Number of awards
KSPA will urge judges in all contests and classifications to award 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th place.
However, some judges will decide to award fewer than six places. In the past, some judges have cited these reasons for not awarding all six places:
- a small number of entries in a specific category and division
- entries that did not follow instructions
- lack of quality from entries
This circumstance — with fewer than six award winners — is more common in Regional Contests than the State Contest. Advisers should be aware that it is possible and that we will follow up with judges to request they submit six award winners unless one of bullet points above applies to the category they are judging.
Authentic Captions
Regarding all photography and multimedia contests: when writing captions for the images or completing the multimedia coverage, there is no need to change the name of the school or the people in the photo to make the entry anonymous. Jerseys, t-shirts and signs in the photos often make it obvious to the judge what school is entering the contest. Students: please write the coverage and caption as you would for your publication. Also, students and advisers should know that captions are part of the judging criteria.
Regional Contest contact information
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Questions about registration, payment or substitutions?
The University of Kansas and KSPA’s office in Stauffer-Flint Hall are operating with modified and unpredictable hours due to the pandemic. Our staff is working remotely, except for occasional visits to campus. However, please continue mailing any checks to our mailing address below:
- KSPA, 1435 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence KS 66045
And you can reach executive director Eric Thomas and administrative assistant Kerry Navinskey by phone at (785) 864-0605 or via email at staff@kspaonline.org.
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Getting organized
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Please refer to the 2021 Regional Contest Results to find students who qualified for the State Contest. Only entries that qualified through Regionals can participate in the State Contest.
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Writing Categories
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Nine Writing Categories, most of them previously called “on-site” contests, will be offered. Prompts will be published at 3 p.m. on April 16 and remain available for submission until 11 p.m. Monday, April 19. Submission of entries will occur through an online form that will open Feb. 19 at 3 p.m. This form is different from the BNC submission website used for Visual categories.
- Category W1: Copyediting
- Category W2: Sports Writing
- Category W3: Yearbook Copy
- Category W4: Feature Writing
- Category W5: News Writing
- Category W6: Cutline Writing
- Category W7: Editorial Writing
- Category W8: Yearbook Sports Writing
- Category W9: Review Writing
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Visual Categories
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Sixteen Visual Categories, previously called “digital submission” contests, will be offered. The prompts for all Visual Categories were published March 12. All entries are due — through submission to the BNC contest system — by 11 p.m. Feb. 21.
- Category V01: At One With Nature (previously, Academics Photography)
- Category V02: Advertising Design
- Category V03: Digital Illustration (previously, Photo Illustration)
- Category V04: Editorial Cartoon (previously, an “on-site” category)
- Category V05: Headline Writing & Design
- Category V06: Infographic Design
- Category V07: Multimedia Storytelling (previously, a “state-only” category)
- Category V08: News Page Design
- Category V09: Social Media (can be a team of up to four, or an entire staff)
- Category V10: Sports Photography
- Category V11: Student Life Photography
- Category V12: Video News (can be a team of up to four)
- Category V13: Video PSA (can be a team of up to four)
- Category V14: Video Sports Promo (can be a team of up to four)
- Category V15: Yearbook Design (previously, “Yearbook Layout”)
- Category V16: Yearbook Theme & Graphics (can be team of up to two)
Entries to Visual Categories are submitted using BetterBNC Media Awards Platform. The system will allow for secure submissions, quick judging and high-quality feedback. This document provides in-depth instructions, including video tutorials.
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Judging Rubrics
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During a normal State Contest, judges use paper copies of rubrics to provide feedback to students about Writing categories. That will not be possible this year. However, you can reference the rubrics to see the qualities that judges usually seek. Here are rubrics and some comments that judges often make. (Please note that some rubrics are still being developed for newly added categories.)
For the Visual categories, you can reference our pre-written judging comments. These comments are used by judges to provide feedback to students on their entries through the BNC submission website. You can use the tabs at the bottom of the document to choose the Visual category that you would like to learn about.
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Entry limit
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A particular student may only participate in five total categories, whether individually or as a team.
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Fees & Costs
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The fee for each entry is $12.
KSPA understands that statewide school closures mean that finances and contest payments will be unpredictable. During these extraordinary times, KSPA is dedicated to encouraging journalists through contests. Schools will receive their feedback even if payment is pending. However, awards will be withheld until payment is received.
- Payment may be made online by credit card at the time of registration.
- For payment by check, please make checks payable to “KSPA” and send the check to KSPA, 1435 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 318, Lawrence, KS 66045.
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Writing Categories: Rules & Tips
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- Cutline Writing: Students will write cutlines for five photos provided. Students may use dictionary, thesaurus and AP Stylebooks.
- Copyediting Contest: Students will complete two different tasks in this contest (a previous example can be found here). First, students will respond to 25 different multiple choice questions with possible errors in AP style, accuracy, libel, attribution, grammar, spelling and redundancy. Students will respond with the best answer, which could be “no change” to the existing sentence. Students will also read a sample story. In response to the sample story, the student will provide feedback, coaching, notes of caution and encouragement to the writer. Students may use dictionary, thesaurus and AP style manuals.
- Other Writing Contests: (Yearbook copy, yearbook sports, feature, news, sports and editorial writing contests). Students will write a story based on information provided on a fact sheet. Students may use dictionary, thesaurus and AP Stylebooks.
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Past Regional & State Prompts
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Want a preview of what the Writing Category prompts will be like? Want a classroom activity for your students? Need an emergency lesson plan?
KSPA has a page of prompts from previous state and regional contests for you. We will continue to add to the collection as we search through our archives. ONE IMPORTANT NOTE: please notice that some of the rules and formats for the contests have changed (most notably for the Copyediting On-Site Contest). Be sure to read all directions for this year’s contest for guidance.
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Simply Better
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Check out our “Simply Better” pages, a showcase of the award-winning entries from previous Regional and State competitions. These examples can be used as classroom examples for students who will compete in State.
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Thanks
The KSPA staff and board look forward to gathering together like “normal” in upcoming years. And we commend the students and advisers participating in the contest for their energy and strength during the pandemic.
Sincerely,

Eric Thomas
KSPA Executive Director