Useless-Knowledge 500-Word Essay Contest

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Useless-Knowledge 500-Word Essay Contest - UPDATE

By The U-K Editor
Apr. 22, 2007

(See update below)

Winner's Prize:A Dazzling Marquee for two months (see the example on top of the Columnist List. Clicking on the Author's Marquee will display his or her winning entry).

Honorable Mention: A Useless-Knowledge T-Shirt.

To enter the contest, send an email containing only your Columnist Name and the Subject "U-K Essay Contest Competitor" to uksubmissions@yahoo.com. The email address employed is important, and cannot change once the contest has begun. Each competitor will have a "blind" role in judging the contributed essays, although the final decision will be delivered, and justified in a written article, by the U-K Editorial Staff.

The topic will be announced on May 1, with submissions ending on Sunday, May 20. The winner will be announced on Friday, June 1, 2007.

Only original works will be accepted, and every entry must be accompanied by the identifying email explained above. Each competitor, with a unique email address, is limited to one entry maximum. New authors must publish at least one article to the U-K main page before submitting a contest entry.

More details this week.

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Update: April 27:

The essays will be judged on a 6-point scale: 2 possible points for English Language Conventions, plus a possible 4 points for Content, Organization, and Style. One component of each essay's score will be generated by the contestants themselves, in a blind fashion.

The competing essays will be posted in a special box on the U-K Main Page, as they are submitted, during the month of May. Around mid-May, an email will be broadcast to all participants at that point, requesting a score be submitted for each candidate essay, along with any critique or justification, if desired. Selections and quotes from accurate critiques and comments may be published at the contest's end, in support of the final decision, at the Editor's discretion.

Incorporating the blind contestant scores with his own, the U-K Editor will then generate a composite score for each essay, as well as a critique, which will be published on the U-K main page, in a special feature. A special thread will also be started in the Rebuttal Section during the contest in May, containing popularity polls for each essay, and comments will be encouraged.

It is the aim of Useless-Knowledge to pick a consensus winner with a superior essay, and any obvious insincere or partisan voting will be discarded. The winner of the 500-Word Essay Contest will represent the absolute best U-K has to offer, and the decision will be fully justified.

The Conventions Scoring Guide is included below, and will be applied as consistently as possible. The 4-point score for Content, Organization, and Style (COS), however, is left to each contestant's own understanding of what defines quality in a written essay. Minus the distractions of grammar, usage, punctuation, word choice, or sentence formation, each contestant - and the U-K Editor -- will decide if the essay has "what it takes" to be the winner, and give it a score of 1 to 4 points.

A Final Round of Scoring will break any ties, and details will be announced if necessary.

The contest begins May 1 with the announcement of the topic, and contest entries will be accepted until May 20. Please refer to the original contest announcement (above) for details on how to enter.

Conventions Scoring Guide

Score=2

Consistently follows the rules of Standard English for grammar and usage
Consistently follows the rules of Standard English for spelling of commonly used words
Consistently follows the rules of Standard English for capitalization
Consistently follows the rules of Standard English for punctuation
exhibits the use of complete sentences except where purposeful fragments are used for effect.
Indicates paragraphs consistently

Score=1

generally follows the rules of Standard English for grammar and usage
generally follows the rules of Standard English for spelling of commonly used words
generally follows the rules of Standard English for capitalization
generally follows the rules of Standard English for punctuation
generally exhibits the use of complete sentences except where purposeful fragments are used for effect.
Indicates paragraphs for the most part

Score=0

mostly does not follows the rules of Standard English for grammar and usage
mostly does not follows the rules of Standard English for spelling of commonly used words
mostly does not follows the rules of Standard English for capitalization
mostly does not follows the rules of Standard English for punctuation
exhibits errors in sentence structure that impede communication
mostly does not indicates paragraphs

ES

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Email: uksubmissions@yahoo.com

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