British Council - DKLS Linguistic Ambassador Awards (RM 4,500 top prize | Malaysia)

Deadline: 28 June 2013

The competition is designed to help sharpen students’ command of English and creative writing skills through the provision of test kit, essay writing guide and video. Exciting prizes await for the best essays.

We welcome entries from students and schools nationwide, and we hope that teachers will find that this essay competition is a useful resource for stimulating ideas and discussions and the development of analytic and critical thinking skills.

On this site, you will find everything you need to start the process of entering the competition.

Please contact us at essaycompetition@britishcouncil.org.my or call Vina at 03-27237988 if you have any enquiries regarding the competition.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE: This competition is open to all Malaysian Students, aged 16-19 years old. Employees of British Council Malaysia and DKLS Industries Bhd and their immediate family members are not eligible to participate in this. School with the most entries will have the chance to win cash grant.

WHAT TO DO

1. Completion of online training modules period 4 March – 10 May 2013
2. Write an essay of not more than 350 words Essay competition opens on – 13 May 2013
3. Submission by - 6pm, 28 June 2013.

RULES AND GUIDELINES

• Every entry should be enclosed with the submission form.
• All submissions will be blind reviewed. Please do NOT include your name anywhere except on the submission form.
• 3.Entries for the DKLS Linquistic Ambassador Award must be electronically submitted to essaycompetition@britishcouncil.org.my by 6pm, 28 June 2013 or via post to DKLS Linguistic Ambassador Award, Vinayagi Gopal Krishna, British Council Malaysia, Ground Floor, West Block, Wisma Selangor Dredging, 142C Jalan Ampang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur

Submit your essay in a word or pdf file. Students are encouraged to submit their essays at any time before this date as this will greatly help the Essay Judging Panel in the process of reading and evaluating the essays.
Essay must not exceed 350 words. Each contestant may enter only one essay

Before you write the essay, it is compulsory for students to complete ALL online modules available here. Your entry will be disqualified if you did not complete all of the modules. After completing each module, send the answer sheets to essaycompetition@britishcouncil.org.my for our feedback. These answer sheets will be used as proof of completion of the modules.

Answer key will be uploaded on the website every 2 weeks and feedbacks will be emailed to you within a week of receiving your answer sheet.

Module no: Module Upload - Module Completion

• Module 1: 4 March 2913 - 22 March 2013
• Module 2: 18 March 2013 - 29 March 2013
• Module 3: 1 April 2013 - 12 April 2013
• Module 4: 15 April 2013 - 26 April 2013
• Module 5: 29 April 2013 - 10 May 2013

All submissions must be typed, double spaced, in English, and must be the original work of the contestant. Plagiarism or use of another’s work without proper attribution is strictly prohibited and will be disqualified.

JUDGES: The Organisers reserve the right at our sole discretion to disqualify any participant that we determine to be breaching the Contests Terms and Conditions. The judges' decision is final and is not subject to an appeal. The organisers reserve the right to publish and/or to make available to the public the winning submissions. The organisers reserve the right to modify the format and content of the submissions for publication purposes.

PRIZES:

Ten (10) prizes are allocated as below:

STUDENT CATEGORY

Gold Medallist

• Seven (7) days study tour to Cambridge & London including visit to University of Cambridge Campus with following travelling arrangements:
• Return flight economy class for the winner to be accompanied by the parent or official guardian with Letter Indemnity endorsed.
• Airport transfers in UK
• On-ground transport
• Accommodation
• Cash Award worth RM 4,500.00
• Book Voucher worth RM 5,00.00
• Trophy and certificate

Silver Medallist

• Cash Prize worth RM2,000.00
• Book Voucher worth RM500.00
• Trophy and Certificate

Bronze Medallist

• Cash Prize worth RM1,000.00
• Book Voucher worth RM250.00
• Trophy and Certificate

Consolation Prize: Winner for 4th to 10th placing will be awarded with a trophy and certificate of participation.

All participants: Will receive a certificate of participation. Certificate will be issued upon completion of all modules.

SCHOOL CATEGORY

• Special Award: School with most number of entries: RM1,000 cash grant from DKLS
• Special Trophy (School of Gold Medallist): Recognition with a special trophy

JUDGING CRITERIA:

• In order to standardise our marking criteria, entries will be marked in accordance with the following criteria:
• Task Response: Entries will be judged on whether they have answered the title question fully
• Grammar: Entries will be judged on the level of grammatical accuracy (i.e. the number of mistakes in each composition and whether they put a strain on the reader).
• Vocabulary: Entries will be judged on the students’ range, accuracy and appropriateness of vocabulary (e.g. ‘parallelism’: how often the same word is repeated).
• Coherence: Entries will be judged on whether they are ‘coherent’ (i.e. ‘make sense’) and ‘flow’ as a piece of writing.
• Originality and Creativity: Essays will be judged on the writer’s imaginative response to the task and how much their response differs from their counterparts.

THE JURY: Qualified British Council teachers will be shortlisting the best 10 entries out of all the entries received. The best 10 entries will be sent to Cambridge ESOL to select the top 3 essays. The top 3 writers will then be interviewed by our judging panel.

CONTEST SUBMISSION:

• All essays must be in either word . doc, word.docx or .pdf format
• To submit your essay, download the contest form, fill in all your details, attach it to an email with your essay and send it to essaycompetition@britishcouncil.org.my
• Make sure all your details are correct so that we can contact you.
• You can also submit your essay via post to DKLS - British Council Essay writing Competition, Vinayagi Gopal Krishna, Ground Floor, West Block, Wisma Selangor Dredging, 142C Jalan Ampang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur

Download: submission form

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: essaycompetition@britishcouncil.org.my

Website: http://www.britishcouncil.org/malaysia-dkls-cambridge-essay-competition.htm