Peter Mitchell Essay Competition Rules
- Eligibility. The Peter Mitchell Essay Competition is conducted annually, and is open to members of British Commonwealth navies of Commander rank or below, who are either:
- Full-time members, or
- Reservists who have served at least 20 days in the 12 months prior to the closing date of this competition, namely 29 October 2008.
- Assessment. An independent panel nominated by the Director Sea Power Centre - Australia will assess essays submitted in the 2008 competition. Entries will be assessed based on compliance with essay layout requirements, correct English usage, coverage of the chosen topic, quality of argument, length and individual author style as specified in paragraphs 8-10 below.
- Prizes. A prize is awarded in each of three Groups:
- Group 1. Open Section ($750). All essays are eligible for this group
- Group 2. Officers' Section ( $500).
- Group 3. Sailors' Section ($500).
- Administration of competition. In the event of insufficient entries of merit being received for either Group 2 or 3 prizes, the Director Sea Power Centre - Australia, after consultation with the Chief of Navy, Royal Australian Navy:
- has the discretion to transfer prizes between groups
- reserves the right not to award prizes within each group.
- Authorship of entries, including country of origin, will not be disclosed to the assessing panel until after the allocation of prizes to the winners.
- Prizes in Group 2 and Group 3 will be considered after the prize for the open competition has been awarded. The winner of the Group 1 prize will not be eligible for a further prize.
- Essay Title. Competitors are to select one of the topics listed in Attachment A as the subject of their 2008 Peter Mitchell Essay Competition entry.
- Essay length. Essays must be original works and be no longer than 3500 words; a penalty of 10 per cent will be applied to essays exceeding this limit.. Shorter essays of high quality are as acceptable as longer essays.
- Essay format. Essays are to be in English and typewritten using single spacing on international size A4 (297mm x 210mm) paper. No classified material should be used in the essays. Essays are to be in PC compatible Word format (not Macintosh).
- Referencing and layout. Essay footnotes and bibliography must give full acknowledgement to source material, using accepted layout and referencing systems (i.e. Oxford) which cite the author, date and page of the book, article or other text from which the material is derived. A separate 10 per cent penalty will be applied to essays for inconsistent application of the layout chosen by the competitor and/or for inadequate use of footnotes and bibliography that do not enable sources to be identified and verified by the assessing panel. A suitable layout guide for the essay is provided, although its use is not mandatory. Furthermore, detection of any level of plagiarism will be cause for immediate disqualification from the competition.
- Pseudonym. The competitor's name is not to appear on essays. A pseudonym, which is to appear on the title page of the essay, is to be used.
- Declaration. Each competitor is to sign a declaration that the essay is their own unassisted work. This declaration must show the competitor's pseudonym, full name, service number and full address. A copy of this declaration is included at Attachment B.
- Submission of Essays. Essays and the declaration should be emailed to seapower.centre@defence.gov.au.
- Closing Date. Essays must be received at the Sea Power Centre - Australia by no later than 29 October 2008.
- Late Entries. Entries that fail to comply with the deadlines at paragraph 14 will not ordinarily be accepted for the competition without a sufficiently compelling reason. The Director Sea Power Centre - Australia reserves the right to reject any late entry.
- Copyright. Copyright of all submitted essays will rest with the Chief of Navy, Royal Australian Navy and award winning essays, as well as other essays deemed of suitable quality, may be published by the Sea Power Centre - Australia in 2009.
