KNIGHTS WIN! KNIGHTS WIN!
The McCallum High School (Austin, Texas) news staff celebrates its Blue and Gold Staff Excellence Award as well as its numerous Gold Keys from the 2018 Quill and Scroll Writing, Photo and Multimedia Contest. Adviser David Winter (back left) exchanges high fives with a student, blocking another student from expressing his thrill of victory. (Photo courtesy David Winter)
The 2019 Quill and Scroll International Writing, Photo and Multimedia Contest is now CLOSED!
Thanks for entering, we had 2,202 entries from more than 100 schools this year. Our judges will get all the entries by Feb. 11, and results should be ready by mid-March. The 2019 competitions included 30 categories, including the 23 from the 2018 competition plus seven new categories, including more design, more video news and audio podcasting. See categories below.
Details for the Junior High/Middle School Contest will be available in March 2019
DETAILS
- Currently enrolled high school students, including Quill and Scroll members and non-members, are invited to enter the 2019 International Writing, Photo and Multimedia Contest.
- Award divisions include writing (features, opinion, sports) and photography published in newspapers, news magazines and online, blogging and other skill sets employed in contemporary scholastic journalism.
- Sweepstakes winners receive a framed certificate.
- Blue and Gold Award winning schools will receive a plaque.
- All individual winners receive a Quill and Scroll National Award Gold Key and, as seniors, they are eligible to apply for one of the scholarships offered by Quill and Scroll.
- Work appearing online or in print is acceptable. It should have been published between Feb. 1, 2018 and Feb. 1, 2019.
- The deadline for entries is Feb. 6, 2019.
Save time by entering the Writing, Photo and Multimedia Contest and News Media Evaluation as a package. More information included in the School Registration Form.
2019 CONTEST RULES AND INSTRUCTIONS
(PLEASE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE STARTING)
- Deadline — Entries must be submitted online no later than Feb. 6, 2019.
- Forms — There are two forms to complete.
- On the left is the School Registration Form. Fill that out once. Make sure you know how many entries you will have before you complete it. You may also use it to register for the 2019 News Media Evaluation. Read about the NME at this link.
- On the right is the Student Entry Form. This is for each individual entry. There is no limit on the number of entries per school, but the form takes only 20 entries per session. If you have between 21 and 40 entries, you will complete the form twice. If you have between 41 and 60 entries, three times, and so on. Once you have completed the final entry or the 20th entry per session — whichever comes first — be sure to hit “NO” and then wait for a “SUBMIT” button to appear. If you do not hit “SUBMIT” for each session, your entries will not populate our database.
- Entry fee — There is a $5 fee per entry. Entries not accompanied by the school entry form and entry fee will be disqualified.
- Publication — Each entry must have been published in a high school or professional newspaper, news magazine or online between Feb. 1, 2018 and Feb. 1, 2019 and must be the work of a high school student enrolled at the time of publication. Each writing entry must be the work of one student only, except in the Editorial Writing and In-Depth Reporting/Team categories.
- Number of entries — There is no limit on entries to a category per school. However, a single student can enter up to four entries into each category.
- Uploading entries — All entries must be submitted electronically via a shareable link. Make sure that you choose the proper category for your entry. Judges are instructed to disqualify entries that don’t fit into the category they are judging.
- In order to submit online stories or photos (or stories that ran both in print and online), simply paste the link to the online story into the proper line on the 2019 Entry Form. OR
- To submit stories or photos from print publications, you must upload all files to a storage system (Box.com, dropbox.com, Google Drive, etc.) that will generate a shareable URL that you can enter into the 2019 Entry Form on the Quill and Scroll website (quillandscroll.com). Here’s an example of a shareable link from Google Drive: (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M6oFtFzJL1G1177kklWESP_uevigdfvMjsWJaqRa_5yPFnQGgED8ft53f19VXpICdTu6wB6g76AVeZV1/view) Simply click the link icon next to “Get shareable link.” Copy the link and paste it into the entry form. Make sure the link is public so that our judges can view it.
- Entries improperly identified will be disqualified.
- Submission, Writing Categories — If the story ran in print only, submit the shareable link to the complete page on which the entry appears. Clearly identify the entry to be judged by typing the headline into the proper line on the 2019 Entry Form. If the story ran online, paste the link to the online story into the 2019 Entry Form.
- Submission, Photo Categories — If the photo ran in a print publication only, submit a shareable link of the complete page it ran on and identify the photo by giving it a title that corresponds to keywords in the cutline/caption. You may also provide a shareable link to a complete version of the photo itself to make easier the judge’s job of identifying the proper photo on a page and to eliminate any problems in the printing process that may have nothing to do with the quality of the photo.
- Submission, Multimedia Categories — Simply provide us a link to the online video, podcast, photo slideshow or other digital media entry. It may also be a link to a cloud storage system URL.
- Submission, Design Categories — Upload the page design to your cloud storage and copy the shareable link into the 2019 Entry Form.
- Winners — All winning entries are automatically eligible for the 2019 Quill and Scroll Journalism Sweepstakes awards. Only winners will be notified.
- Rights — Your entries become the property of Quill and Scroll Society. We reserve the right to use entries in QUILL & SCROLL magazine and in other media.
CATEGORIES
WRITING
- Editorial Writing
- News Writing
- Feature Writing
- Opinion Column
- Review Column
- In-Depth — Individual Reporting
- In-Depth — Team Reporting
- Sports Writing
- Profile Writing
- Political Writing
- Health, Science and Agricultural Writing
- Blogging
PHOTO
13. News Feature Photo
14. Sports Action Photo
15. Sports Reaction Photo
16. Photo Illustration
MULTIMEDIA
17. Photo Slideshow
18. Video News Package
19. Video Sports Package
20. Video Features Package
21. Audio Podcast: Series
22. Audio Podcast: Single Episode
DESIGN
23. Editorial Cartoon
24. Advertisement
25. Informational Graphic
26. News Magazine Front Page Design
27. Newspaper Front Page Design
28. Feature Page Design
29. Sports Page Design
30. Editorial Page Design
2018 winners are now online!
And here’s a slideshow of the 2018 winners so you can see what the judges awarded. The slideshow includes links to all the written pieces, as well as complete views of the visual winners.
GOLD KEYS and the opportunity to apply for college journalism scholarships were awarded to 321 writers, photographers and designers in the 2018 Quill and Scroll Writing, Photography and Multimedia Contest.
Of the 2,065 entries received by Quill and Scroll, judges recognized 259 across 23 categories as winners. Students were recognized as Sweepstakes Winners (first place), Second Place, Third Place and Honorable Mention.
Sweepstakes winners (except in the In-Depth Team category where each student will receive a special certificate) receive a plaque. All individual winners receive a Gold Key.
Gold Key winners are eligible as seniors to apply for one of the Edward J. Nell or George and Ophelia Gallup Memorial journalism scholarships. Read about them and apply here.
If you would like a slideshow of the winners, with links to all the writing entries as well as full visual representation of the visual entries, please email Executive Director Jeff Browne.
