Senior Jacob Taswell was named a winner in the 2011 National Achievement Awards in Writing, an annual contest organized by the National Council of Teachers of English.  He is among 520 students nationwide selected as superior writers, based on his performance on an impromptu essay and a prepared writing sample entered for the contest during his junior year.

English 11 teachers chose top student writers to complete a preliminary impromptu essay last winter. From all the submissions, the English department then chose three students to advance to the national round.  The teachers also nominated seniors Joey Anderson and Lucy Chen.

“The essay prompts that they gave us definitely required thought,” Taswell said. “They required me to consider all of the literary works that I had read and to really formulate a coherent response based on that.”

Taswell received a certificate of recognition from NCTE during the last week of September. The certificate was the contest’s only award, but Taswell said he will mention the award in his college applications.

“I was excited to have won, and it’s definitely an honor to have been recognized as a strong writer among so many great writers who were recognized by the contest,” he said.

Winning the contest is an impressive achievement, English department head Beth Rockwell said.

“Any writing competition is a really good exercise for kids, and there’s a certain amount of prestige that goes along with being one of the finalists,” she said.  “I think it has a lot of value.”