Distinguished: Clearly superior in all areas. The entry contains no major flaws and few, if any, minor flaws. It applies the principles of technical communication in an outstanding way, particularly in the way that it anticipates and fulfills the needs of its audience.
Excellence: Consistently meets high standards in all areas. The entry might contain a single major flaw or a few minor flaws. The entry clearly (if slightly imperfectly) demonstrates an exceptional understanding of technical communication principles.
Merit: Consistently meets high standards in most areas. The entry might contain a small number of major or minor flaws, but still applies technical communication principles in a highly proficient manner.
Achievement: Consistently above average in most areas. The entry might contain a few major or minor flaws, but still applies technical communication principles in a highly proficient manner.
No award: Contains work that is of average or less-than-average professional quality. The entry generally has many major and minor flaws. It shows a lack of understanding of technical communication principles, is poorly executed, is hard to use, or fails to meet the needs of its audience.
Major flaws and minor flaws are considered as follows:
Major flaw—Substantially hinders the user. Examples: illogical organization; incomplete or missing content; consistently unclear style; no table of contents, headers, page numbers, or index; inaccurate page numbers in table of contents or index; procedural steps buried in text; a consistent pattern of spelling and grammatical errors; confusing terminology.
Minor flaw—Might cause a momentary stumble, but doesn't slow the user down much. Examples: a few instances of spelling and grammatical errors, misplaced graphics, inconsistent capitalization, or confusing terminology. For any entry to receive an award, it must be thorough, accurate, useful, appropriate, and well executed.
Note: The size of an entry might affect whether a flaw is major or minor; for example, misspelling a client's name in a short marketing brochure would be a major flaw.