Shorts A Short Story Writing Competition 2012 Regulations and ...

Shorts
A Short Story Writing Competition 2012
Regulations and Conditions
1. Organiser
The ‘Shorts’ competition is organised by the Native-speaking English Teacher (NET) Section,
Curriculum Development Institute (CDI), Education Bureau (EDB).
2. Aims of the Competition
The aims of the ‘Shorts’ competition are to:
give students an opportunity to learn narrative writing techniques and use English in a
creative way to express feelings and imaginative ideas;
give students an opportunity to collaborate with peers to plan, draft and produce a
short story in written and spoken forms; and
support the learning and teaching of the Elective Module, Learning English through
Short Stories, in the Three-year Senior Secondary English Language Curriculum.
3. Description of the Event
‘Shorts’ is a short story writing competition open to S3-S7 students from secondary schools
in Hong Kong offering the Three-year Senior Secondary English Language Curriculum. The
competition requires students to work in groups to plan, draft, revise, edit, write and record
an original short story based on a selection of images.
There are two categories in the competition: Short Shorts and Long Shorts. Entries for the
Short Shorts category must be 300-600 words in length. Long Shorts entries must be
600-1200 words.
The NET Section competitions adopt a ‘train the trainer’ model. In order to be eligible for the
‘Shorts’ competition, schools must send at least one teacher to a full-day professional
development workshop called NETworking Series: Writing and Presenting Short Stories.
In this workshop, teachers will investigate the major features of short stories, experience the
collaborative writing process first-hand and experiment with narrative writing techniques.
They will engage in peer response and peer editing and explore strategies for applying the
collaborative writing process modeled in the workshop to prepare students for the
competition. They will also discuss strategies for teaching students to read their short stories
aloud, focusing on voice projection, accuracy and expression.

After the workshop, teachers will support their students by teaching them about narrative
writing techniques and by providing them with guidelines for the collaborative writing
process that they will go through to complete a short story for the competition.
4. Schedule of Events
Schedule Event Related Documents
13 February 2012
9:30am – 5:00pm
OR
15 February 2012
9:30am – 5:00pm
25 May, 2012
5:00 pm
NETworking Series: Writing
and Presenting Short Stories
professional development
workshop
EDB Training Calendar System
(TCS)
Deadline for submissions Entry forms and pledges given out
at the NETworking Series: Writing
and Presenting Short Stories
professional development workshop
June/July 2012 Awards Ceremony Invitation letters and reply forms
5. Conditions of Entry
Schools must send at least one teacher to the NETworking Series: Writing and
Presenting Short Stories professional development workshop on 13 February or 15
February in order to be eligible to participate in the ‘Shorts’ competition.
Schools can submit a maximum of five entries.
Entries must be original with short stories created wholly by a team of three to four
students (S3 – S7). Each team may consist of students who are in the same year level
or in different year levels.
Use of short story elements and narrative writing techniques must be evident in the
text of the short story.
Entries should be typed in Word format using 12pt Times New Roman font and
printed double-sided on A4 paper. Pages should be numbered and set with 1 inch
margins on all sides. Line spacing should be set at ‘double’ (2.0). To ensure
anonymity in the adjudication process, the name of the school and the names of
students should not appear in the header, the footer or anywhere in the pages of the
short story. A word count should be included on the last page.
The short story should be recorded in MP3 format and burned on to a CD together
with the Word document of the short story. Student names and the school name
should be written on the CD. Original sound effects and music are permitted.*
The entry form and pledge provided at the NETworking Series: Writing and
Presenting Short Stories professional development workshop must be completed by
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clearly indicating personal particulars, selection of category (Short Shorts or Long
Shorts), selection of images, students’ roles in the project and a brief synopsis of the
story.
* Please note: Care must be taken not to infringe copyright by including any protected
material in the entry, as stories and recordings will remain the property of the EDB and may
be used in future resources.
6. Adjudication
Judging panels may include representatives from the NET Section and other Sections of the
EDB, professional writing instructors, published authors and English teachers. Entries will be
coded to ensure transparent and unbiased adjudication. Entries will be assessed on their
Content, Use of Written Language and Oral Delivery.
The assessment criteria will include, but will not be limited to:
Content (40%)
The content is original and creative.
The content is well-structured and logically organised.
There is good development of plot, setting, character and dialogue.
Use of Written Language (40%)
There is a range of vocabulary.
The language is grammatically correct.
The language adheres to the conventions of spelling and punctuation.
Oral Delivery (20%)
The delivery is fluent.
The delivery is accurate.
The delivery is intelligible.
The delivery is engaging and dramatic.
Note: The decision of the judging panel will be considered final. No correspondence will be
entered into after the results are announced.
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7. Prizes and Awards
Prize/Award Short Shorts Long Shorts
1 st Prize Trophy and $1500 book coupon Trophy and $1500 book coupon
2 nd Prize Trophy and $1000 book coupon Trophy and $1000 book coupon
3 rd Prize Trophy and $500 book coupon Trophy and $500 book coupon
4 th – 10 th Awards
Certificates of Merit Certificates of Merit
An awards ceremony will be held in late June or early July of 2012. Selected prize winners
may be invited to present their short stories during the ceremony.
8. Submission of Entries
The deadline for submission of entries is 5:00 pm on Friday, 25 May 2012.
To be eligible for a prize, entries must include:
a) the completed entry form and pledge;
b) the printed short story; and
c) a CD containing the Word document of the short story and a recording of
it in MP3 format.
Please submit entries by post or in person to:
‘Shorts’ Competition 2012
Regional NET Coordinating Team
Native-speaking English Teacher Section,
Room 1120, 11/F Tsuen Wan Multi-storey Carpark Building,
174 – 208 Castle Peak Road, Tsuen Wan, NT
9. Copyright
Copyright remains with the author(s) though each entrant gives permission to the EDB to use
whole or part of the submitted short stories and CD recordings in printed and electronic forms
as well as on the Internet in future promotional materials and/or as curriculum resources.
10. Enquiries
All information about ‘Shorts’ is available on the EDB website at:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/index.aspx?nodeID=262&langno=1
For further enquiries, please contact Mr Phillip Weber at 3549 8360 or weber@edb.gov.hk.
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