First, you must be at least 13 years old, and your site must meet the mandatory requirements. I don't use mandatory requirements as an excuse to get out of performing a full evaluation. These requirements are few and straightforward and need to be met before I can give you any other useful criticism about your site. Therefore, if I see something that doesn't meet the mandatory requirements, your site will be disqualified and you must wait 60 days to reapply.

Mandatory Qualifications
Your Site Must:
1. Readability - Be understood by the average English-speaking person. a.) Be in English (looking for evaluators for other languages). b.) Have been proofread (a few errors will just cost you points). c.) Be compatible with all browsers. d.) Be accessible to all viewers (no password protected areas) Updated 8/1/09 — Sites with a minority of their content restricted to protect the privacy of individuals (or other legitimate reasons) will be handled on a case-by-case basis. 2. Substance - Have something of value to freely contribute to the Internet community. a.) Have more than advertisement for paid products and/or services. b.) Have more than just gadgets, weather, this day in history, etc. c.) Be more than just a collection of links to other sites. d.) Be more than a vanity / pet site — you need to find some way to connect what you care about to information a general audience might care about, i.e. instead of just "my dog Fluffy" have "how I groom Fluffy" or "what I feed Fluffy" or "how to prepare your dog to be a show dog like Fluffy," etc.	3. Decency - Be mindful of the children who may visit your site. a.) Be rated by Safesurf or comparable program — regardless of what is on your site, parents should know what to expect so they can control their child's viewing. b.) Have no pornography or offensive images (artistic exceptions on a case-by-case basis.) c.) Have no profanity (artistic exceptions on a case-by-case basis.) d.) Have no rude / hateful language (contact webmaster if questionable) 4. Copyrights and Maintenance - Avoid these major issues which ruin a website. a.) Have no stolen material — ask permission and cite your sources when you use others' work. b.) Have no excessive broken graphics or links (a few errors will just cost you points). c.) Have some color / imagery — There is no excuse for black text on a white background. d.) Have only controllable MIDIs — I usually find MIDIs need to go the way of animated graphics: far far away... fast.

If you are exclusively an award program, you can apply for my award; however, you will be disqualified if you require applicants to purchase any service, including web hosting. You can disqualify sites based on annoying advertisements, but not exclusively "free domains." Geocities adds bad code on the server side that adds 15-20 errors to members' Code Validation when using the W3C URL validation program. Pages should validate using HTML Tidy Algorithm on Mozilla Firefox; this is what I will use to be fair, and I encourage other award programs to follow suite.

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Please be familiar with my policies regarding copyrights, privacy, C.O.P.P.A., and especially ethics as a website evaluator. At this point your site will be rated by the scale below. The Writing Matters Web Award is presented in four tiers (gold, silver, bronze, merit) based on the scale that follows:

Quality Writing	X/55
Content shows original research and/or creativity	Written content should be either informative (educational) or reflective (philosophical). Content should be in narrative format, not a list or collection of organized data.	(X / 10)
Content has common theme: author, type, topic, etc.	Content may be grouped as loosely as the varied interests of the webmaster. Content should be organized and not seem random or out of place.	(X / 10)
Content has no grammatical/spelling mistakes	Each misspelling, typographical error, and/or missing punctuation will deduct one point up to ten. More than ten such mistakes will be considered excessive and lead to disqualification.	(X / 10)
Content consists of at least this many pages	Less than ten pages of quality content will result in a deduction of one point per page under ten.	(X / 10)
Content stimulates evaluator's interest/imagination	The content of your website, just like a good book, should accomplish two objectives: to hook your visitor in the beginning, and to keep your visitor interested enough to view every section.	(X / 10)
Content is readable for the average person.	The content of your website should be readable by anyone with a 8-12 grade education. One point will be subtracted for every two levels above or below this range. Score is an average of the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and the Gunning Fog Index.	(X / 5)
Layout	X/15
Color scheme consistent and complementary	Backgrounds should be the same throughout or change only to differentiate between major sections. Colors should be attractive and complement each other.	(X / 5)
Graphics and text pleasing to eye; organized	Graphics should have a function, whether as a link to relevant information or to illustrate content. Graphics should be centered or justified on the page; they should look deliberately placed.	(X / 5)
Website introduces webmaster and invites feedback.	You have created this website, and you have submitted it for an award. Surely somewhere on the site you have introduced yourself as the man or woman "behind the curtain" who is responsible for your site's content.	(X / 5)
Navigation	X/15
All pages (or site map) accessible from every page	At least the site map should be accessible from every page. Navigation should be consistent within a section. Visitors should never have to use the browser's back button or take more than two mouse clicks to reach a page on the website.	(X / 5)
External links open to new page; all links work	External links should open in a new browser window. All links should work. Applicants will lose one point for every broken internal link, and one point for every two broken external links.	(X / 5)
Website provides links with descriptions	Website provides links with descriptions for further information on website topics.	(X / 5)
Technical Design	X/15
No errors with Mozilla Firefox HTML Tidy Algorithm	W3C standards are nice if your server allows you to meet them; however, I only require that your site produces no errors on Mozilla Firefox's HTML Tidy Algorithm. Warnings are not considered errors in this case.	(X / 5)
Site features updates with date, policies, etc.	Site should have a news or updates page which details the update history of your site. Your site should also have a date when it was last updated, as well as copyright and information gathering policies.	(X / 5)
Site meets WAI - 508 Standard / WCAG Priority 1	Site should pass automated and manual verification of compliance with Cynthia Says software. Site should also have an accessibility statement in its policy which states the level of accessibility.	(X / 5)

Bonus Points	+1-15
Rated Awards Program	+1-5
Webmaster Belongs to APEX or similar	+1-2
Multiple Valid Programing Languages	+1-2
Multiple Written Languages (not translator)	+1-2
Meets WCAG Priority 2 and 3	+1-2
Interactive Games, Free Graphics, Etc.	+1-2

Penalty Points	-(5-25)
More than two animated graphics on a page	-5
Horizontal Scrolling Bar	-5
Mostly Commercial in Nature	-5
Factually Incorrect Statement	-5
Last update 30+ days ago	-5

Gold =	95+/100
Silver =	85+/100
Bronze =	75+/100
Merit =	65+/100

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After your site is evaluated, I will e-mail you with your scores and my opinion of the strengths and weaknesses of your site. If you qualify for an award, a personalized award will be included in the e-mail as well, and you must e-mail me after you have posted the award on your site and linked it to mine. Then I will add your site link and description to the appropriate winners list.

You are welcome to apply for my award once every 60 days. I will e-mail every applicant within 72 hours with an ID number which can be followed on the status table throughout the process. Applicants should expect a decision within 4 weeks of application. I will respond after the decision whether or not you qualify. I will offer suggestions for improvement. Please don't resubmit if you haven't changed anything — I don't want to look at the same thing over and over. Thank you for visiting my site and good luck!

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If you are looking for a guided tour from Introduction to Application, follow Mr. William Shakespeare. The right arrow will take you to the next page, the left will take you back one, and the up arrow will return you to the beginning.

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