How Writory Scores an Entry
In short: Every entry is marked out of 100 across five criteria: creativity 25, emotion 25, structure 20, language 20 and impact and resonance 10. Every entrant receives that mark and a certificate, not only the winners. The same rubric is applied to all 2,204 entries scored so far, and an entry is read in the script it was written in rather than translated first.
Most contests tell you nothing. You send a poem, you pay, and months later a name that is not yours appears on a page. Whether anybody read your work, and what they thought, you never learn.
This page is the opposite of that. It sets out what is measured, what every entrant gets, and what the marks have actually looked like across every entry Writory has scored. The figures below are counted from the record, not chosen to flatter it.
The five things that are marked
An entry is marked out of 100. Creativity and emotion are worth 25 each, structure and language 20 each, and theme 10. That split is fixed, published, printed on the certificate and shown in your profile, so the number you are given can be checked against its parts.
The weighting says what the contest values. Half the mark is creativity and emotion together: whether the poem does something of its own, and whether it reaches the reader. Structure and language carry the craft. Impact and resonance is the smallest share on purpose. Whether a poem stays with a reader is the thing almost every entry already does something of, so it separates the field least, and a mark that separates nobody should not carry a quarter of the total.
| Criterion | Worth | Average so far |
|---|
| Creativity | 25 marks | 62% of them |
| Emotion | 25 marks | 63% of them |
| Structure | 20 marks | 68% of them |
| Language | 20 marks | 65% of them |
| Impact & Resonance | 10 marks | 84% of them |
Every entrant is scored, not only the winners
Of the 2,204 entries scored so far, 40 have placed. The other 2,164 were marked to the same rubric and received their marks. That is the part most contests do not do, and it is the reason the figures on this page exist at all.
A certificate goes to every entrant as well. Not a prize, and not pretending to be one: a record that the work was entered and read.
What the marks actually look like
Across every scored entry the median is 65 out of 100. A quarter of entries sit at or below 60, a quarter at or above 73, and the top tenth begin at 79. The highest mark awarded to date is 99.
This is worth knowing before you read your own. A 65 is not a poor mark; it is the middle of the field. Scores in the seventies are strong. The band that wins is narrow and high, and the table below shows how narrow.
A quarter of entries are at or below 60. The median is 65. A quarter are at or above 73. The top tenth begin at 79. The highest mark awarded is 99.
What separates the entries that place
Comparing the 40 entries that placed against the 2,164 that did not, the gap is not even across the five criteria. On creativity, emotion, structure and language, placing entries sit 28 to 34 points higher as a share of each criterion. On impact and resonance the gap is 15.
Impact and resonance is the criterion nearly everyone already does something with: the field averages 84% of it, and that is why it tells you least about who wins. Creativity is the hardest mark in the set, averaging 62% across all entries, and it is the one that most separates the work that places.
| Criterion | Entries that placed | Everything else | Gap |
|---|
| Creativity | 95% | 61% | 34 |
| Emotion | 95% | 62% | 33 |
| Structure | 96% | 68% | 28 |
| Language | 93% | 65% | 28 |
| Impact & Resonance | 98% | 83% | 15 |
Who enters, and in what language
The 2,204 scored entries come from 65 countries. 1,448 are from India and 742 from everywhere else: 194 from the United States, 83 from Australia, 43 from the United Kingdom, 34 from Slovenia, 31 from Germany, 26 from Romania, and so on down a long tail. The same rubric and the same marks apply to all of them.
Entries are accepted in any language, and an entry is scored as written rather than translated into English first. Translating a poem before marking it would be marking the translation. Most entries are in the Latin alphabet, which covers English alongside Spanish, French, Portuguese and Romanian; 341 of the 1,580 entries whose text is on file were set down in another script entirely.
Those 341 break down as follows, counted by the script each poem was actually set down in. It is not a claim about coverage; it is what the record holds.
Scored entries by country, outside India: 🇺🇸 United States 194, 🇦🇺 Australia 83, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom 43, 🇸🇮 Slovenia 34, 🇩🇪 Germany 31, 🇷🇴 Romania 26, 🇮🇪 Ireland 22, 🇨🇦 Canada 22, 🇿🇦 South Africa 17, 🇳🇿 New Zealand 16, 🇳🇬 Nigeria 14, 🇺🇦 Ukraine 14, and a further 51 countries.
Written in another script:
- 224 in Devanagari
- 33 in Tamil
- 30 in Cyrillic
- 25 in Bengali
- 18 in Malayalam
- 4 in Arabic and Urdu
The poem is marked, not the poet
Marks are given against the rubric above and nothing else. Who you are, where you are from, how many times you have entered before and whether you have placed before do not enter into the mark.
One figure makes that checkable. Of 432 poets who have entered more than once, the change between a first and a most recent mark averages roughly nothing: those who started above the median come down, those who started below it come up, which is what a set of independent readings of different poems looks like. Entering repeatedly does not raise a score, and a previous win does not carry forward.
Frequently asked questions
Does every entrant really get a score?
Yes. 2,204 entries have been scored and 40 of them placed. The rest were marked to the same rubric and the marks are in each poet's profile, alongside a certificate.
Where do I see my score?
Sign in with the address you entered with and open your profile. Every entry you have made is listed there with its total and the five parts it is made of.
Is 65 out of 100 a bad score?
No. 65 is the median across every entry ever scored. A quarter of entries are at or below 60 and a quarter at or above 73. The top tenth start at 79.
Is this an Indian contest?
It is open worldwide and a third of scored entries come from outside India: 742 of 2,190 that resolve to a country, across 65 countries. The largest sources outside India are the United States with 194, Australia with 83 and the United Kingdom with 43.
Can I enter in a language other than English?
Yes, any language, and the entry is scored in the script it was written in rather than translated first. 224 entries have been scored in Devanagari, 33 in Tamil, 30 in Cyrillic, 25 in Bengali and 18 in Malayalam.
Does entering more often improve my chances?
Not by itself. Across 432 poets who entered more than once, marks move toward the middle rather than upward: those who began above the median tend to come down and those below tend to come up. Each poem is marked on its own.
What is the hardest criterion to score well on?
Creativity. It averages 62% of its 25 marks across every entry, the lowest of the five, and it is also where entries that place sit furthest ahead of the field. Impact and resonance is the easiest at 84%.
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