Power of the Pen

Power of the Pen logo

Power of the Pen is an interscholastic writing league founded by in 1986. It is a non-profit creative writing program for students in grades seven and eight in the U.S. state of Ohio.

Participation[]

Power of the Pen is exclusive to the state of Ohio, having no competition at a national level. More than 200 school districts compete, each starting off with teams of twelve students, six from each grade.

Qualification[]

In most schools, students who want to join the Power of the Pen team participate in one or more tryout sessions, in which they are given a prompt that they must base an essay or short story within 40 minutes. After the allotted time, each story is given to the coach, who evaluates the writing and chooses students who they think are best for the team based on their writing skills.

The teams compete in three different tournaments: a District, Regional, and State tournament. Based on where their schools are located, teams will participate in separate District and Regional tournaments throughout the state. As the team progresses, more and more members may be eliminated based on their scores in the previous tournament's submissions.

Format[]

Tournaments[]

Districts: A District tournament is held at an elected participating school, the itinerary consisting of a welcoming orientation, three rounds of writing that are 40 minutes each, lunch, and an awards ceremony. There is only one judge per section of six writers.. As the name suggests, District tournaments consist of many local schools. There are about 80-120 students per grade that attend district tournaments.^{[citation needed]} About 240 students attend each district. Placing in approximately the top 50% will qualify a student to for the Regional tournaments. Writers are graded by rank points, or the place they received within the specified set of writers. Quality points, the points given based on the essay's overall quality, are used to break ties in placing.

Regionals: A Regional tournament follows the same itinerary, but there are two judges per section. On the first two rounds, each judge may grade individually. However, on the third round, both judges must agree to one score for each contestant in their group. An estimate of about 240 students attend Regional tournaments.^{[citation needed]} Placing in approximately the top 20% will qualify a student for the State Finals. As with district tournaments, students receive rank points and quality points.

State: State tournaments can last two days for schools willing to come a day earlier, or if a participating school has students who will help with the organization of the competition. States are usually held at a participating college, The College of Wooster being most popular. Students are permitted to sleep in assigned dorm rooms, and meals are provided for those who request and pay for them. There are three 35-minute rounds. This tournament is the only one with a fourth "Power Round" and allows 30 minutes to respond to the prompt. Students qualify for this round by being in the top 54 writers of their grade level. Like the District and Regional competitions, the prompts are graded by Quality Points and Rank Points. However, students' overall placement depends on quality points first, instead of rank points like the other two tournaments.

There is often a guest author/influential speaker that speaks during state tournaments.

Identification[]

During a tournament, each Power of the Pen member receives a four-digit number, which they are to use as identification instead of their names to prevent potentially biased judging. The first two digits are letters, remaining consistent throughout the school's team. The third digit is specific to the student's grade (7 for 7th grade, 8 for 8th grade), and the final digit is based on a random assignment of students from that school/grade.

Prompts[]

Each round consists of one prompt. Neither the writers nor the judges know what that round's prompt is going to be, and it is very rare for the writer to have ever even seen it before during practice sessions at school. As soon as the prompt is written down in a place for all in the room to see, the writer has 40 minutes (with the exception of States, which provides only 35 or 30 minutes) to write a response that has relevance to or includes the prompt. Some team coaches encourage writers to set aside about 5 minutes to think up a rough outline of the beginning, middle, and end. The details are filled in and improvised as the student writes. Finished copies are turned into the judge(s).

Scoring[]

Each student has at least one quality score and rank score per narrative. These items are both very different, and frequently confused with each other.

Score[]

The writer's score, also known as his or her Quality Points, is a numerical system used to establish the quality of the narrative.

94-100 points show a score of "Superior".
82-93 points show a score of "Honors".
75-81 points show a score of "Merit".

Rank[]

A scale of 1-6 is used in each room, as there are only 6 writers at most. A 1 represents the best and most creative of the six writers. Two writers may not receive the same score. Also, if one contestant has better rank points than the other, then he or she must also have better quality points.

Much confusion is usually related to the difference of the two. If, for example, a person was awarded a "1" on their narrative; he or she still could have earned a low score of 80 or so. Earning a 1 means that the response to the prompt was better than the other five and the story held higher quality.

Finalists[]

Districts and Regional: At both District and Regional, the top 12 students in each grade level win awards according to their place. Approximately the top 50% of writers at District qualify for the Regional tournament. Individual Best of Round and Platinum Pen awards for Districts and Regional are awarded, as well. Stories that are awarded Platinum Pen honors appear in Power of the Pen's annual Book of Winners. The top three teams at each grade level also receive awards. Teams may win a Sweepstakes trophy at Regional.

States: Students participate in three rounds of writing in the morning, and the top 54 students at each grade level qualify for a fourth round. The top 12 students in each grade level receive awards, and the top three teams overall are honored, as well. Special awards are given at the state tournament for the best writing of the preceding season, as well.

Best of Round and Platinum Pen Awards[]

Best of Round: Six students can win this award at each District and Regional tournament, as well as the State tournament; three in seventh grade and three in the eighth grade. There can only be one winner per grade level per round, and there cannot be a tie for Best of Rounds. The prize is a journal with a Power of the Pen logo on the front.

Director's Choice: A committee of regional directors may choose several prompt responses as Director's Choice or Director's Best of Round writings. Winners of this award receive a journal with the Power of the Pen logo.

Platinum Pen Award[]

The Platinum Pen Award is a level higher than Best of Round and Director's Choice. All of the Best of Round and Director's Choice stories from each tournament are evaluated, and the highest-quality writing receives a Platinum Pen Award. Platinum Pen stories are published in the Book of Winners. Platinum Pen Awards are given at the District, Regional, and State levels.