Jiao Tong acknowledges he made a big mistake the first year: Unintentionally, he set up the committee like those that award prizes for books. "For literary prizes, the process is one where committee members try to convince each other of their opinions and work toward compromise. More emphasis is put on exchanging views than on compiling scores."
焦桐檢討，第一年由於經驗不足，不自覺套用了「文學獎」評選會議的思維：「文學獎是評審們彼此說服、妥協的過程，交換審美經驗比打分數還重要。」