A contest that is organized with the objective of rewarding a work or an activity is called a contest . The term derives from the Latin word certāmen .
For example: “The winner of the literary contest will be announced tomorrow afternoon in an event that will take place at the municipal cultural center,” “When I was a girl I won an interschool artistic gymnastics contest,” “The dance contest will award ten thousand pesos.” as a prize.”
The contests usually consist of a demonstration of skills or abilities by the contestants. These skills can be captured, in some cases, in different material or digital media : a text document with a poem, a sound recording with a song, etc. The people who choose the winner of the contest form the jury of the contest in question. These are generally individuals with authority in the matter.
Take the case of a novel contest. Participants must send their works to the organizers, who in turn make the material available to the jury. The members of the jury, in this framework, read the novels sent to the contest and, after analyzing them and deliberating among themselves, announce the name of the distinguished author.
It is common for competitions to reward the winner in some way. Many times the prize is a sum of cash and some object of symbolic value, such as a medal or a diploma . In the case of literature contests, the prize frequently consists of the publication and distribution of the winning work.
The competitions have various rules , each one its own, and are developed in several well-defined stages. It is important to emphasize the need to comply with the rules established by the institution that organizes them, since in some cases a small error is enough for a participant to be excluded from the contest .
Given the volume of people who can participate in some competitions, especially when they have an international scope, it is reasonable to frame them within a series of unbreakable rules; If each person were allowed to act in a different way, then organization would become practically impossible.
The first stage of a literature contest, for example, begins with the submission of works by the candidates for the prize. Here, in turn, certain phases are distinguished that relate to the preparation of the written material and the chosen delivery method. For example, it is common for one of the rules to be to send one or more hard copies along with one in digital format, and this is not optional.
This first requirement involves a monetary investment that in most cases does not result in any benefit , since only a few winners are chosen from hundreds of participants and the works of the rest are thrown into the wastebasket. Precisely, the need to spend money, both on printing, binding and shipping the work, is one of the reasons why many people back out, decide not to participate, and this represents the first filter of the contest. .
Another requirement of this first stage revolves around the way in which the documents must be presented: the work must be accompanied by a file with the author's information, generally inside a sealed envelope to maintain anonymity until it is chosen. the winner, since pseudonyms are preferred until then.
The announcement of the winners of a contest can be carried out in many ways, and depends on their importance. Generally, the statement is broadcast on television, or in the press, both printed and digital.