Editorials
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Welding Compassion
In Selecting this essay for the third-place in the James Strickland Scholarship, emeritus professor James Strickland notes, “James Byron’s essay was a delightful surprise: a meditation upon the value of teaching meditation, controlling one’s breathing, and practicing compassion. All of it done while supposedly teaching welding techniques at a trade school. James’ unusual story includes the reaction of some of his students, like Leroy from Homewood, but the real joy of the piece is hearing how James himself became a convert. Imagine the karate kid with a welder’s mask.” By James Byron Have you ever considered the power of a single breath? We all breath, automatically, involuntarily. It’s something we do naturally, without…
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The Feminist Movement: The Needed Shift for Women in Their Careers
Each year the Department of English selects outstanding essays from ENGL 102 Critical Writing as entries in the James Strickland Award in Writing scholarship contest. RockScissorsPaper is proud to publish these pieces in our summer edition of the website. Below is the second-place winner for 2022, Sasha Jantsch. Dr. Strickland writes: “Sasha Jantsch’s essay on the necessity of the feminist movement in 2022 is a powerful argumentative essay in the traditional research genre. Not only is the feminist movement not superfluous today, but Sasha also argues it has established and protected the rights of women in the workplace, rights that would have never been realized otherwise. Her essay reminded me of a…
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Nuerotypicals Speak
Each year, the Department of English awards the James Strickland Award to the top essays from ENGL 102 Critical Writing. These pieces are selected first by writing instructors, narrowed down to 10 by a select committee of reviewers made up of department faculty, and then ultimately selected by professor emeritus James Strickland.Below we are proud to present the winner of the 2022 James Strickland Award for Writing, Zach Sterza.Dr. Strickland explains: “I enjoyed reading Zach Sterza’s essay, “Neurotypicals Speak,” because it was so professionally written, so carefully researched, and rhetorically so in control. I had some experiential understanding of autism, so I knew his essay was probably about autism spectrum…
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My Perspective on Religion
By Carson Denney I was raised baptist. I went to a baptist church with my very religious parents from 1stgrade to 10th grade, when my dad stopped making me go. My dad never liked church, but hewanted me to learn all the bible studies and he was not confident as a teacher. I ended upworking at a church in early high school and attending that churches’ youth group regularly. Itwas around this time that I started to figure out I was queer, and I remember being reallyconflicted about my identity in relation to religion. I remember one particular day in freshmanyear, right after gay marraige was legalized. I sat in…
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Language Empowerment in the Classroom
By Olivia Umholtz (Each year RockScissorsPaper publishes the winners of the James Strickland Award for Writing. Named after an honored colleague and SRU Professor Emeritus, these award-winning essays have been submitted by SRU English faculty and winners have been determined by SRU English Department Faculty, the College of Liberal Arts, and Professor Strickland himself. The following essay deserves Honorable mention for the 2020-2021 academic year. Professor Strickland noted the following in selecting this essay: “An honorable mention should also go to Olivia Umholtz’s “Language Empowerment in the Classroom.” Umholtz asked teachers to become more aware of their students’ backgrounds and their home languages; with this knowledge, she hopes teachers will…
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Prescription Games
By Ezeck Warren (Each year RockScissorsPaper publishes the winners of the James Strickland Award for Writing. Named after an honored colleague and SRU Professor Emeritus, these award-winning essays have been submitted by SRU English faculty and winners have been determined by SRU English Department Faculty, the College of Liberal Arts, and Professor Strickland himself. The following essay deserves an Honorable Mention for the 2020-2021 academic year. Professor Strickland noted the following in selecting this essay: “Another honorable mention should go to Ezeck Warren’s “Prescription Games,” an engaging essay that asks readers to reconceive of videogames as therapeutic, offering video game playing as a way to relieve stress and certain illnesses such…
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Creating Awareness to Efficiently Provide Prom Dresses Presented to Pittsburgh Public Schools District Student Support Services Department
By Emily Graham (Each year RockScissorsPaper publishes the winners of the James Strickland Award for Writing. Named after an honored colleague and SRU Professor Emeritus, these award-winning essays have been submitted by SRU English faculty and winners have been determined by SRU English Department Faculty, the College of Liberal Arts, and Professor Strickland himself. The following essay deserves an Honorable Mention for the 2020-2021 academic year. Professor Strickland noted the following in selecting this essay as one of our finalists: “Graham made the heart-felt case that a charity, Becca’s Closet, one that provides free prom dresses to young women for whom the expense is prohibitive, deserves to have a free…
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Modifying Slippery Rock University’s English: Creative Writing Major
(Each year RockScissorsPaper publishes the winners of the James Strickland Award for Writing. Named after an honored colleague and SRU Professor Emeritus, these award-winning essays have been submitted by SRU English faculty and winners have been determined by SRU English Department Faculty, the College of Liberal Arts, and Professor Strickland himself. The following essay earned third place and a scholarship for the 2020-2021 academic year. Professor Strickland noted the following in selecting this essay as our third-place winner: “Byrne began with an opening that challenges the reader: if writers learn to write by writing and by writing a significant number of words every day, why would the university ask Creative Writing…
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Does Texting Really Affect Writing?
(Each year RockScissorsPaper publishes the winners of the James Strickland Award for Writing. Named after an honored colleague and SRU Professor Emeritus, these award-winning essays have been submitted by SRU English faculty and winners have been determined by SRU English Department Faculty, the College of Liberal Arts, and Professor Strickland himself. The following essay was the second-place winner for the 2020-2021 academic year. Professor Strickland noted the following in selecting this essay as our runner-up: “His title was meant to draw in readers because his argument is really whether new technology, especially that connected to smartphones, changes how writers write. Rogan used evidence from educators, bloggers, journalists, and researchers to look…
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Native American Voter Suppression
By Victoria Lydon (Each year RockScissorsPaper publishes the winners of the James Strickland Award for Writing. Named after an honored colleague and SRU Professor Emeritus, these award-winning essays have been submitted by SRU English faculty and winners have been determined by SRU English Department Faculty, the College of Liberal Arts, and Professor Strickland himself. The following essay was the winner for the 2020-2021 academic year. Professor Strickland noted the following in selecting this essay as our winner: “The essay began with a challenging thought–what if our voting rights were endangered by the very people elected to protect our rights, and then proceeded to explain the different laws and conditions that…
