From Cover Letters to Laudatios

by Karen Pimtzner, Webmistress
petalperfect Digital Photography Gallery (site closed)
15 July 2001

Print Version

As a follow-up to my article on replying to applicants, it occurred to me that effective letter-writing is becoming more and more a vital part of the award process. Reply letters are no longer just "cover letters" for sending our award graphics. They are now becoming as important, if not more important, than the award itself. They've even been given a title befitting their sudden gain in stature. They're called "Laudatios."

What Is A Laudatio?

Simply put, a laudatio is the Latin term for laudation from the word laud (to sing praise). Thus, a laudatio is the very act of praising or commending an act or deed; in this case, the creation of an award-winning web site. They can be in the form of glowing descriptive commentaries of the web site itself, or they can take the form of personal accolades for the webmaster, and his inherent skill and mastery in the art of web site creation.

If we thought writing a simple reply letter to applicants was difficult, this is a real mouth-dropper. For the first time, our words may be given a prominent place on a winner's web page — right alongside our award graphic — for the whole Cyberworld to see. That's right, kiddies. Every word, every grammatical nuance, all up there in black and white. People are going to judge our expertise as award-givers by these words. It's not the graphic prize that's getting the headlines any longer. It's the award ceremony. And the spotlight is on the presenters!

You Can Run, But You Can't Hide (For Long)

This is the part of the article where the "secret formula" for writing an effective laudatio should be revealed. (Ominous organ chord) Sorry folks! There isn't any. Well, there's no standard formula or "form laudatio" that you can use. My condolences to all you form-letter advocates out there. That's the neat thing about well-written laudatios. They are unique, customized, personal and each is as different as the webmaster and web site receiving the laudation. Or, they should be.

I know what you're thinking. Jeez! We had enough trouble writing an effective cover-letter. What are we supposed to do now? Close up shop, start running and never look back? No, but you can learn the simple basics of creating an effective laudatio. Get back here!!!

Actually, laudatios are a lot easier to write than your standard reply letters because they are specifically for the winners. You remember them. They're the webmasters who created the sites that we loved ... the ones that won our awards!

There are some basic guidelines to be followed, but they need not be a laborious chore if you approach them in the right way ... with an open mind. The whole process is relatively simple. All award-givers take copious notes while they're conducting site reviews. RIGHT? Well, this would be a heck of a good time to start if you're not, for here's where they come into play.

Keep It Simple Stupid (K.I.S.S.)

Don't rely on your memory ... PLEASE. We're award-givers. We have no brain cells left to play ESP with. Seriously. Nobody can write effective, personalized laudatios to six people while trying to remember the highlights of individual site reviews off the top of their heads. We're not those waiters who try to show off their memory skills by memorizing what everybody ordered, without writing it down. Besides, how many of us have gotten the wrong meal, cooked the wrong way?

Write yourself a note to take some good notes the next time you review a site. Nice, short notes about what you really liked are all that is needed, just on the off-chance that this particular site may actually win your award. You might even use one or two-word descriptive phrases. Just the facts, Ma'am. Just the facts.

Already there's a glimmer of light in this strange new land of darkness called Laudatios. Yes, keeping it short and sweet is Rule #1. Say what you have to say, as succinctly as you can. Remember, you have a lot of these babies to write and your days are not getting any longer. Besides, short, well-written laudatios are worth more than twelve pages of dreck. And the benefit to the award-winner is that they are easy to copy and paste into an awards page. They also say volumes about your professionalism as an award-giver.

Keep It Positive (Or Keep It To Yourself!)

Remember your Mom saying: "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything?" Have you ever seen a laudatio on someone's award page that looked like this: "very nicely done ... good navigation ... you won ... silver award .... keep up good work?" Now, we all know what's happening here. The award-winner is extracting the good stuff from the not-so-good stuff; paraphrasing if you will, extracting the pearls from the swill.

Here you run the risk that your wonderfully crafted laudatio will take on a new persona. It might even end up being re-written or, worse yet, unintelligible. If you want your laudatio to remain intact, make sure you write it effectively in the first place. Remember those two-word phrases? Organize them a little before presenting them. Write a simple, solid, laudatory paragraph that gets to the meat of the matter in short order. Keep all of the positive reinforcements together.

If you must find "something" wrong with even the most award-worthy of web sites, put your criticisms or "look-at-me-I-can-find-something-wrong-with-any-site" critiques in a separate paragraph. Better still ... keep them to yourself. We're talking winners here. Most of them like to cut and paste these laudatios into their web pages, so keep it short. And above all ... KEEP IT POSITIVE.

Having The Last Word (A Special Note To Negative-Nellies)

I shouldn't have to say this, but there is no reason to put negative comments in a laudatio. If you do, then I would say you really haven't learned much so far about writing laudatios. Or, for that matter, about what a laudatio is supposed to be.

Let's review: Laudatio = Praise. Laudatio good. There is no place in a laudatio for your if's, and's or but's. If you must share your webmastering expertise with each and every award applicant, or if you just have to have the final word on web design, do it in another email. Don't ruin an otherwise positive laudatio.

Be Specific (Get Right Down To The Real Nitty-Gritty)

This one is a toughie. There are certain phrases everyone has seen thousands of times in criteria, review letters and laudatios. You know the ones: "intuitive navigation ... good content ... great design," yada yada yada.

Come out of the dark ages, people. Be specific. Get down to the nitty-gritty. There is a distinct possibility these folks are going to post your words on their web sites. Wouldn't it be great if they described a specific web site instead of a possible six million sites? There must have been specific reasons why a particular web site won your award. Don't just quote or paraphrase from your general criteria.

What made the navigation intuitive? Was it easy to follow? Was it unique in design? Was it seamless? Were the links your favorite color blue? What WAS it? And what constitutes good content? Telling someone who has 500 pages of content that "the content was good" is a bit vague. Narrow it down a bit. What specific segment(s) or sub-topic(s) of the content did you enjoy? Which unique graphic grabbed your attention? What particular poem or short story moved you in some way? Come on, you must have had a favorite.

And that unique design. What made it unique? Did the webmaster use a color scheme you had never seen before? Did he have original graphics that blew you away? His web site was a winning site. Tell him why ... and BE SPECIFIC.

Give Credit Where It's Due (Even If It Hurts!)

A very effective tool in writing laudatios is turning what once was a negative into a positive. Have you ever disliked something merely because you had never seen it in a good light, or done right? Well, I received a laudatio with an award recently. The award-giver said he loved my web site design and color choices because he had never seen these colors used effectively on a web site before.

Now, there's a "specific" laudatory comment. This statement could have had very negative connotations. But instead, this clever award-giver turned a negative into a positive AND found something unique about my web site. Two birds with one stone!

If someone does something right, tell him. If you have to eat a little crow about a die-hard rule or pet peeve that you've held for years, then do it. Turning a negative into a positive, in an effective way, can get better results than any off-handed compliment ever will.

The Laudatio Wars Rage On

To be perfectly honest here, I gotta say that I am NOT a person who posts laudatios with awards. Many would disagree with this practice. Award-givers have disqualified me for this very reason, and others may do the same. Many consider the laudatio to be the most important part of the award process — far more important than the graphic itself.

I respect their opinion and am not trying to dispute the fact. I've authored what I consider to be some extremely well-written laudatios in my time. I've even been flattered by having them posted on the winners' web sites.

My decision to not include laudatios on my own awards pages was personal and two-fold. One, I'm a visual person. I'm a photographer, an artist and, I'm sorry, I see beauty in the award graphic. I see each one as a tiny masterpiece that came from the soul of the creator. Two, and most importantly, I have not received an over-abundance of what I would call "real" laudatios. I've received a lot of cover letters and what I like to call "left-over guestbook comments," but not true laudatios. "Nice site. Keep up the good work." All they were missing was, "visit mine."

I have also been fortunate enough to receive some really GREAT laudatios. Some shocked me. Some made me smile (for days). Some made me dance around the room (a sight not to be missed). Some even made me cry. But they have been the exception, not the rule. I have received some that I can't even conceive of posting, period. That's what prompted me to write this article. I can't post some laudatios on my web site and not the others. It's all or nuthin' for me.

My compliments to those who were able to bring out an emotion in me — whatever it was. It means your words "touched" me in some special way. Most of them were from award-givers who were not literary geniuses or clever creative writers. They were from folks who reviewed my site, found it worthy of their award, and proceeded to tell me "why" in their own words. And that's what it's all about.

A Final Word ...

I exchanged emails with a lovely woman named Pat. She appreciated my specific comments about improvements she could make to her web site. She said very few reply letters from award programs even remotely gave her a clue as to what she could do to improve her site, let alone offer encouragement or help. She had also seen these words on someone's award program recently: "If you don't win my award, don't ask me for assistance in improving your web site, because I don't have the time."

She thanked me for "making" the time. She said that our communications had prompted her to read the article I wrote about replying to applicants. She had enjoyed the article and wanted to thank me for writing it (as she was respectfully requested to do by the webmaster at Website Awards).

But here's the best part. She also said she was particularly grateful to the webmaster at Website Awards for suggesting that readers take a moment to "thank the author." Now, THAT'S a laudatio!