Source texts used in ProZ.com translation contests are generally short literary texts or excerpts of general appeal. By proposing a source text in your native language, you can help to ensure that others who translate from that language to other languages can participate in upcoming contests.

A suitable source text for a contest has the following characteristics:

• It is about 300 - 400 words in length.
• It is very well-written.
• It is rich with sentences or expressions that can be translated in any of a number of ways (when there are several areas open to interpretation, a chance is provided for translators of that text to distinguish themselves).
• It has a measure of completeness or closure in itself (even if it is an excerpt from a longer text)
• Its content is of general interest.
• In terms of translation difficulty, it is reasonably challenging, but not too complex.
• It does not contain too many highly-specialized terms (words that a native speaker of the language would have to look up in a dictionary to understand).
• Ideally, the first sentence of the text is one that immediately catches the reader's interest.
• It may contain cultural elements that add additional challenge and interest.
• There is no legal impediment to using the text in a contest (either because the text is out of copyright, or permission to use the text has been obtained).
• Previous translations of the text are not readily obtainable.