A Note From the Editors
By Julie Noordsy '94 & Paula Peterson '95
As a way of recognizing and rewarding academic excellence, the Honors Committee and the Skills Committee take pleasure in publishing this anthology of student writing. Professors from across the curriculum were invited to submit papers of all types which, in their judgment, demonstrated good writing.
Twelve papers were selected for their originality and insight. Two of the twelve finalists received the John Allen Writing Award for overall excellence. Sinikka Wainionpaa was chosen for an essay that illuminates Shelley’s Frankenstein through the poetry of William Blake. Her essay synthesizes complex ideas through the emotions of the creature Frankenstein. Jody Dallas’ essay combines the stories of different people in different parts of the world into a single narrative. In doing this Dallas took some risks with writing style and structure and made it work. One of the finalists, Wes Chaplin, received the Maureen Danks Award for writing in the sciences. His essay on chaos theory and nonlinear science explores some of the deepest ideas that have emerged in the natural sciences over the past three decades.
We received approximately 50 papers this year. All were well-conceived and well-written. We had to eliminate some high quality work in order to cover the spectrum of disciplines.
– Julie Noordsy and Paula Peterson, editors
Walter Cannon, Cathy Haustein, and Keith Yanner, faculty advisors
We extend a special thanks to Randa Van Dyk for her computer guruship in preparing this anthology for publication, and to Melissa Kuhn and Daniela Koger for their artwork.