EXPERIENCE IN CONDUCTING THE ACADEMIC ESSAY COMPETITION

Abstract

The article describes the experience of conducting the academic essay competition among students of the first (bachelor) level of higher education. In the academic essay competition of students, the results of research group work were presented. The academic essay competition was held in memory of Prof. S. O. Zastrovska in May 2023 as part of the annual Science Days of the Lesуa Ukrainka Volyn National University. The competition was organised by the Department of German Philology of the Faculty of Foreign Languages. 25 academic essays were submitted for the competition. The competition on the topic of Academic Integrity comprised various stages. Firstly, a call for entries was published in which the topic was presented and the conditions of participation explained. This was followed by registration and submission of essays: students were able to register for the competition and submit their final essays within the specified deadline. Plagiarism was checked using the StrikePlagiarism.com and Unicheck software. The jury assessed the essays submitted by first-year students and selected the most promising participants. The selection was based on criteria such as originality of ideas, relevance to the topic and quality of writing. The essays had to demonstrate clear arguments and linguistic precision, as well as a clear and concise structure. The winners were announced by the organisers and honoured for their achievements with prizes and certificates. The best essays were published. The organisers sought feedback from participants to improve the competition for future years and ensure that it has a positive impact on promoting academic integrity. The variety of topics of the submitted works, which were formulated by the students independently and according to their interests, should be emphasised. In their essays, the participants in the competition attempted to clarify questions such as: What is academic integrity and what role do motivation and self-motivation play in academic activity? The organisation and implementation of the competition contributed to increasing the effectiveness and quality of the students’ research work. The cognitive activity of the students was activated and the motivation of all participants in the educational process was strengthened.