{"id":363,"date":"2023-02-23T14:02:56","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T14:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esustage.wpengine.com\/kansas-city\/?page_id=363"},"modified":"2025-12-12T03:44:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T03:44:20","slug":"writing-competition","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Howard F. Beckley Writing Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section id=\"Denver Writing Competition\" class=\"content-over-image show-overlay\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/07\/2014-DWPC-Holiday-1.jpg');\">\n    <div class=\"inner\">\n        \n                <div class=\"subtitle\">Dr. Howard F. Beckley Writing Competition<\/div>\n        \n                <h3 class=\"description\"><p>Local High School students are invited to submit entries based on a theme. Entries are judged by University professors, High School teachers, and professional writers. Winning students receive cash prizes. For their support, teachers and schools of the winners also receive recognition.<\/p>\n<p>The theme for the 2025 Competition is Allegory in Art Beyond Literature. Allegory can be found in works of art beyond literature. Consider Daniel Chester French\u2019s statue of Abraham Lincoln at The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Its political allegory defines a nation at war with itself, using the embattled president\u2019s portrayal in the sculpture to symbolize an embattled country. Ludwig van Beethoven\u2019s Symphony No. 7 is considered an unconventional psychological allegory of the human psyche, portraying a journey of the emotions that come with both struggle and hope, particularly in the second movement\u2019s allegretto. Conduct your own investigation into the artist\u2019s use of allegory to convey a message in either French\u2019s Lincoln sculpture or the movements in Beethoven\u2019s symphony.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n        \n        <div class=\"buttons\">\n                                                                                                          \n                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/11\/Writing-Competition-2025-prompt.pdf\" class=\"btn btn-solid\" target=\"\">Read about the 2025 Competition here<\/a>\n                                                                                <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Dr. Howard F. Beckley was a part-time college instructor who served on the Denver Branch Board. He was concerned about the quality of writing from his students and wanted the Branch to add a program to help high school students improve their writing skills. After his sudden death, other Board members took the initiative to develop a Writing Competition to honor Dr. Beckley&#8217;s memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">We launched the competition in 2010, when the Denver Branch hosted the ESU National Conference. The topic was our conference theme: Westward Ho! The Continental Expansion of the English Language. Every year since its inception, we have expanded our reach to involve more schools, teachers and students. The Covid-19 pandemic presented new challenges but the program continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Each year, one or two teachers coordinate the Writing Competition. They choose a topic and advertise it with a standard rubric so students know how they will be judged. We advertise the competition in the fall, with a deadline around Thanksgiving. A committee of Board members and interested Branch members reads the submissions, discusses and ranks them, choosing the top five. We give cash prizes: first place $500, second place $250, third place $100; some years we award $50 honorable mention prizes for fourth and fifth places. We present awards for the competition at our December holiday party, where winning students read their submissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<section id=\"Past Topics\" class=\"esu-basic-full-width\">\n\n    <div class=\"inner\">\n        <div class=\"wrapper\">\n\n            \n                            <div class=\"title heading-2\">\n                    Current and Past Topics                <\/div>\n            \n            \n                            <div class=\"content\">\n                    <p>2025 Allegory in Art Beyond Literature<br \/>\n2024 The Evolving Language: How Generative AI is Reshaping Our Communication<br \/>\n2023 Analyze Native American author Leslie Marmon Silko\u2019s prediction in The Turquoise Lodge<br \/>\n2022 Discuss the impact of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie\u2019s TED Talk \u201cThe Danger of a Single Story\u201d<br \/>\n2021 What author or social influencer should be required reading\/viewing in high school and why?<br \/>\n2020 What is your opinion on the effectiveness of \u201cvirtual\u201d schooling versus \u201cin-person\u201d schooling?<br \/>\n2019 Symbols: how they unite or divide us, marginalize or include us, motivate or demoralize us<br \/>\n2018 What are the implications of technology on the English language?<br \/>\n2017 How does the language of protest incite action?<br \/>\n2016 How is Shakespeare Relevant Today?<br \/>\n2015 What is Genius?<br \/>\n2014 Fiction with a Twist: Narrative prose with a clear plot twist<br \/>\n2013 Focus on Fiction: Compose a short story on a topic\/theme of your choice<br \/>\n2012 American Authors of Excellence: Saluting American Masters of English Composition<br \/>\n2011 The Language of Freedom: How the Written Word Advances the Struggle for Freedom<br \/>\n2010 Westward Ho! The Continental Expansion of the English Language<\/p>\n                <\/div>\n            \n            \n\n            \n        <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Howard F. Beckley was a part-time college instructor who served on the Denver Branch Board. He was concerned about the quality of writing from his students and wanted the [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":17,"menu_order":12,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-363","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v26.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dr. Howard F. Beckley Writing Competition - Denver<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Howard F. Beckley Writing Competition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Howard F. Beckley was a part-time college instructor who served on the Denver Branch Board. He was concerned about the quality of writing from his students and wanted the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Denver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-12T03:44:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/\",\"name\":\"Dr. Howard F. Beckley Writing Competition - Denver\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-23T14:02:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-12T03:44:20+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What We Do\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Dr. Howard F. Beckley Writing Competition\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/\",\"name\":\"Denver\",\"description\":\"The English Speaking Union of the USA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dr. Howard F. Beckley Writing Competition - Denver","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dr. Howard F. Beckley Writing Competition","og_description":"Dr. Howard F. Beckley was a part-time college instructor who served on the Denver Branch Board. He was concerned about the quality of writing from his students and wanted the [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/","og_site_name":"Denver","article_modified_time":"2025-12-12T03:44:20+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/","url":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/","name":"Dr. Howard F. Beckley Writing Competition - Denver","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-02-23T14:02:56+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-12T03:44:20+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/writing-competition\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What We Do","item":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/what-we-do\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Dr. Howard F. Beckley Writing Competition"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/","name":"Denver","description":"The English Speaking Union of the USA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/blog\/author\/esudevdev\/","display_name":"esudevdev"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on February 23, 2023","modified":"Updated on December 12, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on February 23, 2023 2:02 pm","modified":"Updated on December 12, 2025 3:44 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","featured_img":false,"series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/363\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}