Rules and Content Guidelines

1. Theme Focus: The essay must clearly focus on the theme: “The African American in Texas: Past and Present.”

2. Individual Entry: A paper must be the work of only one student, and participants can only submit one entry per year. A student who participated in the Barbara Jordan Historical Essay Competition in a previous year may participate in this year’s competition as long as the topic of the essay is different from the one previously submitted.

3. Length Requirement: The text of the essay must be no less than 1,500 and no more than 2,500 words in length. Notes, annotated bibliography, illustration captions and supplemental/appendix materials do not count in that total. Appendix materials must be directly referred to in the text of the essay and extensive supplementary materials are inappropriate. The text of the essay is the key.

4. Title Page: A title page is required and must only include the title of the essay, student’s name, grade, and school.

5. Entry Form: An entry form MUST be completed and submitted along with the essay. Forms may be downloaded by clicking here, or may be requested by mail, fax or phone. Only one entry form is required for the seven copies of the essay.

6. Presentation Requirements: Papers must be typed or computer printed on plain, white 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper with 1 inch margins on all sides. Pages must be numbered consecutively and double spaced with text on only one side of the paper. Papers must be stapled in the top left corner and should not be enclosed in any cover or binder. No identifying information such as name, school, teacher should be listed on any of the essay pages.

7. Number of Copies: Seven (7) copies of the essay must be submitted, and if mailed, MUST be postmarked no later than February 4, 2008. Essays received after the February 4, 2008 postmark will be disqualified.

8. Annotated Bibliography: an annotated bibliography is required and should contain all sources that provided usable information in preparing the essay. Sources of oral interviews must be included in the bibliography. The annotation for each source must explain how the source was used and how it helped the student understand the topic.

For example:

Kubiak, Daniel J. Monument to a Black Man. San Antonio: Naylor Company, 1972.

William Goyens was a free born Black man who came to East Texas from North Carolina and helped contribute to the Texas Revolutionary efforts. This book helped me focus on Mr. Goyens’ economic contributions to this area of the state.

9. Style Guides: the style for citations and bibliographic referencemust follow the principles in one of the following style guides:
- MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Sixth Edition by Joseph Gibaldi
- Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition, published by the American Psychological Association.
The style used for citations and bibliographic references in the essay must be consistent throughout, regardless of which manual is used.

10. Separated Primary and Secondary Sources: students are required to separate the bibliography into primary and secondary sources. A primary source is material that is directly related to the topic’s time period. These materials include letters, speeches, diaries, newspaper articles, documents, photographs, artifacts, oral history interviews, or anything else that provides firsthand accounts about a person or event. Secondary sources are materials such as published books or articles by authors who have based their interpretations on primary sources. There will be an automatic five point deduction by each judge if the bibliography is not annotated or divided into separate primary and secondary sources. Failing to include a bibliography will also result in an automatic five point deduction.

11. Citations: citations (i.e., footnotes and endnotes) are required in the essay and are used to credit the sources of specific ideas as well as direct quotations.

12. Plagiarism: students must credit or acknowledge in the annotated bibliography all sources used in the paper. Plagiarismis using the work of others in ways that give the impression that these are your own (i.e., copying information word for word without using quotations and footnotes, paraphrasing an author’s ideas, or using visuals or songs without giving proper credit in footnotes.)