University Honors Program Student Paper Awards

The Best Honors Paper Award was established in honor of the founding Director of the Maryland University Honors Program, Dr. John Portz. 
This year, Roger and Karen Winston have generously donated the funds to support this merit award for Honors students.

Submissions must have been completed or presented during the spring 2012 or fall 2012 semester.
Submission Deadline: Monday, March 4, 8:00 a.m.

To submit papers for consideration for any these awards:

·         Student should complete the online application.

·         Faculty sponsor should complete faculty statement form and submit it via attachment to  honors@umd.edu

·        Student submits the paper and application via email attachment to honors@umd.edu

The submissions for these awards must have arisen from:

·         an HONR seminar,

·         a Departmental Honors course or thesis requirement,

·         or an H-option course.

There are three principal categories for the awards:

·         Best University Honors Essay: an essay written for an HONR seminar; it may or may not incorporate secondary sources; the approximate length is 5-10 pages. The essay should articulate the student’s own thinking on a course topic or question and should be written in the student’s voice.

·         Best University Honors Research Paper, a paper written for an Honors seminar, a departmental Honors course, or an H-option course, the approximate length of which should be a length of 10 or more pages, excluding bibliography pages.

·         Best Honors Thesis, a Departmental Honors in-depth research / scholarly endeavor culminating in the submitted thesis.

AWARDS:

·         Student winners will receive a cash prize applied to their student account and a certificate acknowledging their award.

·         Faculty mentors  of the essay/research paper/thesis will receive a certificate acknowledging their role.

·         Students will be recognized at the Spring Citation Ceremony (Thursday, April 11) and students and their mentors will be honored at the annual Honors Luncheon for Academic Excellence (Friday, April 12, noon).

·         The names of student winners and faculty mentors and the title of the essays/papers/theses will be announced on the Honors College website and in the Honors Newsletter, and will be added to the Honors Student Paper Award History online.

ELIGIBILITY:

Best Honors Essay

·         Essays submitted must have been written for an HONR seminar in either spring 2012 or fall 2012.

·         Essays must be in an academic format.

·         Essays must be corrected, revised, and polished under the guidance of the faculty mentor as if the essay were being prepared for publication.

·         Essays may or may not include secondary sources and should be a minimum of 5 pages.

·         Faculty mentors  should submit a one-paragraph statement summarizing the merits (and weaknesses, if any) of the essays.These statements are not formal letters, should be brief and specific, and should not be time consuming tasks.

Best Honors Research Paper

·         Research paper must have been written for an HONR seminar in either spring 2012 or fall 2012.

·         Research paper must be in an academic format.

·         Research paper must be corrected, revised, and polished under the guidance of the faculty mentor as if the essay were being prepared for publication.

·         Research paper should be a minimum of 10 pages, excluding bibliography/works cited pages.

·         Faculty mentors should submit a one-paragraph statement summarizing the merits (and weaknesses, if any) of the research paper.These statements are not formal letters, should be brief and specific, and should not be time consuming tasks.

Best Honors Thesis

·         Thesis must have been written as part of a departmental Honors requirement in either spring 2012 or fall 2012.

·         Thesis must be in an academic format.

·         Thesis must be corrected, revised, and polished under the guidance of the faculty mentor as if the essay were being prepared for publication.

·         The length of the thesis will be specified by the department.

·         Faculty mentors should submit a one-paragraph statement summarizing the merits (and weaknesses, if any) of the thesis.These statements are not formal letters, should be brief and specific, and should not be time consuming tasks.