Newsday School Journalism Awards Contest Rules

In this annual competition, high school and college entrants compete in eight categories. Entrants in the middle/junior high school division, for students in grades 6, 7 & 8, compete for overall excellence only. Deadline for entry is February 28, 2011. Winners will be notified and receive an award certificate in their specific category through the mail by the end of May 2011. Names of the winning schools will be published on newsday.com/nie.

RULES FOR ENTRY
1. Entries must have been published between January 1, 2010 and February 1, 2011. High schools in Nassau or Suffolk County may submit one entry in each category. Colleges may submit one entry in each category from any newspapers that are produced by undergraduate students, and that are recognized by the student government as general interest newspapers. Each and every entry must include a completed entry form stapled to either a tear sheet (categories 1-6) or
complete newspaper (categories 7 & 8). A tear sheet is one complete newspaper page. Completed photocopy of an entry form is acceptable.
2. The high school and college entries in categories 1 through 6 (1-news, 2-feature, 3-commentary, 4-sports, 5-local news/history 6-editorial cartooning) must include a tear sheet with each completed entry form. The selected story or cartoon must be clearly marked by highlighter or marker pen.
3. Entries in categories 7 and 8 (7-photography, 8-typography and layout) must include an entire newspaper. Judges will examine all of the pages to determine the quality of the photographs or layout, depending on the category.
4. The middle/junior high school division entry, grades 6, 7 and 8, must include an entire issue of the newspaper with a completed entry form. Judges will examine the overall excellence of the newspaper.
5. All entries must be received by February 28, 2011 or delivered to Newsday by 5:00 PM on that date. Mail entries to: Newsday In Education, Newsday Journalism Awards, 235 Pinelawn Road, Melville, New York 11747-4250.

HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DIVISION
1. News Writing - This category is for a single news story. Judges will look for interesting story ideas, strong leads and good organization. Balanced coverage, proper identification of persons in stories, accuracy and appropriate interviewing techniques are important considerations.
2. Feature Writing - This category may include a single story or a package of feature stories published in the same issue on the same topic. Solid organization, depth of reporting and brightness of style will be examined.
3. Commentary - Entry in this category may include editorial, column or criticism. Judges will be looking for solid arguments and engaging writing.
4. Sports Writing - Includes news, features and/or interviews with school athletes, a column or criticism. Judges will be looking for engaging writing, complete coverage, proper identification of persons in stories plus accuracy.
5. Local News/History - News, features and/or interviews highlighting your town or community and its history. Judges will be looking for research, accuracy, solid organization and complete coverage.
6. Editorial Cartooning - Judges look for strong images, concise communication of ideas, striking visual effects and/or humor.
7. Photography - This award will be given to the newspapers making the best use of photography as part of the presentation of the news throughout an entire issue. The choice of subjects, variety, editing and technical quality of the photos will be examined; however, quantity of photographs will not be considered.
8. Typography and Layout - This award is given to the newspapers with formats the judges find most consistent and attractive, making the newspaper interesting to look at and easy to read.

MIDDLE/JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL DIVISION
Open to students in grades 6, 7 and 8 middle/junior high schools in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Awards will be given for first, second and third place. The quality of the writing, photography, typography and layout will be considered. ONE complete issue of the newspaper should be entered for an award in this division.

Newsday journalists, artists and photographers will judge the competition.