I think when a judge says some entry lost points, it's misleading. Many judging sheets start out with all the numbers from one to ten printed on them, so the judges can quickly circle the appropriate number. So every entry starts out with zero points, and can only gain points from there. And I've never ever heard of an entry whose score ended up less than zero.
I can see using "losing points" or "that entry lost points" as a figure of speech, amounting to "did not gain any points". And certainly a judge's initial high opinion can fall when some shortcoming is discovered. But I find it much more positive to frame the whole situation in terms of lost opportunities to gain more points. Judging sheets have no point score till the masquerade begins. -- Carolyn Kayta Barrows -- Blank paper is God's way of saying it ain't so easy being God. -- _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
