Hints for Successful Paper Submissions

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You want to submit a paper to the 2016 Sigma Tau Delta Convention? Great!

  1. Start early. In fact, start the minute you read this.
  2. Read “Should I submit to the 2016 Minneapolis Convention?”
  3. Because you can submit only ONE paper (unless the second one is on the Common Reader) you need to make certain that you submit your best work. That means you must select well and revise extensively. No revision will be allowed following submission.
  4. Consult your Chapter Sponsor early and often during the selection and revision of your work. Not only do we Sponsors want your work to be accepted for presentation at the convention, but we have experience in submitting our own works for presentation, we have evaluated innumerable papers, and we can provide you with advice, support, and revision tips.
  5. One option is for you to submit the best work you have already written (with further revision, of course). If you have more than one essay or story or play or collection of poems from which to choose, talk to each of the professors for whom you wrote the works. When you submit a work you have already written, you may have the advantage of a professor’s comments to help guide your revision. You could also go to that professor for additional suggestions for revision. Often our members find that they need to cut their papers to fit the required submission length. To qualify for acceptance, your paper must be within the required word length. You do need to consider carefully how much time it would take to do the revisions necessary to make your paper a convention-ready piece. While you’re revising your paper it is also a good time to remove all identifying marks, such as your name or the name of the class or the professor.
  6. Your Sponsor may be advising several members of your chapter on these submissions, so save your Sponsor some time by narrowing your choices to your strongest, length-appropriate efforts.
    • For critical essays or creative prose, provide your Sponsor with a synopsis of each work, including (as pertinent) your thesis.
    • For collections of poems, avoid bombarding your Sponsor with every poem you’ve ever written—instead, select your strongest works and ask the Sponsor to tag the two or three poems that contribute the most to the collection.
  7. These suggestions will also help you see the focus of your essay or your collection.
  8. A second option is for you to submit part of a longer work. In this case, you need to consider whether the piece will still be effective when it is cut down to under 2,000 words. You also need to consider how much time it will take to reduce the scope and length of the paper or creative work without reducing its quality.
  9. You may also submit ONE additional submission on the 2016 Common Reader, The Soul Thief, by Charles Baxter.
  10. Having the comments of a professor and Sponsor and peer reviewers is absolutely essential to the quality of newly written works.
  11. For all essays, whether new or revised, narrow your thesis in advance so that it lends itself to a paper 7 or 8 pages in length. For a poetry or flash fiction collection, you need to make certain that your presentation takes no less than 8 minutes and no more than 15 minutes. Also, ask for help from trusted resources—the writing center, your chapter members, professors who have helped you with your writing before, and (of course) your Sponsor—as you draft and polish your submission.
  12. If your Sponsor requires applicants to submit to him or her in advance, pay particular attention to those local deadlines. Be prepared for your Sponsor to recommend additional revisions—and plan your time accordingly.
  13. When you submit your work, double check to make certain that you complete all the steps correctly. You don’t want your work to be rejected because you didn’t follow instructions or because your submission was incomplete. Here are tips for avoiding common mistakes made during the submission process:
    • Do make sure your essay or creative work is listed in the correct topic category.
    • Do keep prose submissions under 2,000 words (not counting title, notes, and bibliography).
    • Do make sure your poetry or flash fiction collection will use at least 8 minutes and no more than 15 minutes of reading time.
    • Do place collections of poems or flash fiction in one document.
    • Do give your submission a document name under 50 characters. This will be the title of your work in the program.
    • Do select the appropriate keywords from the drop down menus.
    • Do put page numbers on your submission.
    • Do NOT put your name on any of the pages of the piece being submitted.
    • Do NOT use your name as the document name.
    • Do NOT send more than one submission unless one work is submitted under the topic of “Common Reader.”

Mark the October 26, 2015, deadline at 11:59 p.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT) for submission on your calendar now! You should, however, aim for submitting your work to the convention long before that October 26 deadline. The Convention Chair and the Central Office receive questions up to the deadline at [email protected]. The earlier you begin planning your submission, the longer you have to ask questions.