The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) Writing Prizes are open to all kinds of writing (except creative writing) from undergraduate students enrolled in LA&PS courses, including case studies, administrative/executive reports, reviews of all kinds, non-fiction prose, and formal essays. There are five categories: first through fourth year and also Undergraduate Thesis/Major Research Project*. Digital Assignments should be submitted to the LA&PS Digital Composition Prize.
Winners and honourable mentions will receive a cash prize, a transcript notation, an invitation to an LA&PS awards ceremony, and the opportunity to have their paper permanently hosted online. Past winners can be found online at .
Competition Guidelines
Any Course Director in LA&PS may nominate a paper (one per course/section) in the appropriate category. Submissions should be in Word or PDF format and include both a clean copy of the paper and a copy of the submission's associated assignment sheet. Group submissions are welcome and count as a single entry.
Submissions will be assessed using the following criteria: originality, research, expression (style, structure, grammar etc.) and overall significance. The competition organizers will remove the author/instructor鈥檚 name before distributing entries to assessors.
Please nominate your student鈥檚 paper using the year level of your course (not of your student). For example, a 4th year student writing in WRIT 2004 would be nominated in the 2nd year category.
Prize and Timing
Eligible projects will come from courses offered during all terms dating from Summer 2025-Winter 2026.
Entries for this competition will be accepted until June 15, 2026.
Once each year, a winner and an honourable mention will be chosen for each year level (1000, 2000, 3000, 4000).
Winners and honourable mentions will be contacted by the Faculty in Fall 2026.
Additional Details
*Undergraduate Thesis / Major Research Project:
An undergraduate Major Research Project will normally be the primary assignment of a 4th year Directed Reading course (e.g. WRIT 4900, 鈥淪pecial Topics in Professional Writing鈥). Papers in this category should be 30-45 pages in length, exclusive of Works Cited etc. Shorter papers (< 30 pages) should be entered in the standard 4th year category.
An undergraduate thesis will normally be the primary assignment of a named 4th year Honours Thesis course (e.g. EN 4099, 鈥淗onours Thesis鈥). It should be approximately 45-70 pages in length, exclusive of works cited and other scholarly apparatus.
Ready to Nominate?
You may save your nomination and continue at a later time, if required.
Past Winners
Winners can be found online at .
Questions?
This competition is coordinated by the Writing Department and entries are assessed by faculty from across LA&PS. If you have any questions about this form, this competition, or about the process for adjudicating these awards, please contact lapswrit@yorku.ca.