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A poetry slam is a competitive event in which poets perform their work and are judged by members of the audience. Everyone who signs up has the [opportunity] to read in the first round; the lineup for subsequent rounds is determined by the judges' scores. Though rules vary from slam to slam, the basic rules are:

* Each poem must be of the poet's own construction;
* Each poet gets three minutes (plus a ten-second grace period) to read one poem. If the poet goes over time, points will be deducted from the total score.
* The poet may not use props, costumes or musical instruments;
* Of the scores the poet received from the five judges, the high and low scores are dropped and the middle three are added together, giving the poet a total score of 0-30.

Slam is engineered for the audience, whereas a number of open mike readings are engineered as a support network for poets. Slam is designed for the audience to react vocally and openly to all aspects of the show, including the poet's [performance], the judges' scores, and the host's banter. Audiences can boo or cheer at the conclusion of a poem, or even during a poem.

The best poetry slams include a wide variety of writing and [performance] styles. This, of course, depends on who shows up to compete and-- beyond the first round-- what the judges see fit to hear more of. The only requirement for judging is that the audience member not be a [family member] or intimate friend of any of the [competitors].

The best slam poets are those who are skilled at both theatrical [performance] (stage presence, timing, voice modulation, body language and emoting) and pure poetic writing (metaphor, insight, brevity, sonance, wit).

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