2013 Competition at Union University
The 2013 SEJC Onsite Competition features 11 categories: News Writing, Entertainment Writing, Sports Writing, Editorial Writing, Copy Editing, Page Design, TV News Reporting, Photography, Communication Law, Public Relations: Campaign, Public Relations: Crisis Communication.
All onsite competition categories will meet in the Grant Event Center at 12:45 pm Friday, February 22, and be escorted to their competition location. No late arrivals will be admitted to onsite competitions, and once competition begins participants who leave their competition location cannot be readmitted.
NEWS WRITING ONSITE COMPETITION:
Entrants will attend a 30-minute event on campus and will have one hour to write a 500-word news story from facts gathered during the onsite event. A computer with Internet access will be provided. Entrants may bring reference books with them, such as The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law and/or a collegiate dictionary and grammar guide; no reference books will be provided.
ENTERTAINMENT WRITING ONSITE COMPETITION:
Entrants will have one and one half hours to listen to tracks from an up-and-coming local musician’s recent release and write a 500-word review. A press kit for the artist will be provided at the beginning of the competition. A computer with Internet access will be provided. Entrants must bring their own headphones.
SPORTS WRITING ONSITE COMPETITION:
Entrants will view the last five minutes of footage from a local athletic event and will have one hour to write a 500-word story from facts gathered from the footage and from game stats provided at the beginning of the competition. A computer with Internet access will be provided. Entrants may bring reference books with them, such as The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law and/or a collegiate dictionary and grammar guide; no reference books will be provided.
EDITORIAL WRITING ONSITE COMPETITION:
Entrants will have one hour to write a 500-word, well-informed editorial piece about a topic chosen by the host school. Only one topic will be provided. Entrants may bring reference books with them, such as The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law and/or a collegiate dictionary and grammar guide. A fact sheet will be provided, along with access to the Internet. Time will be allotted at the beginning of the session for research and reading. NOTE: Editorial pieces should not be confused with columns. Editorials always include specific factual information related to a subject and are defined as “articles written for the op-ed section of a newspaper or magazine in which an editor expresses an opinion informed by facts about an important issue facing a city, state or nation.” While columns also sometimes contain factual information, they tend to be written in an informal style and are defined as “articles on a particular subject or perspective written by a particular writer whose work appears regularly in a newspaper or magazine.” Entrants who submit a column (i.e. a piece based on personal opinion only that resembles an essay) rather than an editorial for this category’s competition will be disqualified.
COPY EDITING ONSITE COMPETITION:
Entrants will copy edit a story that contains errors of judgment, fact, AP style, grammar, spelling and punctuation. Entrants also should be looking for everything from buried leads to run-on sentences to poorly worded or unclear phrasing. Entrants will have 30 minutes to correct all mistakes and to rewrite as needed. Entrants may bring reference books with them, such as The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law and/or a collegiate dictionary and grammar guide; no reference books will be provided.
PAGE DESIGN ONSITE COMPETITION:
Entrants will have one hour to lay out a broadsheet features newspaper page using InDesign for Mac. A computer with InDesign will be provided as well as stories, art and cutlines. Entrants will write their own headlines.
TV NEWS REPORTING ONSITE COMPETITION:
Entrants will attend a 30-minute event on campus and then will write a news story to be delivered on camera from the news set utilizing a teleprompter. Each entrant will be the writer and on-air talent; the host school’s studio staff will handle shooting and recording the segment. A computer with Internet access will be provided for writing. Submissions will be judged for factual accuracy, organization and delivery.
PHOTOGRAPHY ONSITE COMPETITION: Entrants will be provided with a two-part assignment during a brief meeting. Participants will then have one and one half hours to produce the needed images. Entrants must provide their own a camera with a removable media card. Before starting the assignment, the card MUST be formatted and cleared of any other images. Media cards will be returned after judging is complete.
COMMUNICATION LAW ONSITE COMPETITION:
Students will have one and one half hours to complete a comprehensive communication law exam. The exam consists of 50 multiple choice questions from the sixth edition of Communications Law: Liberties, Restraints, and the Modern Media by John Zelezny.
PR CAMPAIGNS ONSITE COMPETITION:
One- to three-member teams will have one and one-half hours to study a fact sheet of a company or organization and then produce a PR campaign (guidelines will be provided onsite). One computer with Internet access will be provided for each team. Entrants may bring reference books with them, such as The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law and/or a collegiate dictionary and grammar guide; no reference books will be provided.
PR CRISIS ONSITE COMPETITION:
One- to three-member teams will have one and one-half hours to study a fact sheet of a company/organization facing a public relations challenge and to produce a crisis communication plan. One computer with Internet access will be provided for each team. Entrants may bring reference books with them, such as The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law and/or a collegiate dictionary and grammar guide; no reference books will be provided.