At a time when the use of digital devices are predominantly used to do all sorts of English work from emailing, blogging, texting and social networking to a whole manner of academic work, the British Institute of Technology and E-commerce (BITE) has decided to celebrate, by going back to basics, the 'old-fashioned' art of handwritten English. Therefore BITE is launching a Literature Competition aimed at students studying at local FE and Sixth Form Colleges in Newham. Entrants will be expected to produce a piece of work, which can be submitted in any format, such as a short story, essay or poetry.

Judges will be looking for several qualities from pieces submitted; these will include things like style, content and originality as well as vocabulary use and punctuation.

We are anticipating that the competition will yield a clear winner and two runners-up. Other than the prestige of winning the competition entrants will be competing for the following prizes:

• 1^st Place - £300.00
• 2^nd Place - £150.00
• 3^rd Place - £ 50.00

Submissions will be expected to be no more than 2000 words and must be in handwritten form. Pieces will need to be scanned and emailed as a PDF before originals can be submitted to BITE. PDF copies must be attached to an email containing your name, age and place of study and sent to literaturecompetition@bite.ac.uk.

In addition, all original pieces of work should be sent to:

Literature Competition

We would suggest applicants use Royal Mail's recorded delivery service to ensure safe receipt of submissions. Alternatively, feel free to personally deliver your work by dropping it into BITE's reception on or before the completion deadline.

The deadline for the completion will be 5pm on Friday 6^th April.

If you have any other questions regarding the competition please do not hesitate to contact us, using the Literature Competition email address above.