Dust off your best – it's competition time
by Ed Hansen and Anne Halsey
The leaves are turning, the days are bright and crisp and cool, and the kids (or you!) are
back in school. So it's time to turn your thoughts to STC RMC's 28th annual competition.
This reprise of STC RMC's annual event features competitions in all three categories:
art, online, and publications. Submissions for all three competitions are due Friday,
October 25, 2002.
Submit what ... and why?
Have you created that perfect line drawing or exploded diagram? Written the help system by which all future help systems will be judged? Created the cleanest, most
accurate software install procedure known to the thinking world? Or maybe you want someone to evaluate your work, tell you what's grand about it, and make suggestions for future endeavors?
All valid reasons to submit an entry to the STC RMC Art, Online, and Publications Competition.
There are actually two common motivations to enter an STC competition - one obvious, and one not-quite-so:
- You've done something you're proud of and want to share (and wouldn't mind getting the recognition of your profession and your
peers)
- You want a professional evaluation of your efforts to support your own attempts
to make improvements and enhance your users' experience
And the categories are ...
STC International supports three categories of competitions: art, online, and publications.
- The art competition accepts both physical media and online entries in 16 categories, including two types of mechanical illustration, two types of interpretive illustration, photos, and 11 types of design.
Visit
http://www.stcrmc.org/competitions_2002_2003/artcat.htm for details.
- The online competitions accepts a total of 32 entries in seven categories: help, demos, technical marketing, tutorials/training, books, reference materials, and user support tools. Visit
http://www.stcrmc.org/competitions_2002_2003/oncat.htm for details.
- The publication competition accepts only physical media and features 18 categories, including promotional and informational materials, organizational manuals, training materials, annual reports, magazines, newsletters, scholarly/professional journals, books, documentation sets, articles (trade/news and scholarly/professional) and guides (quick reference, software, software/hardware combo, computer hardware, and non-computer reference).
Visit http://www.stcrmc.org/competitions_2002_2003/pubcat.htm for details.
Who determines what "good" is?
STC International provides chapters with very specific judging criteria for each of the three competition categories. This helps ensure consistent evaluation of all entries in a specific category. Want a sneak-peek at the judging criteria? It's yours for the asking - just visit
International's judging forms page at http://www.stc.org/judging_forms.asp. Download the form for an individual category in .pdf format, or a ZIPfile containing the forms for all categories in a competition (art, online, publications). Find more information on the STC RMC website
Time's running out to get those entries in - did we mention the deadline is
October 25, 2002? Visit the competitions pages of the STC RMC website to get complete submission information. See:
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