Just a reminder...
If you haven't already gone on FIRSTawards.org to create your team's account for award submissions, do it NOW. If you're attempting to submit right at the deadline and have a problem (even if you think it is a website problem), it is your tough luck for not doing it sooner. Please don't waste your team's hard work - register now!
Chairman's, Woodie Flowers Award, and Hall of Fame entries are due on FIRSTawards.org on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009 at 11:59 pm. Send me your rough drafts and I'll get them back to you immediately... if you're lucky, well within 4 hours of when you send it. Don't wait until it's too late!
Here's some advice for those of you procrastinators just now starting your Woodie Flowers Award:
1.
Identify with your team 3 main things you'd like for the judges to notice. Does your mentor communicate well? Get along with the students? Do something extraordinary that sets them apart? Name about three things that you think their best traits.
2.
Ask yourself, why? Take those three focused main ideas and build upon them. Make a web with the ideas if you feel that it will help you decide what to write about, and how to really make them the strong points of the essay.
3.
From those three main points, find a story or instance where you think your mentor really displayed that quality. Why did that really affect the students/mentors/team? (Although you may not use the three stories in the essay, this will help you clarify what you'd like to say and how to say it concisely and effectively.)
4.
Incorporate what you've come up with into your essay. Many colleges will teach your students the five paragraph method (introduction, three main points of one paragraph each, and a conclusion), and this is by far one of the most effective and persuasive forms of writing or speech. Keep that in mind when you revise this essay.
I've also written a whitepaper with writing tips, found here:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2154
And here are some past examples of WFA entries:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=54710
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=45026
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=36669
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=28194
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1547
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1536
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1527
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1526
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1430
Good luck, and happy writing!
