At the Mid-East Honors Association conference, papers are presented as part of a three- or four- person panel session that lasts 50 minutes. Each student presentation should be 10-12 minutes long to ensure everyone is heard and time is left for questions and answers. A moderator will be assigned to introduce the speakers, manage time and facilitate those questions. Reading papers straight from the page is discouraged. Instead, summarize the material from your paper and highlight key points. To make the strongest impact, plan and rehearse and plan your presentation. Typically one page of double-spaced written text takes about two minutes to read, so a paper of 5-6 pages maximum is an appropriate length. All rooms have computers and projectors allowing for audiovisual display. If you opt to use audiovisual accompaniment to your presentation, be sure to bring a loaded onto a flash drive and have a backup file. Email yourself the file and/or upload it to cloud storage in addition to your backup file. 

Creative writing presentations: Students may submit poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction in order to participate in a session devoted to creative writing readings. Follow the guidelines above for fiction and creative non-fiction submissions. Poets should submit no more than six to eight poems. Time limit for each reading: 10-12 minutes.

Round tables and workshops are more interactive than either of the other two formats.

Round tables should have 3-5 students prepared to discuss a topic with the audience. In a typical session, each member of the round table gives a brief (5 min or less) introduction, and the rest of the session is open for discussion.

Workshops ought to be hands-on experiences.

We welcome students who are doing oral presentations to submit their papers to the student paper competition. Student paper submissions should be emailed no later than March 1st to honors@mideasthonors.org

We anticipate receiving papers from a broad array of disciplines. As such, the paper’s length should adhere to the standards of an article in your discipline. Consult your faculty mentor or Honors director for guidance about discipline standards.

Papers should be double-spaced in 12 pt font.  The student’s name and college affiliation should  be on a separate page after the bibliographic information to allow for blind review.  Students should not post their name or college on any other page of the submission. Electronic files must be in doc, docx or pdf format.