The People Speak aims to bring thoughtful discussion and debate about foreign policy to people in their schools, churches, universities, clubs, homes, and civic organizations. From September 1 through November 30th, The People Speak events will feature thought-provoking discussions, from grass-roots meetings to expert-led panels, on the theme of Building a Safer World: Can the US and UN work together? Working together to answer questions about UN-US relations in four areas - the "Environment", "Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism", "War and Conflict", and "Poverty, Hunger and Health"- participants in The People Speak, both in the United States and elsewhere, will learn about some of the most pressing foreign policy issues of the 21st Century, all the while learning about each other.

Aspart of encouraging lively engagement with The People Speak themes,IDEA is issuing a call for essays, written by youth, which are relevantto these topics. All youth 24 years of age and under - whetheraffiliated with debate programs or not - are eligible to submitanalytical essays treating US-UN relations on any of the four ThePeople Speak themes. Essays can deal with overviews of these issues orwith specific topics within them, and must be a minimum of a 1,000words and can be as long as 10,000. In evaluation by the awards panel,preference will be shown to essays that show originality and insight,and that demonstrate research and the use of evidence. Sources shouldbe identified for reference by panelists and increase the credibilityof an essay's argument; a good guide on how to cite sources isavailable at http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/everyday_writer/docsource/4b.html.

All essays will be evaluated by an awards panel. The writer of one grand prize essay will receive 500$ US, and will have their essay published by IDEA. Up to ten additional awards of 250$ US each will be awarded to the writers of ten other winning essays. Winning contestants affiliated with any IDEA-recognized debate organizations will also have awards of 100$ made in their honor to their organization. An IDEA-affiliated Grand Prize winner will have 250$ donated to their organization.

To assist writers in getting initial ideas for possible essays, IDEA has created extensive online The People Speak resources. By going to www.thepeoplespeak.org, websurfers can access statistics, and links to further readings relevant to The People Speak topics. IDEA has also expanded its online Debatabase to include dozens of summaries of the key issues on all sides of contentious debates in the US-UN relationship.

Contestants must identify themselves and submit their essays online by logging into IDEA's Online Application System (OAS) at http://oas.idebate.org/idea.Contestants should create an individual account within OAS and selectthe 'TPS Essay Competition 2005' link in order to upload their essays.Questions regarding OAS or the TPS Essay Competition should be sent to TPSapps@idebate.org. Essays must be in English, and uploaded in either Microsoft Word, Rich Text, or OpenOffice text formats.

The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2005. Current employees of IDEA and their immediate families are not eligible for this contest. By submitting an essay, each contestant acknowledges and agrees that all essay entries become the sole and exclusive property of IDEA. Competition judges' decisions are final and non-appealable.

This year's The People Speak brings up fascinating and important issues, and by writing an essay in IDEA's competition, you can tackle them directly and have your voice heard! Good luck!

Reference:
http://www.idebate.org/thepeoplespeak/essay_comp.html