by Tony Duthoo Copyright � 2004 by
Tony Duthoo. All rights
reserved.
As an award giver, we take each applicant
through a process of review until we come to the point of,
"Eureka! We have a winner!" We then all open our
email browser and start writing.
But writing
what?
The fact is that
it's not only those shiny plaques with gold, silver or
bronze on them that makes the award seeker proud, nor is it
those shiny rating badges that we, as award givers, like to
stress about so much. (Although those have their
importance, too, without any doubt, if we're really honest.)
No, my friends, the way you communicate your message as a
judge or as an award giver is equally important, if not more
important, to award seekers looking for recognition and/or
praise.
Now, is this an easy task? Most definitely not! More and
more, we see hollow phrases as, "Good navigation! Nice
design!" or "Your site is a wonderful contribution to the
World Wide Web," repeated infinitely with each winner 'till
Hell freezes over.
These are not comments that will warm an applicant's heart!
They will not make them feel overcome with joy and pride!
An applicant is not a foolish being that cannot see the
difference between genuine, unique wording and
parrot-talk!
A real laudation, one that is as it is meant to be... is
unique. A one-of-a-kind piece, tailored precisely to the
applicant's profile, just as a suit on Savil Row. The
making of such is, without any doubt, more demanding then
the review itself was or can ever be.
How do we write such masterpieces, I hear you ask? Only
after thorough planning and clear reflection can this task
be done. The most important step, obviously, is to seek the
best in the applicant's site by extracting all positive
elements, one by one. You then interlink these in an
article that will feel as an angel's touch to the applicant
and in which YOUR opinion as the award reviewer and giver
can be clearly heard. A unique opinion, just as that
applicant's site is unique.
Here are a few examples from my own award program, Vie's
Inn of Wonders' Awards. I do like to point out that
these examples are not universal truths. Laudations are the
outcome of a single award review, made in direct
relationship with that award program's purpose and
criteria. So please see these examples only as guides that
can tailor your own words.
Example 1: The Santharian Dream
What were the positive elements that I found? Obviously,
you can talk about the nice design and navigation. But I,
as a big fan of fantasy-literature, was most impressed by
the concept behind it: creating a full fantastic world with
people, places, magic and more. So this is what the
laudation turned out to be:
"Saying I
was impressed to see an entire fantasy world erupt
online wouldn't anywhere come close the truth. The
details on every aspect of this world, the graphics...in
short: the entire concept clearly shows that this site
was able to recreate fantasy literature at its absolute
peak! I am an admirer from now on..."
Example 2:
Seacology
What impressed me most here is the fact that it's an
ecological site. I always had the feeling that ecology on
the web is falling a bit behind. So I decided to make that
the topic of the laudation. But the site's main issue is
islands, so you have to take that into account as well. The
rest followed automatically.
"It
pleases me enormously to still find sites that occupy
themselves with ecology in a society that seems to focus
itself more and more on industrial progress. Protecting
our Earth goes hand in hand with protecting our
environment and all living creatures (both human an
otherwise). And protecting our islands, the last true
strongholds of pure nature and tranquility, belongs
definitely to that protection plan. So this is a site
that has my full support!"
Writing such
laudations is not easy. Several drafts will probably have
to be made during the evaluation and afterwards, to really
get that true, sincere touch. But in the end, it's this
kind of laudatio that will make the real difference.
Please think
about this next time you write another winner.
Tony
Duthoo is the owner of Vie�s Inn of Wonders� Awards.
He has made it his most important job to award intellectual
content on the web that allows people to reflect upon
current situations of life in all of its aspects.
Besides his
awards program, Tony is Rating Program Manager for United
Web Site Award Givers (UWSAG) and a judge for Bigeye
Award Program and Olymp Award Index.
