The STC CWC chapter does not hold a documentation competition every year, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance to have your work evaluated by professionals in our field. Each year there are many chapters throughout the STC International organization that hold competitions, and usually anyone can enter, including members from other chapters and non-members.
There’s a lot of info on the STC International site about competitions.
Here is a list of chapters who are accepting entries in the technical communications competition this year:
http://www.stc.org/comp/competitionPubs01.asp
These chapters are holding competitions for online communications:
http://www.stc.org/comp/competitionOnline01.asp
There are also newletter and public relations competitions.
Chapters can set their own guidelines and procedures for entering, but this page on the international site has forms and files that most chapters use:
http://www.stc.org/comp/internationalCompetitions01_forms.asp
Our web site has some info about the 2006-7 competition the STC CWC held, including list of judges from previous years:
http://www.stcwestcoast.ca/index.php/cwcstcvolunteerkb/Competition/
FAQs
What about copyright? You must get clearance from the copyright holder to enter work in the competition. I wanted to enter a newsletter one year and was unable to get permission from the copyright holder.
Do you only accept published work? Check the guidelines of the particular competition. Usually they are more concerned with the date the work was completed. Often technical communications are published to end users, but not to the world at large.
Are there categories like user guides, installation guide? Yes. There are many categories, and each competition decides which types of entries to accept.
Who are the judges? The judges are usually local technical writers of some experience. Sometimes chapters trade and judge each other’s entries, in which case the judges wouldn’t be local.
Since the STC CWC is not holding a competition for 2008-2009, I encourage those interested to enter competitions from other chapters, and report back here on how it went!
