Dear Judge:

Thank you for agreeing to critique Michigan yearbooks! PLEASE REVIEW OUR CRITIQUE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE STARTING YOUR WORK.

MIPA’s yearbook standards are designed to provide a framework for the judge in evaluating the yearbook, to reward the staff for creativity and accomplishment and to provide suggestions for improvement for future books. 

We have six categories in our critique booklet. We use a system that scores the overall category. Our intent is to give you, as a judge, freedom and to allow schools to concentrate on comments rather than numbers. Please keep our intent in mind. Offer plenty of useful feedback and evaluate publications on journalistic standards while allowing experimentation for a purpose.

The critique booklet is available as an online form that you can type in or as a traditional paper booklet you can write on and mail to us. If you’ve received one format and would rather have the other, please email us at ask@mipamsu.org. We have Word and Google Doc worksheets you can use to take notes with and prepare a draft of your critique. Many judges find it’s then easy to copy and paste into our online form.

You will find a page of general instructions inside the front cover of each book. This page notes the name of the book, whether it needs to be annotated and whether the book needs to be returned to MIPA. If a book does not need to be returned, you may keep it, pass it along to another yearbook adviser for a classroom reference or otherwise dispose of it. If a book does need to be returned, we’ve provided a postage-paid mailer in your package.

If a school wants annotation (where you also are asked to write in the actual book), you will find a bright sheet of paper inside the front cover of the yearbook that says “ANNOTATE.” In the case of annotation, please mark as much as possible in the yearbook itself and add comments in the critique form as well. Schools seeking annotated comments pay more to have their publication critiqued, and we pay our judges more for this extra work.

Completed critiques should only be returned to the MIPA office. If you have any questions about a yearbook, please address those to our office and NOT to the adviser.

Even if you’ve judged for us before, please read the primer on the back of this letter. It talks about how we like to have our books evaluated by our judges. It’s very important!

We will process payment for your work once all of your entries are received in the office.

To the right you’ll see some important info. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the MIPA office at 517-353-6761 or ask@mipamsu.org.

Thank you!

Here’s what we've shipped you

• Yearbooks

• 1 paper critique book (as a reference)

If you requested to do your critiques on paper, you also will have:

• Blank critique books (1 per entry)

• Postage-paid envelope with shipping label to return completed critiques to MIPA

If you are doing annotations or you we need any yearbooks returned, you also will have:

• Postage-paid mailer to return yearbooks

How to return critiques to MIPA

For critiques using the online form:

• Complete the online form.

• This form is built on the Qualtrics platform. Qualtrics uses cookies to save your work as you go. If you need to leave your work for an extended period, please skip ahead to the last page and submit your work so far. You will receive an email that will include a link that will allow you to revise what you previously have submitted.

• A Word or Google Doc worksheet is available, from which you can copy and paste your work into the online form.

For handwritten critiques, annotations and other books to be returned:

• Use the enclosed envelope to send materials back to MIPA.

• Most of the time, we use UPS for our shipping. Drop the package in any UPS box or have your school UPS driver pick it up from your school office. (If we happen to use a different shipper for a package, it will be clearly marked with other instructions.)

• Do not send the critique back to the yearbook adviser unless directed to do so!

IMPORTANT!

• Please keep a copy of each critique for your records (just in case something happens).

• If for any reason you cannot finish your judging by the deadline above, please let us know immediately. We can get someone else to take over!

• Thank you!