• New Official Rules
• Eligibility

1. Your essay must be written expressly for the Sleep Research Society 1999 Essay Awards Program.
2. Each essay must be accompanied by an individual entry form.
3. Proofread your essay for spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
4. Write a title for your essay.
5. Essays should contain a minimum of 700 words and no more than 1,000 words.
6. Type your manuscript, double spaced, clearly and neatly with black ribbon on one side of 8-1/2- x 11-inch white paper.  Margins should be at least one inch wide on all sides of the paper.  Make sure that the typewriter keys are clean and clear before typing your manuscript.  Use the same guidelines if you use a word processor.  Use standard type and white paper.  Do not illustrate your entry with pictures or diagrams.
7. Submit only original copies of your manuscript.  Carbon copies, photocopies, mimeographs, clippings from school newspapers, or other duplications are not acceptable.
8. Do not put your name or the name of your school on any page of your entry.
9. Fill out the entry blank completely.  Note that all information should be typed or printed except for two items:  your signature and your teacher's, under the statements confirming originality.
10. Staple the entry blank to the upper left corner of the entry.
11. Your entry should be sent in a single envelope or packaged together with all others being submitted by your teacher.
12. Manuscripts must be mailed flat (not rolled or folded).  Mark "FIRST CLASS MAIL" on the envelope or package.
13. Your entry cannot be returned and becomes the property of the Sleep Research Society.
14. All essays must be free of plagiarism (as normally defined AND as defined below):

ALL sources used must be cited in the text of the essay. Do not use footnotes or endnotes.

ALL word for word information written by someone else must have quotations ("") showing the quoted material, and the source must be cited.  Examples of sources include (but are not limited to):  1) Internet sites, 2) Encyclopedia's (electronic or hardbound)  3) books and 4) magazines.

ALL summaries from other sources must be in the students own words.  No summaries can be used if only synonyms or minor word structure changes are made.

Eligibility
 
Students in grades 9-12 regularly and currently enrolled in public and nonpublic schools may submit entries.  Students graduating from high school before 1999 are not eligible.