essay on winning a prize in a competition

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How to Win an Essay Contest

Last Updated: July 18, 2024 Approved

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. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, several readers have written to tell us that this article was helpful to them, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 180,685 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 23 Not Helpful 2
• If you have difficulty understanding the topic or the guidelines, try to get in touch with the judges. Thanks Helpful 16 Not Helpful 3
• 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 15 Not Helpful 3

• Failure to follow the format requirements may disqualify your essay. Thanks Helpful 45 Not Helpful 9
• Be aware of the deadline to ensure you get your essay submitted in time. Thanks Helpful 18 Not Helpful 4

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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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Steps for Writing Contest-Winning Essays

Contest winning essay generator.

Contest-winning essays entries go far beyond proper grammar, spellings, and punctuation. It’s about creating something that will leave a deep impact to your audience. However, it can be quite difficult to stand out amidst hundreds of entries. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a professional writer to write a winning entry.

How to Start the Essay

The beginning to any given matter is always grand, anything from opening ceremonies to introductory speeches. An essay shares the same sentiments as the rest. The opening statement of an essay should be worth remembering. You can do this by telling a story or a quote that relates to the given theme. However, you need still need to keep it short essay. Remember to be concise with the way you construct your introduction.

How to Write an Essay for a Contest

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 Management in Essay Writing

The truth of the matter is, spending too much time on something may cause a change of heart. This is because we allow ourselves to overthink scenarios.

The same thing goes for essay writing . A surge of creative ideas will only come at a certain time. If we take too many breaks in between writing, we lose focus on the message we want to portray. We get distracted from our initial vision, causing sudden shifts in our style of writing. With proper time management, we may complete an essay within a considerable amount of time.

Brainstorming Ideas

Staring at a blank sheet of paper will get you nowhere. It’s important to gather information by conducting different styles of research. This would involve gaining firsthand experience or even reading various journals. You need to let your mind wander before putting it to work.

Awesome Tips for a Winning Essay

Think outside of the box. Don’t be cliche with your topic. Discussing taboos as the subject of your essay outline might be controversial, but it can be risk worth taking. Not a lot of people would dare to go anywhere near these topics and that’s what makes it special. It’s interesting and relatable, yet it’s surprisingly rare. However, it’s important to be sensitive with how you approach a given matter.

See things from a different perspective. Take the road less traveled and give a voice for the minority. Not only is it a unique way of shedding light to a given topic, but it also allows your readers to ponder on unusual thoughts.

Be witty. Adding humor will let your personality shine through. You don’t want to sound too formal, as this can be quite intimidating to some readers. Add a few puns or jokes, being discrete about it will also engage your readers.

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Write a Contest Winning Essay on the theme of courage.

Create a Contest Winning Essay that explores the importance of environmental conservation.

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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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Past winning essays, 2024 winning essay by ruby mcintee, 2023 winning essay by jeremy haynes, 2022 winning essay by theodora mcgee, 2021 winning essay by anna dougherty, 2020 winning essay by noah durham, 2019 winning essay by elazar cramer, 2018 winning essay by jeffrey seaman, 2017 winning essay by daud shad, 2016 winning essay by zhen tu, 2015 winning essay by matthew waltman, 2014 winning essay by ben wolman, 2013 winning essay by jamie baer, 2012 winning essay by patrick reilly, 2011 winning essay by kevin kay, 2010 winning essay by michael reed, 2009 winning essay by margo balboni, 2008 winning essay by laura schapiro, 2007 winning essay by maia gottlieb, 2006 winning essay by ben loffredo, 2005 winning essay by allie comet, 2005 winning essay by kevin zhou, 2004 winning essay by avram sand, 2004 winning essay by will schmidley, 2003 winning essay by michael sloyer, 2002 winning essay by emily ullman, 2001 winning essay by tyler boersen, 2001 winning essay by stephanie dziczek, 2000 winning essay by peter buttigieg.

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How to Write an Award Winning Essay Entry: A Step-by-Step Guide

Writing a fantastic and award winning essay entry in a contest sometimes seems like a very daunting task to undertake. While it is always a great feeling to eventually clinch the top position which could attract various mouthwatering prizes, you will certainly agree that getting to this point requires some level of meticulous efforts.

How to Write an Award Winning Essay Entry Step By Step

Tested and proven steps on how to write a award winning essay entry in a contest. Therefore, if you are that person who often feels stucked and disturbed about how best to write and submit an outstanding award wining essay entry during a contest, kindly  relax and pay some rapt attention to these proven steps;

Read and Understand the Contest Rules and Guidelines

First thing first, reading the given guidelines of the contest is akin to reading the instructions of an examination before jumping to providing answers to questions. The essence of reading and understanding a contest’s guidelines is to help you to know what’s expected of you in the essay. In fact, that’s the first way to know if you are even eligible to be a participant in the contest before expending so much efforts that might end up being futile if one gets disqualified for not being an eligible participant in the first place. For instance, an essay competition might require only undergraduates of any Nigerian tertiary institution as the eligible participants while some other contests might be opened to numerous individuals within a certain age range. In essence, the qualification criteria for different contests vary depending on the aims of the organizers.

Beyond this, some contests specify the exact format in which entries are to be written, including the font, spacing, giving references and so on. So, you’ll do yourself a big favour by taking time to diligently go through the stated rules to see if you will be able to meet almost if not all the criteria. In most cases, failure to meet the guidelines could be the reason for losing out from getting the so desired top position in a contest even when a seemingly perfect entry was submitted.

Ensure you Understand and Appropriately Interpret Every Bit of the Essay Topic

It is very necessary that you understand what exactly the essay topic or theme means and requires from you. A good understanding is the only way to write a suitable content that will meet the expectations of the judges. A submitted essay entry which was written to address something different from the given topic will most definitely be seen as an irrelevant one by the judges or examiners. Imagine for instance, a topic which states that “Nigerian Youths as Better Drivers to a Better Tomorrow” certainly requires you to support the already given position by coming up with satisfactory justification on how the Nigerian Youths truly serve as the better drivers to a better tomorrow.

This is quite different from an open ended topic which is often asked in a question form and needs you to give your opinion which could be either positive or negative to the topic. Thus, in this case, the topic will for example be stated as “Are Nigerian Youths the Better Drivers to a Better Tomorrow”?. Although, in some contests, participants are required to come up with a suitable topic that matches the contest theme to write on. It is also highly crucial to get the most relevant topic that meets the theme in this situation.

Have a Brainstorm Time to Think About how Best to Write your Entry

Writing a award winning essay entry is actually not a joke, particularly when it’s a contest where lots of participants are expected to submit entries. Hence, you have to be as diligent as possible if you are serious about writing an outstanding essay. Before you start putting your ideas into writing, it is vital to brainstorm the topic and think about the kind of write up you want to come up with, the strong points or opinion you’ll like to put forward and more importantly, how exactly you want to articulate them in your essay.

Feel Free to Make your First Draft

Making a first draft is also another important step to take. Understand that you don’t have to make the perfect draft at first. See this step as an opportunity to pour out our your ideas on paper no matter how raw they might look. Write as many ideas as possible during your first draft. You will get the opportunity to scrutinize these ideas and filter the unnecessary aspects when you begin to write the actual essay later on.

Be Focused on Writing an Outstanding Award Winning Essay

This is where the main task lies. Your ability to demonstrate excellent writing skills and write appropriate content that suits the given topic in an impressive manner is all the difference you need to make. Always keep it in mind that you are writing to win. Hence, you need to be focused on ways to make your write up fascinating to the judges or readers starting from your introductory paragraph to the body and the conclusion. Although, there’s no one size fits all ‘formula’ to ensure that everyone who comes across your essay finds it very fascinating, but to a large extent, you can still ensure you utilize interesting ways to drive home your ideas.

For instance, you can state intriguing facts, quotes of relevant authorities, statistics to grab the judges attention and get them to have a smooth ride while reading your essay. When this happens, you can be rest assured that your write up will make a great impression and be judged as one of the most outstanding, thereby, standing the chance of winning you one of the prizes.

Have a thorough Review of the Write up

After you must have successfully written your thoughts in an organized manner, you are also required to have a review on your essay. That is, try as much as possible to personally examine your essay by checking out for grammatical errors , misspelt words, omissions among others. You can use computer softwares like grammarly to help check out for some of these mistakes. It will really be a huge flop if all the lovely thoughts you have put into writing are marred by grammatical mistakes. Do not forget to as well reference cited sources properly if you included an idea or opinionated statement(s) that is not originally yours. Don’t hesitate to also ask anyone you trust to help you scrutinize the essay, particularly look out for those errors.

Check out the Contest Rules One More Time

This time, you are to crosscheck if you have really met all the stated guidelines of the contest. Doing this will help you ascertain if you have ensured that your essay follows the given font type, size, spacing, format, word count to mention just a few. In case you forgot to meet a requirement, checking the guidelines again will remind you before you make the final submission .

You don’t Need to Wait for the Actual Deadline Before Submission

As much as it isn’t advisable to hurriedly submit your entry, it is also not cool to deliberately delay submission when you know there’s nothing more you want to do on the write up. Moreover, waiting for the last minute before you submit subtly exposes you to the risk of becoming stranded if you happen to encounter some unexpected hiccups. I could vividly recall a time I experienced this when I didn’t get the opportunity to work on an essay entry early enough. The submission process was really frustrating as I was just some minutes to the deadline and I was having unforeseen network issues in submitting my work. I am pretty sure you wouldn’t want this similar situation too. Hence, try to submit your well written essay as early as possible. It is vital to also strictly follow the submission procedure. In some contests, you may be asked to submit via email, in other ones, you may be directed to submit through an online link. Either ways, just be sure to follow the laid down procedure(s).

On a final note, please do well to remain calm and keep your fingers crossed after you must have successfully submitted. Do not try to either get too optimistic or pessimistic about your chances of emerging as one of the top writers. Remember, it is often a contest where you can’t ascertain the number of participants and the quality of their respective write-ups. The most important thing to do will be to use that opportunity to learn more and hone your writing skills whether you end up as a prize winner or not. Also, bear in mind that your entries might not fetch you the so much desired awards or prizes at first. However, a persistent effort to get better at doing this will definitely earn you the recognition you deserve in no due time. Interestingly, this is where the real fulfillment comes from.

This article is about how to write an award winning essay entry in a competition written by Olayinka Makinde a winner of the HON. KEHINDE AYOOLA memorial essay contest.