Question about Contest Requirements

Hi Liz,

My students are wondering about the requirements for submitting poetry. Since they want to make sure everything is done correctly, on one part of the application it says poems do not need to be double spaced, but under guidelines it says everything must be double spaced. They also want to know if they can use a larger font for the title on the top or if everything needs to be in 12 font. Thanks, Joni Whalin

Great question, Joni!   It is fine to single space poems.  If the title is larger than 12 point it’s acceptable.  We only have a problem when students turn in manuscripts that are smaller than 12 point.  (It’s hard on our eyes to read so many manuscripts with anything less than 12 point page after page . . .)

When a student turns in a five page short story with LESS than 12 point font that story isn’t even read by any of the judges.   But a poem is MUCH easier to read.   I can see how it can be confusing.  We read all poems if they are single or double spaced because of the way the guidelines are written.   But since you’ve mentioned it and it can be confusing, we will “re-word” this next year.  Thanks for pointing this out to us!