NOTE: All work MUST be original and created by the competitor(s) himself. By submitting your work you are agreeing that MIST has the right to return or keep all work/submissions/entries.
Important Note:Submissions must be emailed to competitions.dcmist@gmail.com no later than midnight of Monday, March 8th, 2010.All submissions must be in PDF format. If you do not have a PDF converter, you can convert your word document to PDF for free using one of the following links:
Any submissions emailed either after the 3rd OR are not in PDF format will be automatically disqualified. This is a very popular competition and judges must have ample time to read and fill out ballots before the tournament. Hence, absolutely NO EXCEPTIONS will be allowed. In addition, students who turn in their submissions late or do not email PDF documents will be subject to points lost from their score as well as their team score.
Competitors shall write about any topic that reflects on this year’s theme. Some sample prompts competitors can use are, but not limited to, the following:
- ” ‘He means well’ is useless unless he does well” – Plautus
- “He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good” – Confucius
- “Modesty is the conscience of the body”- Honore de Blazac (1799-1850) French novelist
- “If a person has little hayaa, he will have little wara’ (fear of God and feeling of His presence). And the one who has little wara’, his heart has died” – Umar ibn Khattaab
- “When one seriously reflects on God’s perfect watch over His creation, the countless blessings He sends down, and then considers the kind of deeds one brings before Him- what possible feelings can one generate except humility and degrees of shame?” – Purification of the Heart by Hamza Yusuf
Whatever your selection, be sure to refer to authentic sources of Islamic knowledge, as well as to facts from history.
The following is a list of rules and procedures for this event:
- No more than 2 students from each team can register for this competition.
- This competition is NOT a team effort. Each competitor must turn in a separate piece of work.
- MIST ID will be pre-assigned on a random selection basis.
- The written essay must be typed or word-processed and double-spaced. It must be on white, 8.5 X 11 paper and must be stapled in the left corner.
- The essay MUST have a cover page. The cover page must include the title and MIST ID only. If the contestant name appears anywhere on the essay, it will be disqualified.
- All Submissions MUST be in PDF format and MUST be received by the date above.
- The written essay shall be a maximum of 2000 words. All abbreviations, acronyms (excluding a, an, the) will be counted. Only the first 2000 countable words will be read.
- In previous years, some competitors have turned in very poor work. To prevent low scores from winning 1st, 2nd, or 3rd places, the following score limits will be applied:
- . 1st place winner must score above 90%
- 2nd place winner must score above 80%
- 3rd place winner must score above 75%
- If no competitors score within the above ranges, there will be no winners for the Prepared Essay competition.
- Judging criteria will be based upon the official MIST National Ballot.