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Welcome to the first Fundamentals of Journalism Writing Contest!

Helium is pleased to announce this writing contest in honor of our new partnership with the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

Note: This contest is open only to SPJ members who have joined Helium, members with the Professional Journalist badge and participants from the first SPJ contest.

The Society of Professional Journalists is the nation’s most broad-based journalism organization, dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior. Read more about SPJ here.

These titles represent many aspects of journalism, from landing your first job to interviewing techniques.

Start writing now (and get those Upfront Payments if you’ve got your rating star!). Be the first to write to any of these titles and get the Empty Title Bonus.

The first Fundamentals of Journalism Writing Contest consists of one contest of 15 titles. Prizes for the contest are $100 for first place, $50 for second and $25 for third-place winners.

Contest submission period starts at 14:00 GMT, Wednesday, July 15, and closes for submissions three weeks later, on Tuesday, August 4, at 23:59 GMT. (Figure your local time from GMT here.) Winners will be announced Wednesday, August 12.

When contests shift to the “Awaiting Calculation” status, all titles within that contest will be closed to further submissions and Leapfrogs. This will allow the rating system to fairly evaluate the submitted articles. Once the contest is closed and the results announced, the titles to that contest will reopen for general writing submissions.

A few words about contest points:

• Points will be awarded for articles rated in the top 55% for each title—the higher your rank at contest end, the more points you earn. But watch out: You’ll get negative points for articles ranked by your peers in the lower 45%.
• New articles are always inserted at the 50th percentile; as a result, a new article will not earn or lose points until the community has rated the article against other articles submitted to the same title.
• Ties in ratings can and do occur. These ties are not displayed as a tie on the site. To illustrate, consider the case of a tie in ratings when there are only two articles to a title. It is possible that neither article will earn points because they are tied and each is considered at the 50th percentile even though one is displayed above the other.

Looking for more great prospects for writing and earning? Check out Helium Marketplace, where Helium teams you up with publishers looking for freelancers.

Be sure to read a copy of Helium’s Writing Standards before you enter the contest.

This week's contest titles: