(posted on May 28, 2010)

Two Horry County Schools’ students were among 70 fifth-graders and 68 eighth-graders to be honored as this year’s district winners in the State Superintendent’s Writing Award program. Joanna Marcum of Green Sea Floyds Elementary School was the District fifth grade winner while Annamarie Guest of Forestbrook Middle School won among District eighth graders.

The purpose of the program is to support the teaching of South Carolina’s academic standards and to provide fifth- and eighth-grade students with opportunities to express themselves through the writing process. District winners were selected from class and school winners by a panel of readers. The 2009-10 writing assignments focused on the topic of environmental issues, examining the complexities of protecting the environment and economic issues.

Essays were judged on their content and development, organization, vocabulary and phrasing, and on the writer’s command of grammar, capitalization, punctuation and spelling. District winners received a plaque at a recent awards ceremony held at Brookland Conference Center.