FINAL TIPS FROM A JUDGE'S PERSPECTIVE

Below are Nicole's final two tips, from her experience judging award entries from other PRSA chapers. We hope you find them helpful as you assemble your entries! Don't forget that entries are due by Friday, February 8! Refer to your CFE for all the details.

Tip #5: Less is absolutely more.
Judges should but do not focus on every word you’ve penned in your write up. Write concisely and aim for impact. Hit them with the situation and the cold, hard facts. Don’t use 10 or 11 or even 11.5 point type to make it fit. Rethink what a tired, weary stranger would find interesting and relevant and cut out the rest.

Tip #6: Use what you know about graphic design.
When you write less, you’ll free up more white space, which gives the eye a break. Instead of having three solid inches of copy under “research,” break the contents up into three smaller paragraphs with spaces between them. Pull goals, objectives and results out of the body copy to make them stand out. And bullets do this best:
• To increase the number of donations by 10% between September and December, 2007
• To decrease the number of complaints by 50% between March and August, 2007

Design Elements for Writers
Use your numbers, dollar signs and percent signs to help “carry” a judge’s eye through the copy. If they start skimming, they will stop and look at those elements. And breaking up the page with headings and lines does wonders for making the contents of the page more readable.