The Center for Writing Excellence’s Multimodal Writing Contest

Welcome to the Multimodal Writing Contest website! The 2025 contest will open for submissions in September 2024; the deadline to submit is December 13, 2024.

About the Contest

The Center For Writing Excellence’s annual Multimodal Writing Contest was created to celebrate the innovative multimodal writing students are producing across the university, in their classes or in their on-campus or professional experiences. Hosted annually, all Elon University undergraduate and graduate students are invited to submit entries. There are nine categories in which to enter, divided up according to the program, school, or experience in which the multimodal text was produced: Arts and Sciences, Communications, Business, Education, Health Sciences, Law, CORE Curriculum, Campus Involvement, and Internships. We welcome any multimodal project–that means any composition using two or more modes, such as text, images, video, and audio.

The Multimodal Writing Contest is also way for students to elevate their hard work to a level of schoolwide recognition. We hope that faculty will encourage their students to submit entries if their classes involve multimodal writing.

Some examples of projects that have been submitted in the past include research posters, essays with graphs or images, websites, animations, podcasts, videos, infographics, or graphic novels. This website houses many past entries from the contest for browsing, and we hope this database will be used as a resource for classrooms across campus, as these examples of excellent multimedia creation can serve as inspiration or guides for future student work.

Why Apply?

By extending the life of a project outside the classroom in which it was submitted, students can gain new perspectives on their work, allowing them to edit and revise for a more professional audience. Students are also invited to submit multimedia projects they’ve already completed for classes, internships, or Campus Involvement work. Because students often submit class projects they are particularly proud of to the contest, there is often little extra work needed by each student.

Participating in the contest will foster creative thinking and elevate a student’s involvement, but as with any competition, there are advantages to winning! Winners and runners-up alike will receive prizes, with the chance at one grand prize.

How Do I Enter?

Participants may enter up to a maximum of two times, once individually and once as a group. To enter, you must fill out the submission form with information about the project and its creators. The submission form can be found on its respective website page. Please note you must acknowledge a request for consent. Your consent permits us to use your submission in subsequent training or publicity materials, including announcing the competition winners and advertising future competitions. If you submit on behalf of a group project, your consent will be for all group members.

Additionally, your multimodal project must be placed in a shareable Google file or folder with the appropriate file name. If submitting an individual project, please rename it using the following convention: Your Last Name_Type of Document_Title of Project. For example, Smith_Slideshow_Stem Cells Research would be the correct file name. If you are submitting a group project, please follow the guidelines above; in addition, use the submitter’s last name and put the word “GROUP” after your name. For example, Smith GROUP_Slideshow_Stem Cells Research would be appropriate here. All contest entries must be submitted by the given due date, usually early December.

Go to the Submission page to submit your proposal!

Judging

All submitted entries will be judged by a panel of faculty, staff, and students during Winter Term. When submitting projects, applicants answer a series of questions about why they created the project, its audience, and its purpose. Projects will be judged based on how well the authors integrate the multiple modes to effectively reach their stated purpose.

Prizes

Winners in each category will be awarded $100 gift cards, and the runners-up will receive a $25 gift card. One grand prize winner will be selected with an additional prize. The winners and runners-up will be announced in late February at an award ceremony hosted by the Center for Writing Excellence in Belk Library.