Some comments and instructions in this page are for audio browsers and users who browse this site with screen readers. If you can see this paragraph and you are not using a text-only or screen reader browser, either the style sheet for screen viewing didn't load (if so, click on "refresh" to reload the style sheet), or you need to use a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards-supporting browser that has full XHTML 1.0 Transitional and Strict and cascading style sheet (CSS) level 2 support. (For information about these browsers, see Standards-supporting browsers.) The Society for Technical Communication is a W3C member: http://www.w3.org/.
For additional information, see the Accessibility Design and Features page.

Pull browser window out or in to widen or shorten line length.
Information for Entrants
Deadline: 7 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday, 20 October 2008
• What Are the Fees Per Entry?
• What Methods of Payment Do You Accept?
• How Do I Pay the Fees?
• What Do I Get in Return?
The fees for the 2008-2009 WDC Chapter Competitions are
If you or any of the members of your team are a member of STC, you pay the STC member rate for your entries.
All fees are in U.S. funds.
The STC Washington, DC Chapter is a PayPal Verified account. You may use PayPal to make a secure online payment using your credit card, debit card, bank account, or by paying money from a funded PayPal account. For all STC WDC payments through PayPal, creating a PayPal account is not required to complete a purchase. Use the following instructions to make a secure online payment through PayPal.
Payments must be in U.S. funds. Enter the amount in U.S. funds. PayPal will accept payment in sixteen currencies and make the currency conversion for you from:
Purchase orders are not accepted. Submissions without payment will not be accepted or returned.
If you are paying by check, simply attach the check to the original copy of your entry form, include it in your entry package, and send it to the entries address given in the Deadlines and Delivery Instructions page.
Federal Tax ID for the STC Washington, DC Chapter: 54-6065028.
Federal Tax ID for the Society: 31-4424296.
Use the following instructions for paying through our PayPal page. Attach a copy of your PayPal receipt to your original entry form, include it in your entry package, and send it to the entries address given in the Deadlines and Delivery Instructions page. Note: You may combine fees for multiple entries into one PayPal payment.
If you would like to sign up for a free PayPal account, you may do so at the end of the checkout process. An account is recommended to speed you through the payment process for future payments to STC WDC. For more information about PayPal accounts, see the PayPal FAQ page.
Note: If someone else has signed up with PayPal on your computer, you may need to go through the PayPal home page's SIGN UP button to create your own account if your browser already has a PayPal cookie with the other user's information. Additional information about accounts is available from PayPal.
In return for the entry fees, you receive comprehensive written evaluations for each entry from at least two professional technical communicators, regardless of whether the entry won an award. You also have the opportunity to earn Merit, Excellence, or Distinguished Technical Communication (DTC) awards.
All Distinguished Technical Communication awards proceed on to the STC International competition in 2009 . The $100 entry fee and shipping of your entry to the International competition is paid by the WDC chapter. There is no additional charge to you for submitting your DTC entry to the International competition.
If your entry receives an award at the chapter level, then you receive up to three (3) free award certificates, one for each contributor for the entry. If you have more than three contributors, extra chapter-level certificates are available for purchase for
$15.00 USD
each. (Make sure you download and submit the
Additional Contributors form (10 K zipped .rtf file
)
with your entry.)
There are also free award emblems available in several file formats to identify your entry as award-winning. For details, see STC WDC Competition Award Emblems.
If your entry receives a chapter-level Best of Show (BOS), then each contributor (up to three) receives a free engraved memento in addition to an award certificate. If you have more than three contributors, extra BOS awards are available for purchase for
$70.00 USD each. (Make sure you download and submit the
Additional Contributors form (10 K zipped .rtf file
)
with your entry.)
All net proceeds for the WDC chapter-level competitions are donated to our Scholarships fund, which benefits students in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
Note: If your entry receives an international-level award, the Society office orders one plaque for each winning entry. Best of Show plaques are awarded at the annual conference. The plaques for international-level Distinguished Technical Communication, Excellence, and Merit are sent from the manufacturer to the submitters in mid-summer. Submitters may order additional plaques for each contributor, clients, or corporate copies at their own expense. An order form is included with the plaque.
STC Washington, DC Chapter