Presentations: Overview
Anyone who attends the Sigma Tau Delta International Convention will quickly discover what we have recently confirmed: Sigma Tau Delta members are talented, creative, insightful, intelligent, and amazing writers. Over 800 submissions of papers, creative works, and roundtable proposals were received by the October 28 submission deadline.
The quality of those submissions was very high. We had more than ninety judges to evaluate the submissions, and each submission was read by several evaluators, all using the posted evaluation criteria. The result of the evaluation process is that those works accepted for presentation at the Convention represent the best of the best. Those papers and creative works receiving the highest evaluations will be considered for convention awards. Note that only those works presented at the convention are eligible to receive awards
Regrettably, we do not have the time and space at the Convention to accept everyone's submission, and some works fell short on one or more evaluation criteria. However, we were unable to accept some otherwise excellent works because the submitters failed to follow the instructions given in the Paper Submission Guidelines. Because of the sheer number of evaluations for the submissions, we cannot give individual feedback. We can tell you that the most common problems reported by the evaluators are these:
- Works which exceeded the 2,000 word size limit.
- Works, especially poetry collections, which did not meet the 8-minutes minimum size.
- Works which contained the submitter's name or other identifying information.
The good news is that in February in Savannah, we will all be treated to a display of excellence by Sigma Tau Delta members and alumni.
Sid Watson, 2014 Convention Chair