Entering a journalism awards contest may seem daunting and perhaps even presumptuous.
But veteran journalists and honorees of the Education Writers Association’s National Awards for Education Reporting recommend several techniques to make the process easy and inspiring — and improve your chances of impressing the judges.
The most important tip is simply to enter. You can’t win if you don’t. And even if you don’t win, you’ll get your work in front of veteran journalists and editors who may be looking for new talent.
Here’s what to know:
Choose Stories to Submit
EWA Awards judges Larry Gordon, Denise Zapata and David Jesse shared this advice. The latter won the 2018 Ronald Moskowitz Prize for Outstanding Beat Reporting.
- Set aside an hour or two to review all the stories you produced in the last year. At the very least, reminding yourself of pieces from many months ago may spark follow-up story ideas. You should find it inspiring to see all the hard work and terrific stories you did!
- Be selective in choosing which stories and story elements (video, graphics, etc.) to include in an entry. More is not always better. Don’t let one average piece hold down three really great pieces. If a contest allows you to submit up to four pieces, only send four if all are really good. If only three are, send them.
- Screen for stories with compelling tops. If you used an anecdotal lede, opt for pieces that grab readers’ attention and get to the point fairly quickly.
- Look for pieces that offer fresh approaches or perspectives when submitting an entry on a topic that has received widespread coverage (such as the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education).
- Try to submit stories that tackle topics rarely covered elsewhere or unique to your coverage area. For example, stories about the federal shutdown/freezes/executive orders should break news or have a fresh angle (localizing a national story is not unique).
Write Your Cover Letter
Gordon, Zapata and Jesse also shared these tips to help reporters draft cover letters:
- Highlight the impact of your work: If your story resulted in new laws, criminal charges, or another significant action, clearly and succinctly explain that impact in your cover letter.
- Do not oversell your entry: Avoid claiming you broke a story if you did not, for example. Our judges tend to be veteran and experienced education journalists, and Google is a handy tool.
- Avoid making assumptions: Don’t assume the judges – who may not be familiar with your community – know about your story or its context. Explain why the topic was of interest to your particular readers.
- Review your cover letter: If possible, ask someone to copy edit your letter. This will help you avoid typos and grammatical mistakes.
Listen to These EWA Awards Judges, Too
Judges Jenny Abamu, Morgan Matzen, Bill Zeeble, Jennifer Smith Richards and Reeve Hamilton previously shared awards application tips for EWA social media Q&As.
Read a sampling of their application tips here, and see their full responses on Instagram.
On cover letters:
- Jenny Abamu, WAMU: Highlight the obstacles and challenges you faced: Discuss any hurdles you overcame, whether logistical, ethical or personal, to uncover the story. This can help illustrate your tenacity and commitment to getting the story. Outline and, if possible, quantify the impact: If your story led to policy changes, community action or sparked important conversations, include those outcomes. Numbers, public response, or any real-world impact can provide a concrete sense of how far your story reached.
- Former education journalist Reeve Hamilton (Cornell Engineering): The cover letter is your chance to tell the judges what came before and after your stories.The judges will read the stories, so there’s no need for you to review what’s in there. But the stories themselves can’t convey all of the effort that went into putting them together or – most importantly – their impact. That’s where your cover letter comes in. It’s your opportunity to clearly convey the context and influence of your work – and having that information can make a difference when the judges are submitting their scores.
- Morgan Matzen, Argus Leader: Give the judges what they can’t get in the story. I’m always interested to read cover letters that detail how the journalists got tipped off about the story, what difficulties they faced along the way, what emotions they felt, what distances they traveled, what lengths they went to get the information, how their sources reacted and maybe even what impacts their articles made in their local communities. You can give the nutgraf in the cover letter, and maybe pull out a few surprising facts or bits of the storytelling from your article that will pop, but don’t rewrite the whole thing or praise yourself too much.
- Bill Zeeble, KERA News: Dear wonderful education reporter! Submit a cover letter telling us pertinent important stuff we cannot guess from your entry. Tell us how you FOUND the story you reported on and WHY you felt it was worth pursuing. In the cover letter, don’t tell us what you discovered. That’ll be in the story (stories) you submitted. Also in the cover letter, let us know if the story (stories) prompted any changes in: education policy, school district policy, even state laws. In other words – your story (stories) were published/aired/were podcasts. The end.
On selecting awards categories and strategies for particular categories:
Choosing a category with Jenny Abamu of WAMU:
- Align your story with the award criteria: Carefully review the awards descriptions and criteria to ensure your entry fits the specific category. Matching your submission to the objectives of the award category can significantly improve your chances.
- Seek feedback from peers: If you’re unsure which category your work fits into, seek advice from colleagues or previous awards winners. They may offer insights that help you refine your submission.
- Consider the broader message: Look at your story through the lens of the different categories. Sometimes the same piece can fit multiple categories, but it’s important to think about which aspect of the story you want to highlight—investigative rigor, storytelling or community engagement.
Beat Reporting:
- While it is important to show breadth, these awards ultimately reward quality, not quantity. So, only put your best work forward. Don’t pad your submission with less-than-excellent stories just to show that you’ve written a lot – it could end up counting against you.
– Reeve Hamilton, Cornell Engineering
Feature:
- I love reading feature stories that actually feature a person or people. Features should take an in-depth look at what it’s like to walk a mile in the subject’s shoes, to face the subject’s dilemma or issue, or live a day in the subject’s life. Sometimes, features can “feature” places or ideas, too, but these stories should remain more human-centered. A huge accountability piece, breaking news event, in-depth series or investigation should go in the news {now explanatory} and investigation categories, not features.
– Morgan Matzen, Argus Leader
Investigative Reporting:
- You want to choose stories that showcase reporting that exposes something previously unknown or hidden. It helps to ask yourself: Did this story reveal wrongdoing? Did it tell the public something vitally important that they wouldn’t have known otherwise? If the answer is yes, your stories are probably a great fit for this category.
– Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica
Student Journalism:
- Go ahead and do it. Putting together awards submissions is its own skill, and it requires practice. Of course, if you’re going to put in the effort, you should try to win. Take it seriously, and don’t be shy about saying why you’re proud of your work and why it matters to your particular community. Also know that most submissions don’t win – and if yours ends up being one of those submissions this time around, that is in no way a signal that you were wrong to be proud of your work or that you shouldn’t keep at it and try again next year.
– Reeve Hamilton, Cornell Engineering
- Students! A student category isn’t a trap. It isn’t shameful. It’s for students. If you are a student, enter as such. If you are a finalist, you’re among the nation’s top student entrants. If you win, you are the top student entrant. If your entry gets picked to be in the student competition, yours is an exceptional entry, in the correct category.
– Bill Zeeble, KERA News
