Tips on Writing an Essay to Enter a Conest
Writing an essay to enter a contest can be overwhelming. Depending on the number of applicants with which you are competing, making your essay stand out to judges and have a distinct voice can be challenging. Sketching an outline of your potential essay and brainstorming original insights on which to write is critical for creating an essay that genuinely reflects you. This will help you to seal a contest win.
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Read Rules
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Review the rules of the essay contest for which you are writing. Make sure you are eligible to participate in the contest. For example, some contests will require you to be a full-time college student or to be at a certain grade level in high school. In addition, be prepared to pay an entry fee to participate in the contest if required. Familiarize yourself with the deadline. Also, know your word limit and the required format for your essay, as some contests want your piece to be double-spaced and typed in a certain font and font size, for example. Some contests will require you to either mail or e-mail your essay, and many will require the essay to be previously unpublished as well.
Focus
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Stay focused on the theme of your essay, whether the theme comes from the host of the essay contest or is a theme you have the chance to decide on yourself. Make sure everything you include in the essay is relevant to your overall idea/thesis. You can make several points in your essay or introduce multiple events, but make sure you tie them altogether. Go in-depth into your idea and be detailed, which will make your essay unique. After writing the essay, read over the sentences and paragraphs in your essay to see if you could write them differently to make a bigger impact in support of your theme.
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Know Your Audience
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Think about the audience for whom you are writing. Make sure you make your essay interesting for your potential readers. If you are writing an essay that potentially could appear in a college magazine, for example, make sure the essay will appeal to college students and even the school's alumni. Also, try to tell a story and be descriptive in your essay's introduction to capture your audience, and then show how this introduction supports your thesis.
Check Your Writing
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Read your essay out loud to pinpoint errors and revise the essay. Use a dictionary to check your spelling and a grammar book to spot errors in punctuation, sentence structure and word usage. Also, use a thesaurus to replace regularly used words with interesting synonyms to make your essay more dynamic. Add adjectives to your essay, but do not be too verbose. Ask a roommate, teacher, friend or family member to read over your essay and make suggestions before you submit it to the contest.
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References
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