Power of the Pen

Power of the Pen is an interscholastic writing league founded by Lorraine B. Merrill in 1986. It is a non-profit creative writing program for students in grades seven and eight in the U.S. state of Ohio.

Power of the Pen is exclusive to the state of Ohio, having no competition at a national level. Over 80 school districts compete, each starting off with teams of twelve students, six from each grade. A writing coach is penalized if this number is not met..

In most schools, students who want to join the Power of the Pen team participate in one or more tryout sessions, in which they are given a that they must base an essay or short story within 40 minutes. After the allotted time, each story is given to the coach, who evaluates the writing and chooses students who they think are best for the team based on their writing skills.

The teams compete in three different tournaments: a District, Regional, and State tournament. Based on where their schools are located, teams will participate in separate District and Regional tournaments throughout the state. As the team progresses, more and more members may be eliminated based on their scores in the previous tournament's submissions.

During a tournament, each Power of the Pen member receives a four-digit number, which they are to use as identification instead of their names to prevent potentially biased judging. The first two digits are letters, remaining consistent throughout the school's team. The third digit is specific to the student's grade (7 for 7th grade, 8 for 8th grade), and the final digit is based on the alphabetical order of students from that school/grade.

Each round consists of one prompt. Neither the writers nor the judges know what that round's prompt is going to be, and it is very rare for the writer to have ever even seen it before during practice sessions at school. As soon as the prompt is written down in a place for all in the room to see, the writer has 40 minutes (with the exception of States, which provides only 45 or 30 minutes) to write a narrative that has relevance to or includes the prompt. Some team coaches encourage writers to set aside about 5 minutes to think up a rough outline of the beginning, middle, and end. The details are filled in and improvised as the student writes. Finished copies are turned into the judge(s).

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