2017 - 2018 NCRA Young Authors’ Project
“Show Your Strength”
Local Council Guidelines and Responsibilities
The theme for the Young Authors’ Project is “Show Your Strength.” Young Authors are encouraged to write about their personal experiences with perseverance; how they have overcome obstacles; how they found strength in a time of weakness; and/or what inspired them to rise above a particular challenge. Authors may write prose or poetry, fiction or nonfiction.
GUIDELINES
All entries must be original creations.
Only 1 entry per person may be submitted.
All entries must have participated in a local level judging before being submitted to the state judging level.
All entries to the state judging level must be submitted by a member of NCRA.
Format
All entries should:
● Submitted in Microsoft Word format converted to a Google Doc in the Official Young Author Google Folder as provided by the NCRA BOD.
● Use 10 point, “Times New Roman” font, single spaced, for the body of the piece.
● Include an original title, typed in bold, 12 point type, with only the first letter of each major word in the title capitalized.
● Include author information after the body of the piece. Skip two lines and then center the following information in 10 point:
Author’s First and Last Name
Grade
Teacher’s First and Last Name
School
NCRA Member Name
Length of Entries
Grades K – 1: Entries should have no more than 200 words.
Grades 2 – 5: Entries should have no more than 300 words.
Grades 6 - 8: Entries should have no more than 400 words.
Grades 9 – 12 and Forever Young: Entries should have no more than 500 words.
Recommendations by NCRA BOD
● Local councils determine the criteria for maximum number of entries per NCRA member/school at the local levels.
● All local entries will adhere to the NCRA YA Guidelines.
Number of Entries for a Local Council
● The number of Young Authors’ entries your council may submit is determined by the number of members you have in NCRA, based on the previous year’s membership total or this year’s membership figure as of November 1, 2017, whichever is greater.
# of Members / Number of EntriesDeveloping councils (active for 2 years or less) / 10
20 – 75 / 20
76 – 125 / 30
126 – 175 / 40
176 – 225 / 50
226 – 275 / 60
276 – 325 / 70
326 + / 80
Council Choice: 2
Forever Young: no maximum
Council Favorites
● Each council may choose two entries as a Council Choices. They will bypass the judging and automatically be included in the state publication.
● These essays will add two (2) to the numbers above.
● The Council Choice entries must be clearly marked as the “Council Choice” on the submissions on the heading under the “NCRA Member Name’ in ALL CAPS, (COUNCIL CHOICE).
Forever Young Entries
● Forever Young entries do not count toward the number of entries noted above.
● Adult entries should also be judged first at the local council level.
● Forever Young authors must be members of NCRA.
Questions?
Please contact your local council Young Author’s representative for questions or concerns about the Young Authors Project. Please visit the NCRA website www.ncreading.org for a list of local councils and contact information
Young Authors Project Timeline 2017 – 2018
June
● A member of your board should attend the NCRA Leadership conference in June, where information about the project and guidelines for participation will be distributed.
● This information must be passed on to the Young Author’s Chair at each local council.
● Contact Lauren Johnson, with any questions/concerns/requests for help or encouragement.
July/August
● Plan how your council will participate in this project. Decide how you will collect, judge, prepare entries for submission, and celebrate young authors from your local council.
● Create the committees necessary to organize the Young Author’s project and share the workload.
September/October
● Promote the project and distribute guidelines and ideas to your members.
● Encourage participation among your membership.
● Encourage your members to have their own contest at the classroom level, and choose the very best writing to submit to the local council.
● Select a deadline for local submissions that will allow you enough time to judge and correctly format the submissions.
November/December
● Begin to collect writing.
● Each entry must have a Permission Form (see form below) that is filled out completely and it will be kept at the local level.
● Make sure that the form has been signed by each author (regardless of age) and by parent/guardian (for authors under age 18).
● Entries submitted without a complete heading to the state level will not be judged.
● Judge at the local level and choose your state level entries according to allotted membership numbers.
● For state entries, keep a copy for your records.
● Prepare the entries to be submitted to the state level using the specified formatting guidelines.
● We will need contact information for your YA Chair and the names of two people from your local council who will help with the state judging on January 6, 2018.
● You will submit your entries into the specified Google Folder by no later than Friday, December 8, 2017.
● All entries will be listed on the YA Attestation form prior to judging.
January
● Judging will be held in January 6 , 2018, in Raleigh. We will contact you with the specific location/time. Please plan to send at least two representatives from your council to help us with the judging.
● We will notify you as soon as the final decisions have been made.
● Please notify your winners as soon as you receive notification that they will be published, and tell them about the state celebration on Saturday, March 17, 2018, at the Raleigh Convention Center. Registration for authors begins at 1:00 pm. The celebration will begin at 2:00 pm.
February
● Send out invitations to the state Young Authors Celebration, and invite your authors and family members to a local celebration if you are having one.
● There will be a limited number of books for sale at the Celebration; all winners receive a complimentary book, and each participating council will receive a complimentary book.
March
● The Young Authors Celebration will be held at 2:00 on Saturday, March 17, 2018, at the Raleigh Convention Center
● All Young Author Chairs will be recognized at the State Celebration. Please plan to attend or send a representative from your council to take your place. Please arrive by 12:30 to assist with registration and the celebration.
● A council member will need to pick up books/medallions for winners who did not attend.
● Please celebrate your winners and the students/adults who participated in this project at your council level with some kind of recognition ceremony.
Young Author's Permission Form 2017 - 2018
Please fill out this form completely to provide NCRA permission to publish.
Grade Level of Entry: K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Forever Young
(Circle appropriate level)
Title of entry: ______
Author’s name: ______
Author’s home address: ______
______
Author’s email address: ______
Author’s home phone with area code: ______
Complete name of author’s school: ______
Sponsoring NCRA member’s first and name: ______
Sponsoring NCRA Member’s email: ______
Teacher’s Name: ______
Name of the local NCRA Council: ______
Young Authors Chairperson: ______
Permission to Publish: I verify that my entry is my own work and has not been plagiarized. If the Young Authors Committee selects my entry, it will be published in the state book. I understand that all money from the sale of this book will be used for the Young Authors Project.
Author’s Signature: ______Date: ______
Parent’s Signature:______Date: ______