D.A.R.
AMERICAN HISTORY ESSAY CONTEST 2008 – 2009
Contest
Rules
All
grade 5, 6, 7, and 8th grade students in a public, private, or parochial school,
or those who are home schooled, are eligible. This contest is conducted without
regard to race, religion, sex, or natural origin.
Number of Words: Grade 6-8
600-1000 words
(All words count. Title page and bibliography excluded. Dates count as one
word.)
Form
Essay
is to be handwritten in ink, typed, or prepared on a computer or word processor,
using black type in a non-script font no smaller than 12 point or larger than 14
point.
All of the essay must be the student’s work. Each essay must be the
student’s original work. Each essay must have a title page.
The
Title page must contain:
Title
of the essay “The Gettysburg Address”. (A subtitle is permitted if written
below the topic).
Contestant’s
full name and address, Street, RR, P.O. Box, City, State and Zip Code.
Contestant’s
telephone number with area code and e-mail address if available.
Name
of contestant’s school with grade level indicated.
Name
of sponsoring DAR Chapter (Delaware County).
Number
of words in the essay.
Bibliography
Your
essay must have a bibliography listing all references utilized. Internet
resources, if used, should be cited in similar format to that used for printed
resources. Add the electronic address used to access the document as
supplementary information. Any essay with information copied directly from
sources without using quotes will be disqualified.
For assistance, please read "How
to Prepare a Bibliography."
The topic for 2008-2009 American History Essay Contest is: The Gettysburg
Address
What message did the Gettysburg Address communicate to our war torn nation in
l863? How are the ideals articulated in the speech still relevant for our
country today?
The
Gettysburg Address
Four
score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new
nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a
final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not
hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will
little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what
they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the
unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It
is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before
us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for
which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Essay
Checklist
Historical
Accuracy
Adherence to subject
Organization of material
Originality
Interest
Spelling and Grammar
Bibliography
Essay must have a bibliography listing all references utilized. Internet
resources, if used, should be cited in similar format to that used for printed
resources. Add the electronic address used to access the document as
supplementary information. Any essay with information copied directly from
sources without using quotes will be disqualified.