You may have a great initiative, but if you don’t sell it well, it runs the risk of falling to bottom of the judge’s pile. Here’s a guide for how to make your entry stand out and increase your chances of being shortlisted among hundreds of entries.
Do:
• Leave yourself enough time to put together a solid entry
• Clearly outline what your project is in the opening few sentences
• Tell us why it’s important
• Describe the impact it had
• Adopt a conversational style
• Spell out acronyms
• Use specific examples
• Proofread
• Get a colleague to read through your application. Do they understand what this project is about and why it’s important?
Don’t:
• Use cliches, jargon and academic language
• Ramble or repeat yourself just to max out the word limit
• Be vague
• Copy large chunks of text from other sources
• Provide unnecessary context about how the sector has changed over the past 10 years – you are talking to experts who already know this, and it just wastes valuable space (each box has a word limit).
Here are some top tips from past judges:
“Keep examples concrete and specific. Avoid abstract nouns and unsubstantiated claims - ‘we mounted the best campaign of its kind in a challenging environment’ is simply a waste of words.
“Back up your claims with statistics wherever possible. Show us what change looks like - if, for example, you think your project made a difference to the lives of students, give examples of what they were doing before and what they are doing now.” Judy Friedberg, universities editor, the Guardian
“This may seem obvious, but entries need to be simply written and easy to read. Subject specific jargon and sentence after sentence of acronyms make it hard to understand. Please do give vivid examples of what the project has achieved and who or what it has made a difference to.
“Even if the potential of a piece of research or project has not yet been fully realised, it’s incredibly helpful to be able to understand its impact.
“Essentially, the question an entry needs to address throughout is ‘why does this project matter’ – as well as being able to explain the creativity, flair and application that’s been required to achieve it.” Louise Tickle, Guardian freelance journalist
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