This week: Breaking a Tie Edited by: spidey  
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Welcome to the Contests & Activities Newsletter. I'm spidey , and I'm your Editor this week!
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Breaking a Tie
First, I want to ask: How are you all doing? For some of us, the restrictions on our regular routine can be pretty stressful and disrupting. It's a good idea to check in with friends and family. Keep in touch by email, video chat, instant messaging, etc. Take care of one another. 
Now, let's get to business!
What do you do if you can't choose a winner? Say you have two (or more) entries that you just can't choose between. A true tie! What are your options?
 Award both. This would be the ideal, I suppose. Give your top prize to both entries if you truly can't pick between them. That would require double the Gift Points, Merit Badges, Awardicons, Reviews, etc., whatever your prize. If you can afford that, I'd say do it!
Get some help. Ask another member (or two or three) to read the entries to get their opinion. It's can be helpful to get an outside opinion!
Take some time off. Walk away from the entries and clear your head. Take some time (though notify your participants if you're going to have to take more time than usual or if you're going to surpass your stated announcement of winners) and maybe the answer will come to you.
Get technical (or not). Pick a specific component, like grammar, theme, character development, word choice, form, etc. and choose based on which entry fits that component better. For instance, if you gave a prompt, choose which entry fits the prompt better.
Go with your gut. Sometimes you just have a feeling, though you might not be able to articulate it specifically. There's a reason we have gut feelings, I think. Go with your gut!
As always, keep on writing! 
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Contests/Activities:
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Know of some gems that deserve exposure? Submit them in the feedback form or submission form at the end of this Newsletter, and I'll put them in my next one!
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My last newsletter, ("Contests & Activities Newsletter (April 8, 2020)" ), and it discussed our "New Normal" lives. Here is some feedback from last week's Newsletter readers:
No feedback! 
Some feedback I missed from an older newsletter, "Contests & Activities Newsletter (August 28, 2019)" which discussed the Judging process.
Hey Spidey,
This is the second year I've judged for The Peacemaker Awards. My process is very similar to yours. I use a spreadsheet and a 30 point scale with 5 points each for Hook, Story, Denouement, Emotional Impact, Characterization and Historical Accuracy. I use the same system when selecting stories for acceptance in Saddlebag Dispatches. Seems to work well for me and makes a subjective decision a little more objective.
~ SmokeyMtn 
I personally find that style of judging very effective!
Have you ever had a tie? How did you break it? |
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Contests & Activities: May 06, 2020 Issue [#10161]
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