Canning House Essay Competition 2008
THE ENVIRONMENT IN LATIN AMERICA: AN ASSET FOR THE WORLD
On Thursday 13th March 2008, Mr. Zac Goldsmith, Director of The Ecologist presented the prizes for the Canning House Essay Competition for excellence in Spanish and Portuguese. This year.s subject title was .the environment in Latin America: An asset for the rest of the world?. and two of the four finalists were awarded the superb prize of return flights to the Latin American country of their choice and a cheque for £250.
The four finalists from schools in Durham, Cheshire, London and Swindon wrote on a broad scope of environmental issues from the importance of the Amazon rainforest, the debate on energy and biofuels to discussions on ethnobotany and even medicine, poetry and art. Mr. Zac Goldsmith congratulated all students who entered the competition and added that .the essay competition has promoted not only language skills, research and analysis to some of the most pivotal themes on the environment, but has also encouraged the students to discover how complex issues related to the environment are..
Within this same thread of thought, Professor Tim Connell, who chaired the Assessment Panel, commented on the overall high quality of the essays presented. He said, .We hear so much bad news about languages in schools that it is refreshing to see the standard of work that was sent in, from every part of the country and every kind of school. This is so important for the future health of Spanish. It would be good if we could see a new emphasis on Portuguese, not least because it is also a major world language..
The prize-giving ceremony was hosted by Baroness Hooper OBE, Vice-President of Canning House, who is keen to establish the essay competition as a core initiative in the educational work of Canning House as a means of encouraging students to learn more about the Spanish and Portuguese speaking worlds and also as a means of stimulating critical analysis and research on core global issues such as climate change and the environment.
Winners
SPANISH ESSAY COMPETITION
Joint First Prize: Jay Smith and Charlotte Outen
Prize: Return ticket to Latin American country of choice generously provided by Iberia Airlines plus £250 each
Second Prize: Martha Marcusen
Prize: £150
Third Prize: Charlotte Atkinson
Prize: £100
PORTUGUESE ESSAY COMPETITION
First Prize: Damilola Ekpe
Prize: £250 generously donated by Banco Itaú
The Final Report on the Essay Competition by the Chair of the Assessment Panel, Professor Tim Connell, Director of Language Studies at City University
The best papers combined a high level of language with a well-structured essay, containing relevant information. It was felt that some candidates, even so, had focused the question too closely onto one topic. It is important to ensure that they have a clear argument to present, supported by suitable examples.
Overall the standard was good, with very few papers of inadequate standard and none was poor. In fact the number of good papers was such that in future there will be a category of 'Highly Commended' so that candidates who have presented a good piece of work will receive a commendation from the Director. By and large the papers were free of major errors, though some candidates played safe by not expressing themselves in a complicated register. Others positively relished the Subjunctive and some of the vocabulary was somewhat recondite. Even so, candidates should still be encouraged to proofread with care, as a lot of papers were marred by minor errors such as missing accents and double consonants.
The examiners looked carefully for any candidates who might be native speakers or bi-linguals, but were largely reassured by the sprinkling of minor linguistic errors that adorned most papers, plus instances where English expression had been transposed directly into Spanish. Almost all papers were word processed. Handwritten entries are acceptable, although the standard of presentation should be as neat as possible. Candidates should use headers or footers to put their name on every page. Illustrations may be included if they are relevant to the essay, but no extra credit will be given for presentation or layout.
Please click on the names of the three winners to read their essays:
This initiative has been made possible thanks to the generosity of:
Anglo American plc; BBVA; BP; British American Tobacco; Cable & Wireless; Cayo Foundation; CEMEX; Clifford Chance; Foster and Partners; Heinrich Deichmann-Schuhe GmbH & Co KG; HSBC; Iberia; Banco Itaś, NM Rothschild & Sons; PDV (UK) S.A.; Reuben Brothers Foundation; Rio Tinto; The Headley Trust; UBS