‘
IONS OPEN ESSAY COMPETITION
PART ONE : GENERIC RULES/GUIDELINES
1.
The ‘IONS
Open Essay Competition’ will be conducted annually under the aegis of the
Indian Ocean Naval Symposium.
2.
For member/observer-countries that do not
have a formally constituted ‘Navy’:-
(a)
The term ‘Navy’ is to automatically mean the principal agency responsible for maritime
security.
(b)
The term ‘Chief of Navy’ is
to automatically mean the head of the designated principal agency responsible
for maritime security
3.
Conducting Authority.
(a)
For the 2008 edition of the ‘IONS Open Essay Competition’, the
‘Conducting Authority’ is the Chief of the Naval Staff of India.
(b)
For the 2009 edition of the ‘IONS Open Essay Competition’, the
‘Conducting Authority’ will be the Chief of the South African Navy.
(c)
The ‘Conducting Authority’ for subsequent
editions of the ‘IONS Open Essay
Competition’ will be determined
at the next ‘IONS Preparatory
Workshop’ (tentatively scheduled to
be held in July 2009, under the aegis of the Kenyan Navy), which will define the
agenda for the “Indian Ocean Naval Symposium 2010”).
4.
Eligibility. The ‘IONS
Open Essay Competition’ is open to all members and observers of the IONS
Initiative, irrespective of rank and/or seniority, and, irrespective of whether
they are civilian or uniformed members of the Navy concerned.
Guidelines and
Rules
5.
While the basic guidelines and rules in
respect of the ‘IONS Open Essay
Competition’ are contained in the
succeeding paragraphs, each Conducting Authority is at liberty to promulgate
such additional amplifying guidelines and instructions as he deems to be
appropriate to the smooth and uninterrupted conduct of each year’s competition.
6.
Security Classification. The content of each essay is to be
UNCLASSIFIED.
7.
Pseudonym.
(a)
In order to preclude any apprehension of
bias, the competitor's name, rank and nationality are not to
appear on the essay submitted by him/her.
Instead, a pseudonym of the author’s choice is to be used.
(b)
The essay is NOT to contain any reference or
indication of the author’s actual rank, name or nationality.
(c)
Only the pseudonym is to appear on the
‘Title Page’ of the essay.
8.
‘Author’s Certificate’.
(a)
A properly sealed envelope, containing an ‘Author’s
Certificate’, in accordance with the format depicted below, is to be sent by each author, only to the Conducting Authority.
AUTHOR’S CERTIFICATE
(To be sent ONLY to the Conducting Authority)
I hereby certify that I have not used
any classified information and/or material, while writing the essay that I am
submitting for the IONS Open Essay Competition.
Signature :
Rank
& Name :
(Family
Name [Surname] to be written in block-capitals)
Pseudonym Used :
Address :
e-mail
address :
COUNTERSIGNED
Commanding
Officer/Officer-in-Charge/Authorised
9.
Language. On
10.
Format. Each entry is to be submitted on ‘A-4’ or
‘Letter’ sized paper, in typescript/computer-printout, using a line-spacing of
1.5, and is, in addition, to be accompanied by a ‘PC-compatible soft-copy’ on a
Compact Disk (CD), using ‘Word’ format.
Due care is to be taken to ensure that the CD is not damaged in
transit/post. The “Author’s Certificate” is, however, NOT to be sent in
soft-copy.
11.
Length. Each essay is to be between 4,000 and 6,000
words in length. Page numbers; paragraph
numbers; punctuation marks; digits (numerals); white-spaces; line-spaces; table-headings
(including ‘row’ and ‘column’ headings); and, definite/indefinite articles
(‘a’, ‘an’, and ‘the’), will not count as ‘words’ while calculating the length
of the essay. However, ‘Section
Headings’, ‘Group Headings’ and ‘Paragraph Headings’ will count towards the
length of the essay.
12.
Acknowledgement and References. Entrants are to ensure that full
acknowledgement to source material is provided by way of ‘footnotes’ and a
comprehensive bibliography, 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.
Detection of any level of plagiarism would be cause for immediate
disqualification from the competition.
13.
Judging of Entries.
(a)
Language. It is recognised that ‘style’, ‘idiom’, ‘metaphor’, ‘tone’,
‘tenor’, language-specific ‘turns-of-phrase’, etcetera, are extremely
difficult to translate competently across all three languages. Yet, it is important to present all
competitors with a ‘level playing field’ without prejudice to the principal
language used in either the country of the writer or the country of the
judge(s) of the competition.
Consequently, essays will be judged in the language in which they have
been submitted.
(b)
Judging Authorities. The ‘Conducting Authority’ is to nominate and
promulgate ‘Judging Authorities’ who will be responsible for judging the
entries received in each of the three official languages.
(c)
Judging Criteria. Each essay will be judged in accordance with
the following criteria:-
|
Content |
45% |
|
Originality of Approach |
20% |
|
Authenticity of Research |
15% |
|
Linguistic Proficiency (including ‘Style’, ‘Grammatical
correctness’, ‘Syntax’ and ‘Readability’) |
20% |
(d)
Penalties.
(i)
Plagiarism. Detection
of any level of plagiarism will be cause for immediate disqualification
from the competition.
(ii)
Length. A penalty of 10% will be applied to essays
not conforming to the specified limits of length.
14.
Prizes.
(a)
Separate prizes will be awarded to the
winning entries in each of the three officially-recognised languages of the
IONS Initiative, namely, ‘English’, French’ and ‘Arabic’.
(b)
The following prizes would be awarded to
the two best essays in each language, provided that the number of entries in
each language is at least five:
(i)
First Prize : US $ 500/-
(ii)
Second Prize : US $ 350/-
(c)
If the number of entries in any given
language is less than five, the quantum of the prize will be reduced in
accordance with the
following scale:-
|
Number of Entries |
First Prize |
Second Prize |
|
1 |
US $ 100/- |
— |
|
2 |
US $ 200/- |
US $ 150/- |
|
3 |
US $ 300/- |
US $ 200/- |
|
4 |
US $ 400/- |
US $ 250/- |
|
5 or more |
US $ 500/- |
US $ 350/- |
15.
Copyright.
(a)
Once submitted, the copyright of all
essays will automatically be deemed to have been transferred to the Conducting
Authority.
(b)
Prize-winning Essays. The copyright of all prize-winning essays
will remain with the Conducting Authority.
(c)
Non-Prize-winning Essays. After the Conducting Authority has announced/
promulgated the list of prize-winning essays, the copyright of essays that have
not been selected for prizes will automatically be deemed to have transferred
back to the respective authors.
16.
Dissemination of Prize-winning Entries.
(a)
The need to ensure coherence with the
fundamental aims of the IONS Initiative by ensuring readership (and the
consequent generation of thought and discussion) in all
member/observer navies is to be met through the widest possible circulation of
at least the prize-winning entries of each competition, throughout the
membership of the IONS. This will be the
responsibility of the Conducting Authority and is to be done by circulating
hard-copies by mail and simultaneously posting them on the IONS webpage/
website.
(b)
Any journal or magazine — other than those
produced and/or published by the IONS Secretariat — that wishes to publish any
given prize-winning essay is to seek the express, prior and written permission of
the Conducting Authority.
(c)
The foregoing process and procedure for
the dissemination of prize-winning entries notwithstanding, should any journal
or magazine — other than those produced/published by the IONS Secretariat — be
given permission by the Conducting Authority to publish one or more of the
prize-winning essays, the author(s) of these essays will remain entitled to
receive such honorarium as may be the norm for the journal and/or magazine
concerned.
PART TWO : RULES/GUIDELINES SPECIFIC TO THE CALENDAR YEAR 2008
17.
Title. The title of the inaugural (2008) edition of
the ‘IONS Open Essay Competition’ for 2008 is: “Sustaining
the IONS Initiative : Practical Solutions”.
18.
Conducting Authority. The ‘Conducting Authority’ the inaugural (2008)
edition of the ‘IONS Open Essay Competition’ for 2008 is:-
The Chief of the Naval Staff (for ACNS [FCI])
Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence
(Navy)
Room No 24, South Block
Telephone : 00-91-11-23014615
Fax : 00-91-23792144
e-mail : acnsfci-navy@nic.in
19.
‘Judging Authorities’. The inaugural (2008) edition of the ‘IONS
Open Essay Competition’ will be judged by the following:-
|
Essays submitted in English |
The Director, ‘National Maritime
Foundation’ (NMF), New |
|
Essays submitted in French |
The General Commanding, Collège Interarmées
de Défense ( |
|
Essays submitted in Arabic |
The Executive Director, Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies
& Research (ECSSR) |
20.
Submission of Essays.
(a)
Each entry for the 2008 edition of the ‘IONS
Open Essay Competition’ is to be forwarded in a sealed envelope, clearly
marked, “IONS OPEN ESSAY COMPETITION: 2008”.
(b)
The envelope is to be addressed to the
appropriate Judging Authority, depending upon the language in which the essay
has been written) as follows:-
|
Language |
Addressed to |
Copy to |
|
Essays submitted
in English |
The Director National Maritime
Foundation VARUNA Complex,
NH-8, |
The Assistant
Chief of the Naval Staff (FCI), Room No 24,
South Block, IHQ MoD (Navy), |
|
Essays submitted
in French |
The General
Commanding Collège Interarmées de Défense B.P. 46 00445 Armées |
The Assistant
Chief of the Naval Staff (FCI), Room No 24,
South Block, IHQ MoD (Navy), |
|
Essays submitted
in Arabic |
The Executive
Director, Emirates Centre
for Strategic Studies & Research (ECSSR) The UAE |
The Assistant
Chief of the Naval Staff (FCI), Room No 24,
South Block, IHQ MoD (Navy), |
21.
Last Date for Submission. Essays must be despatched so as to be received
at the above-mentioned addresses no later than