The winning story in the May 6 contest is “The Truth About Mothers and Daughters” by Sharon Stoika-Smay. She has won a cash prize of $50 and is eligible for entry into a quarterly contest for a $100 cash prize. Congratulations!
Explanation of the Judges’ Decision
In General
The decision of the Judges is based on the number of Facebook likes, the high-quality comments made by visitors, and the opinions from visitors entered on our Closing Arguments page.
The number of Facebook likes operates as a barometer often indicating the leading stories. Whereas the FB likes are strictly quantitative, the judges look for persuasiveness in the high-quality comments following the stories in a contest. We are very pleased when writers receive many comments and support from readers. In judging, however, we focus only on high-quality comments. See the FAQ page for examples of high-quality comments.
The judges also review the opinions for the top-place story by visitors from the Closing Arguments page. To leave an opinion on the Closing Arguments page, a visitor must read all the stories in the contest and post comments to at least three stories in the contest.
The May 6 Contest
At the closing time of the contest (noon PT May 12), “The Truth About Mothers and Daughters” had 24 FB likes, followed by “Middle-Age Diva” with 17 and “Mom” close behind with 12. “How Do You Say Goodbye?” and “It’s Never Too Late” had a combined handful of FB likes.
We are delighted when visitors leave many comments and support the writers. In choosing the top story, however, the judges look for high-quality comments that show, as opposed to tell, a reader’s thoughts about a story. In this second category, the judges thought the high-quality comments for both “The Truth About Mothers and Daughters” and “Middle-Age Diva” were competitively persuasive.
In the third category, “How Do You Say Goodbye?” and “The Truth About Mothers and Daughters” were the only stories that received favorable opinions by visitors from the Closing Arguments page. Therefore, the judges determined “The Truth About Mothers and Daughters” to be the winning story because it placed first in FB likes, was competitive in high-quality comments, and favored by a reader leaving an opinion on the Closing Arguments page.
We thank the contestants for their stories, which are in our Archives. Thank you to our visitors for their great comments.
