Students enrolled in Miller County schools recently participated in the 2010 Young Georgia Authors Writing Competition sponsored by Georgia Department of Education.

During the judging process, grade-level teams reviewed all the entries and selected the best three for review by the judges.

Then a team of judges ranked the three entries, choosing the winner for each grade. Every student was given the opportunity to submit a selection, but there could be only one entry from each grade submitted to the state DOE for consideration.

Various types of writing were submitted including short stories, poetry, essays, journals, personal narratives, and reports. Students’ selections were graded on several areas: Ideas, 40% (including Depth of Development, Sense of Completion, Focus, and Relevance of Detail); Style, 20%; Organization, 20%; and Conventions, 20%. The following is a list of the winners from Miller County Elementary School:

Kindergarten – first, Summer Murkerson, second, Cleve Cofty, third, Chloe Ard; First Grade, first, Luv Patel, second, Hailey Butler, third, Cain Morse; Second Grade, first, Mackenzie Pickle, second, Madison Roland, third, Genesi Martinez; Third Grade, first Macee Palmer, second, Hayle Brown, third, Aubrey Gaughan; Fourth Grade, first Kayla Smith, second, Qiang Wang, third, Victoria Fleet; and Fifth Grade, first, Bailey Wiggins, second Hudson Givens, third, Nathan Weeks.

Miller County High School

Ninth Grade – first, Amber Lovering, second, Alea Worsley, third, Alea Worsley; 10th Grade, first, Sabrina Jean Granade, second, Daniel Allen, third, Raquel L. Stewart; 11th Grade, first, Christina K. Gibson, second, Caleb Cunningham, third, Jonathan Sheffield; 12th Grade, first, Kelsey Grimes.

Dawn Shepard organized the local contest for grades K-5, Miller County Elementary School, and Leigh Ann Walton organized the contest for grades 9-12, Miller County High School. Teachers from each grade level encouraged students to participate and submitted the selections for consideration.