Literary Criticism (UIL)

Literary Criticism is one of several academic events sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League in Texas, USA. The contest began in the 1986–87 school year.

Literary Criticism is designed to test students' knowledge of literary history and of critical terms, and ability in literary criticism. The text A Handbook to Literature by William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman (currently, either the 8th, 9th, or 10th edition may be used), state adopted texts, and the announced reading list for the current year will be used as sources for the tests.

Eligibility

Students in Grade 9 to Grade 12 are eligible to enter. All grades compete in one division.

Each school may send up to four students. However, in districts with more than eight schools the district executive committee can limit participation to three students per school. In order for a school to participate in team competition, the school must send at least three students.

Rules and scoring

The test consists of three parts, which must be completed in 90 minutes. A time signal is given when 15 minutes remain.

The questions may be answered in any order. There is no penalty for skipping questions.

Part One consists of questions involving the use of A Handbook to Literature. Part Two consists of questions involving the texts from the announced reading list. Part Three requires a contestant to answer critical questions about various poems or literary excerpts. Finally, the contestant must write a short essay dealing with a specified topic about a short literary passage.

One point is given for each correct answer in Part One and two points for each correct answer in Parts Two and Three. No points are deducted for wrong or unanswered problems. The essay is not scored but is used as a tiebreaker for individual competition.

Determining the winner

The top three individuals and the top team (based on the scores of the top three individuals) will advance to the next round. In addition, within each region, the highest-scoring second place team from all district competitions advances as the "wild card" to the regional competition (provided the team has four members) and, within the state, the highest-scoring second place team from all regional competitions advances as the wild card to the state competition. Members of advancing teams who were not placed individually remain eligible to compete for individual awards at higher levels.

For individual competition, the tiebreaker is the essay. Three judges (none of whom shall be the student's coach) evaluate the essay based on the following criteria:

For team competition, the score of the fourth-place individual is used as the tiebreaker (not including the essay). If a team has only three members it is not eligible to participate in the tiebreaker. If the fourth-place score still results in a tie, the individual tiebreaker rules will not apply, and all remaining tied teams will advance. At the state level ties for first place are not broken.

For district meet academic championship and district meet sweepstakes awards, points are awarded to the school as follows:

List of prior winners

Individual

NOTE: For privacy reasons, only the winning school is shown.[1]

School Year Class A Class AA Class AAA Class AAAA Class AAAAA
1987–88 Yantis Blanco Atlanta Schertz Clemens San Antonio Marshall
1988–89 Happy Blanco Bishop College Station A&M Consolidated Corpus Christi Carroll
1989–90 Skidmore-Tynan Blanco Sealy Schertz Clemens Wichita Falls Rider
1990–91 Louise Lytle Dimmitt Schertz Clemens Sugar Land Kempner
1991–92 Anton Clarendon Burnet Austin Travis Odessa Permian
1992–93 Anton Wheeler Kaufman Friendswood Clear Brook McAllen
1993–94 Utopia Lytle Stafford Longview Pine Tree Weatherford
1994–95 Martin's Mill Wallis Brazos Alpine Uvalde San Antonio Clark
1995–96 Lindsay Henrietta Mont Belvieu Barbers Hill Bridge City North Garland
1996–97 Martin's Mill Canadian Lytle Grapevine Klein
1997–98 Martin's Mill Buffalo Mont Belvieu Barbers Hill Stephenville San Antonio Clark
1998–99 Wheeler Van Alstyne Atlanta Friendswood San Antonio Clark
1999-2000 Valley View Lindsay Atlanta Brenham San Antonio Clark
2000–01 Menard Weimar Mont Belvieu Barbers Hill Mission Sharyland Klein
2001–02 Santa Anna Hale Center Lytle Friendswood Corpus Christi Moody
2002–03 Martin's Mill Hale Center Lytle Dripping Springs Del Rio
2003–04 Martin's Mill S&S Consolidated Canton Dickinson Arlington Lamar
2004–05 Lindsay Salado Liberty Aledo South Texas Business, Education, and Technical
2005–06 Quanah Salado Kemp Dayton Austin Westlake
2006–07 Martin's Mill Weimar Atlanta Stephenville Flower Mound
2007–08 Frost Weimar Iowa Park Lindale Cedar Park
2008–09 Winters Dimmitt Liberty Lindale Southlake Carroll
2011–12 Katy Seven Lakes

Team

NOTE: UIL did not recognize a team championship in this event until the 1992–93 scholastic year.[1]

School Year Class A Class AA Class AAA Class AAAA Class AAAAA
1992–93 Anton (tie) Krum/Wheeler Stafford Friendswood Clear Brook Odessa Permian
1993–94 Utopia (tie) Krum/Lytle Atlanta Longview Pine Tree Grapevine
1994–95 Lindsay Skidmore-Tynan Stafford Denison Sugar Land Elkins
1995–96 Lindsay Henrietta Eastland Bridge City Plano East
1996–97 Wheeler Lindsay Henrietta Grapevine San Antonio Clark
1997–98 Martin's Mill Salado Atlanta Bridge City San Antonio Clark
1998–99 Wheeler Idalou Atlanta Borger Plano East
1999–2000 Martin's Mill Salado Atlanta Grapevine Midland Lee
2000–01 Menard Hale Center Atlanta Snyder Abilene
2001–02 Lindsay Idalou Atlanta Friendswood Plano East
2002–03 Lindsay S&S Consolidated Lytle Stephenville San Antonio Clark
2003–04 Martin's Mill Weimar Abilene Wylie Friendswood San Antonio Clark
2004–05 Martin's Mill Salado Liberty Aledo Irving MacArthur
2005–06 Quanah S&S Consolidated Mont Belvieu Barbers Hill Aledo Austin Westlake
2006–07 Martin's Mill (tie) S&S Consolidated/Weimar Liberty Friendswood Keller
2007–08 Martin's Mill S&S Consolidated Atlanta Friendswood Southlake Carroll
2008–09 Martin's Mill Weimar Liberty Aledo Flower Mound
2011–12 Katy Seven Lakes

References

  1. 1 2 UIL: Academics - Archives Archived 2011-07-05 at the Wayback Machine.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.