Writing In Colour

The Department of English at the University of Waterloo invites grade 11 students in Ontario who are Black, Indigenous, or students of colour to submit an essay of between 500 to 1000 words to the 2026 Writing in Colour: English Grade 11 Essay Colloquium Award. The topic for this year is community.

Students with the top selected essays will be invited to take part in a colloquium at the University of Waterloo consisting of a seminar, workshop, and tour of the school. At the colloquium, one essay will be selected to win a $1000 prize. The author of the winning essay will also be offered an opportunity to meet with some members of the university community who could be helpful to their future ambitions.

Your essay can be narrative, descriptive, persuasive, or expository, and can discuss any aspect of the topic of community. The term community is complex. It can be applied to various sizes of groups, from a handful of people to an larger number, and it can also be based on a broad range of foundations, including geography (the community of Smallville), culture or ethnicity (the Black community), shared membership in an institution (a school or work-based community), and interests and professions (the community of artists or scientists).

Yet it takes more than just a common location, membership, or other shared trait to be a community.  The word community has two possible Latin roots: from the combination of the Latin prefix Latin com- (together) and unis (one), or from the combination of com- and munis (under obligation). The Oxford English Dictionary states that the original Latin word, communitas, can mean joint possession or use, participation, sharing, social relationship, fellowship, organized society, shared nature or quality, or kinship. So it seems that contained in the word community is idea of a more active closeness and commitment between people than is implied by the word group. When a group becomes a community, something is added; when a community becomes just a group, something has been taken away.

Your essay can explore the theme of community through a reflection on your own experiences or the experiences of someone else. You can reflect on something that happened in the past, something that is happening in the present, or something that you hope will happen in the future.

You might consider any of the following prompts to help you brainstorm your essay topic, but you’re welcome to write on any aspect of community that you’d like to:

• Is there a situation in which you realized that what was supposed to be a community had become just a group of people, or that what was only a group had become a community? What was the difference before or after the change? What led to the change, and what followed from it?
• Sometimes we want community but it’s a challenge to find it, or perhaps we are too afraid to allow ourselves to belong to or commit to a community. What are the external and internal forces that prevent people from finding or forming communities, or from opening up to the experience of being in a community? How might those forces be transcended?
• For people in communities there can be a tension between individual wants and needs and community wants and needs. Sometimes people find that their individual identity becomes lost in a community, sometimes people have to leave a community to find their individual identity, and sometimes people work to balance individual and community-based demands. What causes those tensions and how are they negotiated?
• What does community mean in digital versus in-person contexts, and what is gained and lost in the different contexts? How does participation in online activities affect the opportunity to create in-person community and vice versa?
• Are there times when something that isn’t really a community is presented as one? What are the possible motives for that and what are the consequences for the people involved?
• People often participate in or belong to a number of different communities. In some cases membership in different communities can lead to unexpected connections. In other cases conflicting demands of different communities can lead to tensions that can be difficult to resolve. What is an example of communities either reinforcing one another or creating tension for an individual? If there is tension, how can it be resolved?
• Part of being in a community is dealing with conflict. How does a community deal constructively with conflict, and if conflict is not dealt with, how does it affect a community and the people in it?

The deadline to submit essays is March 6, 2026.

Please direct questions to the English Department Awards Committee (Bruce Dadey and Carter Neal) at englaward@uwaterloo.ca. 

Submission Instructions

Frequently Asked Questions:

• Should the paper be submitted electronically or printed and mailed?
  • Please submit your essay digitally via our contest portal.
• What format should the essay be in?
  • Please use either .docx or .pdf format.
• What is the word count limit for the essay? Can it be under 500 words or over 1000 words?
  • Ideally, you want to stay as close to that word count range as possible. However, a few words under (or over) will not disqualify your paper. A references page (if your work does use references) would not count toward your word count limit.
• Can I submit more than one essay to the contest?
  • Submissions are limited to one entry per person.
• I’m not in Grade 11, can I still submit?
  • You must be registered in Grade 11 to be eligible for this award.
• Do I need to register for this award?
  • By submitting an entry, you will automatically be considered for the award and colloquium. Invitations to the colloquium will be sent out in April.
• Do I need to answer one of the specific questions on this year's theme listed above?
  • No. Those are just there to help generate ideas and to demonstrate the wide range of topics that fit the scope of this year’s theme. You can use the ideas to help you think about the essay, you can answer one directly, or you can talk about the theme in some other way. So long as your paper engaged with the year’s theme, it will be accepted as a valid submission.

Submission Instructions

The 2025 Writing in Colour colour contest focused on the theme of self-discovery. The symposium took place on June 10 and featured participants Salma Aly (Milton District High School), Francesca Morales (Father Leo J. Austin Catholic Secondary School), Nika Rowshani (Markville Secondary School), Rabneet Kaur Shergill (Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute), and Nadhifo Suleiman (Central Peel Secondary School). Francesca Morales won the award for best essay for her piece, “The Voice of my Mother.”

For more information on the 2025 colloquium, see UW English 2025 Writing in Colour Colloquium in our departmental blog.

The 2024 Writing in Colour colour contest focused on the theme of connections. The symposium took place on May 15 and featured participants Cheryl Yefon Jokwi (Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School), Krushni Nizahan (Father Michael McGivney Catholic Academy), Yaaline Vigneswaran (Father Michael McGivney Catholic Academy), Darcie Watson-Green (Eastwood Collegiate Institute), and Mingzhi Xue (Milton District High School). Cheryl Yefon Jokwi with the award for best essay for her piece, “Give People a Chance.”

For more information on the 2024 colloquium, see UW English 2024 Writing in Colour Colloquium in our departmental blog.

The 2023 Writing in Colour Colloquium

The 2023 contest focused on the theme of displacement. Colloquium participants were Burlington Central High School student Noor Grewal, Aileen Jun from Lauren Heights Secondary, Garth Webb Secondary student Farah Khader, and Hyewon Lee and DeyJah Simon-Blair, both from Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute. Farah Khader's paper, "What Am I If Not Capable?" won first prize. 

For more information on the 2023 colloquium, see Writing in Colour Essay Contest and Colloquium in our departmental blog.

The 2022 Writing in Colour Colloquium

The 2022 contest focused on the topic of culture. Colloquium participants Alice Crosby, Diya Dugh, Shaian Harris, Aishwarya Puttur, and Dylan Verheyen visited a UWaterloo English class, participated in a writing workshop, and discussed their essays in the Writing in Colour colloquium. Shaian Harris's essay “I Love My Crown” won top prize.

For more information on the 2022 contest, see the Grade 11 Writing in Colour Colloquium post in our department's blog.