SEAHO Report - Fall 2021 - 6

FEATURE ARTICLES
Tips for Writing Successful Award Nominations...
For Non-Writers
SEAHO Awards and Recognition Committee
Hello SEAHO! Award season is upon us again, and has the value of recognition and appreciation ever been
higher? With everything housing staff have been asked to do over the past year, nominating someone for a
regional award is one of the simplest ways you can show dedicated members of your team how much you see and
value their hard work.
When it comes time to solicit award nominations, we often hear myriad excuses as to why people struggle with
putting their thoughts down in a formal letter of recommendation/support/nomination:
" I don't have the time - don't you know how busy I am?! "
" I am not a writer, that is not my strength! "
" I am bad at those things! "
" I don't have all the details or know enough about that person's performance! "
" Ask someone else. "
These are valid and honest responses from people who think they don't have the time, talent, or knowledge to
produce a quality award nomination. We are here to show you that none of those excuses should hold you back,
and you absolutely do have the ability to recognize your team without a PhD in award writing.
Award nominations do not have to be long.
The key to a successful nomination letter lies not in its length, but in its content. The average letter of support is
a single typed page. On letterhead. With generous margins. In fact, the longer it is, the more apt the reviewer is
to end up skimming and missing important details. Keep it short by focusing only on the pertinent information.
A one-page letter shouldn't take up too much of your time, even on the busiest of days.
Award nominations should be simple, direct, and clear.
An award nomination is not the time to bust out your thesaurus and dust off your thousand-dollar thesis words.
If anything, superfluous language makes an award nomination seem less effective, as if the nominator needed
to spice up the details with rhetoric to make it stand out. If writing is not your forte, that could actually be a
strength in this case. Award reviewers are reading a lot of submissions, and they are looking for key details and
words that tie directly back to the award criteria. Don't worry about perfect sentence structure or passive voice
- just provide factual information about how the nominee met the various points listed in the award description.
Oftentimes, the simpler and more straightforward, the better.
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SEAHO Report - Fall 2021

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Contents
SEAHO Report - Fall 2021 - 1
SEAHO Report - Fall 2021 - Contents
SEAHO Report - Fall 2021 - 3
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/seaho/50thanniversary
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