Fourteenth Annual Senior Writing Contest

By: John Bowman

This year’s competition was chock full of surprises for the ten-man grading crew who evaluated one hundred twenty-four papers submitted by seniors vying for one of the three cash prizes.

Surprising and satisfying to judges was the quality evident in most papers, a feature often lacking in earlier competitions. This year’s papers exhibited a solid thesis, paragraphs with topic sentences (clearly stated or suggested), cogent sentences, meaningful wording, and a decided lack of grammatical and spelling gaffes. In a word, the papers were acceptable.

Receiving the First Prize of $500.00 was Brendan McNamara whose paper contained no corpulent paragraphs that tend to lead the reader nowhere; his word choices were well-chosen, his sentences avoiding the usual verbal doggerel exhibited in the ill-planned essay; in addition, his paper was an interesting read. Second place went to Tyler Hadziki ($250.00), third to Chris Tao ($100.00). Congratulations to the three winners.

Click Here to read Brendan McNamara’s essay.

Judging this year was placed in the capable hands of Bill Whittaker ’46, Bob Kevane ’62, David Gonzalez ’67, Dan Summers ’68, David DeCelles ’70, Joe Cave ’72, Jason Santos ’94, Andy Richardson ’98, Joe Morstad ’98, and former Saints’ faculty member, John J. Bowman ’74 (Hon).