Editors Wanted: a Contest!

I am simply overwhelmed from the response to last week's posting, "Editors Wanted!"

To be quite honest, I was expecting no more than a handful of folks to volunteer their help; to my surprise, however, there were well over 100 "volunteer emails" [pic] in my inbox only a few hours after the post was published online our web site.

While I do not have the time to reply to each letter individually, I would like to take a moment to give a very warm and heartfelt "Thank you!" to everyone that offered their assistance. It *really* made my day to see so many Infopackets Readers willing to sacrifice a little in order to give back to our ever-growing community on the web.

Having said that: over the weekend, I gave some thought as to how I was going to pick and choose among all the wonderful folks who volunteered their help. Should I give all 100 volunteers access to edit the articles? Could I ask for a few sample writings from each volunteer? Would I pick volunteers at random? Obviously, none of these suggestions were practical solutions.

And then it hit me --

" Why not make this a contest? "

A phenomenal idea! By far, the best way to sample the editing skills of 100 individuals is to have them edit a real-life sample article which best represents the type of discussions commonly found on our web site.

As such, I have extracted an article that was submitted by one of our blogging members to use as an example. This article has not been published before and has been edited to contain a few extra mistakes that writers typically make when composing an article.

Volunteer Editor: Contest Rules and Regulations

The object of the game is to correct the article to the best of your ability. After everyone has submitted their editorial, I will choose a handful of lucky volunteers to be part of our Editing Team.

With that said, here's what I'm looking for:

Simple Editorial Corrections

• Spelling
   
• Grammar (yes, grammar is spelt with an "a")!
   
• Punctuation (comma splices, incorrect usage of semi-colons, and excessive use of punctuation)
   
• Poorly formed or incomplete sentences
   
• Poorly formed paragraphs

Advanced Editorial Corrections / Modifications

• Be creative: make the introduction of the composition interesting to the reader!
   
• Creative use of transitive devices
   
• Remove redundant words or phrases
   
• Remove all ambiguity
   
• Keep the editorial as concise as possible
   
• Break down the techno-talk into simple English

Side note: All of the above examples will be explained in detail on the contest page (located at the end of this article).

Volunteer Editor: Contest Deadline

The deadline to submit your editorial is Monday, December 5th, 2005.

And wouldn't you know it -- it just so happens that December 5th is "International Volunteer's Day" -- go figure!

Winners of the contest will be announced the week of 5th (or shortly thereafter) in the newsletter and will also have their name prominently displayed on the infopackets web site via our "Editing Team" page (yet to be created). And of course, all the winners will be incepted as part of our volunteer Editing Team! (more detail here).

How to Enter the Contest

Complete instructions and the sample writing can be accessed using the link below:

http://www.infopackets.com/volunteer_editor_contest.htm

Good luck!