Literary Criticism is one of several academic events sanctioned by the

University Interscholastic League The University Interscholastic League (UIL) is an organization that creates rules for and administers almost all athletic, musical, and academic contests for public primary and secondary schools in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the largest organi ...

in the U.S. state of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. The contest began in the 1986–87 school year. Literary Criticism is designed to test students' knowledge of

literary history The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment, enlightenment, or instruction to the reader/listener/observer, as well as the development of the literary techniques ...

and of critical terms, and ability in

literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

. 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 Ninth grade, freshman year, or grade 9 is the ninth year of school education in some school systems. Ninth grade is often the first school year of high school in the United States, or the last year of middle/junior high school. In some countries ...

Grade 12 Twelfth grade, 12th grade, senior year, or grade 12 is the final year of secondary school in most of North America. In other regions, it may also be referred to as class 12 or Year 13. In most countries, students are usually between the ages of 17 ...

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 four 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. Part One consists of thirty questions involving the use of ''A Handbook to Literature''. Part Two consists of twenty questions involving the texts from the announced reading list. Part Three requires a contestant to answer fifteen 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. The essay is not scored but is used as a tiebreaker for individual competition. The contestant who does not write an essay is disqualified from the 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: *how well the contestant followed the instructions accompanying the questions; *the excellence of the literary insights expressed; *the effectiveness of the written expression; and *the grammatical correctness of the writing. 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: *Individual places: 1st–15, 2nd–12, 3rd–10, 4th–8, 5th–6, and 6th–4. *Team places: 1st–10 and 2nd–5. *The maximum number of points a school can earn in Literary Criticism is 37.

List of prior winners

Individual

NOTE: For privacy reasons, only the winning school is shown.UIL: Academics – Archives

Team

NOTE: UIL did not recognize a team championship in this event until the 1992–93 scholastic year. {, class="wikitable sortable" , - !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

External links

Official UIL Rules for Literary Criticism
1980s establishments in Texas Events in Texas University Interscholastic League