Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership

EEBO in Education / Essay Contest

See the 2005 Winners of the EEBO In Undergraduate Studies Essay Competition

See the 2004 Winners of the EEBO In Undergraduate Studies Essay Competition

See the 2003 Winners of the EEBO In Undergraduate Studies Essay Competition

See the 2002 Winners of the EEBO In Undergraduate Studies Essay Competition

See the 2001 Winners of the EEBO In Undergraduate Studies Essay Competition

EEBO In Undergraduate Studies Essay Competition For 2006

ProQuest Information and Learning and the Early English Books Online (EEBO) Text Creation Partnership are sponsoring an essay competition for undergraduate students.

The EEBO In Undergraduate Studies Essay Competition Committee is seeking undergraduate research papers that rely on research conducted via the Early English Books Online collection of primary texts. The Committee consists of professionals and scholars drawn from both information industry and academic contributors to EEBO. Essays may reflect the approach of any number of academic disciplines - history, literary studies, philosophy, anthropology, religious studies, and more - or they may be interdisciplinary in nature. The chief requirement is that each paper draws substantial evidence from the works included in EEBO.

The Committee will judge the entries using a "blind" review process to select five papers for the following cash prizes:

Grand Prize: $1,000
First Prize: $750
Second Prize: $500
2 Honorable Mentions: $200

EEBO will contain page images of 125,000 books listed in the Pollard and Redgrave, Wing, and Thomason Tracts catalogs. With its substantial coverage of printed material found in England between 1473 and 1700, EEBO provides rich research possibilities for students interested in a wide variety of topics in early modern studies.

The Committee will read and evaluate each properly submitted essay. Criteria for selection include:

Quality and creativity of the thesis
Potential for the essay to contribute to its field and to early modern studies more generally
Significance of the study for illustrating EEBO's usefulness in undergraduate research

All papers must be written by an undergraduate student or students. Any entrant under the age of 18 must have a parent or guardian's permission to enter this contest. The essay should reflect work done between November 1, 2005 and October 31, 2006. Group papers may be submitted provided that all group members meet the contestant criteria and consent to the submission by executing the entry form. Proof of enrollment at a college or university with EEBO access during this time period must accompany each submission. All contestants must be enrolled in an institution with approved access to Early English Books Online. ProQuest Information and Learning is not responsible for the effect an award payment may have on a foreign student's immigration status or eligibility. This offer is void where prohibited by law.

Deadline for receipt of essays is October 31, 2006. Prizes will be announced in January 2007.

Essays must be the original, unpublished work of the student. Only one essay per individual student or group may be submitted, except for students who submit entries as part of a group may also submit an entry as an individual. All essays become the property of ProQuest Information and Learning Company, which reserves the right to publish the essays in any form, either electronically or in print. By entering the essay contest, entrants grant further permission to the sponsors to use the entrant's name and photo, and to publicize the winning entries as well as the names of all the winning essays, without royalty or additional compensation.

The prize winners will be notified by U.S. Mail. The winner or winners must provide proof of identity and may be required to execute an affidavit of Eligibility/Liability and Publicity Release and a statement certifying that all material submitted as part of the entry is original and does not infringe on the copyright, intellectual property, or other right of another person or entity. If a group entry wins the contest, then the prize will be split between all entrants of that group. If a potential individual winner or any member of a winning group fails to return the required documentation within 15 days following attempted notification, the prize will go to the next runner-up.

The transfer of prize property will occur as soon as practicably possible, but no later than 90 days after the award is announced.

Essay Format and Citation Style

Submitted essays must consist of no more than 20 pages of written text. All entries must be accompanied by a one-page abstract. The essay must be typed in 12-point type, double-spaced with 1" margins, and the pages numbered. Required cover pages and illustrations are not included in the allotted 20 pages. Each paper must include a bibliography.

Each essay must make use of the text(s) found in EEBO. The essay should use EEBO page image numbers when making references to the texts, as follows:

"In the opening remarks in A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia (1588), Thomas Hariot claims that "There haue bin diuers and variable reportes with some slaunderous and shamefull speeches bruited aroade by many that returned from thence" (Image 3)."

For all other matters of citation and style, essays should adhere to MLA or Chicago Manual of Style guidelines.

No name or identifying references (i.e., school, professor, or author's name) may appear on the essay itself, even though style guides may require such notations. Such information should appear only on the cover page described below.

Required Submission Materials

Cover Page: All submissions must include a cover page listing the entrant's name(s), college, mailing addresses and phone numbers (both home and school), email address, and title of the paper. This page should be the only page on which the entrant's name appears.

Abstract: The second page should not display the entrant's name or any personal information. It should serve as an abstract of the paper and include the following information:

Title of the project
Account of how and why the topic was chosen, as well as dates of when work occurred. If the paper was written for a class, the name of the instructor should be included.
An explicit statement of the paper's thesis
A description of the way the paper uses documents from EEBO
An evaluation of the value of the paper's conclusions for others in the same field of study
Letter of Eligibility: A letter on school stationery from the Registrar's Office that verifies the entrant's enrollment at the time the paper was written should be included.

Materials Submission

To enter, entrants should follow the following steps:

Submit one copy of the essay and other required submission materials.
Keep a copy of the essay and other submission materials. (No materials will be returned to entrants.)
Have entry delivered by 5:00 p.m. on October 31, 2006 to address below. (Entries may not be faxed or emailed.)