Assignment: Story Proposal

For Tuesday (in lieu of photo requests), please have your first draft of an in-depth story proposal ready. We're going to use the Alexia Foundation's standards for this - so 750 words maximum length, the first 25 as a summation.

About the foundation:

Alexia Tsairis, an honor photojournalism student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, was a victim of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. She was returning home for the Christmas holidays after spending a semester at the Syracuse University London Centre. Alexia was known by her peers and professors as one of the most promising photo-journalism students at SU.

During the summers of 1987 and 1988 she interned for the Associated Press Graphics and Photography departments in New York City. Alexia was a dedicated supporter of Amnesty International and Greenpeace. She had a deep commitment to world peace.

The family of Alexia Tsairis has established the Alexia Foundation for World Peace, Inc., a non-profit foundation. Alexia's abiding beliefs were in the capacity and responsibility of individuals to shape and advance peace in our time. The Alexia Foundation is dedicated to providing students and professionals the means to do so.

And about the competition:

The Alexia Competition was not created with the purpose of rewarding the best picture takers -- this is not a portfolio competition. The awards will go to students who can further cultural understanding by conceiving concise, focused, and meaningful story proposals. There is no mathematical formula for determining the winners, but the story proposal is the most important part of the application. All proposals are read and ranked by the judges before any portfolios are reviewed. You are encouraged to have your application reviewed and proofread for accuracy, clarity and conciseness. You may confer with your teachers on topic selection and proposal writing.

You are also encouraged to consider stories that explore cultural understanding in or near you local community. While we do not discourage proposals on foreign topics, the judges give no extra weight to foreign topics, and indeed, think that you are more likely to complete a story near home than one abroad.

When evaluating your portfolio, the judges consider your technical ability, your ability to work with your subjects and your style. The winning entries will be those that provide strong story proposals with portfolios that exhibit the photographic ability to execute a story at a high level.