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Lake Brantley Sophomores Shine in Third Annual High School Tech Writing Competition

Lake Brantley sophomores dominated the 3d Annual Central Florida High School Technical Writing Competition, carrying off four of six awards presented at the year-end dinner of the sponsoring Orlando Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) at the Winter Park Civic Center.

The other award winners were from Lake Mary and Apopka high schools.

In all, four $100 Excellence awards and two $50 Merit awards were presented, along with plaques and certificates, respectively.

The Excellence awards went to Harvard-bound Lake Mary senior Alan Jamison, for his exceptionally scholarly essay, "Fractals: Unifying Structures in the Sciences"; to Apopka sophomore Dana Markiewicz, for her work "Food Poisoning: Cause and Prevention"; and to Lake Brantley's Dan Zychinski and Steven McGregor, for their respective entries "Lung Cancer: A Deadly Threat" and "The F-22 Raptor."

The Merit award winners, Leah Marke and Amanda Knowles from Lake Brantley, wrote on "The Hubble Space Telescope" and "Auroras: Nature's Light Show," respectively.

Leading the faculty advisors, with three award winners, was Dr. Sue Behel of Lake Brantley. The other faculty sponsors of award-winning entries were Karen Doddridge at Lake Brantley, Mark Schiffer at Lake Mary, and Kim Santana at Apopka. Doddridge also sponsored the only winning entry in the inaugural Central Florida competition in 1996.

The contest winners, their parents, and their faculty advisors were guests of the local STC chapter for the awards presentation and dinner, which was followed by a lively workshop on ethics in business and technical communication based on Lockheed Martin's "The Ethics Challenge" board game, featuring Dilbert™, Dogbert™, and entourage.

The four entries rated Excellent now move on to the 1998 STC International High School Technical Writing Competition. Last year, two of the three Central Florida entries in the international competition brought home further laurels.

"We are very pleased with the quality of this year's entries," said contest manager Linda Emerine of Xerox Corporation, which was a corporate patron of this year's competition. "We have provided a thorough critique to every entry to help students develop their talents in technical writing."