Announcing... 2nd Annual Articles Contest!

Joanie

Welcome to the 2nd Annual bonsaiTALK Articles Contest!

The purpose of the Articles Contest is to create educational and entertaining bonsai related articles and to recognize excellence in the literary side of bonsai and suiseki.

Submissions will be accepted between today and Wednesday, March 15th, 2006. After the submissions end, we'll have a popular vote for the best article.

The deadline is March 15th, 2006 at midnight Pacific time.

Below are the rules for eligibility:

• A. SUITABILITY & ELIGIBILITY
  1. Articles submitted to the contest must be original, unpublished content, minimum length of 500 words on the subject of bonsai or suiseki. There is no maximum length.
  2. Articles must be created and submitted by their authors.
  3. Articles may be a cooperative effort by more than one person, however, each person must agree to have the article submitted, and each person's input must be clearly stated. (i.e.: text by Tom and illustrations by Mark)
  4. Author(s) and contributors full, real name must be stated.
  5. Articles may include original photographs or illustrations. We recommend that the photos be 600 pixels on the major axis. 450 pixels is the minimum size. However, see #6 for more on the photo rules.
  6. Articles may be on any bonsai or suiseki related subject, including, interviews, how-to articles, tree critique or redesign, a collecting trip, species guide, etc. For ideas, check out existing Articles forum, or last year's entries here.
  7. If you have questions about whether a topic is appropriate, please contact me for suggestions.
  8. Articles will be reviewed for possible publication in Bonsai Today magazine. Articles which meet the magazine's requirements will be forwarded to Stone Lantern Publications. In order to be considered for publication in the magazine, authors must be willing to submit to Stone Lantern high resolution, high quality photos if the article requires photos. (Illustrations are acceptable as well). For magazine purposes, the photos should be 300 dpi; clear, well lighted; preferable neutral or uncluttered background, JPGs or TIFs. A minimum of 2 million pixels would be reasonable. You may wish to consider retaining the raw photos in case your article is chosen. If you have any questions, please ask me. Consideration of articles is solely at the discretion of Bonsai Today magazine.
• B. SUBMISSIONS & DEADLINE
  
  1. Submissions become the property of bonsaiTALK. This does not mean that you cannot publish your submission elsewhere after this contest ends, but it does mean that bonsaiTALK, or its designee(s), have the right to republish the article in any form, in any medium for any purpose. bonsaiTALK reserves the right to edit submissions for content and suitability.
  2. Full details on how to submit can be found here:
  Article Submission instructions
  
  1. If you publish your article elsewhere prior to the conclusion of the voting, you forfeit the prize.
  2. Enter as many original articles as you wish.
  3. Submissions will be accepted between today and March 15th, 2006. In the event we have fewer than 10 articles received, we reserve the right to extend the contest deadline until we get ten submissions.
• C. VOTING
  
  1. At the end of the entry period we'll enable voting to select the best article by popular vote. The start of voting will be announced, with further guidelines to clarify voting.
  2. If someone is found to be attempting ballot box stuffing (we record IP addresses and usernames) that person's votes will be disqualified and the user may be subject to harsh discipline.
• D. PRIZES
  
  1. At the conclusion of voting the prizes will be awarded and each author's name will restored to his/her article.
  2. Contest is void where prohibited by law.

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"You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says,
'Wow, you're right! I never would've thought of that!'" ~ Dave Barry

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midwestbonsai

Cool beans Joanie, have you got a hold of enough prizes?
-Paul

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Joanie

We already have some prizes, which will be announced later today in another thread. It looks like a great lineup of prizes!

ChrisM will be handling the prizes and their distribution, he volunteered months ago and we took him up on it!

Joanie

__________________
"You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says,
'Wow, you're right! I never would've thought of that!'" ~ Dave Barry

ChrisM

glad i didn't hold my breath!!!! lol!!!

chris

prizes can be found here - http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthread.php?t=16376

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A bonsai is like a good marriage.You commit, for better or for worse, till death do you part. I DO!!!

bonsainotwar

I should think being published in Bonsai Today would be enough of a "prize".

midwestbonsai

They didnt say that you would for surely be published, just that the editor wants to look and the entry for a possible publishing.
-Paul

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Joanie

Yes, Paul is right. Because the needs and requirements of a magazine are different than the needs of a forum, we will be looking at all of the entries and passing along to Stone Lantern the ones that best fit their needs. It's an exciting opportunity, and everyone who writes an article should keep in mind the wider audience....

Here's a chance for us to really show our stuff!!!

We have incredible talent here, so this is a great chance to go that extra mile.

Joanie

__________________
"You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says,
'Wow, you're right! I never would've thought of that!'" ~ Dave Barry

TreeBay

Writing for print publication is a bit different than an preparing an online article, and does present some unique challenges. Here are a few points that come to mind:

1. You can't easily hyperlink to other materials for clarification.
2. Print publications are a bit more formal because your audience probably doesn't know you, all your moods, and your particular brand of humor, and smileys don't work well on the printed page .
3. People tend to skim online articles and will read your printed piece in more depth, and possibly more than one time.
4. Poor spelling and grammar don't fly on the printed page. There's a lot you can get away with in online postings, including slang, idioms and figurative expressions. (Like those used in much of this post).
5. The article needs to be complete - not necessarily wide in scope - but complete. It should have a beginning, middle and end. You can't hope to recover from a soft conclusion or poor introduction by touching it up later or clarifying questions. You really need to present an idea, develop it and make a conclusion.

One suggestion to improve your writing is to invite some people review it for comment. Consider having a couple people (including a non-bonsai person) read over your work and make sure they understand the points you're making. If you take the suggestions to heart, it will improve your writing!

There will be in initial level of review (as there was last year) and most articles will have the opportunity to be edited for content and clarity, so this should help quite a bit. I am sure that we can present to Bonsai Today some interesting articles for their consideration.

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midwestbonsai

Yes it sure is.
-Paul

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