Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: The Badger Herald Entry Title: College students struggle to find affordable housing amid inflation Entry Credit: Fiona Hatch Judge Comment: Here the dilemma created by inflation for students who must work more to pay higher rent is well documented and explained by a writer who makes a strong case for increased public funding for student housing. Fiona Hatch displays the rare ability to make a forceful point calmly.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: The Advance-Titan Entry Title: Should you quiet quit college? Entry Credit: Owen Peterson Judge Comment: This writer answers the question posed by that enticing headline with an engaging and cogent argument.
I wish the meaning of “doing so” in this sentence was more obvious: "It’s not about rejecting over-achieving, but about not doing so to the point where you are making sacrifices in other, more important, areas of your life."
And I wish the writer had used the plural "are" and a colon instead of the singular "is" and the semicolon here: "In my experience, trying to devote yourself entirely to every gen-ed class and never taking time to try new things and meet new people is equivalent to refusing to drink water along the way; you’re destined to burn out.”
But otherwise, thumbs up. Also, right on.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: The Badger Herald Entry Title: Tim Michels’ response to Sentinel piece reveals troubling attitudes toward free press Entry Credit: Celia Hiorns Judge Comment: This writer delivers a cogent argument so well outfitted with relevant links that reading the essay could get a voter who wasn't paying attention to the news right up to speed. As a reporter, of course, I liked the defense of journalism; but I also dispassionately enjoyed the prose. It is well written.
Place Name: Honorable Mention Contestant Name: Marquette Tribune Entry Title: Moses: University needs to protect women of color Entry Credit: Hope Moses Judge Comment: This is an information-based personal column by the diversity editor of the student news site. Her clear viewpoint is backed by some research. The writer's frightening experience seems to have been the impetus for the column, but she doesn't aggrandize herself, instead sounding the alarm because she is just one of an unclear number of women who have been targeted for abduction. There is a general danger.
Even better, she has checked into the university's efforts to protect its women and offers suggestions for how it might do more.
Because diversity is her brief, focusing on the danger to women of color in particular makes sense, although it would strengthen the argument to have an authoritative source stating that Black women were singled out in the recent cases on campus.
The link to the Human Trafficking Institute report is broken because that site has re-coded its list. The new link is https://traffickinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2020-Wisconsin-State-Summary.pdf
Competition Comment: I admire all the editors and writers who did the extra work required to submit entries to this contest. Your talent, energy and interests give me hope for the future of civil discourse in this society.
Ranking works I enjoyed for such different reasons was difficult. Had I been able to tap second and third honorable mentions, I would have selected the point-counterpoint about police in schools, and The Beet satire about abortion protesters. But every entry I read had its virtues.
I do hope you will take typos and sentence mechanics seriously. More publications have stopped protecting their writers by providing competent copy editing — a tragedy because professionals make mistakes, we all make mistakes. Every mistake works against your credibility.
