Winning Essays

This page contains essays written by student competitors during the course of the 2008 Alaska Academic Decathlon competition.

The essays posted here are selected to represent the high quality of writing and the impressive thinking that AAD competitors display.

The high school students on the Decathlon teams write these essays in a very limited time period, and base them on essay "prompts" given to them immediately before they begin writing.

The students are given an extensive list of reference materials to read in advance, but they write and submit their competition essays in a short period of time with no idea, in advance, what specific subjects they will be expected to address in their essays.

Winning Honors essay 2008 [click for full text]

"Stephen Crane forced a post-war society to face the events that had occurred, in their actual state. His remembrance of the conflict, unmarred by the blur of sentimentality, was all to real to its readers. "

Paris White

Susitna Valley High School

Winning Scholastic essay 2008 [click for full text]

"At the beginning of the book, we find that Henry's worst fear is the possibility of running from the battle, which he eventually does. We read of his impatience with the tattered man, his condescension toward Wilson, and his final feeling, at the end of the novel, that he has finally reached manhood."

Elizabeth Smith

I.D.E.A. Team A

Winning Varsity essay 2008 [click for full text]

"The shrouded obscurity of the locations juxtaposed with the bold images serve to masterfully craft an image of China in the reader’s mind as a land that has whatever one wishes it to be, while also being a land of confusion and mystery."

Parker Gallagher

West Valley High School

Winning Alternate essay 2008 [click for full text]
"A third universal situation that happens in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and is a reason that many are ferociously reading and ripping through this story like wild animals that can read."

Coleman Alguire

Ketchikan High School

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Last updated: March 17, 2008

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