contest@hennet.org.