The Touchstone technical communication competition always needs experienced technical communicators to serve as judges.
To volunteer to judge, fill out judging application form.
Why be a judge?
Judging is good for your career. You work with other experienced technical communicators on a worthy project, and you have a chance to study some of the best work in your field. It’s also fun.
Judging benefits you professionally in many ways, but there is an added benefit. We will have a drawing for $250.00 toward next year’s STC membership. We will enter judges who successfully complete their assigned tasks in the drawing.
Judges also receive free admission to the gala awards event in January.
Who can judge?
To judge entries, you should have substantial experience in technical communication.
As a judge, you agree to commit to a process that entails at least 40 hours of work, including ongoing interaction with other members of your judging team.
Your work product will be written critiques of the entries you judge.
In addition, your team will submit consensus award recommendations for all of your entries.
What’s involved?
If the balance between judges and entries is as in prior years, you will volunteer approximately forty hours of work over a six-week period, working with one or two judging partners to evaluate six to eight entries.
Judging entails both collaboration and individual effort. Your team generates consensus award recommendations, but each judge provides a separate written evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of each entry.
What’s the schedule?
Plan to attend several meetings:
| ACTIVITY | DATE | |
|---|---|---|
| Deadline for entries | Start of October | |
| First judging meeting | Early to mid-October | |
| Judging team meetings | At each team’s convenience | |
| All judging deliverables due | Mid- to late-November | |
| Final judging meeting | Early December | |
| Awards ceremony | Mid-January |
The first judging meeting is approximately a half day in Berkeley. You will receive your entries, meet your teammates, and receive guidance on how to carry out your judging.
Each judging team should meet at least once before the final judging meeting to agree on their award recommendations.
At least one member of each judging team should attend the final judging meeting to present your team’s entries and explain your team’s award recommendations.
What else do you need to know?
Download these materials to help you complete your judging tasks successfully.
- Judging guide (PDF)
- Template for comments (MS Word docx)
- Patrick Lufkin’s observations on judging (MS Word doc)