OEHS English Students Encouraged to Take Their Writing to the Next Level

From the beginning of freshman year to the final year of high school, students find themselves writing essay after essay about The Body, Brave New World, The Shining, and countless other influential novels in history that are assigned in English-based classes.

English teachers throughout the school continually encourage students to delve into other forms of writing other than the commonly known MLA formatted essay. Timothy Ochoa and Patrick Sweeney, English teachers at , have taken on the positions of getting students of all grade levels to participate in the yearly Southwest Prairie Conference Literary Festival, held in April.

This allows high school students to write from their personal experiences, imagination and about any emotion they may be feeling.

“Mr. Sweeney and I encourage students to submit their work into the Literary Festival by advertising on our morning news, putting up posters around the school, and in my Creative Writing class, I require my students to turn in two pieces of their work,” Ochoa said.

Students who have or are taking the Creative Writing class enjoy the writing topics, as well as the chance to submit their work into the competition.

“I wanted to submit my work because it gave me the opportunity to get my pieces of work out in the public as well as the opportunity to be critiqued by professional writers,” senior Rachael Nielson said.

 The Literary Festival has brought on so many opportunities for students who enter the Southwest Prairie Conference.

“It is a chance for students to get published, meet new people at other schools, talk to professional authors for writing advice, as well as a point to add onto their college applications or resumes,” Ochoa said.

Entering into these sorts of contests allows students to gain the confidence to share their stories.

“For me, I used to think my writing could [not] get anywhere. Then, ever since I won, I was like ‘wow, I should put my stuff out there more.’ It definitely makes me put my heart 100 percent into everything I write,” senior John Tran said.

Tran won last year’s poetry contest in the Literary Festival with his poem called Rusty Weathervane.

Both Ochoa and Sweeney are feeling the adrenaline going as the calendar counts down to April.

“The anticipation is killing me. The entries have grown since last year and I believe they will increase as we continue to share the success of past Oswego East student winners,” Sweeney said.

The Literary Festival is set for Thursday, April 14, at Plainfield South High School.

Stephanie Synder is a senior at OEHS. Her stories from the school will appear on Oswego Patch through the end of the school year.