STC Washington DC Chapter Competitions Entry Rules

Society for Technical Communication

Washington, DC Chapter

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Details about the 2008-2009 competitions will be completed by mid August

For more information, contact the Competitions Manager, Lina Scorza, by e-mail at

Chapter Competitions Entry rules

Entries in all categories must:

Contain sufficient technical, scientific, medical, or similar content to qualify as technical communication
Have been produced or substantially revised within 24 months preceding 1 September 2008
Have been originally prepared for and accepted for publication by a client, employer, or publisher (except for student entries)

Student entries that do not meet the publications requirement will be accepted. That is, the entries have not been prepared for and accepted for publication by a client, employer, or publisher. Students can gain much from professional evaluation of their work. Student entries will be judged in our local competitions but they cannot advance to the international competition. Entries that do not meet the publication acceptance requirement cannot be entered in the international competitions.

The competition organizers reserve the right to reject any entry for any reason and refund the entry fee.

Entries must be suitable for public display. Entries that contain classified or proprietary information or that violate copyright laws are not acceptable. It is the responsibility of the submitter, and not of STC, to determine that entries do not contain classified or proprietary information and that the holder of all copyrights has granted permission for the entry's submission. Neither STC nor anyone associated with the competitions can be held responsible for loss of or damage to an entry.

Materials prepared for STC purposes are not eligible for entry in the competition. Examples of these materials include STC Publications books; articles for Intercom, Tieline, and Technical Communication; and chapter and special interest group (SIG) Web sites, brochures, and newsletters. Chapter and SIG publicity materials are entered in the STC public relations competition. Chapter and SIG newsletters are entered in the STC newsletter competition.

All entries are judged in English. Multilingual entries are acceptable, but one of the languages must be English. Currently, all entries in the international competitions are judged in English.

An entry must not have been entered in a previous STC competition and may be entered only within a single suite of local competitions.

For example, if an entry is made to the Boston/Northern New England communities competitions, that same entry cannot be entered in the South Carolina competitions. However, within local competitions entries can be entered in multiple competitions. For example, a marketing brochure for an application could be entered in the local technical publications competition and an online demonstration of the application could be entered in the local online communication competition, if it is held also. If this is done, the entrant must submit an entry fee, four copies of the entry, and forms for each category entered. (Using the example above, the entrant would submit separate forms for both the technical publications competition and the online communication competition, pay two entry fees, and supply a total of eight copies of the entry—four with each of the two entries.)

Note: Duplicate entries are disqualified.

A single entry may be entered in only one category within a competition. For example:

A piece of technical art may not be entered into both the packaging design and the promotional materials design categories of the technical art competition.
Marketing materials may not be entered into both the technical marketing and the reference material categories of the online communication competition.

Note: Duplicate entries are disqualified.

Within a single category, only one entry from the same contributors and from the same parent organization may be submitted, except when the entries are on significantly different topics. Entries that substantially duplicate other entries are not eligible. This rule does not necessarily eliminate online communication entries about the same product or topic on different hardware platforms.

The submitter (often a superior in the contributors' organization) must certify that the entry represents the actual work of the contributors named on the entry form and that the entry has been cleared for submission. The submitter must also certify that the copyright holder permits the submission of the entry.

Note: The submitter receives all official correspondence regarding the entry. The submitter is responsible for all communication with the contributors about the entry, correct spelling of contributor's names and entry titles, and for distributing any awards.

Note: The submitter does not receive a certificate if an entry wins an award unless the submitter is also a contributor and is listed as one of the three contributors on the entry form. Extra certificates for additional contributors, clients, or corporate copies may be ordered if your entry wins a chapter-level award. An order form will be included with the award announcement letter.

Note: Use the Additional Contributors form (10 K zipped .rtf file zipped file ) provided for the WDC competitions to list additional names or organizations that you want included in the chapter-level awards banquet booklet. The contributors' names should be as you want them to appear in the awards banquet booklet.

Notes for online entries in either the Online Communication or Technical Art competitions:

The platform (such as Web, Windows, or Macintosh) is not a consideration in determining the category.
Entries that run on other platforms or require special equipment will be accepted, as long as the entrants provide such specialized hardware or software to the judging location at their own expense.
If the entry is provided on a 3.5" diskette, CD, or DVD, specify the format (PC or Mac) on both the submission form and the diskette itself.
If you send compressed files, they must be self-extracting.
An entry on the Web is judged as it exists on the day of judging.
Demonstration of the entry to the judges is forbidden.
Entries must install correctly, be virus-free, and not take an unreasonable amount of time to install.
If the entry uses any software other than Firefox 2.0, Adobe Reader 7.0, or Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, you must also provide three copies of the software with the entry.

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