Entry Form For Judges: Fill & Download for Free

Directly Answer The QuestionAddress Your MistakesShow That You Are Well RoundedAdd A Personal TouchLast But Definitely Not Least, ProofreadTip 1. Always adhere to traditional standards of correctnessTip 2. If it says Literature contest, that’s what it means.Tip 3. If it says Writing competition, well written popular fiction is what will win.Tip 4. If it states a particular theme in the rules, then that theme must be intrinsic to your story.Tip 5. Whatever kind of work you are writing, title is everything.Tip 6. Use your delete key.Tip 7. Short stories work best from a single point of view.Tip 8. Does your entry use the right tenseTip 9. Strive for active rather than passive voice.Tip 10. Do not use real people for your characters.Tip 11. Do not use exclamation marks except possibly for a single word exclamation such as “Ouch!”Tip 12. Beware of clichés.Tip 13 Use strong verbs rather than adverbs.Tip 14 . Try to write something DIFFERENT.Tip 15. If you know who the judge will be, read his work; try to read the entries of previous winners.Tip 16. Use the entry form for all your details.Tip 17. Font: Use 12 point Times New Roman or Arial unless the rules ask for something else.Tip 18. Some contests give you a choice between paper or online entry.Tip 19. Please do not decorate your manuscript or add that nice picture of your pet dog or the photo of yourself.Tip 20. Proofread, proofread and do it again.

More than that. I was entered into a contest without my knowledge or consent, threatened with expulsion, and nearly fined. Walk with me on this dark trip through the Pan Handle's Education System.In fifth or sixth grade, possibly seventh, I was pretty well known for my ability with the written word. I always did well on essays, I could knock out a two page essay with a pencil before any of my classmates were finished with the first paragraph, put me at a keyboard and watch that double. My teachers told me the only problem I had was that I didn't site quotes. Which I didn't use to begin with, I read the articles we were to reference, and phrased the information so that I wasn't quoting anyone, a simple Google search would yield the same information. Counting line and page numbers slowed me down too much and hurt my head. Loophole, if I'm not quoting, I don't have to cite my sources.A writing contest was coming up, and my Language Arts teacher was convinced that, not only did I plan on entering, but I was sure to win the school and district levels, possibly even state. She was wrong on all accounts. I was trying to write a book, if the world wanted to see what I could do when I wanted to tell a good story, they could wait. Ms. LA (Language Arts) begged me to enter the contest. 'You can ace this contest, Jon!' Maybe, but I didn't want to be in the competition. I don't do competitions I have to go out of my way to do. AR points? I already read a couple novels a week, I can knock out twenty questions in a few minutes between classes, done. Book Bowl, where I have to read specific children's books and attend late night events? Kiss the deepest, darkest part of my lily white ass, I've got other stuff to do.'Jon, you have to enter this contest!' Why? Why do I want to enter this contest? 'There's a cash prize, 200 dollars!' And why are you so concerned with whether I pocket a couple Benjamin's?It basically boiled down to Ms. LA had convinced herself that I would enter, so I simply couldn't refuse. The stupidity of that sentence is painful. Let me tell you a little sumptin' sumptin' about my family. The Wimberleys are a mix of all the most stubborn and angry peoples on earth. Irish, Scottish, Apache, Norse, probably a donkey, you name it, if they had a reputation for being stubborn and/or violent, fifty bucks says it's on our family tree.You don't tell a Wimberley what to do. You especially don't tell a Wimberley that they can't do something. We'll do it anyway just to piss you off. And never, ever, EVER say 'don't you dare' to a Wimberley. They'll knock you out and do it anyway.Ms. LA had just told a member of the Wimberley clan not to not enter a contest, that he didn't want to enter to begin with. I was not entering that contest, I didn't care if the prize was a free ride through college. I'm a Cole by name and name alone. Never tell a Wimberley what to do.Well, Ms. LA had a grand idea, since apparently she was so desperate to have me in this contest. As a class, we received a writing assignment. We had two weeks to write a twenty page story following all the trials of the Hero's Journey, with unique characters and settings. This was a basic class (I refuse to do Honors classes because I'm an underachiever), half of these kids could barely read, only four others even understood what anything Ms. LA had just said, and out of those, two were paying attention.Well, I wrote my story. It was about a mercenary named Jathan. After his squad is captured in a failed mission, he was afflicted with vampirism and struggled not only with the nature of the curse, but his own identity. His job involved killing people on occasion, sure, but he didn't want to do it in order to survive! His end goal was to find a cure and become human again. It was a very graphic story, down to how far the blood splattered on the wall when Jathan yeeted the BBEG so hard he turned into a grease stain. Thirty-five pages. I turned it in, instant A, went back to my desk and took a nap.The next day, I'm called to the office. The judges for the writing competition, Ms. LA, the school resource officer, principal, my mother, and guidance counselor were in the conference room. Everyone had a different beef, but it all related to the story of Jathan Vamp-Yeeter. The judges were upset that I'd apparently plagiarized from some romance novel that had a similar story. Ms. LA put on an act like she was disappointed in me for plagiarism to win a competition. The Resource Officer gave me a lecture on how plagiarism is illegal and I could be arrested and fined. The principal was upset that I could write something so graphic. And my mother was pissed that I'd gotten myself in trouble, this time serious trouble.Hold up, what competition?'The writing competition you submitted your story to,' Ms. LA said.I never agreed to enter a competition. In fact, I was pretty explicit in saying that I would not enter the competition.'Well, I have the signed entry form, right here!' A judge pulls out a folder and flips it open to an entry form with my name on it… except none of it is in my chicken scratch.Is this a joke? That's not my signature, I never signed a form.'Then who did?'Most likely someone wanting me to- LA you bitch!So, let's count what LA has done wrong/illegal/stupid so far: 1, she told a Wimberley what to do. 2, she lied to an entire class of students in order to get a qualifying piece from me for a competition I wanted no part of. 3, she FORGED MINE AND MY MOTHER'S SIGNATURE, and it wasn't even an attempt to copy our handwriting.The room turns on LA when confronted with this new information. She spluttered to defend herself, and ultimately was told she could be fired. She left the room red faced and the principal then turned to me and told me I could be expelled for, I wish I was kidding, “Writing and giving gory pornography to my teacher.” Never mind that the teacher ASKED for this, nor that she just committed fraud.If you've read my other story about a time I was nearly expelled for doing what I was supposed to (Its at the bottom of my profile somewhere.) You know what happens next. Mama bear stands up, looks the principal in the eye, and says only two words: “Excuse me?”Total silence. The judges go pale, my guidance counselor conveniently remembers a previous engagement, and the principal repeats his statement with a stutter.“Well, i-i-it is in-in-inapro-innapropriate for s-sch-school! It's very g-graphic.”“So you're gonna tell me that your teacher not only fraudulently entered my son into a competition he didn't want to be in in the first place, but also tried to throw the blame on ME when it backfired, we're talking hiring lawyers problems here, and you're more upset that my Jon did what he was told and wrote the story?”The entire OFFICE goes quiet. I heard a coffee mug shatter in a room over. Some of these people were here when my mom was in school, others remember the time I was nearly expelled for wanting to do my homework. And others still recognize a lawsuit waiting to happen.The principal shuts his trap and sits back down. I'm told to go back to class. I tell my classmates what's going on. Everyone is absolutely pissed that they had to crank out twenty pages each just so the teacher could commit a felony and almost get me expelled. They tell their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends. Nerds tell their bullies, bullies tell their jock buddies, jocks tell their cheerleader girlfriends, cheerleaders tell their friends, so on. By lunch, I'm the talk of the school. The story has blown up from the class being lied to and nearly ending my academic career to the teacher standing over me at home with a bullwhip, making me crank out pages, so the rumors went. I'm the most popular kid for a month, Ms. LA was public enemy number one. Never had that much female attention in my life.LA was fired. She might have served jail time, but the school was in such a hurry to pacify my mother and bury the incident that it didn't go through properly.

This is a meaty subject. I'll start by giving my usual advice not to try this at home. A good lawyer who handles this kind of work regularly can put everything together in just a couple hours, saving you time and headaches, as well as keeping your company out of trouble with the authorities. Having said that, it's widely disregarded in practice by little guys who don't know better -- but you'll notice anytime you see a major company involved in one of these, it takes compliance seriously, for good reason.In the US, the legal requirements relating to promotional contests and sweepstakes are driven by one goal: To avoid operating an illegal lottery. Gambling is heavily regulated on a state-by-state basis, meaning that if you want to run this kind of promotion, you either must comply with all 50 states' laws or specify that residents of Florida (for example) are not eligible to enter. An illegal lottery includes these elements:Payment of consideration (such as an entry fee)Winner chosen by random chancePrize awardedThe two types of promotions commonly used by marketers are contests and sweepstakes. A contest requires skill of some kind and judging is involved to choose the winner. You can charge an entry fee for a contest (so you have #1 and #3). A sweepstakes is a drawing for prizes by random chance alone (#2 and #3 above). It's critical that you pick one or the other and don't mix the two. Never charge an entry fee, or require any other form of consideration, for a sweepstakes! That would make it an illegal lottery. Hence "no purchase necessary" in the fine print of just about every sweepstakes you've heard of.The rule is the opposite for contests. "Consideration" can include anything that requires significant effort; it doesn't necessarily mean the payment of money. So in a contest (think American Idol), you can require participants to invest time and effort in creating an entry, pay an entry fee, or both, provided that entries are judged on the merits, with no random chance involved. Online contests often start with a mechanism for users to vote for their favorite entries, narrowing down the field to a few finalists, and then a panel of judges picks the winner. (You could do it the other way around but it requires a lot more work.)Now that we've managed to keep you out of jail, here's the Cliffs Notes version. Please note that I am not your lawyer, dear reader (unless you choose to engage my firm) and therefore this is general information, not legal advice:Every contest or sweepstakes needs Official Rules. They are what keep you out of trouble. They all look similar but are not boilerplate and need to be carefully tailored to the specifics of your promotion. This isn't rocket science, but it is important.The Official Rules need to be readily accessible to anyone who wants to enter. If it's a web-based entry form, make sure to link to a printable version if you can't just include the rules below the fold on the page itself. In ad copy, make sure to state where the reader/viewer/listener can find them ("see our website at ... for official rules and entry form"). The Rules are Official for a reason; make sure you abide by them and strictly enforce start and end dates, methods of entry, etc.Start by determining eligibility. When in doubt, limit it to US residents over 18 (21 if alcohol or gambling is involved). Minors have separate issues involving parental consent. "Void where prohibited" is good CYA language since it's tough staying on top of 50 states' laws.Is the prize worth more than $5,000? If so, you'll need to register the sweepstakes in New York, Florida and Rhode Island (or prohibit their residents from entering). NY and FL also require that a bond be posted equal to the total value of the offered prizes.Official Rules must cover the following at a minimum: No purchase necessary; start and end dates; eligibility requirements (age, residency, any exclusions); method to enter (including a “no purchase” method); limitations on the number of entries by a signal person or household; odds of winning; description and approximate retail value (ARV) of prize; how the winner will be selected and notified; restrictions on receiving the prize; and sponsor’s name and address.That "restrictions on receiving the prize" thing is important. If you're looking to get any PR or media coverage from the promotion, make sure to state in the Official Rules that the winner will be required to sign a release and affidavit of eligibility. Those documents will allow you to use the winner's name and likeness, etc.You'll need to report the prize to the IRS as income to the winner on Form 1099-MISC, so make sure your accounting folks are in the loop.