The Association for Business Communication (ABC) Student Writing Award competition was open to undergraduate business students who worked independently to write a response to a proposed case and whose entries were submitted by their instructors.  Mr. Anish Dave, who nominated Julie Ryan's response for the competition, made the contest a part of the first two assignments in his business communication course. Twelve students from his two sections decided to participate. Based on their responses, Mr. Dave selected the two memos, one of which was Julie's, for the competition.

The selection process was a rigorous one. First, all student entries were coded so readers would not know the identity of the student authors, instructors, or schools. Next, the ABC Student Competition Committee members worked independently to read and rank all entries and identify their most highly regarded entries. Finally, six business professionals also worked independently to read and rank the most highly regarded entries and to identify the contest winners. All readers used a holistic scale similar to that used for the GMAT to rank entries.