Greetings!

It has been apparent for a long while that the existing A&S rubric is quite useful for most entries, where there is an actual item to be judged. It even works for performance entries – but falls down when the submission is a research paper. The wording of the rubric just doesn’t fit with an entry of this kind, requiring a lot of extra consideration from the judges, and potentially leaving the entrant dissatisfied or confused about their result.

I have been working to remedy this for some time (ahem…about two years…), and have finally got something which I hope will fill the gap.

Today, I bring substantial updates to the Lochac Championship paperwork. As promised, there is now a dedicated form for Research-only submissions. The General Entry Form has also been slightly updated (and renamed).

Research Entry Form
The entire rubric has been re-written to suit the needs of entries which are information-only, without a physical object or performance to go with the text.

I hope this will make it much easier for our judges to fairly assess such work, and for entrants to understand where they can improve, or why a particular score was given.

There is a new area on the front page, for entrants to indicate how much modern technological input is in their composition. The point is not to forbid or control the use of such supporting technologies, merely to encourage openness around their use. Naturally, an entry which has been copied straight from Wikipedia, or generated by AI, will be less valuable than a paper researched and written by the actual entrant – as it always has been. We encourage people to learn new things and extend our understanding of history, rather than blindly accepting whatever appears in front of them.

How to use:
Research entrants should submit this new form with their research papers. It should also be available during every judging session, in case of research entries turning up without attached paperwork (just as there should always be copies of the General Entry Form on hand). Judges will refer to the appropriate rubric while assessing a research entry, and provide feedback based upon that rubric. This is exactly the same process everyone is used to, just with a research focus!

I have taken advice and editing from a number of competent people. Heartfelt thanks go to them for their time and dedication:
Countess Mathilde Adycote of Mynheniot, who assisted me with the earlier stages,
Baroness Catherine James of Glastonbury,
Lady Igulfridr Magnusdottir,
Fru Ragnhildr Freysteinsdottir,
Mistress Katherne Rischer,
and Master Crispin Sexi.

If you are a person who enters research-only work into the Lochac A&S Championship, I encourage you to check out the new rubric. And I look forward to seeing it in use!

General Entry Form
The ‘Entry Form and Judging Report’ is now the ‘General Entry Form’. The judging of general entries has not changed. Mostly, the update is to differentiate clearly between this and the new form, and to add the declaration box on the front page.

The remaining Championship forms have not been altered at this time. All of the forms are available to download from the A&S website.

Thanks for reading all this way, and I hope you will find the updates useful in your A&S journey.