SCRIBO: Entry Rules

Eligibility and Levels

Latin study: Each participant must be enrolled in Latin during the school year in which his/her entry is submitted.

Timing of entries: Entries must be submitted in the school year in which they were created.

Grades: Students in any grade, from kindergarten through college, may participate.

Levels: Entries must be sorted into the following levels which are based on length of time studying Latin and content of the course. Given the wide variety in textbooks, course pacing, structure, and content, it is not possible to list checkpoints like "Chapter 12 of Textbook A", specific course names like "Latin I", or specific grammar points like "accusative case" as being appropriate for certain contest levels. Teachers should use their best judgment based on the guidelines below when placing students in levels. Please contact SCRIBO if you would like assistance in appropriately placing your students, it matters!

  • EXPLORATORY: intended for elementary or middle school students enrolled in a course or program that constitutes substantially less material than a full Latin I course; no student enrolled in Latin I Part A or its general equivalent should be entered on the exploratory level
  • LOWER: intended for students in elementary school, middle school, high school, or college enrolled in a course that studies Latin grammar as its primary goal; no student enrolled in a course that studies advanced Latin literature as its primary goal should be entered on the lower level
  • UPPER: intended for students in high school enrolled in a course that studies advanced Latin literature as its primary goal; no student enrolled in a course that studies Latin grammar as its primary goal should be entered on the upper level

*Exclusions: College students who have completed their study of Latin grammar may not participate. Graduate students may not participate.

Entries

Only one entry per student per year is permissible. No entries by groups of students working together are permissible. Non-compliance with the following rules (especially regarding originality, identifying information, accompanying translations, and length) may be grounds for ineligibility.

Genre: Entries may take the form of short stories, comics, or poems. A comic is defined as a group of cartoons, captioned in Latin, in narrative sequence.

Originality: All entries should be the original work of the individual student alone. Entries may be inspired by other sources, however. Translation of other people's English into Latin is prohibited.

Identifying Information: No information of any kind that would identify the author is permitted on the entry itself (no student names, no school names, etc.)

Accompanying English translations: No English translations may be submitted as part of, or in addition to, the entry.

Suggested resources: Smith's English-Latin Dictionary (Smith & Hall); Latin Sentence and Idiom (R. Colebourn); A New Latin Composition (Bennett); New Latin Grammar (Allen & Greenough). If a work is not on this list, it does not mean that it is not acceptable or valid.

Illustrations: Illustrations are encouraged but not required for all entries. Any artwork submitted with an entry must be original student work, not images taken from internet or textbook resources.

Length: All entries should have a maximum of 1,000 words. All entries should have a maximum of ten pages. Page size should be a maximum of 8.5 x 11".

Submission: Once you submit your registration, you will immediately be given specific instructions as to how to upload your entries via our special website. All entries must be submitted electronically via this special website, by the teacher, in PDF format. (On a PC, use the free program at cutepdf.com or zamzar.com to convert files to PDF. On a Mac, use the "Save as PDF" option in any program.) Do not email entries! Consider having your students submit their entries to you in PDF format so that you don't have to convert a whole series of files! Many of our students know how to do this, and can make your part of the process more streamlined. All entries, once submitted, become the property of Ascanius: The Youth Classics Institute. On the day that results and awards are mailed, ownership over any entry not published on the CD and in the book will revert to the original author.

Re-submission of entries to be published: SCRIBO staff will notify teachers of participants whose entries are selected for publication on the CD and in the book. Those participants must re-submit their entry with the text in a computer-editable format so that any errors in Latin can be corrected before the entry is published. Any entries that do not have typed text will be modified so that the text is typed. SCRIBO reserves the right to make changes for readability and for accessibility of vocabulary. SCRIBO reserves the right to decide the final format of the entries. Failure to re-submit the entry with the text in an editable format may mean the entry will neither win nor be published.

(Acceptable editable formats are: Comic Life, Keynote '09 or earlier, Microsoft PowerPoint 2008 or earlier, Microsoft Publisher 2003 or earlier, Microsoft Word 2008 or earlier, Pages '09 or earlier. It is generally possible to save in an earlier format even if the version of the program the participant owns is newer.)

Editing of Entries Prior to Submission

Editing of all entries prior to submission is strongly encouraged, using a teacher-review or peer-review method.

The reviewer may only give two kinds of help: 1) the reviewer may circle an entire word, phrase, or sentence to indicate that an error is present, and 2) the reviewer may indicate what type of error is present. Under no circumstances may the reviewer indicate how to correct the error or actually make the correction.

The author of the entry alone must be responsible for actually making any recommended changes; no reviewers may take it upon themselves to make changes to entries on their own.

Teachers should plan plenty of time for students to work on contest entries, and should expect that multiple revisions will be necessary over an extended period of time in order to produce the highest quality entries. See Using SCRIBO for sample assignments.

Scoring Rubric

All entries will be judged by Latin teachers and professors who have training in Latin composition and/or oral Latin, using the following categories: grammatical and syntactical accuracy, choice of vocabulary, quality of work, audience appeal. Entries in the running to be in the top 20% will be scored by at least one additional judge.

Click here to download the scoring rubric.

Disqualifications

Entries will be disqualified if they are not submitted by the due date and/or if they do not adhere to the requirements and/or rules. Pay particular attention to the rules regarding editing of entries. No refunds will be issued due to disqualified entries.

Refunds

No refunds will be given for any reason.

Further Information

If you have any questions or concerns, please email scribo@ascaniusyci.org.