UPDATE: I have selected the essay winner! From a staggeringly large pool of 1 (one) entrant, I have chosen John Everett as the winner! John submitted an essay that was only two words long (“The End”), but since there were no other contestants, this essay was by far the best. John will be spending his $100 prize money on a self-congratulatory party with cake and ice cream.
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Do you want to win some prize money? Of course you do! With $100 you could buy almost 400 chicken McNuggets. All you have to do is write a brief essay. No, don’t run away! It’s MUCH easier than it sounds. All you have to do is write a 500-word essay (that’s less than one page!) on a short book I wrote. The book is available from Amazon for cheap, it’s only 100 pages long, and the essay topic requires imagination more than it does research (and you have three months to write the essay). Think about this: most people who see this post won’t even think about entering the contest because they’ll be afraid of writing less than a page about a short book. The odds are already in your favor if you’re still reading this.
Here’s how to participate in the contest.
- Read Everett’s Ultimate Commentary of the Bible: Volume 1: Genesis Chapter 1, 3rd Edition, available from Amazon. It’s only 100 pages long. Don’t sweat it.
- Write on one or more of the questions in the essay prompt below. Be sure to read the contest rules below the prompt.
- Submit the essay to me and complete the bonus tasks for additional winnings (see the “Winnings total” section below).
- Sit back and wait for the winner to be announced. If you win, you will be contacted via email.
Essay Prompt (Answer one or more of the following questions):
How do you think the animals in the garden of Eden interacted with each other? How did Adam and Eve interact with them? How much did Adam and Eve talk to each other before the fall? How advanced/atavistic do you think civilization would be today if not for the flood, and why? What differences between life before the flood and after the flood do you think are the most noteworthy, and why? What do you think a map of the Earth would have looked like before the flood, and what impact would this have had on pre-flood life? Why did God create the universe as big as He did? Do you think that there is a special pattern or message in the arrangement of the universe? Which version of the Canopy Theory do you think is the most plausible, and why (this requires research outside the book)?
Do you recommend a change for a possible 4th Edition? Which claim or conclusion do you disagree with in the book, and why? How could the book be better? How does the book flow? What did you learn from the book that you enjoyed learning? Which part did you find fascinating or exciting? Which part did you find incomprehensible or boring? If you had to cut out a part, which would it be (and should it be moved instead of cut)? Is there a cited source you found to be untrue, and why? Did I make any unfair arguments in the book? After finishing the book, were you left wanting more? What are you looking forward to the most in Volume 2? If you’ve read other commentaries, what is your impression of this one compared to the others? Who is your favorite commentator, and why? Which misinterpretations of Genesis 1 did I miss when writing this book? Are there any specific falsehoods that you think should be addressed in the next volume or the 4th edition?
OR
Free topic (You must state your topic in the title or header of the essay.)
[End of prompt]
Summary of rules:
Type an essay 500 words or longer on the above prompt and send a .pdf or Microsoft Word 2013-compatible file as an attachment to clocodile1@yahoo.com, or leave a Dropbox link to the file as a comment on this page. You must cite my book at least three times, and at least two of those citations have to be from after page 18 (or after Location 624 of 3742 of the Kindle version). You must include the page number of the book in each citation, e.g. “(Everett 42)”. Your essay must include your email address and your name. I will use this email address to contact you if you win.
Full contest description below.
Essay Contest Description
Legal gobbledygook: The contest being announced in this blog post shall be referred to as “contest.” The host of the contest, John Everett, is the proprietor, sole judge, and award-giver of the contest. John Everett shall be referred to as “I,” “me,” or any other declension of the first-person pronoun. Each willing competitor in this contest shall be referred to as “you,” “your,” or any other declension of the second-person pronoun. The book Everett’s Ultimate Commentary of the Bible: Volume 1: Genesis Chapter 1, 3rd Edition, written by me, shall be referred to as “the book.” The electronic file sent by you as an entry in the contest shall be referred to as “entry” or “essay.” The website www.cakescorner.me shall be referred to as the “blog.” The post on the blog containing this text shall be referred to as the “webpage.” The Facebook post concerning the contest, https://www.facebook.com/JohnwEverett/posts/10154854502777246, shall be referred to as the “Facebook post.” I will accept entries from contestants until 23:59 PST on 2017/04/11, at which time the contest will be closed to new entries; the time and date given above (23:59 PST on 2017/04/11) is the “end of the contest.” Any point in time between 12:00 PST on 2017/01/16 and the end of the contest shall be referred to as “now.”
Contest rules: You must now be over 18 years of age and a citizen or legal resident of the United States. Any fees or taxes associated with the payment of winnings will be subtracted from the winnings.
Essay rules: The essay must be in response to the prompt given on the webpage. Your essay must be typed and at least 500 words long total; there is no upper limit. You must cite the book at least three times total and you must include page numbers in your citation, and at least two citations must be from after page 18 of the book (or after Location 624 of 3742 of the Kindle version). This is to ensure that you read the whole book and not just the free preview on Amazon. You must include your email address and name at the top of the first page of the essay. Original work only! Plagiarism will be grounds for dismissal of your entry and disqualification from any and all future entries or contests. Acceptable file formats for the essay include any format which can be read in Microsoft Word 2013 or Adobe Reader DC as selectable text.
If it’s obvious that you didn’t buy and read the book, you will be asked to resubmit your essay. If you read my Bible commentary blog posts instead of buying the book, your essay will not be considered. The blog posts come from the first edition, so I’ll know the difference. Besides, none of them have page numbers so you can’t cite them.
Leeway: Your essay may be informal. If you own an earlier edition of the book, you may use that edition for the essay, but then you must tell me which edition you are using. You may only submit one essay per person for this contest. You are not required to list the book in the bibliography of your essay. If the book is your only source, then you don’t even need a bibliography. Any citation format is allowed as long as I can understand what you mean and as long as you refer to the page number. An in-text citation such as “(Everett 42)” is perfectly fine. You may use hyperlinks in your essay. You may leave a review of the book on Amazon—doing so will neither positively nor negatively affect your chances of winning.
Submission: You may submit only one entry, meaning one electronic file, to me at any time before the end of the contest. The deadline for entries is 23:59 PST on 2017/04/11. You may send it to me as an attachment in an email sent to my contest email address, clocodile1@yahoo.com. An alternative is this: you may leave a comment on this webpage with a Dropbox link leading to the file. By submitting the essay, you agree to all the rules stated in this webpage.
Privacy: Your name may be shared with other entrants and/or made public, but I will never share your email address with anyone, nor will I send you any email unrelated to this contest. I will not put you on a mailing list or otherwise send you spam. I may publicly post your essay (but I will delete your email address from it) on the blog, unless you ask me to not post it.
Judgment rubric: Essays will be judged on overall quality, adherence to the rules in the “essay rules” section above, and in general just being enjoyable to read.
Authority: I will be the sole judge of the contest and shall decide a winner. No appeals will be allowed. If you have any questions or concerns, I may work with you to meet your needs, but I will not do anything that would be unfair to the other contestants. I may, at my discretion, and on a case-by-case basis, accept a re-entry before the deadline. I may also, at my sole discretion, award a second-place or runner-up if the contest is wildly successful. On the other hand, if there are fewer than five entrants in this contest, I reserve the right to reduce the prize or cancel the contest. In the event that the contest is canceled, consolation prizes will be awarded to all entrants. You sharing this post on Facebook will reduce the chance of such an event occurring.
Announcement of the winner: The winner of the contest will be announced on the Facebook post and the webpage no later than 23:59 PST on 2017/05/01. An email will be sent to the announced winner for confirmation. If the winner does not reply to said email or otherwise contact me within seven days, then that person shall forfeit and another winner will be chosen and contacted.
Winnings total: The winner will receive up to USD 100, payable via PayPal or money order. The winnings are added up thus: If you are the winner you will receive 50 cents for each copy of the book sold on Amazon from now until the end of the contest, up to 100 copies; totaling up to $50. There are also two potential bonuses: If you publicly share the Facebook post on your Facebook timeline BEFORE the end of the contest, then you will win a bonus $25 if you are selected as the winner. If you are the winner you will also receive a bonus prize of $25 if you send me, at any time before the winner is announced, a picture of you holding a copy of the book (in the picture you may be holding either a physical copy of the book or holding an electronic device with a legitimate copy of the Kindle version of the book loaded onto it). The winnings from 100 sold copies would amount to $50, which when added to the hypothetical $25 book-holding picture bonus, and the $25 Facebook share bonus, would add up to $100 grand total prize. If you complete neither bonus task, then your winnings will depend on the number of copies of the book sold; your maximum prize will be $50.
Payment of winnings: Via email, I will ask the winner for his or her preferred method of payment. Payment shall be made via PayPal or money order. The winner must supply me with the necessary information to receive payment. If accepting payment through PayPal, the winner must provide me with the email address associated with his or her PayPal account. If accepting payment via money order, the winner must supply me with his or her full name and mailing address. Any fees, costs, taxes, etc. that result from sending winnings to the winner shall be subtracted from the winner’s winnings. I will send or initiate transfer of winnings no later than 7 days after receiving the winner’s necessary information.
Transparency: On the webpage I shall post a screenshot or screenshots of the sales report from Amazon for the months of February through April to show how many copies of the book were sold. I shall also post a screenshot or screenshots of the list of persons who shared the Facebook post of the contest. I shall not post screenshots of email received from any entrant unless that entrant asks me to and it is necessary to settle a conflict. I will not post screenshots of essays or links to copies of essays unless an essay author asks me to and it is necessary to settle a conflict. I reserve the right to disqualify you from this contest without being obligated to explain why. I will not disqualify anyone without good reason.
Cake's Corner 