Sample Writing Contest

Writing Contest Guidelines
Each of the contestants was given a certain group of guidelines to follow. They were to provide the
following in their stories:
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2 adjectives for each noun keyword (not every noun is a key word)
1 major conflict
2 emotions
Clear plot
Defined characters
conflict resolution
at least one of each of the following:
o Alliteration
o Personification
o Onomatopoeia
o Simile
o Metaphor
o Hyperbole
o Oxymoron
o Pun
In addition to the writing guidelines they were also given publishing guidelines which are:
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At least 500 but no more than 1000 words
Font: Times New Roman
Spacing: 1 ½
Font size: 14
Title & author on top of first page, centered
Your judging will be based on these things as well as creativity, presentation, etc.
This was a perspective story. A perspective story is a story that began with another story and they,
using their own individual perspective, created their own story, based on what they read.
Each of the contestants was given the same story to start from. They chose key words from each line in
the story, discarded the original story and then used the key words they pulled from the story as the
beginning and foundation of their own story. They were given creative license to change a keyword to
another key word when it fit better with the direction of their own story. Please not their story does not
need to have any relation whatsoever to the original story they started with but it interesting to see
what they wrote from the story they started and the perspective they had when writing.
This is the story they began with:
The Boys and the Frogs
Some boys, playing near a pond, saw a number of frogs in the water and began to pelt them with
stones. They killed several of them, when one of the frogs, lifign his head out of the water, cried out,
“Pray stop, my boys: what is sport to you, is death to us.”
“One man’s pleasure may be another’s pain.”
Judging Sheet
Contestant Name _______________________________
Please mark whether the following items were included in the contestant’s story.
2 adjectives for each noun keyword (not every noun is a key word)
1 major conflict
2 emotions (can be more than 2 but must be at least 2 to qualify)
Clear plot
Defined characters
conflict resolution
Please mark whether the contestant followed the below publishing guidelines.
At least two paragraphs but less than 1000 words
Font: Times New Roman
Spacing: 1 ½
Font size: 14
Title & author on top of first page, centered
The following is judged on a graduate scale from 1 to 5 with 5 being the best and 1 being the worst.
Score Category
Originality
Content
Mechanics
Additional Comments:
Score Category
Creativity
Presentation
Neatness