Frequently Asked
Questions
Who is Creative Communication? Creative
Communication is a company who is devoted to the promotion of writing,
teaching and appreciation of student writing. The intent of the student
writing contest is to motivate creative writers. The top entries are
published in an anthology that will record the creative insights of
today's young writers. There is no requirement for a student to
purchase an anthology, however, if a student wishes to purchase one, it
is made available at an affordable price. Winners of the contest and
the top 10% of the schools that enter receive a free copy of the
anthology. In addition, any teacher with 5 or more students accepted to
be published will receive a free anthology that features their young
writers.
Why
do we sponsor a student writing contest? This can best be answered
by a letter that we recently received.
"In this world of video games, virtual reality, and other
technological hooplah, it is nice to have a group such as you who still
value the written word! So many high school students love to write
poetry and I think it is wonderful to provide a vehicle through which
to showcase their work."
Anne Byrd, Teacher
Clover High School
Clover, South Carolina
Why do you request a student's home address? Each year as we try
to contact the finalists and winners in our contests we find that often
schools do not forward or deliver mail to students. This creates
several problems. In the past we have found that when we originally
contact the student, several schools have simply thought that mail
directed to students is junk mail and have thrown them away. Other
schools have a policy to not deliver mail to students. Once the final
judging is completed, each year, we must select over 100 new winners
when the winning congratulations letter is not given to the student by
the school. With a home address, we can be in direct contact with the
poet. We do not sell our mailing list. Home or school addresses will
not be given or shared with any other company, individual or agency for
any purpose. Home address information will only be used by Creative
Communication to contact the winners of the contest and to inform other
high merit entries about the results of the contest and the ensuing
publication.
Can home school students enter?
Yes. As long as a student is in grades K-12 in the United States or
Canada, it doesn't matter where they go to school.
How does the contest work? Once
we receive the entries from the students, the poems and essays are sent
on to our judges. They go through the entries and less than 50% are
accepted to be published. The judges then go through the entries that
were accepted and pick out the top 10 poems and essays in each of the
contest divisions of grades K-3; 4-6; 7-9; 10-12. The students that are
accepted to be published are notified and sent a copy of their entry on
a typesetter's proofsheet so that they can make sure that everything is
exactly as they want it before it goes to press. Once we receive this
proofsheet back from the student with any changes and their signature
verifying it is their original work giving us permission to publish
their entry, we make sure that their entry is included in the anthology.
When can I expect to receive the book that I ordered? ? In the
letter that we send to the students, we state that it takes 20-24 weeks
(about 6 months) before the books are shipped. For the Spring contest
the books are shipped in September and October. The Fall contest books
are shipped in April and May. The Summer contest books are shipped in
December and January. We appreciate your patience. The process of
creating a quality hard bound book takes a long time. We must first
wait for the students to return their typesetter's proofsheets giving
us permission to publish them, then we complete the page layout for the
books and ship it off to be printed and bound.
If I entered the Fall contest, can I enter the Spring one also? Yes,
you can enter both the Fall and the Spring contests, but only one entry
is allowed per student for each one.
My school is not entering the contest, can I enter alone? Yes, you
can still enter the contest. Please include your school information
including school name, address, and teacher’s name. This helps us to be
able to contact you and helps your teacher to possibly receive a free
copy of the anthology.
What does it mean if I don't find my name on the winner's list? ?
The list of winners has the names of the Top Ten winners in each
contest division. Being invited to be published means that your entry
was in the top 45% of the entries for your area. It does not
necessarily mean that you were a Top Ten Winner. The Top Ten Winners
are chosen from the students who were selected to be published. The
contest becomes very selective when it comes down to the Top Ten. A Top
Ten winner will receive their own page in the book, a free copy of the
book and a savings bond. Students who were not winners, but were
invited to be published, are included in the book when we receive their
typesetter's proofsheet giving us permission to publish their entry.
Is
this a contest where everyone is accepted to be published?
Absolutely not! We take pride in the fact that we are selective with
our entries. We reject more entries than we accept to be published. Our
objective is to make it an honor to be selected for the anthology.
Why
do you have several deadlines ? In the past, most of our contests
had a deadline in December. To accommodate teachers who complete their
poetry or essay writing unit in the fall we have the Fall deadline and
for teachers who complete their poetry or essay writing unit in the
spring we have the Spring deadline. We were then contacted by schools
who were in session over the summer. The end result is that we have
three deadlines. One deadline is for the Fall, Spring and Summer.
Entries that are received after a contest is over will automatically be
entered into the next deadline. Of course teachers may have students
enter any contest, but only one entry is allowed per student for each
contest.
Why do you have a contest for both poetry and essays? For 10
years we just had a contest for poetry. During that time we had
numerous letters from teachers who requested an essay contest. In
reflecting upon that request we realized that not every teacher teaches
poetry. Having an essay contest allows more teachers and students to be
involved and hopefully with more prizes, we will motivate more young
writers.
Who owns the rights to the student's entry? The student owns the
rights to the entry. If an entry is selected to be published, we ask
for one time permission to publish the entry and give all rights to the
student.
Does
the contest require a certain topic for the poem or a certain style of
poem?
Most topics can be used for your poem and the poem can be written
in most any style. Often a poem will stand out by being about a unique
topic, but the most important criteria is how well the poem is written.
Topics that have graphic violence, sexual situations or are pro a
negative moral or situation such as suicide or drugs are not accepted
to be published. Whereas most any style can be accepted we do not
accept concrete poems that have words written upside down or backwards.
We also do not publish "found" poems that take the words of other
published authors and are used to make a poem.
Who are the judges? The judges are published writers and educators
in elementary, secondary and higher education, who have a background in
literature.
What
criteria do your judges use? First of all, does the poem or essay
meet the rules. We reject numerous poems that are over 21 lines, and
essays that are over 300 words. We also receive numerous entries that
we have to reject because there is not a name or address included.
Second, we have to be able to read the entry. Often a group of entries
will have been xeroxed and are unreadable or the entry is not written
legibly. Third we look for literary merit, creativity and social
significance. The entry should have the correct usage of words or
grammar (however, we do give freedom to be poetic).
What
kind of poems and essays are winners? What is most important is
that the poem and essay are well written and stand out as being
excellent. What makes a poem or essay stand out is the use of language
to create strong images, a topic that shows an unique awareness to an
important issue, or a creative approach that shows originality.
How
will the prizes be awarded? The prizes will be awarded in the form
of savings bonds. For each grade level (K-3; 4-6; 7-9; 10-12; and
adult) the top ten entries in both the poetry and essay contest will be
given a $50 savings bond, their own page in the book and a free copy of
the anthology. The prizes will be mailed to the winners upon completion
of the contest.
Will
the entries be returned? Because of the thousands of entries that
are sent to our contest, no entries will be returned. For both the
contest and the anthology that is published, the student will retain
all rights to the entries submitted.
What
does the book look like? This book is professionally bound in an
8.5 x 11 format.
* Entries are
published with student’s name, grade, school and state
* Each poet's name is indexed
* Each book is hard bound with a richly textured cover
What is your privacy policy?
Privacy policy:
We believe in privacy and in protecting the privacy rights of our
students, teachers and schools. Creative Communication will not share
any information about our students, teachers or schools with any other
company, individual or agency without the express permission of the
student, teacher or school involved. Home or school addresses will not
be given or shared with any other company, individual or agency for any
purpose. Home address information will only be used by Creative
Communication to contact the winners of the contest and to inform other
high merit entries about the results of the contest and the ensuing
publication. The names of the writing contest winners will be posted on
our website and given to local media after we have permission from the
students to release their names. Please contact Creative Communication
if you have further questions on our privacy policy.
Comments
and suggestions:
webmaster@poeticpower.com
Home | Teachers' Corner | ENTER
OUR CONTEST | Winners
| Order | Contact Us | FAQ | Privacy Policy | Other
Comments
