[kmoser]

> Does it have to be 1,000 words?

> Yes. That’s what a picture is worth, after all.

Not to be pedantic but does this mean "1,000 words or fewer," "at least 1,000 words," or "exactly 1,000 words?"

I'm asking because with school assignments the number is usually a lower bound, but with writing contests it's often an upper bound (sometimes even a fuzzy limit).

[bjourne]

"Does it have to be 1,000 words?

Yes. That’s what a picture is worth, after all. Your entry must be exactly 1,000 words, not including the title (if you choose to write one)."

[kmoser]

Good catch, thanks. Unfortunately that information wasn't in the email.

Now, do hyphenated words count as one word or two? Do numbers count as words (e.g. is "12 years old" three words or two?) If I write 1,000 words but concatenate them without spaces, is that still considered 1,000 words, or one single word?

[bjourne]

I don't know of any English word counting algorithm or MoS that does not count "12" as a word, do you?

[NuclearPM]

MoS?

[Gualdrapo]

Took the bait and sent them my email to apply because, in the page linked, they would "send you the instructions" to it.

But no, no exact definition of what they mean for "1000 words" - wether if it's minimum 1000 words or what, or how are they counting those 1000 words - throwing everything to a Word doc? a parsing script? Will they count things like an "I" or an "a" as a whole word?

I'm thinking about giving this a try, though, but not being pretty clear about that rule seems quite odd.

[ko_lqc]

if it's not exactly 1000 words, then no skill is involved and the writers may as well be published by Penguin or HarperColins or something.

[danlitt]

I don't understand this comment at all. "At least 1000 words" would require at least the skills of writing decently & writing a moderate amount based on little. I get that getting to exactly 1000 requires some skill, but how on earth is that the only skill involved?

[sheept]

It's relatively easy to write many words, but it takes more skill to express the same message with fewer words, like how video compression needs more time for fewer bytes and same quality. As Pascal once wrote, "If I had had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."

[danlitt]

The comment I'm replying to said "no skill is involved", not "less skill is involved".

[grimgrin]

fwiw, this entire thread exists because of the ignored [2] in the link.

[2] Write 1,000 words about it by August 31st, 2026.

this is 1 of the two constraints. you may have to rework sentences. the skills exercised are these efforts

[chrisweekly]

This thread exists because of the ambiguity in "Write 1,000 words about it by August 31st, 2026."

My personal instinct is to interpret it as a minimum of 1,000 words -- but it remains ambiguous.

EDIT: After reading the site's content I think they may be targeting _precisely_ 1,000 words.