GET READY TO ENTER THIS YEAR’S JOURNALISM COMPETITION!

We are delighted to announce that this year’s Journalism Competition is bigger than ever!

WRITE WAI PR & COPYWRITING SERVICES’ and Tutor Doctor Colchester North’s Competition is being sponsored in 2015 by the Gazette and Dream 100 Radio and there are now two categories for budding journalists to enter.

This means we are giving you TWO chances to win in our great Journalism Competition.

Are you aged 11 – 16 years and looking for something constructive to do over summer and into autumn? Why not have a go at winning an Amazon Kindle Fire HD for yourself and £50 Amazon Voucher for your School by entering our competition. We have two £25 Amazon vouchers for the second prize winners as well. The competition is being sponsored by the Gazette and Dream 100.

To Enter

In both cases, we want you to choose a subject that you feel passionate about. It has to be locally interesting and topical but the choice of subject is down to you. It could be something about local politicians, the local economy or sports. It could also be a public interest story around an issue like age, maybe health and sports. There are two ways to present this story – you can enter it as a written piece of journalism in a word document or you can send us your audio entry in MP3 format. If you really feel inspired you can enter both ways – but only one entry will be considered for the top prize in either category.

Your entry, regardless of medium, will be judged on 3 elements:

1. The article itself and the way it inspires the Judges.
2. The depth of your research – how you approached it, what sources did you use and how did you check
3. The quality of the language you use and how well you communicate

The Written Journalism Piece

Write an article in a news style (not a feature style), just as if you were writing it for the Gazette. The article should be between 300 and 400 words long; it can contain quotations from relevant people, facts and figures and contain a photograph relevant to the subject matter. You must also include a short piece (200 words maximum) explaining how you identified the subject, how you researched the subject and drew your conclusions. Original stories will get extra marks.

The winning students will be given a tour of the Gazette’s Newsroom, they will also have the amazing opportunity to join a Newsroom Conference where the editorial decisions are made and the two winning articles will be published in the Gazette, subject to the Editor’s final approval.

The Judge

Bafta award-winning journalist, Sally Anderson-Wai founder of WRITE WAI PR & COPYWRITING SERVICES will be judging the written entries. Sally has over 20 years’ experience as a Journalist and has worked for newspapers, magazines and the BBC

The Radio Journalism Piece

Record a 2 minute news article around the subject. We expect you to deliver the commentary yourself; you need to have written the piece, researched and recorded it. You can get quotes or interview someone with their written permission. To accompany this you should write a short piece (300 words maximum) explaining how you identified the subject, did your research and how you drew the conclusion you came to.

The winning students will receive a guided tour of the Dream100 studios (or similar) where you will be interviewed.

The judge for the radio piece will be announced at a later date.

The winning entries will be featured on the Tutor Doctor Colchester North Website, the Tutor Doctor Newsletter and on WRITE WAI’s blog and website:https://sallyandersonwaidotcom2.wordpress.com and http://www.writewai.com

Please enter using the form provided on this website

The closing date is at midday on the 23rdof October 2015. There will be a second place winner and all winners will be notified by the end of the day on the 23rd of November 2015.

Please include your full name, age and the name of the school that you attend. You will also need to confirm that you have your parent/guardian’s permission to enter the competition, be photographed for publicity shots and named in any publicity material.