To recognize student achievement and to motivate students to improve their communication skills, the Program in Writing and Communication offers awards with cash prizes for the most outstanding expository and analytical essays each academic year. Congratulations to our winners!

Filippo De Angelis, First Place, Best Expository and Analytical Essay

"The Second Death: Quantum Mechanics, Laplace’s Demon, and the Nihilistic Void" read essay

FWIS 211 – The Meaning and Impact of Quantum Mechanics

Filippo De Angelis is a Chemical Engineering and RCEL student from Sid Richardson College. Originally from Rome, Italy, he explored the fundamental principles and philosophical implications of quantum mechanics in FWIS 211. Building on this foundation, he connected his interest in Nietzsche’s nihilistic philosophy with some of the most avant-garde interpretations of the modern scientific world in this essay.

Leela Weisser, Second Place, Best Expository and Analytical Essay

“Reconstructing Representation: Reduction, Technology, and Artistic Agency in Luncheon on the Grass” read essay

FWIS 103 – Writing About the Arts

Leela Weisser is a native of Austin Texas and Martel College. In her essay, "Luncheon on the Grass," she explores the connective tissue of art historical theory, tracing how the formal strategies pioneered in the Impressionist era resurface, transforming movements as far-flung as Pop Art. Through the process of writing, she came to see art history less as a sequence of discrete periods and more as a continuous conversation, in which each generation's visual theory reworks the inheritance of the one before it.

Rohan Santosh, Third Place, Best Expository and Analytical Essay

"A Vindication of the Stance to Prohibit GenAI in Education" read essay

FWIS 125 – Writing with AI

Rohan Santosh is from Ashburn, Virginia, and is a member of Baker College. In writing this essay, Rohan developed a deeper appreciation for the writing process as an intrinsic good rather than merely a teleological means to an end. The assignment also prompted Rohan to reconsider the value of the mundane and seemingly insignificant forms of intellectual labor that education demands, whether in writing, mathematics, or other disciplines. In an age of AI, it is tempting to assume that anything that can be automated should be, freeing us to pursue supposedly more meaningful work. However, Rohan’s FWIS course required him to complete tasks both with and without AI, allowing him to test that assumption through firsthand experience. The process showed him that the “mundane” work of education is not merely a means to an outcome, but often where the learning itself takes place.