Writing Contests
Where your students’ writing gets rewarded.
Congratulations to the winners of our You Write It Contest in the September 19, 2011, issue. We couldn’t have written them better ourselves!
(Click here to read the You Write It interview that inspired these articles.)
Check out the winning entries below.
How Do You Spell Determination?
Alison E.
Bloomington, IN
Sukanya Roy, an eighth-grader in South Abington Township, Pennsylvania, was the Scripps National Spelling Bee champion. She recently had an interview with Scope, and we got to hear some of the details. To a win a spelling bee it takes a lot of work, so how did Sukanya prepare?
“Come home, do my homework, take a break, study the rest of the afternoon. As the bee got closer, I would shorten the break and study more,” Sukanya told Scope. It took her a long time to prepare for the bee—she studied for six hours on the weekdays and 10 hours on the weekends.
If Sukanya studied so long, how did she study? “I underlined all the words I didn’t know and wrote them in notebooks. Then I divided them up by their roots, which makes them easier to remember.”
When the Scripps National Spelling Bee arrived, Sukanya was very prepared, and of course she tried her best, but she stumbled on a word she didn’t know, cymotrichous. What did she do? She “relaxed, and pieced it together by its roots, cymo meaning wave and trichous meaning hair.”
The announcer declared her answer correct and Sukanya had won the Scripps National Spelling Bee! Here’s what she says about the experience: “Winning is a great goal, but you shouldn’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen, as long as you tried your best, worked your hardest, and are doing something you love.” So when it comes to something you love, work your hardest, set your standards, and don’t be disappointed if you don’t succeed at first.
Cindy O.
North Brunswick, NJ
Sukanya Roy, a girl from South Abington Township, Pennsylvania, won the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee. In her interview with Scope, she talked about what she did to win the contest. She talked about how many times she competed in the National Spelling Bee and what she did wrong in them. She talked about how she prepared after losing the competition. She gave advice to people who want to compete in the bee in the future. This story perfectly describes how people have to work hard to win the things they wish to obtain.
Sukanya competed two times in the Scripps National Spelling Bee before she won the contest in 2011. The first one was when she was in sixth grade, and she got out on the word piqueur. The second one was in seventh grade when she couldn’t spell hyleg. She said that she had never heard those words before and she panicked. But the most impressive thing is how she continued her life after these experiences.
After she failed these contests, she decided to work harder than she had in the previous years. She created a routine to increase her chances of winning. Her routine was to come home and do her homework, take a break, and study the rest of the afternoon. Also, she read the entire dictionary. But she wasn’t alone in this preparation. She had great friends who helped her by sending support e-mails. The last thing she did was write the words she didn’t know and divide them up by their word roots.
After Sukanya won the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee she gave advice for everyone who wishes to compete in the contest in the future: “Winning is a great goal, but you shouldn’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen, as long as you tried your best, worked your hardest, and are doing something you love.” This perfectly describes the word determination. Through Sukanya, people learned that no matter what, you have to continue doing the things you love. According to how you work, you are going to obtain great results.
I think that if all of us try to be like Sukanya, the world is going to have a big intellectual growth and people are going to have better lives. I also think that she totally deserved to win the contest because when you work hard and take responsibility, you are going to obtain whatever you wish.
Liam C.
Osprey, FL
Everyone has a talent for doing something they love. Just ask Sukanya Roy, the winner of the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee. She has a love for words. This is what drives her to compete in spelling bees, time after time. Even when she didn’t win in sixth and seventh grades, she kept trying. She was determined to finally get first place. She stuck with it not only to win, but for the challenge of learning new words, the dedication of herself to be better and to work hard, and the love of spelling bees! Let me tell you more about Sukanya Roy.
First, Sukanya competed in the National Spelling Bee when she was in sixth and seventh grades, but did not win. In sixth grade, she tied for 12th place and got out on the word piqueur. In seventh grade, she tied for 20th place and got out on the word hyleg. For both of these experiences Sukanya said, “I completely panicked.” Eighth grade is the last year that one can compete in this spelling bee, so Sukanya studied diligently. She said, “By the end, I was studying 6 hours on weekdays and 10 hours on weekends.” Sukanya also read the dictionary twice, showing she really was determined to do well this time around.
In addition, Sukanya was well supported by friends. She received encouraging e-mails from her friends helping her to think of clever ways to remember the spelling of different words. For example, she split the word cymotrichous (meaning wavy hair) into its Greek roots. Cymo means wave and trichous means hair. These helpful tricks paid off in the end. Sukanya won the National Spelling Bee this year.
In conclusion, Sukanya Ray showed determination, skill, dedication, and hard work when she won the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Winning isn’t everything, though. In Sukanya’s point of view, “Winning is a great goal, but you shouldn’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen, as long as you tried your best, worked your hardest, and are doing something you love.” This is exactly what she did.
Meghan O.
West Hartford, CT
Three times. Three times Sukanya Roy tried to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and she finally pulled it off. She was desperate—“Eighth grade is the last year you can be in the bee,” Sukanya explained when interviewed—and her hard work and sheer determination pulled her through.
Previous words from prior years stumped her. In sixth grade, she tied for 12th on piqueur, a French word that means “stinging.” In seventh grade, she tied for 20th with hyleg, which is a Persian-Arabic word. “I had never heard those words before,” said Sukanya, “and I completely panicked.”
In her preparation, Sukanya worked really hard. Her routine was to come home, do her homework, take a break, and then devote the rest of the afternoon to studying. She read the entire dictionary twice for preparation. And with the scary aspect of the bee coming, the breaks kept getting shorter and shorter. She ended up studying six hours on weekdays and 10 hours on weekends. Another thing she did to study was underline all the words she did not know and write them in notebooks. Then she divided them by their roots, which is an easy way to remember them. An example is the word cymotrichous, which means “having wavy hair.” It has Greek roots, and that helped her remember it, because cymo means “wave” and trichous means “hair.”
“Winning is a great goal, but you shouldn’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen, as long as you tried your best, worked your hardest, and are doing something you love,” said Sukanya Roy, age 14, winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Michele M.
Osprey, FL
Have you ever been determined to do something? Of course. We all have. But did you keep at it every day, and when times got hard, keep going? Those are two questions that Sukanya Roy can definitely relate to. You’re probably wondering, who is Sukanya Roy? She is the winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest, and she can definitely spell determination. How did Sukanya win such a hard contest? It is revealed in her inspiring interview about how she studied and achieved the goal she worked so hard for.
The interview with Sukanya is inspiring because it shows how far you can take determination. Scope asked her if she really did prepare by reading the entire dictionary twice. As said in the interview, Sukanya replied, “Yes. I had a routine: Come home, do my homework, take a break, study the rest of the afternoon. As the bee got closer, I would shorten the break and study more.” This determined girl ended up studying the dictionary six hours on weekdays and 10 hours on weekends. Talk about grit. Also, Sukanya didn’t give up after her first year of trying. She didn’t win in sixth and seventh grades so her last chance of winning was in 2011, her eighth-grade year. Scope asked her how she studied. Sukanya replied, “I underlined all the words I didn’t know and wrote them in notebooks. Then I divided them up by their roots, which makes them easier to remember. I knew if I got a word I didn’t know, I should relax and piece it together by its roots.” In most people’s free time, they would watch television or do personal things, but this girl was really determined. Since Sukanya studied so hard for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, sure enough, she achieved her goal of winning. So does hard work really pay off? I think Sukanya would say yes.
The advice Sukanya gave to other kids when they find themselves in a high-pressure situation is, “Winning is a great goal, but you shouldn’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen, as long as you tried your best, worked your hardest, and are doing something you love.”
