African American English: Origins, Structure, and Attitudes by Caroline Helmstadt 2

Spotlight on… The University Writing Awards

The Ruth and Ted Braun Awards are presented in the categories of General Education, Graduate Programs, and in each of the five colleges to promote excellent writing across the curriculum. This year two prizes were available in the College of Health and Human Services: one for students in Health Sciences, Kinesiology, or Occupational Therapy courses, and one for students in Nursing or Social Work courses. Two prizes were similarly available in the College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences: one for students in Art, History, Modern Foreign Languages, Music, Philosophy, Rhetoric and Professional Writing, or Theatre courses, and one for students in Communication, Criminal Justice, Geography, Political Science, Psychology, or Sociology classes. Members of the 2019–2020 University Writing Committee judged this year’s entries. The committee was chaired by Scott Kowalewski, associate professor of Rhetoric & Professional Writing.

The Braun Awards were established by Ruth and Ted Braun. Longtime supporters of SVSU, they created these awards with the belief that no student can be successful in his or her academic career without writing competence and that no SVSU graduate should enter the workplace without such proficiency.

The Brauns’ support of SVSU extends far beyond these writing awards. Both have served on the SVSU Board of Control and the SVSU Foundation Board of Directors. The Board of Control’s chairperson from 1995–1997, Ruth Braun has been active in community service: she has served on the State Board of Education and the Saginaw School District Board of Education, as the president of the Junior League of Saginaw, and as the chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Saginaw General Hospital. Hugo (“Ted”) Braun was a partner in the Saginaw law firm Braun Kendrick Finkbeiner PLC. A recipient of an honorary Doctor of Laws from SVSU, he was a longtime supporter of the school; among his other volunteer work for the university, he served on the Foundation Board’s Finance & Investment Committee. Like his wife, he was much involved in other community organizations; he was president of the Harvey Randall Wickes Foundation, and United Way of Saginaw County honored him with its Outstanding Volunteer Award.

The writings of past Braun Award winners are writingprogram/writingawards/braunawards/ available online at www.svsu.edu/

The Tyner Prizes are awarded to students in English courses to recognize writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Faculty in the English Department nominate student work for these prizes. Tamara Migan, lecturer of English, chaired the selection committee in 2020, and prizes were awarded in the categories of fiction and nonfiction. Matt Chappel won for his short story “George,” which appears on the following pages. Kellie Rankey won for nonfiction for her paper called “Repurposing the Master’s Tool’s to Distort the Master’s House: The Rani of Jhansi and Colonial Subjectivity under Attack in George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman in the Great Game,” and Brad Yurgens won for his creative nonfiction piece “Probability Stacks.” The Tyner Prizes are named after Raymond Tyner,a former member of the English Department. Professor Tyner came to SVSU in 1968 and was long affiliated with The Green River Review.

The First-Year Writing Awards recognize outstanding writing in the beginning composition courses taught at SVSU. The First-Year Writing Program at SVSU strives to ensure incoming freshmen have a solid introduction to writing at a collegiate level. This program includes two

comprehensive writing courses: Writing Skills (English 080) and Composition I (English 111). The First-Year Writing Committee was chaired in 2019–2020 by Emily Beard-Bohn, associate professor of English.

The winners of the 2020 First-Year Writing Awards for English 111 were as follows: • First Place: Danielle Wolanin, “Code Meshing: A Study of How Code Meshing Is Linked to a

Double Consciousness” • Second Place: Peyton Hart, “Writing Away My Dreams” • Third Place: Alexis Moulton, “The Art of a Shitty First Draft” • Fourth Place: Graham Jones, “Handcuffs” • Fifth Place: Elijah Whitney, “What My Writing Means”

The First-Year Writing Committee also awarded the following prizes to students enrolled in sheltered sections of First-Year Composition classes: • First Place: Farhim Apu, Rakibul Hassan, and Zakaria Abden, “Reflection of a Discourse Community: Dining Services at SVSU” • Second Place: Sara Neves, “The Sense of Good Writing” • Third Place: Binh Duc Dang, “The Art of Writing”

The following prizes were given to students enrolled in English 080: • First Place: Ja’Lynn Jones, “Marshall Fredericks’ Persephone” • Second Place: Logan Zakoor, “How to Process a Whitetail”

The Diane Boehm Writing Awards for e-Portfolios were first awarded in 2015. Established by Diane Boehm, founder and former director of the SVSU Writing Center and the SVSU University Writing Program, the awards recognize the creative and effective integration of writing and multimedia by SVSU students via the medium of e-Portfolios. Entries are judged according to a portfolio’s ability to do the following: present a student’s capabilities in an engaging, professional, and comprehensive manner; include artifacts and documents that demonstrate deep learning appropriate to the student’s class or chosen major; include perceptive self-reflection; demonstrate creative use of multimedia; and be easy to navigate and aesthetically effective based on the capabilities of the software or program. Coordinated by the University Writing Committee, the Boehm Awards are given for portfolios made for the classroom or for a workplace application.

The Ming Chuan Multilingual Writing Awards were awarded for the first time in 2018 and were established by Dr. Robert S. P. Yien. A longtime supporter of SVSU, Dr. Yien joined SVSU in 1970 and was a recipient of the Franc A. Landee Teaching Excellence Award, he served as the vice president for Academic Affairs, and he has been instrumental in the success of Ming Chuan University at SVSU. These awards recognize writing excellence by international students at SVSU. One award is for students in the English Language Program; the other award is for students who have moved into courses that are required as part of their degree. These awards are coordinated by the University Writing Committee.