Q) Do I care what my scores are? A) Yes. I want to do as well as possible!
Then you need to write your documentation with a scoresheet in hand so that you go through the sheet point by point and answer questions keeping in mind the following:
1. Judges say they want to read your docs but so very many of them don't have the time. 2. Many judges don't know how to read research docs and thus skip over stuff, scoring you lower as a result because they didn't read the stuff they skipped over. 3. You need to write your docs for a judge that has NO CLUE what the subject matter is. Literally. As in, "Hey, Bob's here and Joe and Pete are already judging 6 topics. Let's put Bob on this one because he won't hurt anyone's feelings." Sad but true, I know.
I would even go so far as to say that if you structure your docs to look exactly like a judging sheet with answers, you'd have 99% of the battle down and could spend 1% of the time on smoothing it to look like a real research paper and not a judging sheet with answers.
The reason I'm saying all these things, and I know they all sound bad, is because I've gone through these things from both ends, as submitter and as judge. Some of it was VERY recent, some within the last 5 years, and some old news. But ultimately this is what drives me to say it to you (aside from the fact that I like you and think you're cool):
I see cool stuff like this that you're interested in and I want to see you continue. I don't want to see you get to Regional or even Kingdom and get some yutz judge, have some horrible experience, or otherwise become so disheartened by something that might happen (and it might not!) that you never continue with this again. If you don't continue with this kind of work, I want it to be because (1) you're simply not interested in going further or (2) you had ferret shock (Oooh shiny, let's do this other thing instead!).
Having a judging sheet in front of me when I write is a good idea. I'll read up on all the A&S stuff I can find before I do my outline. Also, for extra shiny points: Shawn was telling me that some guy named Dirk does all his own alloys using period scales. I'm thinking of getting a hold of him and seeing what kind accuracy he can get with the scales and alloys, then factor those in when I make my alloys at Tomak's.
A) Yes. I want to do as well as possible!
Then you need to write your documentation with a scoresheet in hand so that you go through the sheet point by point and answer questions keeping in mind the following:
1. Judges say they want to read your docs but so very many of them don't have the time.
2. Many judges don't know how to read research docs and thus skip over stuff, scoring you lower as a result because they didn't read the stuff they skipped over.
3. You need to write your docs for a judge that has NO CLUE what the subject matter is. Literally. As in, "Hey, Bob's here and Joe and Pete are already judging 6 topics. Let's put Bob on this one because he won't hurt anyone's feelings." Sad but true, I know.
I would even go so far as to say that if you structure your docs to look exactly like a judging sheet with answers, you'd have 99% of the battle down and could spend 1% of the time on smoothing it to look like a real research paper and not a judging sheet with answers.
The reason I'm saying all these things, and I know they all sound bad, is because I've gone through these things from both ends, as submitter and as judge. Some of it was VERY recent, some within the last 5 years, and some old news. But ultimately this is what drives me to say it to you (aside from the fact that I like you and think you're cool):
I see cool stuff like this that you're interested in and I want to see you continue. I don't want to see you get to Regional or even Kingdom and get some yutz judge, have some horrible experience, or otherwise become so disheartened by something that might happen (and it might not!) that you never continue with this again. If you don't continue with this kind of work, I want it to be because (1) you're simply not interested in going further or (2) you had ferret shock (Oooh shiny, let's do this other thing instead!).
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He's so going to hear that phrase all the time from me now.
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Also, for extra shiny points: Shawn was telling me that some guy named Dirk does all his own alloys using period scales. I'm thinking of getting a hold of him and seeing what kind accuracy he can get with the scales and alloys, then factor those in when I make my alloys at Tomak's.
Thanks for the support.
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