Aetna writing awards honor students

The University of Connecticut held the 20th-annual Aetna Critical Writing Prize Program Thursday night with featured speaker Vice-Provost of Undergraduate Education Veronica Makowsky.

The Aetna writing in the discipline awards are awarded based on academic categories. In the humanities, first prize was awarded to John Bailey and in the social sciences first prize went to Matthew Santacroce, who are associate managing editor and columnist, respectively, for The Daily Campus. Additionally, in science and engineering, Joseph Keller and Alexander Ocampo received first prize awards.

Lindy Brady was the winner of the Aetna Graduate Critical Essay Award and Lisa Ruohoniemi was the winner of the Aetna Freshman Writing Prize.

Aetna Chair of Writing and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Lynn Bloom welcomed award winners and other guests, announcing that there were more awards given this year than in any past year. The program began with just one award in 1894, Bloom said, for freshman English. That number has grown ever since, and his year's award ceremony included the presentation of its 100th award. In addition to growth in numbers, Bloom also said the essays are growing in length and in depth. "Writing is interpretation," said Bloom, "making sense of things that don't make sense."

Other speakers included Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Jeremy Teitelbaum, Head of the Department of English Wayne Franklin, Director of the Connecticut Writing Project Jason Courtmanche, Director of Freshman English Tom Recchio and Director of the UConn Writing Center Tom Deans.

There were 21 awards presented for papers ranging in subjects from humanities to science and engineering, as well as English. Deans said it was not always this way, as awards had began just for freshman English papers and slowly expanded.

"There are other writers beyond that freshman year, somewhere between that freshman year and graduate studies and there are other writers outside the English department," he said.

Makowsky followed the presentation of awards with a speech titled, "To Whom it May Concern: Remember Your Audience." She explained the need for writers to consider their audience when writing. Not doing so, she said, makes the writing process easier but also futile. As an example, Makowsky deconstructed the phrase, "to whom it may concern," stating that it is too general and too vague to present writing of literary significance.

She also listed what she calls the "three deadly sins against the audience," which are ignorance, egotism and deceit. Selfishness and lack of empathy, she said, are at the heart of all three. Makowsky made the argument that if one puts forth the extra effort to get to know the audience on a more personal level, even more than just the names of the audience members, the value of writing greatly increases.