The Ritza-RU Award for Technical Writing

Ritza is offering a R5000 award for the best practical software engineering guide written by a student currently studying at Rhodes University. This will likely be most interesting to Computer Science students, but it is open to all undergraduates and postgraduates currently studying full time at Rhodes University.

Write a practical guide, including code samples, on how to build something interesting. A web application, a chatbot, a game, or anything else. Be creative. Also include screenshots if relevant. You can see some examples of the kind of articles we are looking for at the CodeCapsules Documentation or the Make JavaScript Games website. The goal of your guide should be to teach, and you can find some more general information on the kind of writing we like in our styleguide.

When: Submissions are due by 1 August 2022

What: Write a 2000-3000 word practical guide on how to build something cool. It should contain step-by-step instructions, explanations of background concepts, and an accompanying code repository containing the final product. It doesn't have to be too ambitious: configuring a framework, using an interesting API, or combining several tools in a unique way. It shouldn't be a "getting started with React" or something that already exists: make it unique, and something that a competent coder couldn't figure out on their own in an hour.

How: You can write in any format you want, but we prefer markdown. You can code in any language you want, and use any frameworks you want, but we'd prefer if you use free software and tools, so that readers can follow along and extend your work. Include the guide and example code in a public repository on GitHub, GitLab, BitBucket, Gitea, or similar, and email the link to gareth@ritza.co with exactly Ritza-RU Submission in the subject line.

We'll judge submissions on or before 15 August 2022. The winning entry will receive a one-time award of R5000, paid into a South African bank account. We reserve the right to not award the prize if no submissions meet the criteria outlined above.

Ts & Cs

You'll retain the IP and copyright to your submissions, but by submitting you give us the permission to include the submission on our website (https://ritza.co/articles). Legally this means:

You retain ownership of your Submission when you share it with us. By submitting, you grant to Ritza a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, fully paid, irrevocable, worldwide license to reproduce, make available, perform and display, translate, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, and otherwise use any your submission through any medium, whether alone or in combination with other Content or materials, in any manner and by any means, method or technology, whether now known or hereafter created.