Text Factor 2013 ? Week 2

It’s week two of The Copenhagen Post’s writing contest. The field has narrowed to five. Their assignment this time: a theatre review. Were their efforts a comedy, a tragedy or worthy of an ovation?

The all-girl line-up of students from Virum Gynasium has been reduced to five. Last week Lærke Kartvedt and Emilie Volf bit the dust for their politically-motivated critiques of their school.

Listen, we’re not siding with the school here, but they didn’t read like news stories! It was an easy choice to make, even if they were both entertaining entries. Meanwhile, we’ve received criticism – no, not for the barbarism of our judges’ comments, although Kurt Westergaard has been asked for advice on panic rooms – for the way we’ve presented this contest.

First and foremost, it’s supposed to be fun. It started with a letter from Virum Gynasium enquiring whether we could publish some of their students’ journalistic work. And the result below is a guinea pig trial of a contest we want to launch region-wide later this year, at which point we hope it will attract more entries, and yes – hold on to your Y-fronts, Fathers 4 Justice – more boys.

At the same time, the contest will hopefully yield some insights into journalistic writing. This week’s challenge was to write a review of ‘The Beach’, an English-language play performed at Kruddtønden in Østerbro in early April. Text Factor, round two, is about to commence.

As with last week, judges Kevin McGwin (editor-in-chief), Ben Hamilton (managing editor), actor Ian Burns (community columnist) or Amy Strada (copy editor) ranked the texts in this week's edition of The Copenhagen Post. Readers can again have their say by simply voting 'up' the entry you think is best in the comments section below.

 Copy editor Amy Strada. She knows her grammar, and she's not afraid to use itEditor-in-chief Kevin McGwin. Great Caesar's ghost, you call that an article!Copenhagen Post managing editor Ben Hamilton. Is he the new Mr Nasty?To critique or not to critique, that is the question for actor Ian Burns




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