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Posted on 25-Dec-2014

 

Competition Objective:

  • Promote interest in creative writing & story telling
  • Cultivate godly critical thinking and expression in writing and illustrative media
  •  Find and groom young and talented writers for Asian Beacon
  • Promote Boys' Brigade activities amongst its different companies in Kuala Lumpur
Who can join this competition?
This competition is open to active members of The Boys’ Brigade Kuala Lumpur State Council members only.
 
Contest Categories: 
There are four (4) contest this season:
  1. Best Writer
  2. Best Company
  3. Best Article
  4. Best Photography

Types of articles

There are two types of article formats: 
  • Reporting-based (mainly on events happening in your Company, State, or even small events like a squad outing)
  • Feature-based
    • Theological & apologetic expositions
    • Storytelling or devotional or reflections
    • Biographical (interview, testimonies)
    • Faith or personal growth, e.g. moral, leadership

Best Writer & Company

Scoring:
  • Base point given for submission
  • Additional points rewarded when scoring factors are fulfilled
  • Scoring factors vary depending on writer’s age group
 
Note: A person in a younger age is allowed to compete with the older aged-participant categories. However, an older participants is not allowed to compete with the younger-aged categories. For example, a person who is aged 12 can choose to take part in the Senior category should he or she choose to do so. However, you must stick to the pre-selected category throughout the competition .
 
Writers must: 
  • Indicate the number of words
  • Specify the literacy devices used (by citations and referencing)
  • Submit photos no less than 72 dpi and 1MB in size per file
  • Identify the photographer name and provide captions for every photograph

Note:

Winner:
  • Best Writer is determined by the accumulation of individual points
  • Best Company is determined by the accumulation of company points


Best Article

Certain featured articles will be shortlisted by officials from The Boys' Brigade Kuala Lumpur, who will nominate articles for Best Article. Asian Beacon Editors will determine the winner. Only featured articles are short-listed for this category, reporting-based articles are not.

This contest is divided into 3 categories:

Advance
(Age 16-19)

Word Count > 500

Literacy devices (max 4; min 2)

Photography (max 4; min 2)
Intermediate
(Ages 13-15)

Word Count > 400

Literacy devices (max 4; min 2)

Photography (max 4; min 2)
Junior
(Ages 12 & Below)

Word Count > 300

Literacy devices (max 2; min 1)

Photography (max 2; min 1)
 
Articles will be judged based on:
  • Title - 10%
  • Originality - 25%
  • Good use of literacy devices - 25%
  • Conclusion - 25%
  • Photography - 15%
These articles are further posted in Asian Beacon website for voting. Breakdown of final score is as follow:
  • Judges Point - 60%
  • Votes - 40%
About Best Article:
  • Only “Featured Articles” are considered for Best Article
  • Voting done at Asian Beacon website
    • One registered email can only vote once per article
    •  It commences after the contest is closed for 2 weeks
  • Votes are tabulated as follow
    • Formula = (Votes received/Highest received votes) x 40%
    • Assuming highest voted article receives 100 votes & Article B receives 90 votes
    • (90/100) x 40% = 36%
  • Vote count is available to public but judges point is confidential

Winner:

  • There will be only one winning article per category 
Web resources:

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Short-Story

http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-genre/short-story-essay

http://thewritepractice.com/short-story/

http://www.creative-writing-now.com/how-to-write-a-story.html


Best Photograph

Only original photographs which have been properly captioned will be short-listed.

These photographs must adhere to the following rules:

  • Must be 72 dpi or minimum 1MB in file size
  • Photos must be original
  • The only photo editing permitted are
    • Adjusting color saturation
    • Converting to black & white for creative purposes
    • Cropping (but no stitching)
Photos will be judged based on:
  • Aesthetics (framing, background, visual, etc)
  • Content (relevance to article, emotion, mood, relevance, information, symbolism, etc)

The judges from Asian Beacon will decide the winner.

Photography ideas and how-to:

http://digital-photography-school.com/digital-photography-tips-for-beginners/

http://www.geofflawrence.com/photography_tutorials.html#basics

http://www.dpchallenge.com/how.php

 

How to Participate?
To join this competition, participants simply need to provide written articles, provide photos (or even videos) of a BB event or do a write-up of any BB related topics (eg. Company level: Enrolment, boot camp, outings, etc. State Level: NCOs’ Training, Founders’ Day, etc. National: Pesta or even BB related special features). For every entry submitted, points will be awarded to the participant and the company he/she is from. The participants with the most number of points wins the competition!

 
Rules and Procedures
 
Reporting-based articles:
  1. Before proceeding to write a report for a particular event, please email write2us@klbb.org.my to "book" the report. The person assigned to write the report will be on a first come, first serve basis. If an article has already been booked or written there is no need for second piece of the same event. Only proceed to covering or writing the event after the webmaster has given approval.
  2. Written reports covering the same event by can only be covered by a maximum of two (2) reporters. A total allocation of a maximum of 20 KUL Points will be given for a single event. Should there be two reporters, both can only receive 10 KUL Points each (or assessed 20 Points ÷ 2). Once again, if the event has already been publish, a second report piece is no longer necessary (as per item 1).
  3. "Reflections" or a personal entry of thoughts about an event will now be considered as a report-based article which make part of the 20 Points. Therefore, you are encouraged to submit your reflective pieces together with the official report. Any submission of individual reflections after the event report is publish will still be accepted, but only be awarded 2 KUL Points per reporter/submission, but may not be featured on the KL State Facebook Page (but will still be featured on the website).
  4. If two (2) reporters from the same company are covering the same event, it will be made aware by the webmaster that the other is intending to cover the same event and will request that points be shared or that only one reporter be assigned.
  5. "Bookings" can be made before or after the event. However, if no report is produced from the reporter who filled the booking within 2 weeks after the event, "tendering" for the article shall be open to other reporters from the same company (first) or other companies on a first-come, first-serve basis (conditions below apply).
  6. Priority will be given to the reporter from company of origin of where an event is taking place. Should no report regarding the event be written within 2 weeks from the date of the event, a reporter from the same company or another company may produce the report. 
  7. It is possible for two reporters from different companies to cover the same event. However, it is advised that the two reporters are in cooperation prior to writing the report, otherwise only the reporter who placed a booking first (priority given to reporter from company of event origin, as per item 6) will be assigned the article (ie. the reporters from two different companies need to already know each other and agree to share the Points and responsibility to write the report, before placing a booking). Condition 2 (above) applies.
  8. It is the responsibility of the reporter to place a booking. If a reporter produces an article without placing a booking, their article will not be accepted, unless no other reporter has filled a competing booking for the event. 
  9. Penalty - if a booking is placed, with no report produced within two (2) weeks after the event, 5 KUL Points will be deducted from the reporter's tally and company's tally.
  10. If you do not receiving a reply to your booking within 48 hours, please call or send a text message to Mr. Voon at 012-2654772.
 
Feature-based articles:
  • For Season 3, we are encouraging participants to write on non-BB related Christian-themed features. Such articles may even stand a chance of receiving wider audience and be featured by Asian Beacon Magazine. Of course, BB-based features are, naturally, still much sought after.
  • Please write a 2-3 line proposal of what you intend to feature to write2us@klbb.org.my before proceeding to write about the featured story.
  • Points system for features are given the same allocation of KUL Points for reports, which are also shared if a maximum of two (2) writers write a joint feature.
  • Should a similar story/testimonials/sharing of the same topic/nature to an existing feature be received, it will be vetted through for similarities. Should the articles be too similar in nature, it may be rejected. This is to discourage over-repetitive stories received and featured on the website.  Therefore, writers are asked to write something new and refreshing, not on the same story. However, should you feel compelled to write an article which is similar to an existing one (especially if participants are from different companies), you are encourage to present your case to the webmaster.
  • The webmaster reserves the right to reject topics deemed unsuitable or repetitive for this website.

 

Duration
Competition begins 30th December 2014 and ends two weeks before Founder's Day 2015 (precise date to be announced).

Prizes
Detailed prizes to be announced

Clause

Personal opinion, if deemed inappropriate, will be removed by the editor. The Editorial committee is not responsible for the personal opinions expressed by participating authors.

Restrictions

  1. Articles cannot defame (report inaccuracies on other) individuals or organizations.
  2. Articles cannot portray areas of sensitivity (racial and religious slurs, etc)
  3. No profanity of descriptions of obscenity