International STC Competition

By Ruth Haworth, Competition Manager

Judging at the International Competition is a good way to meet peers, see what other writers are doing, and learn about information design. The best thing about judging is expanding your understanding of the components of good documentation by seeing what your peers think is important.

The Process

On the weekend of March 11, 2006, I went to Washington DC—along with a few dozen other STC members—to judge at the International Competition. This competition evaluates entries that already had received a Distinguished award at an STC chapter competition. It included technical publications (for example, newsletters, books, and doc sets), online communications (for example, help, demonstrations, and technical marketing), and technical art (for example, photographs, manual/book designs, and informational posters).

My team, which judged books and doc sets, included myself, Michael O’Steen, and team leader, Al Hood. We received our entries in the mail a couple of weeks before the competition, and we each had done our individual evaluations prior to arriving at the competition. On the Saturday of the competition, Al, Michael and I sat down and discussed each entry. Each of us had noticed different things about our entries, and had different opinions about what we liked. It was an interesting and educational process to compare notes and reach a consensus for each of the entries.

While we were completing this process, the teams at the other tables were also completing the same process so that they could decide if any of their entries deserved a Best of Show designation.

This year’s Best of Show book will be displayed at the STC conference in Las Vegas from May 7-10.

The Benefits

The reason I like to judge is that I learn so much about what makes good documentation, including new techniques for helping readers to absorb and retain information. At the International Competition we were privileged to read some exceptional writing. One of the books we judged, which ultimately won this year’s Best of Show, took what might have been very dry material about post-traumatic stress disorder and made it interesting to read and easy to understand. It used chunking, sidebars, repeated sections and ongoing examples to great effect.

Another benefit of judging is networking and socializing. We maximized these benefits over the weekend in Washington DC, starting with a welcome reception on Friday night, followed by a full day of judging on Saturday and a banquet Saturday night. I met a lot of great people, learned about the experiences of other writers, and got some insight into the politics and leadership of the STC.

If you can already see the benefits of judging at the international level, we recommend that you first judge a few times at a chapter level to gain some experience. If you have already done that you want to apply to be an international judge for next year by going to http://www.stc.org/comp/internationalCompetitions01_JAF.asp. The deadline for applying to judge is November of this year, and the judging will take place in March, 2007. Remember that when you apply, you may be selected to be either an on-site or off-site judge.

Our Local Competition

Whether you are a judge at the local or international level, the judging process is the same. Judges work in teams of three. Each judge evaluates the entries by filling out detailed evaluation forms, and then the teams meet to discuss their evaluations and decide on a final score.

The Southwestern Ontario competition takes place in the autumn. The competition is open to a wide range of documentation. For a complete list of documentation that you can enter, see http://www.stc.org/comp/internationalCompetitions01.asp. To submit an entry in our local competition, see http://www.stc-soc.org/competitions.php. If you have any questions, email competition@stc-soc.org.

If you are more interested in judging than in entering our competition, we will provide training to first time judges. To apply to judge in our local competition, see http://www.stc-soc.org/competitions.php. Many of the benefits of judging at the International Competition are also applicable at your local level.

About Ruth Howorth

Ruth is a senior writer at Sybase iAnywhere Solutions in Waterloo. She is our chapter’s Competition Manager, and is already ramping up for next year.