PROBLEM: abctales writers cannot read

"Anybody else feeling as 'grrr' as me on this subject?!" Well, not really. Having done lots of 'writing in register' exercises at school, I know that there are good reasons why the rules for entering competitions are usually written in direct, plain language as a series of numbered points. It's entirely Tony's decision to write his competition rules as a conversational stream-of-consciousness but it's not a big surprise if some people find it confusing. That said, a significant percentage of people entering competitions or submitting work to magazines always ignore even the best explained rules entirely and do their own thing. You just get to see it happening in an online competition. And as a contestant it's a good thing because you know they won't win.

Yes, and anyone who can't discern from the rules than entries should be 500 words or less obviously isn't taking the competition very seriously at all. The point about writing in the appropriate register is not a defence of people who can't be bothered to read the rules and work things out. I'm just suggesting that - armed with the knowledge that the world of aspiring writers is heavily populated with such people - as a competition organiser it's generalise best to take action to protect yourself from the inevitable gripes you'll get when their entries have been unsuccessful because they haven't followed the rules.

It won't work in this competition, but I once broke all the rules in a national paper's internship scheme's rules for a bit of writing. I got down to the last 20 of 8 on the interest of the article alone and despite not winning the internship I did gain nine weeks work experience, six more than I needed for my degree. Totallt irrelevant, but rules are sometimes made to be broken, not by three times the length however. Craig

We run a lot of competitions on UKA, including one which (if desired) results in publication for the winner. If I received an entry which flouted the rules so indiscriminately, I would disqualify the entrant immediately possibly, perhaps, with regret. However, ignoring guidelines, whether they be for a competition or a publisher (especially the latter), shows a lack of respect for the comp organisers (or publisher) as well, so cannot be ignored and does not bode well for further communication between the two. http://www.ukauthors.com http://www.ukapress.com