This summer, H3S is hosting a fun student competition! If you thought writing an abstract for the AGU Fall Meeting was hard, try to rewrite that abstract, or any of your work, using only the top ten hundred (1,000) most used words in the English language.Prizes for the top voted abstracts include a free AGU Fall Meeting registration or 2023 AGU membership!
You can use this dictionary to see what words you can use or this website to craft your submission (note that our rules are different from this website’s rules). The submissions will be judged using the following criteria: Conveys the research idea in a way that is scientifically sound, uses creative ways to get around difficult words, is engaging to a general audience, and conveys significance of the research.
Here are some specifics about the competition:
WHO: Open to any undergraduate or graduate student in a hydrology related discipline
WHAT: Describe your research and its importance using the ten hundred most common words
WHEN: All submissions are due September 1. Winners will be announced in early September
WHERE: You can find the submission form here.
WHY: Because it is fun and there are prizes. 1st Place: Free AGU Fall Meeting registration, 2nd and 3rd Place: Free AGU Membership for next year
HOW: Use this dictionary or website to make sure you used only the top ten hundred words (you may not use Mr. or Ms. in front of a word that is not in the list) and please follow AGU abstract guidelines: 300 characters for the title, and 2000 characters for abstract. If you want to share on social media please use the hashtag #H3SSummerContest. We would love to see you tweet your title!
Here is an abstract from last year’s contest!
Putting back good green things into the wet lands of a sick water body to make it better.
Wet lands are important to people and animals, yet over half the wet land area in the world has been lost. Wet lands give food and homes to animals and help clean water bodies. Water bodies are important to people who like to play in them, look at them, and eat things from them. Building these wet lands again is important for humans and animals of today and the humans and animals of tomorrow. Good green things that are from the near by wet lands are the best to use to make the wet lands better. These good green things give food and homes to animals. They clean the water bodies. Bad green things grow very quickly, are strong, and have taken over the wet lands. Bad green things do not give food or homes to animals. They do not clean the water bodies. These bad green things are not from the near by wet lands and must be stopped. There are ways to bring the good green things into the land so they beat the bad green things. These ways are new, and if used well will help the good green things and the wet lands. These are the three top ways to beat the bad green things: picking the best near by good green things for the wet lands, using a lot of tiny babies from the good green things at once, and putting bigger babies from the same good green things really close to each other while they grow. Doing those three things can help make a sick water body and sick wet land better.
