The English Team at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) offers the Award for Excellence in Expository Writing every semester. Submissions must be non-fiction work written for an English course at IMSA during the current semester or in the last three weeks of the prior semester.

All entries are submitted without identifying information such as student name and teacher; the anonymous papers are then read and evaluated by a rotating panel of three judges composed of English Department faculty. Judges select a winning paper for each class, sophomore through senior, and often select an Honorable Mention in each category, as well.