WVW Contest F.A.Q. #25

Continuing the series of Frequently Asked Questions about the West Virginia Writers, Inc., Annual Writing Competitions.  To see all of the questions, please click HERE.

QUESTION:  I read that the entrant's name should be nowhere except the entry form. How do judges and contest officials know which entry belongs to each person?

ANSWER:  Part of the duties of the contest coordinator is to maintain a database for the contest which includes cataloging each entry as it arrives, using the information supplied on the contest entry form.  The coordinator assigns each contest entry its own individual code which is written on the first page of that entry before being placed in the box for the contest category for that entry.  (Basically, in my office are 16 category boxes in which the entries are stored until it is time to send them out to judges.)  So only the contest coordinator knows which entries are by which authors.  The judges never know who the author is, so they can remain completely impartial in their evaluation of the entries for their category.  At the end of their evaluation, they send only the codes for the winning and honorable mention stories, indicating the ranking order.