The Zerone x Programiz — Technical Writing Competition 2023 Guidelines
The Zerone is collaborating with Programiz for this year’s special Technical Writing Competition 2023 with the theme of ‘Hello World: Teaching Technology To All’.
Under the theme of ‘Hello World: Teaching Technology To All’, an article submitted for this competition must be written with the objective of introducing a piece of technology to a complete beginner and developing understanding among readers from all backgrounds.
One of our primary objectives at The Zerone has always been to promote understanding of technology among the general public. The Zerone is also the official magazine of LOCUS 2023, an umbrella organization of computer, electronics, and electrical engineering students from Pulchowk Campus, IOE, Nepal which has provided a platform for young innovators from schools and colleges all over Nepal to showcase their skills and knowledge through national-level events and exhibitions.
Programiz, having established itself as a premier learning platform for programming and technical topics, is the perfect collaborator as the title sponsor for this premier competition.
The total prize pool is worth 25k!
- NRs. 10000 for the first position article.
- NRs. 7500 for the second position article.
- NRs. 5000 for the third position article.
- NRs. 2500 for the popular choice award.
The competition deadline is the 8th of January (24th of Poush) at 11:59 PM NST (UTC +5:45). The entire competition will take place online, in the Medium publication of The Zerone Magazine.
Theme Guidelines
1. What technology do we actually write about?
The technology you choose to write on can be anything ranging from the basics of a programming language to the working of transistors as switches, from the mathematics behind fuzzy networks to the simplest of fundamentals behind Ohm’s law.
When in doubt, remember the three founding reading/writing backgrounds behind the technical aspect of The Zerone magazine— electrical, electronics, and computer engineering — but you need not constrict yourself within these three applications of technology. Trying to answer the question ‘what is __?’ or ‘how does __ work?’ can be a good starting point.
2. Who is our target audience?
A little context before we explain our target audience. The Zerone is currently covering the ‘Children in Technology’ program (conducted by LOCUS 2023 in association with ChildSafeNet and WorldLink) in which the program coordinators had to introduce technology such as electromagnetics, transformers, programming, motors, house wiring, and more, to children in the age group 14–16 years of age. One can probably picture the level of abstraction and also the breaking down of details required to explain how an electromagnet works to a child of that age.
You don’t need to start from the complete basics — maybe provide some requisites to understanding the article. For eg, you might say the reader should understand the basics of registers to understand how your article explains the intricacies of computer architecture.
3. Why the name ‘Hello World’?
For those of you familiar with programming, writing your first program in any language involves displaying the text ‘Hello World’ (or one of its variants) on the screen.
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
printf("Hello, world!");
}Above: A ‘hello world’ program in the C programming language
The intention behind this is to get the user to introduce the programmer to the language in the simplest way possible. ‘Hello World’ is to learning programming what ABCD is to learning English. We expect your article to introduce the reader to the technology of your choice in the same way the ‘Hello World’ program introduces the primary concepts of that programming language to the user.
4. Where does Programiz fit into all of this?
Programiz is our title sponsor for the program and there is a reason why we absolutely love this collaboration. If you head on over to their website, you can go through their vast collection of beginner-friendly tutorials and examples that teach you how to code. We reiterate that you are NOT obligated to write programming tutorials, but you can certainly take some pointers from the level of explanation they go into each of their articles.
A not-so-secret piece of information — Programiz is currently looking for technical content writers to join their team. Maybe this is how you make a mark at the potential future interview 👀.
Steps To Participate
1. Follow the publication ‘zerone magazine’ (you can not submit articles to our publication if you haven’t followed our magazine, so DO NOT miss this step):
https://medium.com/zerone-magazine
2. Fill out this registration form for Technical Writing Competition 2023: https://forms.gle/7hURyX5AqbE34rXbA
3. Write your article and publish it in your medium profile. Add the tags: ‘Technical Competition’ plus any other tags of your choice.
4. Scroll to the bottom of your article and you will see the menu. In the menu, there is an option ‘Add to publication’. You can also access this option from the top right corner of your screen when you are editing your article/draft.
If the option to add to The Zerone is not available yet, it means you missed the filling up of the registration form. We need to manually add you as a writer for our Medium magazine for you to get this option. Email us at ioezerone@gmail.com if you did fill out the form if you need to correct some details or if you still haven’t gotten appropriate permissions to publish after 1–2 days.
5. Choose ‘The Zerone’ from the options. After you click select and continue, you will be prompted to review and submit your draft. Now your article will be submitted as a draft to the magazine. Add any additional tags you feel necessary (as you did in step 3).
6. After checking the validity of your submission, your article will be published.
Few Ground Rules
1. One participant can only submit one article. You can submit your article at any time within the submission period.
2. Submission of previously published articles is strictly forbidden, including your own articles that have been published in other magazines.
3. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden. If the article is found to be copied from any external source then, the participant will be disqualified.
4. Direct or indirect advertisement of a particular company or profitable organization within the article is strictly prohibited.
5. You are allowed to attach images or videos within your article.
6. The language of publication for the magazine this year is English. While small snippets of other languages are acceptable, please provide a translation in a footnote or in a bracket and italicize the word used.
7. For the complete set of article guidelines, refer to this Medium post — https://bit.ly/articleguidelines2023
The winners’ articles will also be featured in the printed form of Zerone magazine.
Any queries? Do comment or send an email to ioezerone@gmail.com
Happy writing season!
