what type of writing situation is a contest essay

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How to Win an Essay Contest

Last Updated: February 28, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Daniel Santos . Daniel Santos is a College Admissions & Career Coach and Prepory's co-founder and CEO. Prepory is a leading college admissions consulting firm that has guided over 9,000 students from 35 countries through the US college admissions process. Prepory is a member of the National Association for College Admissions Counseling and a trusted admissions counseling partner to several competitive high schools across Florida. Prior to founding Prepory, Daniel worked at various leading law firms and the United States House of Representatives. Daniel has been featured as a college admissions and career coaching expert across several major publications, including the Wall Street Journal, FORTUNE, and The Harvard Crimson. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 171,335 times.

If you're hoping to write an essay that will win a contest, there are several ways to make your writing stand out. Before you start writing, make sure you read the essay guidelines so that you're following all of the rules. Come up with a topic that fits the contest's theme and craft a detailed, descriptive, and interesting essay. By making your essay original and error-free, you'll be much more likely to win the contest.

Crafting and Editing the Essay

• If you don’t follow one or more of the rules when writing and submitting your essay, your essay may be disqualified, so make sure to read over the rules several times if necessary.
• It’s a good idea to print out the guidelines so that you can refer to them as you’re writing.

• It’s super important to stick with the theme when you’re writing and not get off-topic.
• For example, if the contest asks you to write about a person who has influenced you, make a list of the people that have had a big impact on your life and choose the person who you can write lots of descriptive examples about.

• It’s okay if you have several different drafts of one essay.
• Make an outline of your essay before you start to help you organize your thoughts.

• Ask a friend or family member to read over your essay to see if it’s interesting and makes sense.
• It may help you to put the essay aside for a day or two after you’ve written it so that you can revise it again with a fresh perspective.

• It may help to ask another person to read over the essay to see if they spot any mistakes.

• Check to see when the submission deadline is in the contest’s guidelines and rules.
• It may help you to put the essay deadline on your calendar so that you don’t forget when it is.
• If you're sending the essay by mail, make sure you send it far enough in advance that it will reach the judges in time.

Making Your Essay Stand Out

• An example of an attention-grabbing introduction might be, “I held my breath for 82 seconds before I was yanked out of the water,” or “Sarah walked slowly up to the door, her body drenched in nervous sweat, before firmly knocking.”

• The title should give the reader a glimpse of what your essay is about while leaving them intrigued.
• For example, if you’re writing an essay about a lemon picker, you might title the essay, "Living with Sour Fingers."

• Instead of saying, “The wheelbarrow fell down the hill,” you could say, “The rusty wheels of the wheelbarrow skidded over smooth rocks and sharp blades of grass until it skidded to a stop at the edge of the water.”

• Read over your essay and look for sentences or ideas that would likely not be found in another person's essay.
• If you're having trouble figuring out if you have an original element, have someone else read over your essay and tell you which parts stand out.

• Review the essay guidelines to see if there’s a special way they’d like the essay formatted.

Expert Q&A

• If you don't win, take a look at the winning entries if possible and see what they did that you didn't. Try to learn from this and incorporate it into your next essay. Thanks Helpful 18 Not Helpful 2
• Don't be afraid to ask for help if you have a hard time! As long as your work is original, getting feedback from others is a great way to make your writing stronger. Thanks Helpful 12 Not Helpful 2
• If you have difficulty understanding the topic or the guidelines, try to get in touch with the judges. Thanks Helpful 12 Not Helpful 2

• Failure to follow the format requirements may disqualify your essay. Thanks Helpful 44 Not Helpful 8
• Be aware of the deadline to ensure you get your essay submitted in time. Thanks Helpful 18 Not Helpful 3

You Might Also Like

Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you'd like to learn more about essay contests, check out our in-depth interview with Daniel Santos .

• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/brainstorming/
• ↑ https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/writingsuccess/chapter/8-3-drafting/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/revising-drafts/
• ↑ https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/writingprocess/proofreading
• ↑ https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/planning/intros-and-conclusions/
• ↑ https://writing.umn.edu/sws/assets/pdf/quicktips/titles.pdf
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/descriptive_essays.html
• ↑ https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/write-original-essay/
• ↑ https://facultyweb.ivcc.edu/ramboeng2/handout_essayformat.htm

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Understanding Writing Situations

Many of us think of writing as a solitary activity -- something done when we're alone in a quiet place. Yet most of our writing, like other forms of communication -- texting conversations, emails, classroom discussions, meetings, and presentations -- is an intensely social activity. In this guide, you can learn more about the situations in which writers and readers find themselves and the physical, social, cultural, and historical contexts that shape them.

Reading and Writing as Social Acts

Writing is hard work, and it's usually done in a quiet place, away from others. It might seem odd to hear it called a "social act." However, most experienced writers and writing teachers call it just that.

If you think about it carefully, you'll realize that, with a few exceptions (diaries, travel journals, your notes app, and grocery lists among them), most writing activities are intensely social. Even relatively simple writing activities, such as taking a texting message, sending email, or sending a tweet, involve conveying a message to another person as clearly as possible. The writer of a two-word texting message, for instance, ought to consider whether the person reading the message will understand that "call Gail" means call Gail Garcia and not Gail Evans or Gail Chen.

More complex writing activities, such as writing a business proposal or a progress report, require writers to think much more carefully about how their readers will react to what they've written. A memo to a manager outlining reasons why a promotion and a raise are good ideas is clearly shaped by a writer's concerns about his or her readers. Even decisions made by writers of poems, short stories, novels, and plays are affected by what readers know and how they are likely to react.

In much the same way, readers are engaged in a social act. Knowing that you wrote a particular text message, they will contemplate what you most likely meant by the words "call Gail." A manager, reading a memo requesting a promotion and a raise, will take into account his or her perceptions of the writer and what the writer most likely meant by a phrase such as "or else." Similarly, readers of documents ranging from marketing plans to lyric poems to personal letters will read between the lines of those documents based on their knowledge (or the lack thereof) of the writer. Their interpretation of a document, as a result, will be based at least to some degree on something other than the words themselves.

Reading and Writing as Conversation

In some ways, writers' and readers' interactions with each other are like conversations at a party. You've probably wandered around a party, listening in briefly on conversations until you find one you want to join. What you hear in a conversation is filtered through your interests and experiences. And what you say is shaped by a particular purpose (to entertain or inform someone, to ask a question, or perhaps to interest someone in getting together with you at a later time). If you're like most people, you try to avoid repeating things that have already been said and you try to stay on the subject. To do this, you listen to a conversation before adding to it.

This is one of the ways in which writing is most like a conversation. Just as you do at a party, you want to listen (or read) long enough to know what's been said, what people are discussing at the moment, and what they might welcome as a relevant contribution. In other words, you want to be accountable to what's been going on before you add to the conversation (see Accountability, below).

In addition, members of a conversation typically try to create responses that offer something of value to their readers -- something new or interesting, something that helps move the conversation forward (see Value, below). Your decisions about what you might add to a conversation will be based not only on what you've listened to -- or, in the case of writing, what you've read -- but also on your understanding of the needs, interests, values, and beliefs of other members of the conversation (see Considering Your Readers, below).

For these reasons, the relationships between readers and writers can become quite complex. Just as writers compose documents for a wide range of purposes, readers read for a variety of reasons. The degree to which writers can accomplish their purposes depends in large part on the extent to which their document can influence readers to behave or think in certain ways. The degree to which readers find a document useful depends on the extent to which it is consistent with their interests and needs. The document, as a result, becomes the key point of contact between readers and writers - who might live in different times, be separated by thousands of miles, and/or bring radically different experiences to their writing and reading of the document.

Accountability in Writing

Accountability is a key concept in writing, and particularly so in academic writing and research writing. It would be embarrassing to repeat what someone had just said before you joined a conversation. It would be even more embarrassing to be accused of stealing someone's ideas because you hadn't bothered to read what they'd written about an issue. Knowing what's been written about an issue - being an accountable member of a conversation - is the first step toward becoming an effective writer.

Contributing Something of Value

Contributing something of value to a conversation is centrally important in most writing projects. Simply changing the dates on last year's product marketing plan isn't likely to get you a promotion, nor is it likely that summarizing the current state of debate on an environmental policy issue will elicit more than yawns from people who have been closely following the issue. Just as you'll be ignored or even shut down if you make an irrelevant comment at a party, your writing will be ignored if it fails to offer something of value to your readers.

Considering Your Readers

Considering your readers involves attempting to understand what they bring to the conversation -- their knowledge of the issue, their needs and interests, and their values and beliefs. If you are writing a feature article about an Olympic slalom racer for Ski magazine, for example, you'll annoy your readers if you spend a lot of time defining the terms cap skis and sidecut instead of talking about training techniques and race strategies. On the other hand, if you're writing for Parade magazine, a national publication included in many Sunday newspapers, many of your readers (who will be much less familiar with skiing and ski technology than the readers of Ski magazine) are likely to be annoyed if you fail to define those terms. Similarly, providing a detailed history of the Internet will win you little favor from readers of a technical manual for Web server software, but will be of great value to readers of a book covering the development of the World Wide Web.

In a written conversation, you'll have much more time to consider how your readers will react to what you write. As you draft your contribution to the conversation, consider not only how well it will match your readers' knowledge, but also their needs, interests, values, and beliefs. Consider as well their reasons -- or purposes -- for reading what you'll write.

A Social Model of Writing

Models are useful tools for discussing complex concepts. The model discussed in this guide considers the relationships among writers, readers, and texts. Although it can't fully predict the complexities of a specific writing situation, they can help writers understand the general principles that shape those situations.

This model is based on three observations. First, a text may serve as the only point of contact between a reader and writer, particularly when writers are separated by time and distance. Second, texts cannot pass "meaning" transparently and perfectly from writer to reader. Writers seldom write exactly what they mean and readers seldom interpret a writer's words exactly as the writer intended. Third, the factors that affect the attempts of writers and readers to share an understanding of a text include not only their respective purposes, influences, and understanding of each other, but also the physical, social, cultural, and historical contexts in which reading and writing take place.

This model of the writing situation is based on five key questions:

What is the Writer's Purpose?

Every writer has a purpose for writing. In fact, most writers have multiple purposes . A student writing an essay for a class might want to accomplish several things, including completing the particular assignment as required, learning something new, improving writing skills, convincing others to adopt a particular point of view about an issue, and getting a good grade. An employee working on a project st

atus report for a business might want to convey key information to his or her superiors, earn a manager's approval, perform well enough to earn a promotion, and gain valuable experience in project management. Understanding a writer's purposes can help you understand one of the most important aspects of the writing situation. Among other factors, identifying a writer's purposes can help you understand the writer's decisions about the content, structure, and design of a document.

As a writer, understanding your purposes can help you in virtually every aspect of your writing process. Knowing what you want to accomplish will help you select your topic, consider your readers' needs and interests, and choose appropriate evidence to support your points. It will also help you with decisions regarding tone, style, and document design.

What Influences Writers?

Writers will be influenced by a number of factors as they compose a document. Their interests (what they'd like to do) and their needs (what they must do) will affect their decision about choosing a particular topic, the points they make in that document, and the evidence they use to support their points.

Writers' values and beliefs will also influence their document. Writers are likely to choose examples and evidence that reflects their particular perspective on a topic. They will also affect the way they relate to their readers -- whether they adopt a friendly tone, for example.

Writers' knowledge of a particular topic will also affect their work on a document. When writers know a great deal about a topic, they might find it easier to locate appropriate evidence. When writers know relatively little about a topic, in contrast, they'll need to spend much more time searching for, evaluating, and critically reading sources.

Writers--and the writing situations in which they find themselves--are seldom free of requirements and limitations . Requirements are typically associated with an academic or workplace assignment. Common requirements include: length (in words or pages), due date, number and/or type of sources that can be used, organization and format (such as whether to include a title page, works cited list, and so on), documentation style (such as MLA or APA), and intermediate drafts. In addition to these requirements, writers are likely to face certain limitations, such as lack of access to information and lack of time to work on a project.

Reflecting on the requirements and limitations faced by a particular writer can help you understand why particular decisions were made. As a writer, reflecting on your requirements and limitations can help you decide whether a particular decision-such as choice of topic or the inclusion of evidence from a particular type of source-will help or hurt your chances of accomplishing your purposes.

In contrast to requirements and limitations, opportunities expand the possibilities for a writer. Among many other possibilities, opportunities include access to a specialized or particularly good library, personal experience with and knowledge about a topic, access to people who are experts on a particular topic, and access to hardware or software that can help you produce your document (such as desktop publishing software, a good color printer, and Web development software).

What is the Reader's Purpose?

Like writers, readers have purposes. Most readers don't read something unless they see some sort of benefit in doing so. Perhaps they want to be entertained; perhaps they want to learn something new; perhaps they need to review someone's work in order to write a report or assign a grade. Understanding the purposes readers bring to a document can help you anticipate how they will react to a particular document.

As a writer, understanding the purposes of your readers can help you create a more effective document. If you are working on a writing assignment for a class, for example, one of your most important readers will be your instructor. But your instructor will not necessarily be the only reader of your document. Other readers might include your classmates, people who have a professional or personal interest in your topic, or, should your research project be published in print or online, the readers of a particular magazine, journal, or Website. If you are writing in a business or professional setting, your readers might include your supervisor, his or her supervisors, customers, or other people associated with the organization. In addition, it's possible that your readers will include the writers of sources you might use in your document-writers who share your interest in your topic and who might want to respond to what you will eventually write.

What Influences the Reader?

Readers will be influenced by a number of factors as they read a document. Their interest in a particular topic will affect their decision to read -- or not read -- a given document. Similarly, their needs will also affect their willingness to read a document.

Reader's values and beliefs will also influence their reading of a document. Writers who do not take their readers' values and beliefs into account might miss an opportunity to create a more convincing, useful, or acceptable document. Worse, they might offend their readers -- and increase the chances that their readers will not finish the document.

Readers' knowledge of a particular topic will also affect their reading of a document. When writers assume that readers know more about a topic than they actually do, they can create a document that is difficult to understand. When they assume their readers know less than they actually do, they risk creating documents that repeat information readers already know. In both cases, readers are likely to stop reading the document.

What do Writers and Readers Know about Each Other?

One of the most important factors affecting the writing situation is writers' and readers'  representations of each other. When writers understand their readers well -- that is, when they know a fair amount about their readers' purposes and influences -- they're likely to create more successful documents. Similarly, when readers have an accurate understanding of the writer -- his or her purpose, needs, interests, values, beliefs, and knowledge of a topic, among other things -- they are likely to be more successful at interpreting the document in a way that the writer intended.

In many cases, the lack of an accurate representation of readers will result in a "poorly written" document -- that is, a document that doesn't help either the writers or the readers. As you consider writing your document, reflect carefully on what you know about your readers. If you know relatively little about them, or if you're missing important information (such as an understanding of why they would want to read your document or what they would hope to gain from it), consider spending some time learning about them. It will be time well spent.

What is the Context?

The remaining elements of this model of writing as a social activity deal with the setting in which the writing takes place.

Physical context refers to the context in which writers and readers interact with a text. Writers compose texts in a variety of physical settings that can affect what and how they write. For instance, a writer might not be able to do his or her best work in a crowded library or in a noisy corporate cubicle. Similarly, readers might react differently to a text depending on where they read it. Whether a document is read on a crowded bus or train, for instance, rather than in a quiet office, might affect how a reader feels about the text. Even factors such as the lighting available to a reader or the quality of the printer and paper used to create a document can affect the reading of a document.

The community - or social context - to which readers and writers belong can also affect the reading and writing of a document. Writers and readers from the same or similar communities are more likely to communicate effectively with each other via a document than writers and readers who come from different communities. Readers familiar with specific political and social issues, for example, are less likely to expect a writer to define those issues in detail. For instance, readers familiar with violence in American secondary schools will not need to be educated about the issue - they will already know the key points. This reduces the amount of time and effort writers need to devote to providing background information about the issue. Rather than going into detail about the causes and effects of school violence, writers can spend more time developing other aspects of a document.

Cultural context refers to a larger set of similarities and differences among readers. For instance, readers from the American Midwest might find it easier to understand the allusions and metaphors used in a document written by someone from Oregon than those in a document written by someone from Peru or Sri Lanka. Similarly, modern teenagers might find it easier to follow what's being said in a document written one month ago by a high school senior in Milwaukee than a document written in 1897 by a retired railroad engineer from Saskatchewan.

The Role of Context in Shaping Purpose and Constructing Meaning

At best, any model of a writing situation will be inexact. The value of the model discussed in this guide, however, lies not in its attempt to be exact, but in its attempt to call writers' and readers' attention to the factors that can shape their interactions with texts - and, through texts, with each other. Of critical importance in this model is the role played by context-physical, social, and cultural-in shaping the decisions writers make as they compose a text and that readers make as they construct meaning from a text. For writers, context shapes -- some might argue that it actually causes -- the purposes for writing. Moreover, context affects the opportunities, requirements, and limitations that affect the choices writers make as they compose their documents. For readers, context shapes their attempt to construct meaning as they read. Physical context can enhance or diminish their ability to read the document. Social context can affect the extent to which writers and readers share common experiences and expectations about a text. Cultural context will affect the fundamental assumptions, beliefs, and aspirations that they bring to the reading of a text.

It might be tempting to consider the elements of this model -- purposes, influences, representations of readers and writers, and the various levels of context -- as relatively distinct. But the most effective use of this model of writing as a social activity lies in recognizing that these elements are intimately related with each other. As you consider the role that text plays in the attempts of writers and readers to create shared meaning through text, remember that no single element of the model can stand completely separate from the others.

Mangialetti, Tony & Mike Palmquist. (2022). Understanding Writing Situations. Writing@CSU . Colorado State University. https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/guide.cfm?guideid=3

How to Win Essay Contests: A Step-by-Step Guide

10 Steps to Writing Contest-Winning Essays

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Did you know that you can win prizes with your writing skills? Essay contests are a fun way to turn your creativity and your command of the written word into great prizes. But how do you give your essay the edge that gets it picked from among all of the other entries?

Here's a step-by-step guide to writing essays that impress judges. Follow these steps for your best chances of winning writing contests.

Read the Essay Contest Rules

The first thing that you should do to win essay contests is to read the rules thoroughly. Overlooking one small detail could be the difference between winning the contest and wasting your time.

Pay special attention to:

• The contest's start and end dates.
• How often you're allowed to enter.
• The word or character count .
• The contest's theme.
• The criteria that the judges will use to pick the winners.
• Who the sponsoring company is, and what their branding is like.
• And any other details the sponsor requires.

It might help you to print out the sweepstakes rules and highlight the most important elements, or to take notes and keep them close at hand as you write.

If you summarize the relevant rules in a checklist, you can easily check the requirements off when you've finished your essay to ensure you haven't overlooked anything.

Brainstorm Your Essay Ideas

Many people want to jump right into writing their essay, but it's a better idea to take some time to brainstorm different ideas before you start. Oftentimes, your first impulse isn't your best.

The Calgary Tutoring Centre lists several reasons why brainstorming improves your writing . According to their article, brainstorming lets you:

"Eliminate weaker ideas or make weaker ideas stronger. Select only the best and most relevant topics of discussion for your essay while eliminating off-topic ideas. Or, generate a new topic that you might have left out that fits with others."

For a great brainstorming session, find a distraction-free area and settle in with a pen and paper, or your favorite method to take notes. A warm beverage and a healthy snack might aid your process. Then, think about your topic and jot down quick words and phrases that are relevant to your theme.

This is not the time to polish your ideas or try to write them coherently. Just capture enough of the idea that you know what you meant when you review your notes.

Consider different ways that you can make the contest theme personal, come at it from a different angle, or stand out from the other contest entries. Can you make a serious theme funny? Can you make your ideas surprising and unexpected?

Write down all your ideas, but don't judge them yet. The more ideas you can come up with, the better.

Select the Essay Concept that Best Fits the Contest's Theme and Sponsor

Once you've finished brainstorming, look over all of your ideas to pick the one you want to develop for your essay contest entry.

While you're deciding, think about what might appeal to the essay contest's sponsor. Do you have a way of working the sponsor's products into your essay? Does your concept fit the sponsor's company image?

An essay that might be perfect for a Budweiser contest might fall completely flat when Disney is the sponsor.

This is also a good time to consider whether any of your rejected ideas would make good secondary themes for your essay.

Use a Good Hook to Grab the Reader's Attention

When it's time to start writing your essay, remember that the first sentence is the most important. You want to ensure that your first paragraph is memorable and grabs the reader's attention.

When you start with a powerful, intriguing, moving, or hilarious first sentence, you hook your readers' interest and stick out in their memory when it is time to pick winners.

Writer's Digest has some excellent tips on how to hook readers at the start of an essay in their article, 10 Ways to Hook Your Reader (and Reel Them in for Good) .

For ideas on how to make your essay unforgettable, see Red Mittens, Strong Hooks, and Other Ways to Make Your Essay Spectacular .

Write the First Draft of Your Essay

Now, it's time to get all of your thoughts down on paper (or on your computer). Remember that this is a first draft, so don't worry about perfect grammar or if you are running over your word count. 

Instead, focus on whether your essay is hitting the right emotional notes, how your story comes across, whether you are using the right voice, and if you are communicating everything you intend to.

First drafts are important because they help you overcome your reluctance to write. You are not trying to be good yet, you are trying to simply tell your story. Polishing that story will come later.

They also organize your writing. You can see where your ideas fit and where you need to restructure to give them more emotional impact.

Finally, a first draft helps you keep your ideas flowing without letting details slow you down. You can even skip over parts that you find challenging, leaving notes for your next revision. For example, you could jot down "add statistics" or "get a funny quote from Mom" and come back to those time-consuming points later.

Revise Your Essay for Flow and Organization

Once you've written the first draft of your essay, look over it to ensure that it flows. Is your point well-made and clear? Do your thoughts flow smoothly from one point to another? Do the transitions make sense? Does it sound good when you read it aloud?

This is also the time to cut out extraneous words and ensure you've come in under the word count limit.

Generally, cutting words will improve your writing. In his book, On Writing , Stephen King writes that he once received a rejection that read: "Formula for success: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%." In other words, the first draft can always use some trimming to make the best parts shine.

If you'd like some tips on how to improve your first draft, check out these tips on how to self-edit .

Keep an Eye Out for "Red Mittens"

In her fantastic book, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio , Terry Ryan talked about how her mother Evelyn used "red mittens" to help her be more successful with contest entries.

As she put it:

"The purpose of the Red Mitten was almost self-explanatory -- it made an entry stand out from the rest. In a basket of mittens, a red one will be noticed."

Rhyme, alliteration, inner rhyme, puns, and coined words were some of the red mittens that Evelyn Ryan used to make her entries pop. Your essay's red mitten might be a clever play on words, a dash of humor, or a heart-tuggingly poignant story that sticks in the judges' minds.

If your first draft is feeling a little bland, consider whether you can add a red mitten to spice up your story.

Put Your Contest Entry Aside

Now that you have a fairly polished draft of your essay contest entry, put it aside and don't look at it for a little while. If you have time before the contest ends, put your essay away for at least a week and let your mind mull over the idea subconsciously for a little while.

Many times, people think of exactly what their essay needs to make it perfect... right after they have hit the submit button.

Letting your entry simmer in your mind for a while gives you the time to come up with these great ideas before it's too late.

Revise Your Essay Contest Entry Again

Now, it's time to put the final polish on your essay. Have you said everything you wanted to? Have you made your point? Does the essay sound good when you read it out loud? Can you tighten up the prose by making additional cuts in the word count?

In this phase, it helps to enlist the help of friends or family members. Read your essay to them and check their reactions. Did they smile at the right parts? Were they confused by anything? Did they connect with the idea behind the story?

This is also a good time to ensure you haven't made any grammar or spelling mistakes. A grammar checker like Grammarly is very helpful for catching those little mistakes your eyes gloss over. But since even computer programs make mistakes sometimes, so it's helpful to have another person — a good friend or family member — read it through before you submit it.

Read the Essay Contest Rules One Last Time

If you've been following these directions, you've already read through the contest rules carefully. But now that you've written your draft and had some time to think things over, read them through one more time to make sure you haven't overlooked anything.

Go through your checklist of the essay requirements point-by-point with your finished essay in front of you to make sure you've hit them all.

And now, you're done! Submit the essay to your contest, and keep your fingers crossed for the results !

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5 Writing Contest Strategies to Improve Your Winning Chances

by Guest Blogger | 0 comments

Fear, anticipation, and self-doubt are just a few emotions I felt during my first writing contest.

Maybe you’re in the same place now. Wondering if you have a chance among the many entrants. Uncertain if it’s worth the time and effort.

Short answer—it is.

And that holds true whether you win or lose. We’ll get into that more below.

But I also want to reveal five tips for improving your winning chances in a writing contest. See, I won the Short Fiction Break 2020 Summer Writing Contest with my story Dark Time . So the editorial staff at The Write Practice asked me to share strategies I think helped my entry.

My author career is in its infancy, so I’m speaking from limited experience. But I believe the resources and tips below will give you a better chance at snagging the next grand prize.

Want to take your chance at a grand prize and put these tips to the test? Check out our next writing contest!

Discover Writing Contests

Why Enter a Writing Contest?

Besides the obvious benefit of “If I win it’ll be awesome and I get prize money,” here are a few other perks I experienced.

These apply whether or not you place.

You'll become a better writer. A short story is the perfect format to practice writing. You experience the entire process in a short time. Rough draft, revision, critiques, polishing and publishing. With longer works, that journey might take months instead of days or weeks.

You'll pad your portfolio. Even if you don’t win, being published in a competition boosts your credibility. When you point readers, agents, or authors to your published work, they regard you as a more legitimate writer. It’s marketing for the brand of YOU.

You'll connect with other writers. A contest gives you an excuse to comment on the work of other writers. Since you’re all in the same competition, they’ll likely respond. That’s a new connection, and potential collaborator, for your writing career.

You'll experience BEING a writer. Entering a writing contest, producing a story, then submitting makes you feel like a writer. It’s challenging and rewarding. Short story contests are a simple way to live the writer’s life.

Five Strategies That Worked For Me

Here are some top strategies I believe helped me win the 2020 Summer Writing Contest.

1. Review Short Story Best Practices

I began by reviewing several articles on short story best practices. This is important, since it gets you planning how to tell a great story from the beginning.

Having best practices in mind as I brainstormed ideas and wrote the first draft heavily influenced the outcome.

Here are two incredible resources from The Write Practice. I referred to these articles often during my writing and revision process:

How to Write a Short Story From Start to Finish

10 Critical Mistakes Writers Make in Writing Contests

2. Use the MICE Quotient

I debated including this, because it teeters on the edge of being helpful or confusing. But I found it useful, so maybe you will too.

It’s too detailed to describe here, so I’ll just direct you to the source.

Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette—hosts on the podcast Writing Excuses — hosted a lecture on writing short stories . In it, they explain the MICE Quotient . This is a strategy to create satisfying stories by focusing on the type of conflict involved.

There’s also a formula (yes, writers—MATH), which helps estimate your final word count. Knowing that number in advance saves time and headache. Especially if the story you want to tell looks to be 5000 words, and the limit is 1500.

You can find the lecture on YouTube here .

3. Focus on Theme

The contest I entered offered few constraints. A limit of only 1500 words and a theme of isolation .

In a sea of great entries, I knew the judges would seek an exemplary take on the theme to make their final decisions.

I asked myself, how can I best get the reader to FEEL isolation? Short stories, in my opinion, are a mix between prose and poetry. Emotional impact is one of their defining features.

In my story, I attempted this by layering many levels of isolation. My character progressed from self-imposed solitude, to getting stranded alone, to potentially being the last human alive.

Ask yourself, how can you write a narrative that delivers on the theme with an emotional gut punch ?

4. Spend Most of Your Time Revising

I took two mornings to plan my story, then wrote it over two more.

I spent the next week revising.

During that revision process, the story changed a lot and shrank from over 2300 words to just under 1500.

While much of the final version lived in that first draft, the heart and soul were missing. For example, revision helped clarify my protagonist’s motivations and character arc.

Here are a few specific lessons I learned along the way.

Accept the process will be messy. I often had no idea what to include, what to delete, or what to change. I moved sections around only to move them back. Revision is chaotic, and that’s okay. Giving yourself a break from your draft helps. Just an hour away can clarify story blocks. Also, try re-working sections. You may not keep the changes, but at least you’ll have something to compare the original passages against.

Listen to your gut feelings. As a new writer, I often distrust my writing sensibilities. In Dark Time, my first draft had the protagonist, lonely and confused, talking for paragraphs to his flashlight. It was cute and lighthearted. But I wanted the tone dark and tense. So although it kinda worked, I scrapped it. If you have an instinct about your story, listen to it. You’re probably right.

Do multiple polish passes. I revised Dark Time to a point it seemed “done.” Then I kept going. To my surprise, a lot changed after this point. I switched words to be more descriptive. Others I adjusted to better reflect theme and symbolism. I obliterated instances of passive voice. I also eliminated most forms of verbs like “is,” “was,” “were,” etc. So keep polishing, even after the story works.

5. Supercharge Your Draft Using Critiques

Sometimes, it’s difficult to know if a part of your story doesn’t work. After all, you understand what you’re trying to get across.

Until someone NOT you reads it, how do you know if you succeeded?

In my case, turns out I didn’t always hit the mark. Sections of my story received multiple comments expressing confusion. Obviously, something wasn’t working. So if several people get stuck on a part in your story, you’ll want to re-work it.

Critiques also help you discover which passages affect readers, and which don’t. This allows you to tweak structure and supercharge your story’s impact.

For example, I found my ending didn’t touch readers emotionally. Critiques helped me uncover why.

In the last scene, the protagonist fears never seeing his family again. Yet I hadn’t mentioned them until that point. Referring to his relatives earlier in the story fixed the issue.

Critiques may seem scary, but they’re not. The outside perspective I received from workshopping helped me win the competition. No doubt.

Where Will Your Story Take Us?

As I grow in my writing career, I’ve discovered no two authors have the exact story to tell. Your unique perspective, your voice, is what will draw readers to you.

Short story contests are an excellent way to develop that voice and share it with others. That can lead to new opportunities and new readers.

So use the tips above and get started on your next contest entry. Whether or not you take the grand prize, you’ll likely enjoy the experience and walk away a better writer.

Ready to enter a writing contest yourself? We'd love for you to join our next contest! It's your turn to write a story, get feedback, get published , and maybe even take home the grand prize:

Enter the Next Contest

Have you ever won a prize for your writing? What strategies did you use to write a winning piece?   Let us know in the comments .

For today's practice, we'll focus on Demi's third strategy: focus on theme. Here's the theme of the Fall Writing Contest:

Boundless. When your characters are limitless, what will they do?

First, take five minutes to brainstorm. What could boundless mean for a story, and how can you express it? Here are some questions to get you started:

• What does “boundless” mean?
• What could “boundless” mean for a person? A place? A situation? An animal? An object?
• What are some good things about “boundless”?
• What are some bad things about “boundless”?
• What does “boundless”  feel like?

Then, take ten minutes to start writing a story based on the theme. You might outline your story, or write a scene.

When you're done, share your story in the comments below . This is a great way to practice the fifth strategy, too, and improve your story with feedback. Be sure to leave feedback for your fellow writers, too!

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• A Guide to Assessing Writing Contests

About Writing Contests , Encouragement-Ideas , RESOURCES-TIPS

by Kerry Hanslits

Did you know that entering a writing competition is your best opportunity to achieve publication, payment and recognition for your work? Most writers don’t know this and many will only enter writing competitions that do not charge a fee, but following the majority in this instance means that you will miss out on opportunities to give your work an edge in the marketplace.

Whether you are a poet or a short story writer, there are hundreds of contests available to you that provide cash prizes and meaningful publication. And if you are a novelist, there are contests that open doors and make careers without you ever sending a query letter to an agent. Yet, everyday, writers ignore these opportunities because they believe in myths. The most common myth that writers embrace is “entry fee equals scam” when more often the opposite is true these days. Most bonafide organizations cannot afford to offer writing contests with cash prizes without charging an entry or reading fee. It simply isn’t within their budget to offer cash prizes, pay judges, buy advertising and provide funds for the various other overhead costs that are part and parcel of running a contest without subsidizing it with contest entry fees.

Organizations that do offer contests without entry fees should be scrutinized. The cost of running a contest doesn’t disappear simply because there is no entry fee. If the sponsor is footing the entire bill, then one must ask the question of why? Is the money coming from a philanthropist? Is there a specific mission associated with the contest that justifies the cost? Is the contest supported through the sale of services or products to entrants or winners? Does the entry fee include a subscription that will increase the magazine’s circulation numbers?

Every contest must be looked at carefully. You should ask why is it being offered? Who is offering it? What’s in it for you, and a bevy of other questions to ensure that it is indeed an opportunity for you and not a scam. There are contests that exist for no other reason than to relieve you of your money, but there are many that exist for more altruistic reasons. The contests that are most often overlooked by writers are those that exist as sort of a partnership between writer and sponsor. These are the contests that frequently result in the enhancement of a writer’s career, as well as increase the opportunity of publication available to the writer.

I call them a partnership because they are not entirely altruistic in nature, in that most benefit the sponsor in some way. This benefit usually comes by way of a reading or entry fee, which funds the contest or a portion of it. Some organizations even make a profit from the contest, but for most it isn’t much of a profit. It is never as simple as taking the number of entries times the entry fee minus the prizes equals profit. Although I have seen this calculation used as an argument against contest fees, it is naive at best. To avoid the connotations of this myth, some magazines ensure there is no profit by providing entrants with a year’s subscription in exchange for the entry fee. But this too, benefits the magazine in that they can claim larger circulation numbers to garner advertising or other funds that are influenced by a magazine’s popularity. And most hope that the subscription will encourage you to re-subscribe next year or give a gift subscription to someone else.

So it’s obvious that an entry or reading fee helps the sponsor, but what does it do for you? The first thing is does is scare away a lot of your competition. Contests with fees, offered by magazines, consistently attract fewer contest entries than over-the-transom submissions. This means that if you want to be published by The Missouri Review, for example, you have a much better chance of being chosen for publication through their annual Editor’s Prize than you do through an over-the-transom submission to them. Specifically, if you submit a manuscript to The Missouri Review over the transom, your manuscript will compete with approximately 3,600 other manuscripts for publication. If you submit to the Editor’s Prize your manuscript will compete with approximately 1,200 other manuscripts for publication. Consider also, that an over-the-transom submission will garner a maximum of $750 for prose and a maximum of $250 for poetry for publication, whereas the competitions lowest prize is $1,000.Add to this the fact that industry professionals pay particular attention to the winners of the Editor’s Prize and the $15 reading fee becomes insignificant, especially since it gives you a year’s subscription to the magazine.

The Editor’s Prize is not a unique situation, but the ratio of over-the-transom submissions versus contest submission varies by publication. How much attention is paid to the winner by industry professionals varies, prize amounts and pay for regular publication also varies by publication, as does whether or not your reading fee provides you with any bonuses. You also need to consider how many professionally published writers the contest will attract if they are allowed to participate. It is necessary to evaluate each contest for its particular merits and what it has to offer you. What cannot be denied is the added advantage that contest entrants have of being noticed when submitting to a magazine’s contest versus those who submit to the magazine over-the-transom. This consistently exists when writers have a choice of participating in a fee-based contest or submitting their work to the magazine for free over the transom.

There is also value in fee-based contests offered by sponsors who do not run a magazine. There are a multitude of contests offered for novelists where publication is offered as part of the prize-no agent needed. But many of the novel contests are overlooked because publication is not offered. The prize or part of the prize is a meeting with an industry professional or a critique. What authors seem to forget is that if your novel is good, the industry professional is not going to let you get away. And if it needs some work, who better to give you some pointers than someone who works in the industry every day. And the $15 to $50 you will invest to get this opportunity for feedback is a fraction of the cost that you would pay to hire these professionals for the same feedback.

The Paul Gillette Memorial Contest offered through the Pikes Peak Writers Conference, which is designed specifically for unpublished writers, is often overlooked. Yet, this same contest, with its lowly $100 prize and optional low-priced critique, was instrumental in starting the careers of Laura Hayden, Pam McCutcheon, Karen Fox, Leslie O’Kane and Kimberly Willis Holt. Their first published books were winning pieces in the Paul Gillette Memorial Contest, which provided them with feedback and contact with professionals in the industry. The Colorado Gold contest sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Writers Group is similar in nature and the path to success that it has provided to writers.

The opportunities available through contests are everywhere, and the majority of writers are ignoring them. Make that work to your advantage, but keep in mind that not all contests are paths to opportunity. Some are not a direct path to a successful career but may still offer something of value, such as a critique or cash. Others are a scam or a mere millimeter on the legal side of things and offer nothing valuable to the writers who enter or win their competitions even though they sound like they do. Then there are some that are so popular and hyped that they attract 5,000 entries or more. When considering whether or not to enter a contest, it is important to understand the industry in which you aspire to achieve success and your own skill level. This will improve your ability to identify worthwhile contests. Also, ask yourself the series of questions below before entering any contest. There are lots of contests. Find one that’s right for you.

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• The four main types of essay | Quick guide with examples

The Four Main Types of Essay | Quick Guide with Examples

Published on September 4, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

An essay is a focused piece of writing designed to inform or persuade. There are many different types of essay, but they are often defined in four categories: argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive essays.

Argumentative and expository essays are focused on conveying information and making clear points, while narrative and descriptive essays are about exercising creativity and writing in an interesting way. At university level, argumentative essays are the most common type. 

In high school and college, you will also often have to write textual analysis essays, which test your skills in close reading and interpretation.

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Argumentative essays, expository essays, narrative essays, descriptive essays, textual analysis essays, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about types of essays.

An argumentative essay presents an extended, evidence-based argument. It requires a strong thesis statement —a clearly defined stance on your topic. Your aim is to convince the reader of your thesis using evidence (such as quotations ) and analysis.

Argumentative essays test your ability to research and present your own position on a topic. This is the most common type of essay at college level—most papers you write will involve some kind of argumentation.

The essay is divided into an introduction, body, and conclusion:

• The introduction provides your topic and thesis statement
• The body presents your evidence and arguments
• The conclusion summarizes your argument and emphasizes its importance

The example below is a paragraph from the body of an argumentative essay about the effects of the internet on education. Mouse over it to learn more.

A common frustration for teachers is students’ use of Wikipedia as a source in their writing. Its prevalence among students is not exaggerated; a survey found that the vast majority of the students surveyed used Wikipedia (Head & Eisenberg, 2010). An article in The Guardian stresses a common objection to its use: “a reliance on Wikipedia can discourage students from engaging with genuine academic writing” (Coomer, 2013). Teachers are clearly not mistaken in viewing Wikipedia usage as ubiquitous among their students; but the claim that it discourages engagement with academic sources requires further investigation. This point is treated as self-evident by many teachers, but Wikipedia itself explicitly encourages students to look into other sources. Its articles often provide references to academic publications and include warning notes where citations are missing; the site’s own guidelines for research make clear that it should be used as a starting point, emphasizing that users should always “read the references and check whether they really do support what the article says” (“Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia,” 2020). Indeed, for many students, Wikipedia is their first encounter with the concepts of citation and referencing. The use of Wikipedia therefore has a positive side that merits deeper consideration than it often receives.

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An expository essay provides a clear, focused explanation of a topic. It doesn’t require an original argument, just a balanced and well-organized view of the topic.

Expository essays test your familiarity with a topic and your ability to organize and convey information. They are commonly assigned at high school or in exam questions at college level.

The introduction of an expository essay states your topic and provides some general background, the body presents the details, and the conclusion summarizes the information presented.

A typical body paragraph from an expository essay about the invention of the printing press is shown below. Mouse over it to learn more.

The invention of the printing press in 1440 changed this situation dramatically. Johannes Gutenberg, who had worked as a goldsmith, used his knowledge of metals in the design of the press. He made his type from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, whose durability allowed for the reliable production of high-quality books. This new technology allowed texts to be reproduced and disseminated on a much larger scale than was previously possible. The Gutenberg Bible appeared in the 1450s, and a large number of printing presses sprang up across the continent in the following decades. Gutenberg’s invention rapidly transformed cultural production in Europe; among other things, it would lead to the Protestant Reformation.

A narrative essay is one that tells a story. This is usually a story about a personal experience you had, but it may also be an imaginative exploration of something you have not experienced.

Narrative essays test your ability to build up a narrative in an engaging, well-structured way. They are much more personal and creative than other kinds of academic writing . Writing a personal statement for an application requires the same skills as a narrative essay.

A narrative essay isn’t strictly divided into introduction, body, and conclusion, but it should still begin by setting up the narrative and finish by expressing the point of the story—what you learned from your experience, or why it made an impression on you.

Mouse over the example below, a short narrative essay responding to the prompt “Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself,” to explore its structure.

Since elementary school, I have always favored subjects like science and math over the humanities. My instinct was always to think of these subjects as more solid and serious than classes like English. If there was no right answer, I thought, why bother? But recently I had an experience that taught me my academic interests are more flexible than I had thought: I took my first philosophy class.

Before I entered the classroom, I was skeptical. I waited outside with the other students and wondered what exactly philosophy would involve—I really had no idea. I imagined something pretty abstract: long, stilted conversations pondering the meaning of life. But what I got was something quite different.

A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones—“but you can call me Rob”—was far from the white-haired, buttoned-up old man I had half-expected. And rather than pulling us into pedantic arguments about obscure philosophical points, Rob engaged us on our level. To talk free will, we looked at our own choices. To talk ethics, we looked at dilemmas we had faced ourselves. By the end of class, I’d discovered that questions with no right answer can turn out to be the most interesting ones.

The experience has taught me to look at things a little more “philosophically”—and not just because it was a philosophy class! I learned that if I let go of my preconceptions, I can actually get a lot out of subjects I was previously dismissive of. The class taught me—in more ways than one—to look at things with an open mind.

A descriptive essay provides a detailed sensory description of something. Like narrative essays, they allow you to be more creative than most academic writing, but they are more tightly focused than narrative essays. You might describe a specific place or object, rather than telling a whole story.

Descriptive essays test your ability to use language creatively, making striking word choices to convey a memorable picture of what you’re describing.

A descriptive essay can be quite loosely structured, though it should usually begin by introducing the object of your description and end by drawing an overall picture of it. The important thing is to use careful word choices and figurative language to create an original description of your object.

Mouse over the example below, a response to the prompt “Describe a place you love to spend time in,” to learn more about descriptive essays.

On Sunday afternoons I like to spend my time in the garden behind my house. The garden is narrow but long, a corridor of green extending from the back of the house, and I sit on a lawn chair at the far end to read and relax. I am in my small peaceful paradise: the shade of the tree, the feel of the grass on my feet, the gentle activity of the fish in the pond beside me.

My cat crosses the garden nimbly and leaps onto the fence to survey it from above. From his perch he can watch over his little kingdom and keep an eye on the neighbours. He does this until the barking of next door’s dog scares him from his post and he bolts for the cat flap to govern from the safety of the kitchen.

With that, I am left alone with the fish, whose whole world is the pond by my feet. The fish explore the pond every day as if for the first time, prodding and inspecting every stone. I sometimes feel the same about sitting here in the garden; I know the place better than anyone, but whenever I return I still feel compelled to pay attention to all its details and novelties—a new bird perched in the tree, the growth of the grass, and the movement of the insects it shelters…

Sitting out in the garden, I feel serene. I feel at home. And yet I always feel there is more to discover. The bounds of my garden may be small, but there is a whole world contained within it, and it is one I will never get tired of inhabiting.

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Though every essay type tests your writing skills, some essays also test your ability to read carefully and critically. In a textual analysis essay, you don’t just present information on a topic, but closely analyze a text to explain how it achieves certain effects.

Rhetorical analysis

A rhetorical analysis looks at a persuasive text (e.g. a speech, an essay, a political cartoon) in terms of the rhetorical devices it uses, and evaluates their effectiveness.

The goal is not to state whether you agree with the author’s argument but to look at how they have constructed it.

The introduction of a rhetorical analysis presents the text, some background information, and your thesis statement; the body comprises the analysis itself; and the conclusion wraps up your analysis of the text, emphasizing its relevance to broader concerns.

The example below is from a rhetorical analysis of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech . Mouse over it to learn more.

King’s speech is infused with prophetic language throughout. Even before the famous “dream” part of the speech, King’s language consistently strikes a prophetic tone. He refers to the Lincoln Memorial as a “hallowed spot” and speaks of rising “from the dark and desolate valley of segregation” to “make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” The assumption of this prophetic voice constitutes the text’s strongest ethical appeal; after linking himself with political figures like Lincoln and the Founding Fathers, King’s ethos adopts a distinctly religious tone, recalling Biblical prophets and preachers of change from across history. This adds significant force to his words; standing before an audience of hundreds of thousands, he states not just what the future should be, but what it will be: “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” This warning is almost apocalyptic in tone, though it concludes with the positive image of the “bright day of justice.” The power of King’s rhetoric thus stems not only from the pathos of his vision of a brighter future, but from the ethos of the prophetic voice he adopts in expressing this vision.

Literary analysis

A literary analysis essay presents a close reading of a work of literature—e.g. a poem or novel—to explore the choices made by the author and how they help to convey the text’s theme. It is not simply a book report or a review, but an in-depth interpretation of the text.

Literary analysis looks at things like setting, characters, themes, and figurative language. The goal is to closely analyze what the author conveys and how.

The introduction of a literary analysis essay presents the text and background, and provides your thesis statement; the body consists of close readings of the text with quotations and analysis in support of your argument; and the conclusion emphasizes what your approach tells us about the text.

Mouse over the example below, the introduction to a literary analysis essay on Frankenstein , to learn more.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, protagonist Victor Frankenstein is a stable representation of the callous ambition of modern science throughout the novel. This essay, however, argues that far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as. This essay begins by exploring the positive portrayal of Frankenstein in the first volume, then moves on to the creature’s perception of him, and finally discusses the third volume’s narrative shift toward viewing Frankenstein as the creature views him.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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At high school and in composition classes at university, you’ll often be told to write a specific type of essay , but you might also just be given prompts.

Look for keywords in these prompts that suggest a certain approach: The word “explain” suggests you should write an expository essay , while the word “describe” implies a descriptive essay . An argumentative essay might be prompted with the word “assess” or “argue.”

The vast majority of essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Almost all academic writing involves building up an argument, though other types of essay might be assigned in composition classes.

Essays can present arguments about all kinds of different topics. For example:

• In a literary analysis essay, you might make an argument for a specific interpretation of a text
• In a history essay, you might present an argument for the importance of a particular event
• In a politics essay, you might argue for the validity of a certain political theory

An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.

An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.

The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.

Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.

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The Pros and Cons of Writing Contests

The question before us today is whether or not you should enter a writing contest. The idea is enticing and borderline thrilling. What if you win? Beyond the monetary prize, you’ll have won something even more important: prestige. However, what if you lose? Beyond the entry fee, you’ll have lost momentum and maybe a tiny bit of your courage. It could ding your self-assurance and cause you to doubt your writing ability.

Is the risk worth it?

In today’s post, we highlight the major benefits of writing contests. But, to make it fair and give you something to chew on, we’re also tackling the biggest drawbacks of writing contests. Weigh the following benefits and the drawbacks to determine the right move for you.

The Benefits of Writing Contests

Let’s start with the good news and reasons to consider entering a writing contest:

You Get Money*

*If you win.

Money is a powerful motivator, whether it’s $20 or $20,000. Yes, it’s about the craft blah blah blah, but we all need money to survive. That prize money can pay for your next laptop (I can’t be the only writer with a busted keyboard, right?) or even support your lifestyle while you churn out your next book.

You Get Inspired to Write

Yes, honey, money is muse, but the contest itself can also be an inspirational spark. Some writing contests impose a theme or topic that can inspire you and lead to your next great idea.

The contest can also motivate you to act immediately instead of nursing an idea for the next few years.

You Get Bragging Rights

If you win or even if you almost win, you get to tell others about it. Winning anything is worth bragging about. True story, I once bragged in a literary magazine that I won a “clean plate” award from a local fast food joint. Winning is winning. #Shameless

Of course, winning a literary award holds much more weight. You can use this distinction in your author bio to impress others and further your literary career.

Here’s a roundup of writing contests. Subscribe to receive this extra resource.

Download your bonus content:

You Get Published

As part of your prize, some contests offer publication. This is especially true for short stories or excerpts of longer works. You may land a spot in an anthology or magazine.

You Get Validated

This is a tricky benefit. You are a valid writer as soon as you write. Validation should not come from without but within. That said, for many writers, winning a contest proves that their work resonates with others.

You Get Noticed

Perhaps the only souls to see your work have been your mom and your cats. By entering a writing contest, you increase your exposure. Others will read your work, especially if you win or become a finalist.

You Get Acquainted With Deadlines

Deadlines are an ever-present misery for writers. However, deadlines are necessary because they motivate you to act.

By entering a writing contest, you force yourself to work toward a deadline.

You Get To Do Something New

When you enter a contest, you’ll have to focus on the task at hand. This means that you’ll likely need to put other creative work on hold. Writing for a contest can be a nice distraction from your other work, such as a novel that you may be working on currently.

Another bonus is that when you return to your former work, you’ll have a refreshed mind and can then attack the work with vigor.

You Get Invited to an Award Ceremony

Win or lose, you'll likely be invited to an award ceremony for the writing contest. Here’s where you’ll be able to network with other writers, and meet with publishers and literary agents who frequently attend these events, too.

You Can Likely Enter Multiple Pieces

Why enter just one when you can enter multiple pieces? Double-check the rules. However, most contests allow multiple entries provided that you pay a separate entry “reading” fee for each. This is a benefit because it increases your chance of winning.

The Drawbacks of Writing Contests

Writing contests sound awesome, right? Here are some negatives to consider before entering a contest:

You Can Lose Money

Most contests require an entry fee. Boo.

Well, the prize money has to come from somewhere, right? Generally, the contest entry fee is a nominal amount that’s meant to cover administrative costs and go towards the prize. The fee amount depends on many factors, such as the size of the prize, the reputation of the contest, and whether it’s local or international.

Whether you’re paying $10 or $100, you won’t get that money back if you lose.

You May Not Get Anything Even If You Win

Not all writing contests offer a cash prize. Even if they do, that may be all that you win. That and a small boost to your ego. Winning a literary prize from a no-name, no-cred association won’t impress a literary agent or discerning audience. It may not impact your career at all.

You Get a Small Reward

After the hard work and time invested, your prize may not be worth it. If it took you 40 hours to create your winning masterpiece, and you collect a $200 prize, you’ve just made $5 per hour. It may be an insult if you think of it in those terms.

You Can Get Stuck

Some writing contests demand exclusivity. In other words, you can’t submit your work to them and to other contests simultaneously. You may also be prohibited from publishing the work while waiting for the results of the contest.

The deliberation process may take months. This exclusivity clause will affect your ability to make money off of your work while you wait for the results.

You May Get Distracted

Writing contests distract you from your other work. This can be both a positive and a negative. If you get off-track easily and get frustrated with that part of you, be careful. It may be difficult to return to your primary creative work after you’ve finished your contest entry.

If distractions frustrate you and lead to unfinished work, only consider entering a writing contest with a completed piece.

You Will Deal With Rejection

Just like deadlines, rejection is a constant companion for every writer.

In a contest, only one person can win. The odds are always against you, and these odds increase with the number of entrants.

You also open yourself up to criticism as people tear apart your creative work. Losing a contest may be the biggest criticism and disapproval of all, and it’s particularly injurious because you probably won’t get feedback on why you lost.

However, you can turn this negative into a positive. While no one goes into a contest to lose, it’s not a statement against you or even your work. A loss simply means that your work wasn’t meant for this particular panel of judges.

You May Get a Questionable Judge

Speaking of judges…

Let’s talk about this for a second.

Many writing contests have volunteer judges who simply appreciate reading ( maybe ). They may not know much about your genre or its conventions. They may not be writers themselves and have no idea how difficult it is to offer your creativity up for judgment. They may know a lot about literature or they may think they know a lot, but whatever the case is, the opinion is subjective.

It’s important to keep that in mind.

One person’s approval or disapproval of you doesn’t validate or invalidate your writing career.

You May Give Away Your Story Rights

Always read the rules and never relinquish your rights.

Some scammy organizations trick entrants into handing over their rights. While you think you’re entering a contest, they’ve relieved you of your rights and are then able to publish your work and make money off of it without handing over a dime in royalties.

Should You Enter a Writing Contest or Should You Avoid It?

Aside from your entry fee, you don't have much to lose and potentially a lot to gain. You can walk away from a writing contest with new work that, even if it doesn't win, is still yours and can be shared with others. Go for it! But keep your eyes open.

Over to You

Have you ever entered a writing contest? Let us know about your experience in the comments section below!

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Best Essay Writing Contests in 2024

Showing 54 contests that match your search.

Bacopa Literary Review Annual Writing Contest

Writers Alliance of Gainesville

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Short Story

Bacopa Literary Review’s 2024 contest is open from March 4 through April 4, with $200 Prize and $100 Honorable Mention in each of six categories: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Flash Fiction, Free Verse Poetry, Formal Poetry, and Visual Poetry.

Additional prizes:

📅 Deadline: May 02, 2024 (Expired)

Aurora Polaris Creative Nonfiction Award

Trio House Press

Genres: Essay, Memoir, and Non-fiction

We seek un-agented full-length creative nonfiction manuscripts including memoir, essay collections, etc. 50,000 - 80,000 words.

Publication

💰 Entry fee: $25

📅 Deadline: May 15, 2024 (Expired)

100 Word Writing Contest

Tadpole Press

Genres: Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Thriller, Young Adult, Children's, Poetry, Romance, Short Story, Suspense, and Travel

Can you write a story using 100 words or less? Pieces will be judged on creativity, uniqueness, and how the story captures a new angle, breaks through stereotypes, and expands our beliefs about what's possible or unexpectedly delights us. In addition, we are looking for writing that is clever or unique, inspires us, and crafts a compelling and complete story. The first-place prize has doubled to $2,000 USD.

2nd: writing coach package

💰 Entry fee: $15

📅 Deadline: November 30, 2024

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The Letter Review Prize for Books

The Letter Review

Genres: Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

The Letter Review Prize for Books is open to writers from anywhere in the world. Seeking most unpublished (we accept some self/indie published) novels, novellas, story collections, nonfiction, poetry etc. 20 entries are longlisted.

$1000 USD shared by 3 winners

📅 Deadline: April 30, 2024 (Expired)

Berggruen Prize Essay Competition

Berggruen Institute

Genres: Essay

The Berggruen Prize Essay Competition, in the amount of $25,000 USD for the English and Chinese language category respectively, is given annually to stimulate new thinking and innovative concepts while embracing cross-cultural perspectives across fields, disciplines, and geographies. Inspired by the pivotal role essays have played in shaping thought and inquiry, we are inviting essays that follow in the tradition of renowned thinkers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Michel de Montaigne, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Publication in Noema Magazine

📅 Deadline: June 30, 2024

Work-In-Progress (WIP) Contest

Unleash Press

Genres: Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Science Fiction, Science Writing, and Young Adult

We aim to assist writers in the completion of an important literary project and vision. The Unleash WIP Award offers writers support in the amount of $500 to supplement costs to aid in the completion of a book-length work of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. Writers will also receive editorial feedback, coaching meetings, and an excerpt/interview feature in Unleash Lit.

Coaching, interview, and editorial support

💰 Entry fee: $35

📅 Deadline: July 15, 2024

Military Anthology: Partnerships, the Untold Story

Armed Services Arts Partnership

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Humor, Memoir, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Short Story

Partners are an integral aspect of military life, at home and afar, during deployment and after homecoming. Partnerships drive military action and extend beyond being a battle buddy, wingman, or crew member. Some are planned while others arise entirely unexpectedly. Spouses, family, old or new friends, community, faith leaders, and medical specialists all support the military community. Despite their importance, the stories of these partnerships often go untold. This anthology aims to correct that: We will highlight the nuances, surprises, joy, sorrow, heroism, tears, healing power, and ache of partnerships. We invite you to submit the story about partnerships from your journey, so we can help tell it.

$500 Editors' Choice award

$250 for each genre category (prose, poetry, visual art)

📅 Deadline: March 01, 2024 (Expired)

Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest

Ayn Rand Institute

Atlas Shrugged is a mystery story, not about the murder of a man’s body, but about the murder—and rebirth—of man’s spirit. We seek exceptional essays of up to 1600 words that analyze its themes and ideas. High school to graduate students worldwide are invited to participate.

📅 Deadline: June 14, 2024 (Expired)

Lazuli Literary Group Writing Contest

Lazuli Literary Group

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Poetry, Short Story, Flash Fiction, Non-fiction, Novella, and Script Writing

We are not concerned with genre distinctions. Send us the best you have; we want only for it to be thoughtful, intelligent, and beautiful. We want art that grows in complexity upon each visitation; we enjoy ornate, cerebral, and voluptuous phrases executed with thematic intent.

Publication in "AZURE: A Journal of Literary Thought"

📅 Deadline: March 24, 2024 (Expired)

Creative Nonfiction Prize

Indiana Review

Genres: Essay, Fiction, and Non-fiction

Send us one creative nonfiction piece, up to 5000 words, for a chance at $1000 + publication. This year's contest will be judged by Lars Horn.

💰 Entry fee: $20

📅 Deadline: March 31, 2024 (Expired)

NOWW 26th International Writing Contest

Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop (NOWW)

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Short Story

Open to all writers in four categories: poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and critical writing.

2nd: $100 | 3rd: $50

💰 Entry fee: $7

📅 Deadline: February 29, 2024 (Expired)

Share Your Story

FanStory.com Inc.

Genres: Essay and Memoir

Write about an event in your life. Everyone has a memoir. Not an autobiography. Too much concern about fact and convention. A memoir gives us the ability to write about our life with the option to create and fabricate and to make sense of a life, or part of that life.

💰 Entry fee: $10

📅 Deadline: August 13, 2024

Annual Student Essay Contest

Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum

Genres: Essay and Non-fiction

For this year’s Essay Contest, we are asking students to think about why the story of the Oklahoma City bombing is important today.

📅 Deadline: March 04, 2024 (Expired)

The Hudson Prize

Black Lawrence Press

Each year Black Lawrence Press will award The Hudson Prize for an unpublished collection of poems or prose. The prize is open to new, emerging, and established writers.

💰 Entry fee: $28

The Lascaux Prize in Creative Nonfiction

Lascuax Review

Creative nonfiction may include memoirs, chronicles, personal essays, humorous perspectives, literary journalism—anything the author has witnessed, experienced, or discovered. Pieces may be previously published or unpublished, and simultaneous submissions are accepted. Winner receives $1,000, a bronze medallion, and publication in The Lascaux Review.

📅 Deadline: September 30, 2024

The Letter Review Prize for Unpublished Books

Genres: Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

Free to enter. Seeking 0-5000 word (poetry: 15 pgs) excerpts of unpublished books (Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction), including most self-published and indie-published works. 2-4 Winners (publication of extract is optional). We Shortlist 10-20 writers. Open to writers from anywhere in the world, with no theme or genre restrictions. Judged blind.

Optional Publication of Excerpt, Letter of Recommendation

📅 Deadline: May 01, 2024 (Expired)

Climate Change Writing Competition

Write the World

This month, dear writers, ahead of COP27, help us raise the voices of young people in this urgent fight. In a piece of personal narrative, tell the world’s leaders gathering in how climate change impacts you. How has this crisis changed your environment, your community, your sense of the future? Storytelling, after all, plays a critical role in helping us grasp the emergency through which we are all living, igniting empathy in readers and listeners—itself a precursor to action.

Runner-up: $50

📅 Deadline: October 18, 2022 (Expired)

Irene Adler Prize

Lucas Ackroyd

Genres: Essay, Non-fiction, and Travel

I’ve traveled the world from Sweden to South Africa, from the Golden Globes to the Olympic women’s hockey finals. I’ve photographed a mother polar bear and her cubs and profiled stars like ABBA, Jennifer Garner and Katarina Witt. And I couldn’t have done it without women. I’ve been very fortunate, and it’s time for me to give back. With the Irene Adler Prize, I’m awarding a $1,000 scholarship to a woman pursuing a degree in journalism, creative writing, or literature at a recognized post-secondary institution.

2x honorable mentions: $250

📅 Deadline: May 30, 2024 (Expired)

Journalism Competition 2024

What are the most important issues taking place close to home? Perhaps a rare bird sighting near your town? Or a band of young people in your province fighting for access to higher education? This month, immerse yourself in a newsworthy event inside the borders of your own country, and invite us there through your written reporting.

Best entry: $100

Runner up: $50 | Best peer review: $50

📅 Deadline: July 22, 2024

The Letter Review Prize for Nonfiction

Genres: Essay, Memoir, Non-fiction, Crime, Humor, and Science Writing

2-4 Winners are published. We Shortlist 10-20 writers. Seeking Nonfiction 0-5000 words. Judges’ feedback available. Open to writers from anywhere in the world, with no theme or genre restrictions. Judged blind. All entries considered for publication + submission to Pushcart.

Publication by The Letter Review

💰 Entry fee: $2

Solar Flare

Sunspot Literary Journal

Genres: Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, Poetry, Script Writing, and Short Story

Sunspot Lit is looking for one work, including a novel or novella excerpt, that provides a flare of creative energy. Literary or genre accepted. Enter through Submittable or Duotrope. Learn more: https://sunspotlit.com/contests

📅 Deadline: May 31, 2024 (Expired)

The Fountain Essay Contest

Fountain Magazine

“Home” holds a special place in our lives. Our earliest memories form inside its walls; we utter our first words and take our first steps there. Does everyone feel the same about home? Is it where you were born or where you earn your bread? Is home a physical place? In a world that moves faster than ever and is confined to small screens, how do perceptions about "home" change? Where is home for people who are forced to leave their homes? Where is your home?

Environmental Writing 2024

The writer and activist Bill McKibben describes Environmental Writing as "the collision between people and the rest of the world." This month, peer closely at that intersection: How do humans interact with their environment? Given your inheritance of this earth, the world needs your voices now more than ever.

📅 Deadline: April 22, 2024 (Expired)

International Essay Competition 2023/24

Avernus Education

Welcome to our prestigious International Essay Competition. At Avernus Education, we are thrilled to provide a platform for young minds to showcase their prowess in Medicine, Engineering, Law, Economics, Psychology, History and Politics. These varied subject categories underscore the importance of interdisciplinary study, a crucial foundation for future leaders in our increasingly interconnected world. Winners receive an exclusive Avernus Education Scholarship worth over £5000 - granting them free entrance to our exclusive summer camp at Oxford University! Outstanding Runners Up receive 5 hours worth of Credits for Avernus Education courses, conferences and tutoring services.

100% Scholarship Award to our Oxford University Summer Programme (worth £5995)

Partial scholarship

📅 Deadline: February 19, 2024 (Expired)

Great American Think-Off

New York Mills Regional Cultural Center

The Great American Think-Off is an exhibition of civil disagreement between powerful ideas that connect to your life at the gut level. The Cultural Center, located in the rural farm and manufacturing town of New York Mills, sponsors this annual philosophy contest.

📅 Deadline: April 01, 2024 (Expired)

WOW! Women On Writing Quarterly Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest

WOW! Women On Writing

Genres: Non-fiction and Essay

Seeking creative nonfiction essays on any topic (1000 words or less) and in any style--from personal essay and memoir to lyric essay and hybrid, and more! The mission of this contest is to reward bravery in real-life storytelling and create an understanding of our world through thoughtful, engaging narratives. Electronic submissions via e-mail only; reprints/previously published okay; simultaneous submissions okay; multiple submissions are okay as long as they are submitted in their own individual e-mail. Open internationally.

2nd: $300 | 3rd: $200 | 7 runner-ups: $25 Amazon Gift Cards

💰 Entry fee: $12

Rigel 2024: $500 for Prose, Poetry, Art, or Graphic Novel

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Script Writing, and Short Story

Literary or genre works accepted. Winner receives $500 plus publication, while runners-up and finalists are offered publication. No restrictions on theme or category. Closes: February 29. Entry fee: $12.50. Enter as many times as you like through Submittable or Duotrope

$500 + publication

Runners-up and finalists are offered publication

African Diaspora Awards 2024

Kinsman Avenue Publishing, Inc

Up to $1000 in cash prizes for the African Diaspora Award 2024. African-themed prose and poetry wanted. Top finalists are published in Kinsman Quarterly’s magazine and the anthology, “Black Butterfly: Voices of the African Diaspora.”

Publication in anthology, "Black Butterfly: Voices of the African Diaspora" and print and digital magazine

Tusculum Review Nonfiction Chapbook Prize

The Tusculum Review

A prize of $1,000, publication of the essay in The Tusculum Review’s 20th Anniversary Issue (2024), and creation of a limited edition stand-alone chapbook with original art is awarded. Editors of The Tusculum Review and contest judge Mary Cappello will determine the winner of the 2024 prize.

📅 Deadline: June 15, 2024 (Expired)

Solas Awards

Best Travel Writing

Extraordinary stories about travel and the human spirit have been the cornerstones of our books since 1993. With the Solas Awards we honor writers whose work inspires others to explore. We’re looking for the best stories about travel and the world. Funny, illuminating, adventurous, uplifting, scary, inspiring, poignant stories that reflect the unique alchemy that occurs when you enter unfamiliar territory and begin to see the world differently as a result. We hope these awards will be a catalyst for those who love to leave home and tell others about it.

📅 Deadline: September 21, 2024

Jane Austen Society of North America Essay Contest

Jane Austen Society of North America

Genres: Children's and Essay

JASNA conducts an annual student Essay Contest to foster the study and appreciation of Jane Austen's works in new generations of readers. Students world-wide are invited to compete for scholarship awards in three divisions: high school, college, and graduate school.

$1,000 scholarship

Two nights’ lodging for JASNA’s Annual General Meeting

📅 Deadline: June 02, 2022 (Expired)

World Historian Student Essay Competition

World History Association

The World Historian Student Essay Competition is an international competition open to students enrolled in grades K–12 in public, private, and parochial schools, and those in home-study programs. Membership in the World History Association is not a requirement for submission. Past winners may not compete in the same category again.

Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize

Gotham Writers Workshop

Genres: Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

The Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize is a writing competition sponsored by the stage and radio series Selected Shorts. Selected Shorts is recorded for Public Radio and heard nationally on both the radio and its weekly podcast. This years entries will be judged by Carmen Maria Machado (In the Dream House, Her Body and Other Parties).

$1000 + free 10 week course with Gotham Writers

Vocal Challenges

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, and Short Story

Enter themed storytelling contests to put your creativity to the test and be in with a chance of winning cash prizes and more. To submit, you'll need to sign up for a monthly fee of $9.99, or $4.99/month for 3 months.

$1,000 — $5,000

📅 Deadline: March 07, 2024 (Expired)

swamp pink Prizes

From January 1st to January 31st, submit short stories and essays of up to 25 pages or a set of 1-3 poems. Winners in each genre will receive $2,000 and publication.

📅 Deadline: January 31, 2024 (Expired)

Discover the finest writing contests of 2024 for fiction and non-fiction authors — including short story competitions, essay writing competitions, poetry contests, and many more. Updated weekly, these contests are vetted by Reedsy to weed out the scammers and time-wasters. If you’re looking to stick to free writing contests, simply use our filters as you browse.

Why you should submit to writing contests

Submitting to poetry competitions and free writing contests in 2024 is absolutely worth your while as an aspiring author: just as your qualifications matter when you apply for a new job, a writing portfolio that boasts published works and award-winning pieces is a great way to give your writing career a boost. And not to mention the bonus of cash prizes!

That being said, we understand that taking part in writing contests can be tough for emerging writers. First, there’s the same affliction all writers face: lack of time or inspiration. Entering writing contests is a time commitment, and many people decide to forego this endeavor in order to work on their larger projects instead — like a full-length book. Second, for many writers, the chance of rejection is enough to steer them clear of writing contests. 

But we’re here to tell you that two of the great benefits of entering writing contests happen to be the same as those two reasons to avoid them.

When it comes to the time commitment: yes, you will need to expend time and effort in order to submit a quality piece of writing to competitions. That being said, having a hard deadline to meet is a great motivator for developing a solid writing routine.

Think of entering contests as a training session to become a writer who will need to meet deadlines in order to have a successful career. If there’s a contest you have your eye on, and the deadline is in one month, sit down and realistically plan how many words you’ll need to write per day in order to meet that due date — and don’t forget to also factor in the time you’ll need to edit your story!

For tips on setting up a realistic writing plan, check out this free, ten-day course: How to Build a Rock-Solid Writing Routine.

In regards to the fear of rejection, the truth is that any writer aspiring to become a published author needs to develop relatively thick skin. If one of your goals is to have a book traditionally published, you will absolutely need to learn how to deal with rejection, as traditional book deals are notoriously hard to score. If you’re an indie author, you will need to adopt the hardy determination required to slowly build up a readership.

The good news is that there’s a fairly simple trick for learning to deal with rejection: use it as a chance to explore how you might be able to improve your writing.

In an ideal world, each rejection from a publisher or contest would come with a detailed letter, offering construction feedback and pointing out specific tips for improvement. And while this is sometimes the case, it’s the exception and not the rule.

Still, you can use the writing contests you don’t win as a chance to provide yourself with this feedback. Take a look at the winning and shortlisted stories and highlight their strong suits: do they have fully realized characters, a knack for showing instead of telling, a well-developed but subtly conveyed theme, a particularly satisfying denouement?

The idea isn’t to replicate what makes those stories tick in your own writing. But most examples of excellent writing share a number of basic craft principles. Try and see if there are ways for you to translate those stories’ strong points into your own unique writing.

Finally, there are the more obvious benefits of entering writing contests: prize and publication. Not to mention the potential to build up your readership, connect with editors, and gain exposure.

Resources to help you win writing competitions in 2024

Every writing contest has its own set of submission rules. Whether those rules are dense or sparing, ensure that you follow them to a T. Disregarding the guidelines will not sway the judges’ opinion in your favor — and might disqualify you from the contest altogether. 

Aside from ensuring you follow the rules, here are a few resources that will help you perfect your submissions.

Free online courses

On Writing:

How to Craft a Killer Short Story

The Non-Sexy Business of Writing Non-Fiction

How to Write a Novel

Understanding Point of View

Developing Characters That Your Readers Will Love

Writing Dialogue That Develops Plot and Character

Stop Procrastinating! Build a Solid Writing Routine

On Editing:

Story Editing for Authors

How to Self-Edit Like a Pro

Novel Revision: Practical Tips for Rewrites

How to Write a Short Story in 7 Steps

Reedsy's guide to novel writing

Literary Devices and Terms — 35+ Definitions With Examples

10 Essential Fiction Writing Tips to Improve Your Craft

How to Write Dialogue: 8 Simple Rules and Exercises

8 Character Development Exercises to Help You Nail Your Character

Bonus resources

200+ Short Story Ideas

600+ Writing Prompts to Inspire You

100+ Creative Writing Exercises for Fiction Authors

Story Title Generator

Pen Name Generator

Character Name Generator

After you submit to a writing competition in 2024

It’s exciting to send a piece of writing off to a contest. However, once the initial excitement wears off, you may be left waiting for a while. Some writing contests will contact all entrants after the judging period — whether or not they’ve won. Other writing competitions will only contact the winners. 

Here are a few things to keep in mind after you submit:

Many writing competitions don’t have time to respond to each entrant with feedback on their story. However, it never hurts to ask! Feel free to politely reach out requesting feedback — but wait until after the selection period is over.

If you’ve submitted the same work to more than one writing competition or literary magazine, remember to withdraw your submission if it ends up winning elsewhere.

After you send a submission, don’t follow it up with a rewritten or revised version. Instead, ensure that your first version is thoroughly proofread and edited. If not, wait until the next edition of the contest or submit the revised version to other writing contests.

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6 Benefits of Essay Writing Competitions

30 Jan, 2024 | Blog Articles , Get the Edge

5. They don’t require any funding or background knowledge

Most essay competitions are free to enter, and a good essay can be written based on your own ideas and public resources. They can be completed at any time and place, and panels will often accept entries from around the world.

Most can be found online if you look around – a quick Google search usually turns up the most reputable ones. If you’re keen to develop in the STEM field, the Oxford Scientist’s Schools Competition might take your fancy (2). Was the Scholastica Law summer school program (3) right up your alley? Trinity College Cambridge has competitions in many areas, including Law (4).

These, and many other, opportunities are open to anyone, even if you don’t have prior experience.

6. Now is the best time to enter!

Essay competitions are usually based around deadlines. While this may seem scary and overwhelming, it’s the number one reason to start now. With tight time frames, you won’t be able to procrastinate.

Similarly, many are only open to certain year groups or age ranges – so it’s best to seize any opportunity when it arises. That shows proactivity, and gives you more knowledge and skills to build on later. You can apply these new skills to another competition, a job, summer course or your degree.

Read more about how to write the perfect essay

Next steps for passionate writers

• Read some top tips on academic writing in English .
• Oxford University have a list of essay and creative writing competitions for students covering a range of subjects
• Keen to try out UK university life? Sign up to one of our Oxford Scholastica summer schools today!

References and Further Reading:

1) https://www.oxfordscholastica.com/oxford-summer-courses/

2) https://oxsci.org/schools/

3) https://www.oxfordscholastica.com/oxford-summer-courses/#law

4) https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/essay-prizes/

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Writing Prompt Structure and Keywords for State Writing Tests

Tips and Tricks for State Testing Writing Prompts

Most writing prompts across all of the 50 states look very much alike. They have a similar structure, they use similar language, and they involve similar situations. While it’s true that writing prompts do change across grade levels, it’s also true that fourth grade writing prompts looks quite similar to high school writing prompts. In fact, the “writing situation” may be exactly the same, but with more complex language and writing requirements for high school students.

After learning some tips and tricks regarding the writing prompts found on state writing assessments, be sure to get 114 pages of free State Testing Released Writing Prompts here . Also, if you are looking to bring about true writing success for elementary students or struggling middle school writers, be sure to check out the “ Pattern Based Writing: Quick and Easy Essay ” page.

State writing assessments usually ask for one of these eight types of writing:

1) Narrative (A realistic story or an imaginative story)

2) Expository (Explain + Inform = Expository)

3) Persuasive (This is expository writing with an agenda.)

4) Inform (The facts… just the facts!)

5) Imaginative (This is actually a narrative.)

6) Descriptive (Descriptive writing tasks are less common than the above types of writing.)

7) Summarize (Read a passage and then summarize what you have read.)

8) Respond to Literature (Read a passage and then answer the question using evidence from the text. This kind of writing is usually a little bit expository and a little bit persuasive.)

Note: In the collections of released writing prompts mentioned above, there are few examples of prompts for “Summarize” and “Respond to Literature.” As such, I have provides a couple samples of these prompts at the bottom of this page.

Prompt Length and Structure

Most state writing prompts will be two or three sentences. (This is especially true in elementary school.) Even though the prompts are quite short, they are often written in multi-paragraph form. Each sentence is written in a separate paragraph. In other words, each sentence will be written on a separate line.

Naturally, the wording and the requirements of the writing tasks get a little more complex with each grade. That being said, most prompts can be used across many different grades with only slight modifications to the language of the prompt.

The Two Parts of the Writing Prompt

Most writing prompts contain two parts. These two parts are:

1. The writing situation – The writing situation gives a little background on the topic that students will be writing about. Example: Many people own pets.

2. The writing task – The writing task contains the specific directions. These directions will often include keywords that identify the “mode of writing” being asked for. Example: Write a persuasive essay convincing your principal to extend recess time.

Some states have short 1-2 sentence prompts, while other states have longer 5-8 sentence prompts. Here is a fourth grade writing prompt from the Kentucky state writing assessment. It is six sentences, which is quite long for a fourth grade writing prompt. Kentucky seems to have longer prompts than most states. (Note: Even in high school, few writing prompts are longer than 6-8 sentences.)

Example: Kentucky – 4th Grade Writing Prompt (6 sentences)

Situation: The local newspaper is having a “Good Friend” contest.  To enter your friend, you must think of an event in your life when your friend did something with you or for you that showed what a terrific friend he or she is.

Writing Task: Select your friend.  (Remember, a friend could be a child your age or a grownup.)  Choose an event that shows how your friend is a good friend to you.  Write a letter to the newspaper that tells about that event so that people will know why your friend deserves to win.

Keywords for Writing Prompts

As mentioned, most writing prompts have a similar structure and use similar language. As such, certain words will be found in most every writing prompt. These words are almost always performing the same job. For example, if you see the word “principal” in a writing prompt, you can be 99% sure it is going to be a persuasive writing task.

We all know that keywords are often used to trick students, so don’t read too much into them. However, at least one of the keywords below will be found in most every prompt. It is worthwhile to point out these types of words and phrases and have students learn to spot them.

Writing Situation Keywords

• Imagine one day (Narrative)
• Imagine that (Narrative)
• Imagine you have (Narrative)
• Think about (Narrative or Expository)
• Think of someone (Inform or Expository)
• Think of a time (Narrative)
• What is your favorite (Expository)
• Your school principal is considering (Persuasive)
• Your school has some (Persuasive)
• Your school is (Persuasive)
• It is important that people (Persuasive)
• Sometimes classrooms (Narrative or Expository)
• You suddenly realize (Narrative)
• Pretend that (Narrative)
• Have you ever (Narrative)
• Everyone has a favorite (Inform or Persuasive)
• Your school newspaper is (Persuasive)
• Your parents want to (Persuasive)
• If you could be (Narrative or Expository)
• Select a (Inform)
• Identify a (Inform)
• Most people (Inform)
• Many public places do not permit (Persuasive)
• Do you agree or disagree? (Persuasive)
• Suppose that you (Narrative)
• Most students have a (Expository)
• Everyone enjoys (Expository)
• Think about the kinds (Inform)
• You have been named (Narrative)
• Your principal (Persuasive)
• The students at your school (Persuasive)
• Based on the story (Respond to Literature)

Writing Task / Writing Directions Keywords

• Write a story (Narrative)
• Describe it (Descriptive)
• Your assignment is Write about this person (Inform or Expository)
• Write to explain why (Expository)
• Explain what animal (Expository)
• Make up a story (Narrative) Tell a true story (Narrative)
• Explain the (Expository)
• Write an article for (Inform or Expository)
• Write a persuasive letter (Persuasive)
• Write a narrative about (Narrative)
• Write to persuade your classmates (Persuasive)
• Write a letter to (Persuasive)
• Write a persuasive essay (Persuasive)
• Write a speech to convince (Persuasive)
• Urge your readers (Persuasive)
• From your own experience, tell about (Narrative)

Intended Complexity and Confusion

Memorizing keywords is rarely a good use of time. State tests are usually sophisticated enough to discourage these types of shortcuts. For example, narrative writing prompts often use the word “imagine,” however, many other kinds of prompts also use that word as a set up for the situation.

Example: Imagine you have just been elected class president. Write a letter to your fellow students urging them to keep the schoolyard clean.

This example shows a persuasive writing task, yet uses the word “imagine” in describing the situation. Many students associate the word “imagine” with a story. One can be sure the wording is no accident.

Another monkey wrench thrown at students is that writing prompts in state writing tests often have students write for a transactive purpose . A transactive purpose is authentic writing with a real-world purpose.

For example, many state writing tests require students to write a letter to someone or write an article for the school newspaper. (Note: The prompt above asks students to write a persuasive letter. Many teachers may teach letter writing and they may teach persuasive writing , however, it never occurred to them to have students write a persuasive letter . Of course, it shouldn’t make a difference, yet it does.) Transactive purpose!

Response to Literature and Summarize Writing Prompts

As promised, here are a few examples of “respond to literature” and “summarize” writing prompts. Be sure to get the 114 pages of State Testing Released Writing Prompts here. Once again, you won’t find many examples of “respond to literature” and “summarize” writing prompts even in those 114 pages.

Respond to Literature Prompts

Here are three examples:

1) Read the story. What lesson does the author want the reader to learn? Be sure to use specific examples from the passage to support your answer.

2) Based on the story “When the Tiger Comes Home to Roost,” how can the reader tell that life in the jungle is dangerous? Use specific examples from the passage to support your answer.

3) Do you think “The Most Important Question” is a good title for this story? Why or why not? Use details from the story to support your answer.

Write a Summary Prompt

Write a summary of the article. Be sure to:

• state the main idea or ideas of the article
• tell the important details that support the main idea
• use your own words when writing your summary .

If you want your students to be prepared for state testing – this year and every year – check out Pattern Based Writing: Writing Success for Elementary and Middle School Students !

The fastest, most effective way to teach clear, organized paragraph and multi-paragraph writing… Guaranteed!

Create academic or professional success today by improving your critical thinking, logical arguments, and effective communication.

Nathaniel Tower

Juggling writing and life

How to Host a Writing Contest

Last Updated on March 4, 2024 by Nathaniel Tower

Running a writing contest may seem like a risky undertaking for an individual, a literary magazine, or any other type of publication. In order to get any interest at all, you have to put up some prize money. What happens if there aren’t enough entrants to cover your prize purse? How is a publication supposed to come up with that cash? Well, if money’s the only thing you’re worried about, then you aren’t prepared to host a writing contest.

As managing editor at Bartleby Snopes Literary Magazine , I created and ran the Dialogue-Only writing contest for nine years. During that time, we received thousands of entries and awarded over $10,000 in prize money. The Dialogue-Only contest was one of the best-paying writing contests on the web. How does a contest sponsored by a small literary magazine get to be so big?

Here’s everything you need to know to host a successful writing contest.

Minimizing the Risk

Before getting into the details about how to make your writing contest huge, let’s talk briefly about how to reduce the risk. There are several risks involved when hosting a contest. The two biggest are:

• Losing money
• Dealing with complaints (about judging, submission fees, etc.)

In order to minimize the money lost, I recommend using a formula similar to what we did at Bartleby Snopes . Start with a guaranteed amount that won’t break the bank (we originally started with $250 and eventually guaranteed at least $1,000). Charge a modest submission fee (we always charged $10). Add a little bit of money to the prize pot for each entry over a certain threshold. For example, once you get to 25 entries, add an extra $5-$6 for each new submission. Two warnings here:

• You will need more entries than you think to cover the prize money (if you have a $10 entry fee, you should only count on $9 per entry after processing fees).
• You’ll get the majority of entries near the deadline, so don’t panic if it seems like you’re behind.

Don’t promise an amount that you don’t feel comfortable losing. Always imagine the worst-case scenario. Can you afford to pay the entire prize money out of your pocket? If not, then lower your starting amount (or don’t have the contest at all).

The other major risk you run into when hosting a contest is backlash from the non-winning writers. If you aren’t careful, there may be cries of bias or unfair judging procedures. Writers may ask for their fees to be returned. You may hear complaints that the winning entries weren’t any good. You need to be sure your contest rules are clearly stated, including a bit of legalese. Don’t forget to include these statements:

• All decisions made by the judges regarding the winners are final
• No contest entry fees will be returned
• By submitting, you are agreeing to all contest rules
• Contest rules are subject to change

Additionally, it’s always a good idea to be specific regarding all the various components of the contest. Tell your submitters who the judges are, where the contest fees go, when the winning stories will be published, etc. By taking this proactive and transparent approach, we were able to to stay clear of complaints. None of the writers asked for their fee to be returned (unless there was a glitch), and only one writer ever complained about the results (it was a cry of sexism because one year all 5 winners in our BLIND contest had male-sounding names).

Getting Enough Entries

Our Dialogue-Only contest wasn’t always a big deal. During our first year, we gave out just $450 in prize money. While many writers would be thrilled to win a piece of that, we’re not exactly talking about big bucks. Five years later, our prize pot was over five times that. How were we able to grow so much during that time?

If you want to maximize the number of entries your writing contest gets, you need to do a few things:

• Make the prize worth it
• Establish credibility
• Be transparent
• Advertise and promote
• Do something unique

Let’s discuss each of these elements in detail.

Make the Prize Worth It

A contest doesn’t have to award thousands of dollars to be worth it. Of course, that all depends on what you are asking the writers to do. The higher the fee you are charging, the bigger the prize should be. I recommend a prize-to-fee ratio of at least 20 to 1 (that’s a $100 prize for a $5 entry fee). If the prize is only $25, you aren’t going to get people who are willing to pay $5 or $10 to enter. If your prize-to-fee ratio is on the lower end, be sure to throw in some extra incentive (such as a free issue or subscription). Never  offer guaranteed publication to all entrants.

There are a couple other things to consider when making a prize that’s worth the entry fee:

• What are the odds of winning?
• How much work does the writer need to do to participate?

If you are getting thousands of entries, you need a huge prize. The lower the odds an individual writer has, the more you better hand out.

If you are asking for a very specific story, or if your contest requests a large volume of work, then you need to respect the effort a writer will have to put in to participate. Writers aren’t going to create a story just for your contest if they have only a small chance of winning a small prize.

Establish Credibility

This might sound like it’s impossible to achieve during the first year of your contest, but it definitely can be done. Here are a few suggestions:

• Get an endorsement from a respected figure in the writing community (this could be in the form of a guest judge)
• Get your contest listed by credible publications
• Establish yourself as a respected and professional publisher/editor prior to hosting a contest
• Make sure your contest details are thorough

I wouldn’t recommend launching a contest during the first few months your publication exists. Establish yourself first, then establish your contest. And make sure you have a real website before launching your contest. No one is going to submit if there isn’t clear evidence your contest is real.

Be Transparent

In a world where privacy is becoming more and more of a commodity, people want to know more and more about what they are getting into. Don’t hide anything about your contest. Be forthcoming about everything, including:

• Who the judges are (provide names and links for guest judges)
• Where the money will go (especially if your contest will bring in more money than it awards)
• When and how the winners will be paid
• When and how entrants will be notified
• When the winning stories will be published

Additionally, if you’ve run the contest in the past, you need to make examples of past winners easily available. If the only way to see past winners is by paying money, then you aren’t being transparent. It’s also a good idea to write a blog post or article about the contest. For example, you could discuss the types of stories that generally don’t do well in your contest. Or you could give tips about preparing a contest entry. Naturally, this will also help to establish your credibility.

Advertise and Promote

Advertising your contest can add up quickly. An ad in  Poets & Writers can run you $500 or more. Add in a few other ads and maybe some promoted posts on Facebook and Twitter, and you are easily looking at $800-$1000 just to advertise your contest (which is about what we spent to promote our contest during our biggest years).

If paying big bucks to promote your contest isn’t in the cards for you, then find as many free outlets as possible. Make sure you have a contest listing everywhere you can. There are dozens of lists that compile writing contests for free. Make sure you are on all of them (or at least all the ones you qualify for). Have a separate listing on Duotrope that’s just for your contest. Post about your contest in legitimate writing forums. Reach out to MFA programs and ask if they will spread the word. Be sure to put together a professional announcement regarding the contest. In many cases, your free promotion will bring in more entries than your sponsored ads .

Of course, you should also use social media, but promoting your contest doesn’t just mean you Tweet about it every day. If you really want to promote a contest, you need to find a variety of outlets. The most valuable promotion is anywhere people are already looking for opportunities to make money as writers (online contest listings,  Poets & Writers  Contest Issue, social media groups dedicated to paying publications, etc.).

Do Something Unique

There are thousands of writing contests held every year. If you want people to enter yours, you need to do something different from everyone else. If your guidelines are “Write any story you want and we’ll pick the best one and give you a handful of money,” then no one is going to submit. When I created the Dialogue-Only Contest, I was trying to do something I hadn’t seen done anywhere else before. My “great” ideas included:

• A rolling rejection process
• Unlimited entries for one price
• A growing prize purse
• A very specific format (stories had to be composed entirely of dialogue)

I can’t tell you how many writers contacted me to say they really enjoyed participating in this contest. Every year, I was surprised by how many entrants responded to rejection letters by thanking me for hosting the contest.

Final Notes

Hosting a writing contest is no easy task. There are plenty of obstacles you will deal with along the way, none more difficult than the colossal challenge of sorting through all the entries to pick a winner. If you run your contest the right way, you will find it a rewarding experience. Being able to award almost $2400 to writers is definitely worth the hard work.

How to Host a Writing Contest FAQs

Can anyone host a writing contest.

Yes, in theory, any website or publication can host a writing contest. Before hosting a contest, you should clearly define your contest rules and develop a plan for collecting submissions.

Where can I advertise my writing contest?

You can and should advertise your writing contest in as many places as possible. Some of the best places are Poets & Writers, Duotrope, MFA programs, other online contest listings, and social media. Make sure you have an advertising budget. Promoting your writing contest can get expensive if you aren't careful.

Do I have to award prizes for my writing contest?

If you want people to enter your writing contest, you need to offer prizes. The most appealing prizes are monetary. Publication is also a highly desired outcome. The bigger the prizes, the more entries you'll get.

Can I charge an entry fee for my writing contest?

While some writing contests are free to enter, most require an entry fee. There is nothing wrong with charging a contest entry fee as long as you make the prize worthwhile and you are transparent about where the entry fees go. If you are keeping any of the money as profit, you should disclose this.

What if no one enters my writing contest?

If no one enters your writing contest, or you just don't get many entries, you can try extending the deadline and increasing your promotion efforts. It's always a good idea to include a disclaimer in your contest rules that requires a minimum number of entries for the contest to be held. This way, if you only get a handful of entries, you don't have to award a big prize that will cause you to lose a lot of money.

For writers interested in entering a writing contest

Are you a writer interested in entering a writing contest? Check out these helpful posts:

• How to win a writing contest
• Should I enter a writing contest?
• Everything you need to know before entering a writing contest

Do you have any additional tips for hosting a writing contest? Share your thoughts or questions in the comments. If you are interested in hosting a writing contest, feel free to reach out directly to me for advice. And, as always, please share this post on all your favorite channels.

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2 thoughts on “ How to Host a Writing Contest ”

Recently, I have started using old comics for writing practice. They are public domain and from the WW II era. It is a lot of fun and a challenge since the pictures are already done. Do you have any thoughts on me organizing a writing contest in which writers fill in the blanked dialog balloons. Every entry would have the same eight pages to fill in.

This a great article thank you for being so truthful about the process of build a contest.

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Additional Info Situation Essay Situation essay generator. Have you ever written an essay that involves topics that may not be as common as people perceive them to be? We know for a fact that the most common essay topics are friendship, love and success. However, there are also essays wherein the topics may not be the kind you would think some readers would enjoy. These essays can either touch the hearts of many, or can bring tears to those who read them. In literature and prose, they are called situation essays. What are situation essays and why are they important to learn and understand? Take a look at these examples of a situation essay, which topics like pandemic, ethics and family can be written. 10+ Situation Essay Examples 1. rhetorical situation essay. Size: 202 KB 2. Pandemic Situation Essay Size: 579 KB 3. Dangerous Situation Essay Size: 60 KB 4. Covid 19 Situation Essay Size: 76 KB 5. Family Situation Essay 6. situation ethics essay. Size: 94 KB 7. Situational Essay on Crime Prevention Size: 471 KB 8. Situation Essay on Leadership Size: 530 KB 9. Situation Essay On Awareness Size: 83 KB 10. Situation Essay on Poverty 11. Sample Situation Essay Size: 26 KB What Is a Situation Essay? A situation essay is a kind of writing style that you use in order to adapt to what your essay topic is about. You often see this in any kind of essay you will write about. From informative essays , reflective essays , analytical essays , welcome speeches , This kind of writing style helps you adapt or understand the nature of your topic without having to go off topic or having to find a better way to write or address it. Situation essays can be used in just about any form of writing. Just like in emails, speeches, essays, and letters. The main purpose of the situation essay is to provide you the means to appeal to the person or people reading your writing. How to Write a Situation Essay Getting an idea on how to write a situation essay should not be that difficult or complicated. All you need to do is to follow simple steps to get there. The important thing to remember is you provide the means to appeal to your audience. Here’s how to do it. Step 1: Your Introduction Must Catch Their Curiosity Just like in writing any story, or an email, or even a speech, the most important thing you can do is to make an introduction that catches the reader’s attention and curiosity. Make your introduction something catchy but not too catchy they may lose interest after the introduction. In a way, give them a little taste of what they are going to expect.  Step 2: Add Something That Relates to the Topic This is the second part or the second paragraph if you are writing a letter, an email, or even a speech. Think of something that relates to your topic. Not only does this continue to grab your audience’s attention, but it also shows you are able to correlate your introductory topic to your main topic. Step 3: Be Clear and Concise with Your Writing Since you are going to be writing about a topic for your essay, there are times that you may forget that you are writing for your audience to appeal to what you are saying. This however does not mean that you should forget to be clear and concise with your topic and your writing. Make sure that you stick to making it clear all the way. Step 4: Review Your Essay Before you hand it over to the respective audience, always be sure that every single detail is present in your essay. The topic, the introduction, the statement or purpose of your essay and the conclusion. In addition, part of your review should also be about the grammatical errors, spelling and punctuations. What is a situation essay? A situation essay is a kind of writing style that you use in order to adapt to what your essay topic is about. You often see this in any kind of essay you will write about. What are other kinds of essays or works you can use for this writing style? The other essays you can use for this writing style are: Reflective essay Narrative essay Formal essays Case studies What are some common topics for a situation essay? Any topic can be used for a situation essay. You can write about family, friends, romance, personal, business, etc. Have you ever written an essay that involves topics that may not be as common as people perceive them to be? Situation essays are the type of writing format that gives your readers the opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of the person or character they are reading. This is often used in writing stories, essays or speeches. Text prompt Instructive Professional Situation Essay on the impact of climate change on small island nations Situation Essay on the ethical considerations of genetic engineering Understanding Writing Situations Many of us think of writing as a solitary activity -- something done when we're alone in a quiet place. Yet most of our writing, like other forms of communication -- telephone conversations, classroom discussions, meetings, and presentations -- is an intensely social activity. In this guide, you can learn more about the situations in which writers and readers find themselves and the physical, social, cultural, and historical contexts that shape them. Reading and Writing as Social Acts Writing is hard work, and it's usually done in a quiet place, away from others. It might seem odd to hear it called a "social act." However, most experienced writers and writing teachers call it just that. If you think about it carefully, you'll realize that, with a few exceptions (diaries, travel journals, and grocery lists among them), most writing activities are intensely social. Even relatively simple writing activities, such as taking a telephone message, sending email, or writing a personal letter, involve conveying a message to another person as clearly as possible. The writer of a two-word telephone message, for instance, ought to consider whether the person reading the message will understand that "call Gail" means call Gail Garcia and not Gail Evans or Gail Chen. More complex writing activities, such as writing a business proposal or a progress report, require writers to think much more carefully about how their readers will react to what they've written. A memo to a manager outlining reasons why a promotion and a raise are good ideas is clearly shaped by a writer's concerns about his or her readers. Even decisions made by writers of poems, short stories, novels, and plays are affected by what readers know and how they are likely to react. In much the same way, readers are engaged in a social act. Knowing that you wrote a particular phone message, they will contemplate what you most likely meant by the words "call Gail." A manager, reading a memo requesting a promotion and a raise, will take into account his or her perceptions of the writer and what the writer most likely meant by a phrase such as "or else." Similarly, readers of documents ranging from marketing plans to lyric poems to personal letters will read between the lines of those documents based on their knowledge (or the lack thereof) of the writer. Their interpretation of a document, as a result, will be based at least to some degree on something other than the words themselves. Reading and Writing as Conversation In some ways, writers' and readers' interactions with each other are like conversations at a party. You've probably wandered around a party, listening in briefly on conversations until you find one you want to join. What you hear in a conversation is filtered through your interests and experiences. And what you say is shaped by a particular purpose (to entertain or inform someone, to ask a question, or perhaps to interest someone in getting together with you at a later time). If you're like most people, you try to avoid repeating things that have already been said and you try to stay on the subject. To do this, you listen to a conversation before adding to it. This is one of the ways in which writing is most like a conversation. Just as you do at a party, you want to listen (or read) long enough to you know what's been said, what people are discussing at the moment, and what they might welcome as a relevant contribution. In other words, you want to be accountable to what's been going on before you add to the conversation (see Accountability, below). In addition, members of a conversation typically try to create responses that offer something of value to their readers -- something new or interesting, something that helps move the conversation forward (see Value, below). Your decisions about what you might add to a conversation will be based not only on what you've listened to -- or, in the case of writing, what you've read -- but also on your understanding of the needs, interests, values, and beliefs of other members of the conversation (see Considering Your Readers, below). For these reasons, the relationships between readers and writers can become quite complex. Just as writers compose documents for a wide range of purposes, readers read for a variety of reasons. The degree to which writers can accomplish their purposes depends in large part on the extent to which their document can influence readers to behave or think in certain ways. The degree to which readers find a document useful depends on the extent to which it is consistent with their interests and needs. The document, as a result, becomes the key point of contact between readers and writers - who might live in different times, be separated by thousands of miles, and/or bring radically different experiences to their writing and reading of the document. Accountability in Writing Accountability is a key concept in writing, and particularly so in academic writing and research writing. It would be embarrassing to repeat what someone had just said before you joined a conversation. It would be even more embarrassing to be accused of stealing someone's ideas because you hadn't bothered to read what they'd written about an issue. Knowing what's been written about an issue - being an accountable member of a conversation - is the first step toward becoming an effective writer. Contributing Something of Value Contributing something of value to a conversation is centrally important in most writing projects. Simply changing the dates on last year's product marketing plan isn't likely to get you a promotion, nor is it likely that summarizing the current state of debate on an environmental policy issue will elicit more than yawns from people who have been closely following the issue. Just as you'll be ignored or even shut down if you make an irrelevant comment at a party, your writing will be ignored if it fails to offer something of value to your readers. Considering Your Readers Considering your readers involves attempting to understand what they bring to the conversation -- their knowledge of the issue, their needs and interests, and their values and beliefs. If you are writing a feature article about an Olympic slalom racer for Ski magazine, for example, you'll annoy your readers if you spend a lot of time defining the terms cap skis and sidecut instead of talking about training techniques and race strategies. On the other hand, if you're writing for Parade magazine, a national publication included in many Sunday newspapers, many of your readers (who will be much less familiar with skiing and ski technology than the readers of Ski magazine) are likely to be annoyed if you fail to define those terms. Similarly, providing a detailed history of the Internet will win you little favor from readers of a technical manual for Web server software, but will be of great value to readers of a book covering the development of the World Wide Web. In a written conversation, you'll have much more time to consider how your readers will react to what you write. As you draft your contribution, consider not only how well it will match your readers' knowledge, but also their needs, interests, values, and beliefs. Consider as well their reasons -- or purposes -- for reading what you'll write. A Social Model of Writing Models are useful tools for discussing complex concepts. The model discussed in this guide considers the relationships among writers, readers, and texts. Although it can't fully predict the complexities of a specific writing situation, they can help writers understand the general principles that shape those situations. This model is based on three observations. First, a text may serve as the only point of contact between a reader and writer, particularly when writers are separated by time and distance. Second, texts cannot pass "meaning" transparently and perfectly from writer to reader. Writers seldom write exactly what they mean and readers seldom interpret a writer's words exactly as the writer intended. Third, the factors that affect the attempts of writers and readers to share an understanding of a text include not only their respective purposes, influences, and understanding of each other, but also the physical, social, cultural, and historical contexts in which reading and writing take place. This model of the writing situation is based on five key questions: What is the Writer's Purpose? Every writer has a purpose for writing. In fact, most writers have multiple purposes . A student writing an essay for a class might want to accomplish several things, including completing the particular assignment as required, learning something new, improving writing skills, convincing others to adopt a particular point of view about an issue, and getting a good grade. An employee working on a project st atus report for a business might want to convey key information to his or her superiors, earn a manager's approval, perform well enough to earn a promotion, and gain valuable experience in project management. Understanding a writer's purposes can help you understand one of the most important aspects of the writing situation. Among other factors, identifying a writer's purposes can help you understand the writer's decisions about the content, structure, and design of a document. As a writer, understanding your purposes can help you in virtually every aspect of your writing process. Knowing what you want to accomplish will help you select your topic, consider your readers' needs and interests, and choose appropriate evidence to support your points. It will also help you with decisions regarding tone, style, and document design. What Influences Writers? Writers will be influenced by a number of factors as they compose a document. Their interests (what they'd like to do) and their needs (what they must do) will affect their decision about choosing a particular topic, the points they make in that document, and the evidence they use to support their points. Writers' values and beliefs will also influence their document. Writers are likley to choose examples and evidence that reflects their particular perspective on a topic. They will also affect the way they relate to their readers -- whether they adopt a friendly tone, for example. Writers' knowledge of a particular topic will also affect their work on a document. When writers know a great deal about a topic, they might find it easier to locate appropriate evidence. When writers know relatively little about a topic, in contrast, they'll need to spend much more time searching for, evaluating, and critically reading sources. Writers--and the writing situations in which they find themselves--are seldom free of requirements and limitations . Requirements are typically associated with an academic or workplace assignment. Common requirements include: length (in words or pages), due date, number and/or type of sources that can be used, organization and format (such as whether to include a title page, works cited list, and so on), documentation style (such as MLA or APA), and intermediate drafts. In addition to these requirements, writers are likely to face certain limitations, such as lack of access to information and lack of time to work on a project. Reflecting on the requirements and limitations faced by a particular writer can help you understand why particular decisions were made. As a writer, reflecting on your requirements and limitations can help you decide whether a particular decision-such as choice of topic or the inclusion of evidence from a particular type of source-will help or hurt your chances of accomplishing your purposes. In contrast to requirements and limitations, opportunities expand the possibilities for a writer. Among many other possibilities, opportunities include access to a specialized or particularly good library, personal experience with and knowledge about a topic, access to people who are experts on a particular topic, and access to hardware or software that can help you produce your document (such as desktop publishing software, a good color printer, and Web development software). What is the Reader's Purpose? Like writers, readers have purposes. Most readers don't read something unless they see some sort of benefit in doing so. Perhaps they want to be entertained; perhaps they want to learn something new; perhaps they need to review someone's work in order to write a report or assign a grade. Understanding the purposes readers bring to a document can help you anticipate how they will react to a particular document. As a writer, understanding the purposes of your readers can help you create a more effective document. If you are working on a writing assignment for a class, for example, one of your most important readers will be your instructor. But your instructor will not necessarily be the only reader of your document. Other readers might include your classmates, people who have a professional or personal interest in your topic, or, should your research project be published in print or online, the readers of a particular magazine, journal, or Web site. If you are writing in a business or professional setting, your readers might include your supervisor, his or her supervisors, customers, or other people associated with the organization. In addition, it's possible that your readers will include the writers of sources you might use in your document-writers who share your interest in your topic and who might want to respond to what you will eventually write. What Influences the Reader? Readers will be influenced by a number of factors as they read a document. Their interest in a particular topic will affect their decision to read -- or not read -- a given document. Similarly, their needs will also affect their willingness to read a document. Reader's values and beliefs will also influence their reading of a document. Writers who do not take their readers' values and beliefs into account might miss an opportunity to create a more convincing, useful, or acceptable document. Worse, they might offend their readers -- and increase the chances that their readers will not finish the document. Readers' knowledge of a particular topic will also affect their reading of a document. When writers assume that readers know more about a topic than they actually do, they can create a document that is difficult to understand. When they assume their readers know less than they actually do, they risk creating documents that repeat information readers already know. In both cases, readers are likely to stop reading the document. What do Writers and Readers Know about Each Other? One of the most important factors affecting the writing situation is writers' and readers' representations of each other. When writers understand their readers well -- that is, when they know a fair amount about their readers' purposes and influences -- they're likely to create more successful documents. Similarly, when readers have an accurate understanding of the writer -- his or her purpose, needs, interests, values, beliefs, and knowledge of a topic, among other things -- they are likely to be more successful at interpreting the document in a way that the writer intended. In many cases, the lack of an accurate representation of readers will result in a "poorly written" document -- that is, a document that doesn't help either the writers or the readers. As you consider writing your document, reflect carefully on what you know about your readers. If you know relatively little about them, or if you're missing important information (such as an understanding of why they would want to read your document or what they would hope to gain from it), consider spending some time learning about them. It will be time well spent. What is the Context? The remaining elements of this model of writing as a social activity deal with the setting in which the writing takes place. Physical context refers to the context in which a writers and readers interact with a text. Writers compose texts in a variety of physical settings that can affect what and how they write. For instance, a writer might not be able to do his or her best work in a crowded library or in a noisy corporate cubicle. Similarly, readers might react differently to a text depending on where they read it. Whether a document is read on a crowded bus or train, for instance, rather than in a quiet office, might affect how a reader feels about the text. Even factors such as the lighting available to a reader or the quality of the printer and paper used to create a document can affect the reading of a document. The community - or social context - to which readers and writers belong can also affect the reading and writing of a document. Writers and readers from the same or similar communities are more likely to communicate effectively with each other via a document than writers and readers who come from different communities. Readers familiar with specific political and social issues, for example, are less likely to expect a writer to define those issues in detail. For instance, readers familiar with violence in American secondary schools will not need to be educated about the issue - they will already know the key points. This reduces the amount of time and effort writers need to devote to providing background information about the issue. Rather than going into detail about the causes and effects of school violence, writers can spend more time developing other aspects of a document. Cultural context refers to a larger set of similarities and differences among readers. For instance, readers from the American Midwest might find it easier to understand the allusions and metaphors used in a document written by someone from Oregon than those in a document written by someone from Peru or Sri Lanka. Similarly, modern teenagers might find it easier to follow what's being said in a document written one month ago by a high school senior in Milwaukee than a document written in 1897 by a retired railroad engineer from Saskatchewan. The Role of Context in Shaping Purpose and Constructing Meaning At best, any model of a writing situation will be inexact. The value of the model discussed in this guide, however, lies not in its attempt to be exact, but in its attempt to call writers' and readers' attention to the factors that can shape their interactions with texts - and, through texts, with each other. Of critical importance in this model is the role played by context-physical, social, and cultural-in shaping the decisions writers make as they compose a text and that readers make as they construct meaning from a text. For writers, context shapes -- some might argue that it actually causes -- the purposes for writing. Moreover, context affects the opportunities, requirements, and limitations that affect the choices writers make as they compose their documents. For readers, context shapes their attempt to construct meaning as they read. Physical context can enhance or diminish their ability to read the document. Social context can affect the extent to which writers and readers share common experiences and expectations about a text. Cultural context will affect the fundamental assumptions, beliefs, and aspirations that they bring to the reading of a text. It might be tempting to consider the elements of this model -- purposes, influences, representations of readers and writers, and the various levels of context -- as relatively distinct. But the most effective use of this model of writing as a social activity lies in recognizing that these elements are intimately related with each other. As you consider the role that text plays in the attempts of writers and readers to create shared meaning through text, remember that no single element of the model can stand completely separate from the others. Citation Information Mike Palmquist. (1994-2024). Understanding Writing Situations. The WAC Clearinghouse. Colorado State University. Available at https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/writing/guides/. Copyright Information Copyright © 1994-2024 Colorado State University and/or this site's authors, developers, and contributors . Some material displayed on this site is used with permission. 152 COMMENTS Steps for Writing Contest-Winning Essays A winning essay is no different from a simple college essay, as it still consists of the basic parts of an essay. The difference lies with the way you construct it, with the words you use and the message you're trying to convey. If you're planning to write an essay for a contest, you need to find a way to be unique. The Role of Time ... Writing Contests: Definition, Types & Best Practices A writing contest is a competition in which writers submit their best work for judging by a panel of experts. The contest winners are usually announced at a ceremony and receive prizes and recognition for their achievements. A writing contest is a great way to hone your writing skills and get feedback from other writers. How to Win an Essay Contest: 11 Steps (with Pictures) It's a good idea to print out the guidelines so that you can refer to them as you're writing. 2. Brainstorm essay ideas to pick a topic that works with the theme. Most essay contests will have a theme that your essay should be about, narrowing down your options for essay ideas. The 411 on Contest Guidelines and Formatting for Writers When in doubt, you can follow these general guides when submitting for writing competitions: • Double space (except for poetry and scriptwriting) • Use a standard font, like Courier, Times New Roman or Arial. • Be sure your name and contact info is at the top of the submission. • Cut and paste in body of e-mail. 10 Incredible Writing Contest Tips Revealed ive into the competitive world of writing contests! 🏆 ️ Discover essential tips and strategies to win writing contests and showcase your talent. Start your victorious journey now! ... your first tip was choosing the right contest. If you love fantasy, you probably don't want to enter a non-fiction essay contest! Reply. Debbie. 7 months ago. Guide: Understanding Writing Situations Understanding a writer's purposes can help you understand one of the most important aspects of the writing situation. Among other factors, identifying a writer's purposes can help you understand the writer's decisions about the content, structure, and design of a document. As a writer, understanding your purposes can help you in virtually every ... Winning Essay Contests: A Step-by-Step Guide The first thing that you should do to win essay contests is to read the rules thoroughly. Overlooking one small detail could be the difference between winning the contest and wasting your time. Pay special attention to: The contest's start and end dates. How often you're allowed to enter. The word or character count. The contest's theme. 5 Writing Contest Strategies to Improve Your Winning Chances I switched words to be more descriptive. Others I adjusted to better reflect theme and symbolism. I obliterated instances of passive voice. I also eliminated most forms of verbs like "is," "was," "were," etc. So keep polishing, even after the story works. 5. Supercharge Your Draft Using Critiques. The Truth About Writing Contests Mar 11, 2008. The cash prizes. The chance to be published. The bragging rights over everyone who gives you that look when you say you're a writer. ( Writer's Digest Competitions) There are plenty of good reasons to enter writing contests, but there are also plenty of reasons to be careful about the ones you choose. PDF Essay Competition Handbook An essay is a short piece of academic writing addressing a defined research question. The structure of an essay consists of an introduction, body and conclusion. Depending on the typing of the essay, its form and style might vary, but the main structure stays the same through these variations. Generally speaking, there are 4 main types of ... A Guide to Assessing Writing Contests The opportunities available through contests are everywhere, and the majority of writers are ignoring them. Make that work to your advantage, but keep in mind that not all contests are paths to opportunity. Some are not a direct path to a successful career but may still offer something of value, such as a critique or cash. The Four Main Types of Essay An essay is a focused piece of writing designed to inform or persuade. There are many different types of essay, but they are often defined in four categories: argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive essays. Argumentative and expository essays are focused on conveying information and making clear points, while narrative and ... Writing Competitions Frequently Asked Questions WD's writing competitions recognize writing excellence on a global scale. See below for frequently asked questions. ... ANNUAL WRITING COMPETITION, PERSONAL ESSAY AWARDS, POETRY AWARDS, SHORT SHORT STORY COMPETITION ... All contest entrants must be aged 18 years or older or over the age of majority in the jurisdiction in which they reside. The Biggest Benefits of Writing Contests You Get Inspired to Write. Yes, honey, money is muse, but the contest itself can also be an inspirational spark. Some writing contests impose a theme or topic that can inspire you and lead to your next great idea. The contest can also motivate you to act immediately instead of nursing an idea for the next few years. Best Essay Writing Contests in 2024 Genres: Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult The Letter Review Prize for Books is open to writers from anywhere in the world. Seeking most unpublished (we accept some self/indie published) novels, novellas, story collections, nonfiction, poetry etc. 20 ... 6 Benefits of Essay Writing Competitions After honing your analysis skills with essay competitions, you will have shown that you can. 3. Writing is better than reading. One of the best reasons to do an essay competition is the sheer satisfaction of finishing a piece of high-quality written work. It's something you can be proud of - and for good reason. How to Submit to an Essay Contest Tell a Good Personal Story. Focus on a significant personal experience, a moment of growth, or a powerful emotional journey. Be honest, authentic, and vulnerable in sharing your story. Look for a situation or story that demonstrates a lesson you learned in life or a situation where your own weaknesses or failings were made clear to you. Writing Prompt Structure and Keywords for State Writing Tests Most writing prompts contain two parts. These two parts are: 1. The writing situation - The writing situation gives a little background on the topic that students will be writing about. Example: Many people own pets. 2. The writing task - The writing task contains the specific directions. These directions will often include keywords that ... How to Host a Writing Contest Here are a few suggestions: Get an endorsement from a respected figure in the writing community (this could be in the form of a guest judge) Get your contest listed by credible publications. Establish yourself as a respected and professional publisher/editor prior to hosting a contest. What Is Your Writing Situation? : Successful Writing A Short Personal Essay to accompany your application for a tuition grant for the coming semester from the college alumni club in your city. 2. Here is a sample showing how you might analyze your purpose in another writing situation: The Writing Situation: A movie review for the campus newspaper, due the day after the movie opens at local theaters. Situation Essay A situation essay is a kind of writing style that you use in order to adapt to what your essay topic is about. You often see this in any kind of essay you will write about. ... Situation essays are the type of writing format that gives your readers the opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of the person or character they are reading. This ... Understanding Writing Situations Understanding a writer's purposes can help you understand one of the most important aspects of the writing situation. Among other factors, identifying a writer's purposes can help you understand the writer's decisions about the content, structure, and design of a document. As a writer, understanding your purposes can help you in virtually every ... Rethinking English essay scores: The argument for ... Writing essays is a well-established tool for monitoring progress in learning English as a foreign language, as it provides a snapshot of a student's mastery of grammar and vocabulary. assignment essay homework paper phd report review speech thesis