Excellence in News Writing

General News Writing (9A)

13 entries

Sadly, this category was very uneven. Some entries were clearly written and interesting, while others were written well but focused on very run of the mill subjects that you wouldn't expect to see in a competition of this caliber, and still others just didn't cut it. One submitter provided only one sample with little supporting documentation. And there was a fairly clear dividing line between the larger, news-producing research universities and smaller institutions that did not have the same wealth of subject matter from which to draw.

Gold Medal

Duke University

• The releases were well written on topics pertinent to the general public, or were written to be relevant to this audience.
• Strong, compelling lead paragraphs
• Introductions and headlines were appropriate for subject matter – those that required a serious tone were written as such; other topics with a certain amount of levity drew readers in with cleaver and original ledes.
• Good, meaty subjects presented well.
• The entry was organized well, with a good representative sampling of some strong media hits.

Research, Medicine, and Science News Writing (9B)

20 entries

Many of the entries were of superior quality. Given the opportunity the judges would have given out six to eight awards (Judging requirements kept the total number of winners to 10 percent of the number of entries) - an just about any of these could be viewed as a standard by which science stories should be pitched. The entries were that good in terms of interesting subject matter, crisp writing, organization of the entry, and media attention drawn to the subject. Very impressive. All those who entered and were not acknowledged should take solace in the knowledge that this was by no means testimony to the lack of quality, but rather recognition of a very competitive category with outstanding entries.

Gold Medal

Stanford University School of Medicine

• Very comprehensive writing on complex science research in a tone and in language that was easy to read and comprehend.
• Content written extremely well with goal to interest a target set of editors/reporters.
• In a category with many superb entries, this was an outstanding entry.

Silver Medal

University at Buffalo/SUNY

• Pieces effectively written in the tone of a true news article, which brings the reader in.
• “Lying” news release was particularly well-written.
• A wonderful breadth of subjects written and presented very well, and rightfully drawing good media attention.