The Program to Recognize Excellence in Student Literary Magazines honors quality literary magazines from middle schools, junior high schools, and high schools in the United States, Canada, and American schools abroad. This marks the twenty-fourth year for this program. In 2007, 439 schools submitted entries; of those, 62 magazines were nominated for highest award with 20 selected to receive highest award, 79 Superior, 226 Excellent, and 72 Above Average. Magazines scoring 70 or fewer points are not included in this list.
The Advisory Committee for the Program to Recognize Excellence in Student Literary Magazines has sought to keep the spirit of the intent of the program’s originators: to recognize quality but to offer no critiques of the magazines. State coordinators administer the program in cooperation with NCTE Headquarters. They assemble judging teams and arrange for every entry to be reviewed and scored by two judges working independently. The judges, who are English teachers at the middle school, high school, or college level, examine a variety of aspects of each magazine submitted, using a scoring sheet and pertinent information provided by the entering schools. The point system (total 100 points) for evaluation, described below, gives primary emphasis to literary aspects—although production values are also considered, as is the extent of student participation in production.
LITERARY
Content/Quality–50 points
Imaginative use of language
Appropriateness of metaphor, imagery, symbol
Choice of vivid, clear, precise words
Variety, rhythm, flow of language
Content Variety–15 points
- Poetry, fiction, drama
- Essays, reviews, translations, lyrics
- Other: Writings from across the curriculum
Editing, Proofreading–15 points
DESIGN AND GRAPINCS
Artistic Quality–15 points
- Layout and typography
- Illustrations and photography
- Use of illustrations and photographs to reflect themes
Front matter and Pagination—5 points
- Title page (title, school, city, district, state, date)
- Table of contents
- Staff credits
There are several descriptive categories, ranging from “Highest Award” to “Above Average” for the magazines listed. Any magazine judged at the level of 71 points or more is included in the listings. A brief explanation for each category of excellence is provided below.
Above Average (71–80 points)
Very sound writing; genres other than poems and short stories included; good editing; evidence of effort to embrace other subject areas; design and layout adequate; students participate in editorial, production, and business aspects.
Excellent (81–90 points)
Extremely high quality of writing; variety of genres; meticulous editing; some writings from other subject areas; design and graphics attractive, pertinent to writings; students have strong roles in editorial, production, and business aspects.
Superior (91–100 points)
Outstanding writing; wide variety of genres; excellent editing; high-quality design and graphics, appropriate to themes of writings; clear evidence of interdepartmental and interdisciplinary involvement with good writings from other subject areas; students dominate editorial, production, and business aspects.
Superior- Nominated for Highest Award
These magazines were recommended by the judges and considered for the Highest Award rank.
Highest Award
This special award, selected from superior-ranked journals, recognizes magazines that fulfill extraordinary standards of excellence. In such magazines, students handle virtually all aspects of writing, production, and business with exceptional skill. The magazine is characterized by a variety of genres; highly original and technically excellent writing; attractive layout, typesetting, and graphics; inclusion of high-quality writings from various disciplines; and other evidence that schoolwide participation has gone into the development of the magazine.
The National Association of Secondary School Principals has placed this program on its NASSP National Advisory List of Student Contests and Activities for 2007–2008.
Click the links below to see the ranks for each state.
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