2011 English Essay Contest 심사평
<2011EEC_Judges’ Remarks>
Judges’ Remarks on the 2011 English Essay Contest
Heekyung Nah & Yoon-Hee Na, Department of English Language and Literature
As judges of the “2011 English Essay Contest” hosted by the Chonnam Tribune, we want to congratulate all participants on their accomplishments in this intellectually stimulating activity. The participants proved they have an acute awareness of the following issues addressed in this year’s contest: first, whether or not English immersion education should be implemented to enhance students’ English proficiency in the high school division and secondly, whether or not privatising Korea’s national universities will bring about greater freedom in the university division.
In carefully evaluating each entry, we found some truly outstanding work in both divisions. The grand-prize winning essay of the university division in particular incorporated the following elements of a good argumentative essay: (1) An interesting opening that captures the attention of the reader (A reminder of student demonstration against privatization in Seoul National University); (2) a thesis statement that makes clear the main point he or she wants to present (“In my opinion, enhancing freedom of university is really important to strengthen its competitiveness, but corporalization seems not the best option for it”); (3) well-developed supporting paragraphs that logically organize his or her ideas (both internal and external changes that the privatization of national universities will bring about and the consequences that the universities should face regarding the issue of freedom), and (4) a conclusion which makes sense given the evidence presented before and sound suggestion (“Corporalization seems to expand the formal freedom but actually reduces autonomy. Thus, in order to support true freedom in universities, it is better to organize…”). The grand-prize winning essay in the high school division also showed the qualities that were illustrated above. We were truly impressed with the young writer’s ability to take multiple perspectives from students, teachers, and parents as well as pinpointing some flaws in its principles when addressing the issue of English immersion education.
The grand-prize winning essays in each division exhibited one more quality that differentiates them from other entries: avoiding preaching to the choir. When a writer preaches to the choir, he or she only convinces the people who already agreed with the author's viewpoint and often infuriates people who hold the opposite viewpoint. To avoid preaching to the choir, it is important to remember the audience who might disagree with the author and not to make his or her arguments too forceful or emotional. In addition to considering the audience, it is important to address opposing viewpoints if you want to avoid preaching to the choir. This is much more than simply stating they are "wrong" or that you disagree. You must refute the opposition with rationality. The grand-prize winning essays demonstrate a strong understanding of the controversy as well as an ability to respond to opposing positions (University division: “Then, what are the arguments that supporters for this system put forth?”; High school division: ‘Surely, if extracurricular English exposure is helpful, then whole-day English exposures should do wonders,’ the English immersion advocates reason). We hope that our advice will be helpful to those who are considering re-entering the competition next year or participating in other essay contests of this kind.
2011EEC심사위원
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