The OSSIP Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Writing

The School of Arts and Sciences sponsors this annual competition to recognize and promote fine nonfiction prose writing in the Natural Sciences, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities.

Cash prizes are awarded for winning entries in the categories of Research Writing and Critical Writing.

• The Research Writing category includes projects that present the student writer’s independent research, with substantial analysis of primary sources or data.
  
  
• The Critical Writing category includes pieces that present the student writer’s own critical analysis of a text, artifact, problem, issue, or experience.

At the end of the Spring semester, students may submit pieces they have written for courses taken at the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh campus) during the previous two academic years (Fall, Spring, or Summer Terms).  Winners are announced during the following Fall term.

The College Writing Board judges submissions according to these criteria:

• Content: writing that demonstrates depth and breadth of understanding, provides accurate information, and conveys quality analysis.
  
  
• Coherence: writing that shows clear purpose, logical organization, and sentence fluency.
  
  
• Style: writing that is precise, clear, and compelling within the context of disciplinary conventions.