2013 Literary Awards Competition Results

Open Poetry

1st Place = Fields of Green by Terry Slack (Charters Towers)

2nd Place = Thinking by Cherelle Murphy (Ayr)

3rd Place = A Dog’s Dinner by Brooke McReynolds (Mackay)

Commendations:

1 = The Brumby Bay by Shirley Symes (Charters Towers)

2 = ‘Tis Meant to Be by Terry Slack (Charters Towers)

3 = Two-Faced by Christine Stewart (Ayr)

4 = The Outhouse by Cherelle Murphy (Ayr)

5 = Old Bob by Shirley Symes (Charters Towers)

Junior Poetry

1st Place = Waves of Indecision by Michael Lowe (Charters Towers)

2nd Place = The Perfect Place for Me by Jacklenn Dart (Charters Towers)

3rd Place = A Lonely Widow by Charly Burge (Charters Towers)

Commendation = Moving to the City by Logan Guldbransen (Charters Towers)

Open Short Story

1st Place = Kathy Doesn’t Live Here Anymore by Lori Hurst (Townsville)

2nd Place = The Doors by Christine Stewart (Ayr)

3rd Place = The Final Page by Maria Caesar (Charters Towers)

Commendations:

1 = Voices in the Night by Kerry Lown Whalen (Varsity Lakes)

2 = Hannah’s Dilemma by Carole Phillips (Charters Towers)

3 = Days of Diamonds and Stones by Carole Phillips (Charters Towers)

4 = Emily by Maria Caesar (Charters Towers)

Junior Short Story

1st Place = Man’s Best Friend by Kirsty Healing (Charters Towers)

Additional Prizes (courtesy of Dr Kett Kennedy, administrator of the Siriol Kate Giffney Estate):

A $50 cheque to the Highest score for local Junior Short Story entry = Kirsty Healing

A book to the Highest score for local Open Short Story entry =

Maria Caesar

Plagiarism—explained

As a writers group, the Bush Curlews encourages budding authors of every age to develop their literary skills. However, all over the world teachers, publishers and competition judges (like ours) face the possibility that a story or poem provided for assessment has been plagiarized.

But why is plagiarism such a dirty word in the literary world?

Whether an author writes a short story or an article, or if they have written a poem, the main motivation for constructing their piece in the first place is to express their views, opinions or ideas.

Plagiarism, on the other hand, is an act of fraud. When work has been plagiarized the reader is given the false impression that the author had written or thought something that he or she had in fact“borrowed” from another.

The definition is simple:

If you turn in someone else’s work as your own it is considered as plagiarism. If you copy words or ideas from someone else without giving credit it is considered as plagiarism. If you fail to put a quotation in quotation marks, or give incorrect information about the source of a quotation it is considered as plagiarism.

There are other more obvious acts, such as when someone changes words but has copied the sentence structure of a source without giving credit.

Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided simply by citing sources. All the writer needs to do is to acknowledge that certain material has been borrowed and to provide the reader with enough information to find that source.

However, there is a limit to how much one should copy. If you duplicate so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not, it can still be classified as plagiarism.

In the literary world, there is no excuse for committing plagiarism.