Excellence in News Writing

Science, Research and Medical News Writing

There were a lot of outstanding entries in this subcategory with a wide range of topics.

Gold Medal

Stanford School of Medicine

• Stanford's samples were well-worded and well written. They had engaging, interesting topics and made difficult concepts accessible. They showed how well they had achieved the objectives stated in the entry form.

Silver Medal

University of California, Berkeley

• Berkeley's samples were somewhat unique in that they wrote for an erudite audience; they didn't "dumb things down," yet the complex material was extremely readable. Their topics were very newsworthy with significant impact, and they did a great job showcasing how they achieved their objectives.

General News Writing

This category was difficult to judge because so many of the entries didn't seem to know exactly the definition of "general news writing." There were a number of entries that combined Science, Research and Medical pieces with general news pieces to reach the five sample mark. In general, they also were not as well written as the entries in the Science, Research and Medical News Writing subcategory. Because the overall quality was less, no gold medal was selected from this category.

Silver Medal

Florida State University

• Florida State's samples included good, engaging leads, a nice tone and solid writing. They were just a nice read overall. They showed how well they had achieved the objectives stated in the entry form.

Bronze Medal

University of California, Berkeley

• Berkeley's samples were very news-oriented (one of the only ones to really "get" the subcategory in the judges' opinions). They were longer pieces, but the organization and tone made them easy to read. They were widely published, meeting one of the university's main objectives.