Students will write an advocacy letter for a hypothetical situation.
The letter should be in standard business-letter format and addressed to the actual president, provost, or chair of the relevant department at the chosen school. It should be typed, single-spaced, and under two pages. The letter should not contain a signature or any references that would identify the student or his/her school.
The advocacy letter should be accompanied by a cover sheet containing the student’s name, school, grade, and the name and signature of his/her Latin teacher. The teacher’s signature indicates knowledge and approval of the letter’s content. Judging will be based on grade-level (9-12) with a maximum of 5 entries per grade level. Criteria for judging will be effectiveness of argument, creativity of argument, evidence of research, relevance to the particular school, and adherence to standard language and letter format. There are currently no schools in which Latin is in danger, but in years when this is so, contestants would be urged to mail revised and signed letters to the administration of schools with endangered programs.