Young Authors' Writing Project

2022-2023 Young Authors' Project Theme

Why Should You Consider Participating in Young Authors' Writing Project...

  • The Young Authors' Writing Project is a wonderful way to encourage writing across all grade levels.

  • Students who submit writing have the potential to win at 3 different levels: School, County, and State.

  • Young authors are encouraged to write about their personal story past, present, and future.

  • Authors may write in their first language and submit along with an English translation

  • Authors may write prose, poetry, fiction, or nonfiction.

  • Students may also submit an original design or art work for the cover of the 2023 NCRA Young Authors' Anthology.

Young Authors' Writing Project Classroom Resources

Member Sourced Padlet

Young Authors' Writing Project General Information

For in depth details, please see Young Author General Information 2022-2023.

Young Author's Slide Deck

GUIDELINES

  • All entries must be original creations.

  • Only 1 writing entry per author may be submitted.

  • Only 1 art/cover design entry per student may be submitted.

  • Students may only submit one piece of writing and one piece of art, total.

  • All entries must have participated in a local level judging before being submitted for the state judging.

  • All entries to the state judging level must be submitted by a member of NCRA by December 1, 2022.


LENGTH OF ENTRIES

It is easy to check word count by using the Tools button in Google Docs. Be sure to check all entries to ensure they meet entry requirements BEFORE submitting for state judging. Any entry submitted to the state level will be disqualified if it exceeds the word limit (by more than 5 words).

  • Grades Pre-K-1 Entries should have no more than 200 words.

  • Grades 2-5 Entries should have no more than 300 words.

  • Grades 6-8 Entries should have no more than 400 words.

  • Grades 9-12 Entries should have no more than 500 words.

  • Forever Young Entries should have no more than 500 words.


ART ENTRIES:

  • Art work/designs must be original ideas and clearly connect with the theme.

  • All art is considered for publication in the Yong Authors' Annual Anthology, it must be a 2D creation OR able to be photographed clearly.

  • Art must be vertical top to bottom (portrait).

  • Guidelines for the Cover Art Design may be accessed on the NCRA website in the YA Google Drive Folder, Young Authors Art Design Criteria

  • All art entries, digital and physical must be accompanied by a Young Author’s Entry Form.

  • The scanned JPEG should be saved, uploaded, and named as follows: NumericalGradeLevel__LastNameFirstName_CouncilName/Initials

example: 02_RiveraStephanie_BRRC

  • The designs will be judged by the YA Committee who will select finalists.

  • The President may select the cover design or request a vote from the Executive Committee.

  • Each council may submit 10 art entries.

NUMBER OF ENTRIES FOR A LOCAL COUNCIL

  • In order to create a more equitable and balanced collection of Young Author entries from across the state, the YA Committee has revised the

  • A baseline of 40 entries is in place for all councils.

  • Entries allowed increase in increments of 5 based on membership levels.

  • This is based on the previous year’s membership total or this year’s membership figure as of November 1, 2022, whichever is greater.


COUNCIL CHOICE ENTRIES

  • Each council may choose two additional entries as Council Choices. These entries will add two (2) to the number of entries in the table to the right.

  • Council choice entries may be selected based on various criteria including student growth in writing, students with challenges due to language or disabilities etc.

  • These will bypass state judging, BUT will be read by at least two members of the EC. The content and language must be deemed appropriate If there is a question regarding publication of the council choice entry, the local YA chair will be contacted.

  • The Council Choice entries must be clearly marked (X) in the “Council Choice” column on the YA ENTRY SPREADSHEET located in each council’s entry folder


Forever Young Entries

  • Forever Young entries do not count toward the number of entries noted above.

  • Entries that EXCEED the maximum word count (500) will not be published.

  • Adult entries should first be judged at the local council level and will be judged at the state level as described above for all student entries.

  • Forever Young Authors must be members of NCRA.

FORMAT

All entries should:

  • Use 10­ point, “Times New Roman” font, single ­spaced, for the body of the piece.

  • Include an original title, typed in bold, 12­ point type, with only the first letter of each major word in the title capitalized.

  • Include author information after the body of the piece. Skip two lines and then center the following information in 10 ­point:


Author’s First and Last Name, Grade ______ (numerical) or Forever Young

Teacher: Name (Teacher’s First and Last Name)

School Name

Local Council Name


SUBMISSIONS OF LOCAL COUNCIL WINNERS

Local councils submit entries by uploading your local winners as Google doc files into your local council writing folder.

Each entry file should be named as follows:

  • the child's grade level underscore (PK, 00 for kindergarten, 01 for first, and so on through grade 12, and then Forever Young entries will be labeled 13)

  • the author's last name and first name underscore

  • then the local council name. (You may use initials for your local council. However, Tar River and Twin Rivers will need to type out their names to avoid confusion.)

  • File names should look like this: GradeLevel_LastNameFirstName_CouncilName


Here are several examples; PLEASE FOLLOW EXACTLY (very important):


Kindergarten: Fifth Grade: Forever Young:

00_willemsmo_MCRA 05__dicamillokate_RWRC 13__owensdenise_TarRiverRC

2021-2022 Young Authors' Winners