The John & Freida Arak Journal: An Anthology of Student Writing at the University of Delaware

Research projects in English 110 are designed to afford students the opportunity to choose and explore complex topics, deepen their knowledge about those subjects, and develop their informed perspectives into thesis-driven essays. The seven winners of this year’s Arak Award have taken full advantage of that opportunity, and we are pleased to share their exemplary work with a wider audience.

As we do every year, the editors and selection committee invite readers of the journal, particularly those who are students in English 110, to expand their notion of what research in a first-year writing course can be. We want readers to see the possibilities that can result from the creativity, rigor, time, and tenacity required to produce a strong research-based argument. Our hope is to inspire students to take on ambitious, complex, socially engaged writing projects of their own.

Diversity of topic choices continues to be an important feature of the Arak Journal, and we are pleased to have that be the case again this year. Our winners chose to pursue a range of topics, from safety in national parks, to medical plastic pollution, to religious music in the music education classroom. These authors engaged deeply and personally with challenging topics, and they approached those topics in nuanced ways. We applaud them for their efforts, and we hope readers will appreciate the different strengths each essay brings to this year’s issue.

The seven essays were selected from a group of approximately 85 submissions via a series of blind reviews by instructors of English 110. Writers’ names were removed from entries to help ensure a fair evaluation process.

Our selection committee of enthusiastic, indefatigable writing instructors went through three rigorous stages of evaluation. Editors worked with the student writers to source check and edit the essays for publication.

None of this would be possible without a generous financial gift from Sydney F. Arak and Ruth Toor in honor of their parents, John and Frieda Arak. A sincere thank you to Mr. Arak, Ms. Toor, and the many others across the University of Delaware’s campus who believe that writing is at the heart of learning and discovery.

To learn more about the UD Composition Program, please visit our website, OneHundredTen.org.

Meg McGuire
Associate Professor of English​