You can't win if you don't play.

Maybe editorial writers don't think their opinions measure up.

Quick, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 1947, the founding year of the National Conference of Editorial Writers?

Bet I got most, if not all, of you. Okay, the Pulitzer winner in 1947 for work done in 1946 was (drum roll, please) William H. Grimes, editor of The Wall Street Journal. The one Grimes editorial that Professor David Sloan of the University of Alabama and I singled out in our anthology Pulitzer Prize Editorials, America's Best Editorial Writing 1917-1993 was headlined "Apathetic and pathetic."

This editorial focused on what Grimes saw as America's abandoning its traditional values. We wrote in introducing the editorial that Grimes "criticized economic and political trends in the United States and the apparent contradiction between what Americans said they believed and how they acted."

Leaping ahead, Sloan and I included 1993 as a Pulitzer year for editorial writing in the title of our book, but it really wasn't, except in defeat - a stunning statement in itself. That was the year, the seventh since the founding of the Pulitzers, that editorial writing failed to win. That's the most of any of the current 14 journalism categories.

Editorial writing was one of the originals established in 1917 because of Joseph Pulitzer's passion for opinion writing. (Others have been added over the years.)

In 1993 Sue Ryon, then editor of The Masthead, asked me to explore the case of the missing Pulitzer. (The piece ran in the Fall 1993 edition.) After 12 interviews with Pulitzer officials, editorial writing jurors, and past winners of the prize, I clearly found ambivalence concerning the three finalists. The chair of the judging panel opined that among all entries for the prize, "Nothing jumped to the top of the stack."

I found lots of other observations, many dealing with the weary "lack of passion" argument. I reached several conclusions; perhaps the most telling was the simplest: So few of the nation's thousands of dailies and weeklies even bother to enter the contest.

In 1993, the year we didn't win, only 72 editorial writing entries - "exhibits" in Pulitzer jargon - were submitted, the smallest over a five-year period. My observation centered around four points:

* Many editorial writers must have thought that their hundreds of opinions and the quality of their writing somehow wouldn't be considered distinguished.

* Bucking the competition with a lot of the big names of journalism who devote countless hours creating beautifully packaged entries was too tough.

* They didn't know the rules.

* They simply didn't care.

In my Masthead article and in our book I urged more entries for more comprehensive judgment. Entries have edged up. In 1996, entries numbered 96; in 1995, we had 101, and 1994 saw 96 submissions.

Another point: You don't have to be big or well known to win. The winner in 1984 was Albert Scardino of the 4,000-circulation Georgia Gazette. But even a Pulitzer can't necessarily be a savior; the paper died the year after Scardino received the prize.

Entry rules are relatively simple and can be obtained by writing the Pulitzer Prize Office, 702 Journalism, Columbia University, New York NY 10027. Anyone can submit an entry in your behalf. You can even enter yourself. Entries in scrapbook form, containing up to 10 editorials, must be sent by February 1.

Some would say we make too much of prizes, including the Pulitzer. That may be so. But whatever your view of the prize or your perceived chances, you can't win if you don't play.

Just imagine getting $3,000 and a certificate that reads: "For distinguished editorial writing, the test of excellence being clearness of style, moral purpose, sound reasoning, and power to influence public opinion in what the writer conceives to be the right direction."

That's something at least worth considering. Let's make it tough on Pulitzer officials to deny our work ever again.

NCEW member Laird Anderson teaches opinion writing. He is professor emeritus of communication at The American University in Washington, D.C.