Jackie Gauntlett L'19 and Megan Reilly-Dreas L'21 were recognized for their entries in the 2020 Multimodal Writing Competition hosted by the university's Center for Writing Excellence.
Two Elon Law students were among those recognized this spring in a writing contest that showcases the many ways Elon University students communicate across a media spectrum.
Twenty-two students overall were honored in the third annual Multimodal Writing Competition sponsored by the Center for Writing Excellence.
Elon Law’s honorees and their entry titles:
- Jackie Gauntlett L’19 (Winner, School of Law category) for “Subject Matter Jurisdiction Flowchart”
- Megan Reilly-Dreas L’21 (Runner-up, School of Law category) for “Torts Study Session”
Gauntlett graduated from Elon Law in December and recently passed the North Carolina Bar Exam. She earned her undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University and is in the process of completing her MBA from Elon University’s Martha and Spencer Love School of Business.
“I entered a subject matter jurisdiction flowchart that I created as part of the studying I did for a Civil Procedure class,” Gauntlett said. “It was actually a part of a series of flowcharts I did to aid in my studies. When I saw the contest, I figured I would give it a shot since my flowcharts contain graphs, grids, and pictures helpful for studying. Finding out I won was a lovely surprise!”
For her entry, Reilly-Dreas, a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, entered written hypotheticals and a link to an episode of a podcast she produces with a friend from another law school.
“Being a first-generation law student with a degree in literature and a resume full of persuasive writing roles, shifting gears to writing and learning in a rule-based legal setting was incredibly hard,” Reilly-Dreas said. “The multimodal writing competition offered me an opportunity to apply skills from my pre-law life in a creative way with Tort Law as my muse. I hoped that my podcast about studying for Torts would help other law students review while making the content accessible to anybody who, like me one year ago, thought Torts were just a kind of pastry treat and not an entire canon of law.”
Professor Sue Liemer, director of Elon Law’s Legal Method and Communication Program, praised the students for their entries and noted the importance of writing clearly and concisely in any number of media and genres.
“I’m pleased that this competition recognizes the many skills our law students are developing in multimodal writing,” Liemer said. “Their generation will be entering law practice at a time when there will be more demand than ever for a full range of professional communication skills, including the ability to integrate text with spoken words, images, and other non-verbals—across many media and platforms.”
About the Center for Writing Excellence
Elon’s Center for Writing Excellence, which integrates the Writing Center and Writing Across the University programs, serves as the unified source of support, collaboration, and inspiration for all writing-related activities on campus. Located on the first floor of Belk Library, the Center for Writing Excellence is both a physical hub and a symbol of Elon’s commitment to the centrality of writing to academic, professional, and civic success.