bad essay prize

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Bursaries, Fellowships & Awards

The British Association of Dermatologists offers fellowships and awards as sources of funding for research, education, or travel to meetings overseas.

These fellowships are open to BAD members only.

Retrospective applications are not accepted; applications must be made and awarded before the project start. We aim to select and notify winners within one month of closing dates.

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Awards and Prizes

Medical Student Awards

These awards are open to medical students studying at a university in the UK and Ireland.

The pen is mightier than the sword. Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Since 1982 the Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest has challenged participants to write an atrocious opening sentence to the worst novel never written. Our whimsical literary competition honors Sir Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel Paul Clifford begins with “It was a dark and stormy night.”

The contest receives thousands of entries each year, and every summer our Panel of Undistinguished Judges convenes to select winners and dishonorable mentions announced in August.  

Our 2023 Grand Prize Winner

"She was a beautiful woman; more specifically she was the kind of beautiful woman who had an hourlong skincare routine that made her look either ethereal or like a glazed donut, depending on how attracted to her you were."

We're laughing and hungry! Chosen from over 6000 entries, the winner of the 41st(!) Annual Lyttoniad is Maya Pasic of New York, New York.

When our champion isn't busy working at Penguin Random House, you'll find her knitting, listening to Balkan folk music, and, of course, prowling local bookstores. A true noble Bulwerier. Congratulations, Maya!

And We've Got OLD News Too!

When you've tired of imbibing the so-called "winners," please enjoy a smattering of the contest's acclaim and opprobrium from back when slow news days were still a thing:

Word for Word/Novel Beginnings; It's the Best of Times For the Worst Opening Lines

Honoring the Very Best of the Worst in Fiction

Toilet paper twist wins prize for woeful writing

For Really Rotten Writing Nothing Can Top Scott Rice's Literary Gong Show

Medical Student Essay Prize

Twice a year the BSDS sets and essay title on a topic related to dermatological surgery and offers a prize for the winning essays.

The BSDS Medical Student Essay Prize (previously titled Undergraduate Essay Prize) is open to anyone who has medical student status at the time of application or who graduates that year.

The title for the next Essay Prize is:

“ Use your creativity to show us how you would safely and efficiently train a medical student to perform an ellipse excision”

This could take the form of:

• A PowerPoint lesson plan (maximum 3 slides)
• An instructional video (real life or computer animated – maximum 5 minutes)
• An artistic presentation (drawings/photographs/combination of) (No PDF please)

The prize for the winning essay will be £300.

BSDS Medical Student Essay Prize Application Form – July 2024

Deadline for submissions:  31st July 2024

Previous Essay Prize Winners

Click to view previous essays.

• 2023, July –      “How can we ensure valid consent in dermatologic surgery in the era of teledermatology and one-stop clinics?” –  Zoe Hemsley, Cambridge University.
• 2023, January –  “ What are the most important priorities for skin surgery and skin cancer research and why?”  –  Mohammed J Ali, Hull York Medical School  
• 2022, July – “ You’re on mute! – Potentials and pitfalls with remote teaching in skin surgery” – Jessica McKeever, University of Dundee
• 2022, January –  “What beneficial changes has the pandemic made to dermatological surgery?” Sukhmunni Johal Oxford University
• 2021, July – “Will artificial intelligence and automated technology replace the need for Dermatologists to diagnose skin cancer in the future?” Laura Leeves, Kings College London.
• 2021, January –   “How do we optimise operator safety during dermatological surgery?”   Mahaveer Singh Sangha University of London Medical School
• 2020, July –  “How do we optimise patients experience of dermatological surgical procedures?”   Anastasia Constantinou, University of Cambridge
• 2020, January –   “How can dermatological surgery become more environmentally friendly?”   Chaplin Catriona, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry
• 2019, July –       What will dermatological surgery look like in 2050?  For this submission, the essay format had been changed to a 5-minute long video.  Outcome Details coming soon.
• 2019, January  –  “Which doctors would make the best skin surgeons? Can we predict ability prior to training?”  Pimentel-Velazquez Diana, Barts & The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London
• 2018, July  –  “Will artificial intelligence and automated technology replace the need for Dermatologists to diagnosis skin cancer in the future? ” Selvendran Sara, Imperial College London
• 2018, January  –  “Skin cancer and patients’ use of Dermatology apps – a cause for concern or the future of healthcare provision?”  Yi Jia Teo, University College Cork School of Medicine, National University of Ireland
• 2017, July –  “Should NHS patients have access to scar management?”   Kelsey Aimar, University of Nottingham
• 2017, January –  Two prizes awarded: “If Mohs skin surgery is the ‘gold standard for non-melanoma skin cancer treatment’, why doesn’t eveyone have it?”  Ali Ansaripour , Kings College London GKT School of Medical Education and  Antonio Ji Xu , Oxford University Medical School
• 2016, July –  “Discuss the technological advances in dermatological and reconstructive surgery that have had the greatest impact on skin cancer patients”  Joseph Jayasundera, King’s College London
• 2016, January –  “Discuss the impact of targeted molecular skin cancer therapies on dermatological surgery” Anna Ascott, Barts and The London
• 2015, July –  “How should we measure the “best” outcomes for skin cancer surgery?” Mahdi Saleh, Keele University
• 2015, January  –  “There is no need to treat any skin cancer with Mohs surgery – discuss “ Monty Lyman, University of Birmingham
• 2014  –  “How can patient expectations relating to skin cancer surgery be assessed and addressed?” Joseph Colclough, University of Glasgow 2014  –  “How can patient expectations relating to skin cancer surgery be assessed and addressed?”  Katherine Farquhar, University of Glasgow
• 2013  – “ Skin Cancer and Vitamin D “ Verity Williams, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London.
• 2012  – “ Skin cancer surgery: who should do it and why? “ James Womersley, Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry, Universities of Exeter & Plymouth.
• 2011  – “ Rising skin cancer incidence: current and future impact on dermatological surgery “ Sarah Gentry, University of Exeter and Plymouth College of Medicine.
• 2010  – “ The role of technology in dermatological surgery “ George Coltart, Oxford University.
• 2009  – “ What is the role of the dermatologist in the management of Skin Cancer? “ Justice Reilly, Glasgow University Medical School.
• 2008  – “ The impact of climate change on skin cancer “ Laura Thomas, Imperial College. 2008  – “ The impact of climate change on skin cancer “ Rory Honney, Oxford University.
• 2007  – “ Discuss aspects of healing in skin surgery “ Faisal Ali, Oxford University.
• 2006  – “ Surgical and emotional scars of skin cancer “ Daniel Todkill, Warwick University

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Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, bad college essays: 10 mistakes you must avoid.

College Essays

Just as there are noteworthy examples of excellent college essays that admissions offices like to publish, so are there cringe-worthy examples of terrible college essays that end up being described by anonymous admissions officers on Reddit discussion boards.

While I won't guarantee that your essay will end up in the first category, I will say that you follow my advice in this article, your essay most assuredly won't end up in the second. How do you avoid writing a bad admissions essay? Read on to find out what makes an essay bad and to learn which college essay topics to avoid. I'll also explain how to recognize bad college essays—and what to do to if you end up creating one by accident.

What Makes Bad College Essays Bad

What exactly happens to turn a college essay terrible? Just as great personal statements combine an unexpected topic with superb execution, flawed personal statements compound problematic subject matter with poor execution.

Problems With the Topic

The primary way to screw up a college essay is to flub what the essay is about or how you've decided to discuss a particular experience. Badly chosen essay content can easily create an essay that is off-putting in one of a number of ways I'll discuss in the next section.

The essay is the place to let the admissions office of your target college get to know your personality, character, and the talents and skills that aren't on your transcript. So if you start with a terrible topic, not only will you end up with a bad essay, but you risk ruining the good impression that the rest of your application makes.

Some bad topics show admissions officers that you don't have a good sense of judgment or maturity , which is a problem since they are building a class of college students who have to be able to handle independent life on campus.

Other bad topics suggest that you are a boring person , or someone who doesn't process your experience in a colorful or lively way, which is a problem since colleges want to create a dynamic and engaged cohort of students.

Still other bad topics indicate that you're unaware of or disconnected from the outside world and focused only on yourself , which is a problem since part of the point of college is to engage with new people and new ideas, and admissions officers are looking for people who can do that.

Problems With the Execution

Sometimes, even if the experiences you discuss could be the foundation of a great personal statement, the way you've structured and put together your essay sends up warning flags. This is because the admissions essay is also a place to show the admissions team the maturity and clarity of your writing style.

One way to get this part wrong is to exhibit very faulty writing mechanics , like unclear syntax or incorrectly used punctuation. This is a problem since college-ready writing is one of the things that's expected from a high school graduate.

Another way to mess this up is to ignore prompt instructions either for creative or careless reasons. This can show admissions officers that you're either someone who simply blows off directions and instructions or someone who can't understand how to follow them . Neither is a good thing, since they are looking for people who are open to receiving new information from professors and not just deciding they know everything already.

College Essay Topics To Avoid

Want to know why you're often advised to write about something mundane and everyday for your college essay? That's because the more out-there your topic, the more likely it is to stumble into one of these trouble categories.

Too Personal

The problem with the overly personal essay topic is that revealing something very private can show that you don't really understand boundaries . And knowing where appropriate boundaries are will be key for living on your own with a bunch of people not related to you.

Unfortunately, stumbling into the TMI zone of essay topics is more common than you think. One quick test for checking your privacy-breaking level: if it's not something you'd tell a friendly stranger sitting next to you on the plane, maybe don't tell it to the admissions office.

• Describing losing your virginity, or anything about your sex life really. This doesn't mean you can't write about your sexual orientation—just leave out the actual physical act.
• Writing in too much detail about your illness, disability, any other bodily functions. Detailed meaningful discussion of what this physical condition has meant to you and your life is a great thing to write about. But stay away from body horror and graphic descriptions that are simply there for gratuitous shock value.
• Waxing poetic about your love for your significant other. Your relationship is adorable to the people currently involved in it, but those who don't know you aren't invested in this aspect of your life.
• Confessing to odd and unusual desires of the sexual or illegal variety. Your obsession with cultivating cacti is wonderful topic, while your obsession with researching explosives is a terrible one.

Too Revealing of Bad Judgment

Generally speaking, leave past illegal or immoral actions out of your essay . It's simply a bad idea to give admissions officers ammunition to dislike you.

Some exceptions might be if you did something in a very, very different mindset from the one you're in now (in the midst of escaping from danger, under severe coercion, or when you were very young, for example). Or if your essay is about explaining how you've turned over a new leaf and you have the transcript to back you up.

• Writing about committing crime as something fun or exciting. Unless it's on your permanent record, and you'd like a chance to explain how you've learned your lesson and changed, don't put this in your essay.
• Describing drug use or the experience of being drunk or high. Even if you're in a state where some recreational drugs are legal, you're a high school student. Your only exposure to mind-altering substances should be caffeine.
• Making up fictional stories about yourself as though they are true. You're unlikely to be a good enough fantasist to pull this off, and there's no reason to roll the dice on being discovered to be a liar.
• Detailing your personality flaws. Unless you have a great story of coping with one of these, leave deal-breakers like pathological narcissism out of your personal statement.

Too Overconfident

While it's great to have faith in your abilities, no one likes a relentless show-off. No matter how magnificent your accomplishments, if you decide to focus your essay on them, it's better to describe a setback or a moment of doubt rather that simply praising yourself to the skies.

• Bragging and making yourself the flawless hero of your essay. This goes double if you're writing about not particularly exciting achievements like scoring the winning goal or getting the lead in the play.
• Having no awareness of the actual scope of your accomplishments. It's lovely that you take time to help others, but volunteer-tutoring a couple of hours a week doesn't make you a saintly figure.

Too Clichéd or Boring

Remember your reader. In this case, you're trying to make yourself memorable to an admissions officer who has been reading thousands of other essays . If your essay makes the mistake of being boring or trite, it just won't register in that person's mind as anything worth paying attention to.

• Transcribing your resume into sentence form or writing about the main activity on your transcript. The application already includes your resume, or a detailed list of your various activities. Unless the prompt specifically asks you to write about your main activity, the essay needs to be about a facet of your interests and personality that doesn't come through the other parts of the application.
• Writing about sports. Every athlete tries to write this essay. Unless you have a completely off-the-wall story or unusual achievement, leave this overdone topic be.
• Being moved by your community service trip to a third-world country. Were you were impressed at how happy the people seemed despite being poor? Did you learn a valuable lesson about how privileged you are? Unfortunately, so has every other teenager who traveled on one of these trips. Writing about this tends to simultaneously make you sound unempathetic, clueless about the world, way over-privileged, and condescending. Unless you have a highly specific, totally unusual story to tell, don't do it.
• Reacting with sadness to a sad, but very common experience. Unfortunately, many of the hard, formative events in your life are fairly universal. So, if you're going to write about death or divorce, make sure to focus on how you dealt with this event, so the essay is something only you could possibly have written. Only detailed, idiosyncratic description can save this topic.
• Going meta. Don't write about the fact that you're writing the essay as we speak, and now the reader is reading it, and look, the essay is right here in the reader's hand. It's a technique that seems clever, but has already been done many times in many different ways.
• Offering your ideas on how to fix the world. This is especially true if your solution is an easy fix, if only everyone would just listen to you. Trust me, there's just no way you are being realistically appreciative of the level of complexity inherent in the problem you're describing.
• Starting with a famous quotation. There usually is no need to shore up your own words by bringing in someone else's. Of course, if you are writing about a particular phrase that you've adopted as a life motto, feel free to include it. But even then, having it be the first line in your essay feels like you're handing the keys over to that author and asking them to drive.
• Using an everyday object as a metaphor for your life/personality. "Shoes. They are like this, and like that, and people love them for all of these reasons. And guess what? They are just like me."

Too Off-Topic

Unlike the essays you've been writing in school where the idea is to analyze something outside of yourself, the main subject of your college essay should be you, your background, your makeup, and your future . Writing about someone or something else might well make a great essay, but not for this context.

• Paying tribute to someone very important to you. Everyone would love to meet your grandma, but this isn't the time to focus on her amazing coming of age story. If you do want to talk about a person who is important to your life, dwell on the ways you've been impacted by them, and how you will incorporate this impact into your future.
• Documenting how well other people do things, say things, are active, while you remain passive and inactive in the essay. Being in the orbit of someone else's important lab work, or complex stage production, or meaningful political activism is a fantastic learning moment. But if you decide to write about, your essay should be about your learning and how you've been influenced, not about the other person's achievements.
• Concentrating on a work of art that deeply moved you. Watch out for the pitfall of writing an analytical essay about that work, and not at all about your reaction to it or how you've been affected since. Check out our explanation of how to answer Topic D of the ApplyTexas application to get some advice on writing about someone else's work while making sure your essay still points back at you.

(Image: Pieter Christoffel Wonder [Public domain] , via Wikimedia Commons)

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Too Offensive

With this potential mistake, you run the risk of showing a lack of self-awareness or the ability to be open to new ideas . Remember, no reader wants to be lectured at. If that's what your essay does, you are demonstrating an inability to communicate successfully with others.

Also, remember that no college is eager to admit someone who is too close-minded to benefit from being taught by others. A long, one-sided essay about a hot-button issue will suggest that you are exactly that.

• Ranting at length about political, religious, or other contentious topics. You simply don't know where the admissions officer who reads your essay stands on any of these issues. It's better to avoid upsetting or angering that person.
• Writing a one-sided diatribe about guns, abortion, the death penalty, immigration, or anything else in the news. Even if you can marshal facts in your argument, this essay is simply the wrong place to take a narrow, unempathetic side in an ongoing debate.
• Mentioning anything negative about the school you're applying to. Again, your reader is someone who works there and presumably is proud of the place. This is not the time to question the admissions officer's opinions or life choices.

College Essay Execution Problems To Avoid

Bad college essays aren't only caused by bad topics. Sometimes, even if you're writing about an interesting, relevant topic, you can still seem immature or unready for college life because of the way you present that topic—the way you actually write your personal statement. Check to make sure you haven't made any of the common mistakes on this list.

Tone-Deafness

Admissions officers are looking for resourcefulness, the ability to be resilient, and an active and optimistic approach to life —these are all qualities that create a thriving college student. Essays that don't show these qualities are usually suffering from tone-deafness.

• Being whiny or complaining about problems in your life. Is the essay about everyone doing things to/against you? About things happening to you, rather than you doing anything about them? That perspective is a definite turn-off.
• Trying and failing to use humor. You may be very funny in real life, but it's hard to be successfully funny in this context, especially when writing for a reader who doesn't know you. If you do want to use humor, I'd recommend the simplest and most straightforward version: being self-deprecating and low-key.
• Talking down to the reader, or alternately being self-aggrandizing. No one enjoys being condescended to. In this case, much of the function of your essay is to charm and make yourself likable, which is unlikely to happen if you adopt this tone.
• Being pessimistic, cynical, and generally depressive. You are applying to college because you are looking forward to a future of learning, achievement, and self-actualization. This is not the time to bust out your existential ennui and your jaded, been-there-done-that attitude toward life.

(Image: Eduard Munch [Public Domain] , via Wikimedia Commons)

Lack of Personality

One good question to ask yourself is: could anyone else have written this essay ? If the answer is yes, then you aren't doing a good job of representing your unique perspective on the world. It's very important to demonstrate your ability to be a detailed observer of the world, since that will be one of your main jobs as a college student.

• Avoiding any emotions, and appearing robot-like and cold in the essay. Unlike essays that you've been writing for class, this essay is meant to be a showcase of your authorial voice and personality. It may seem strange to shift gears after learning how to take yourself out of your writing, but this is the place where you have to put as much as yourself in as possible.
• Skipping over description and specific details in favor of writing only in vague generalities. Does your narrative feel like a newspaper horoscope, which could apply to every other person who was there that day? Then you're doing it wrong and need to refocus on your reaction, feelings, understanding, and transformation.

Off-Kilter Style

There's some room for creativity here, yes, but a college essay isn't a free-for-all postmodern art class . True, there are prompts that specifically call for your most out-of-left-field submission, or allow you to submit a portfolio or some other work sample instead of a traditional essay. But on a standard application, it's better to stick to traditional prose, split into paragraphs, further split into sentences.

• Submitting anything other than just the materials asked for on your application. Don't send food to the admissions office, don't write your essay on clothing or shoes, don't create a YouTube channel about your undying commitment to the school. I know there are a lot of urban legends about "that one time this crazy thing worked," but they are either not true or about something that will not work a second time.
• Writing your essay in verse, in the form of a play, in bullet points, as an acrostic, or any other non-prose form. Unless you really have a way with poetry or playwriting, and you are very confident that you can meet the demands of the prompt and explain yourself well in this form, don't discard prose simply for the sake of being different.
• Using as many "fancy" words as possible and getting very far away from sounding like yourself. Admissions officers are unanimous in wanting to hear your not fully formed teenage voice in your essay. This means that you should write at the top of your vocabulary range and syntax complexity, but don't trade every word up for a thesaurus synonym. Your essay will suffer for it.

Failure to Proofread

Most people have a hard time checking over their own work. This is why you have to make sure that someone else proofreads your writing . This is the one place where you can, should—and really must—get someone who knows all about grammar, punctuation and has a good eye for detail to take a red pencil to your final draft.

Otherwise, you look like you either don't know the basic rules or writing (in which case, are you really ready for college work?) or don't care enough to present yourself well (in which case, why would the admissions people care about admitting you?).

• Typos, grammatical mistakes, punctuation flubs, weird font/paragraph spacing issues. It's true that these are often unintentional mistakes. But caring about getting it right is a way to demonstrate your work ethic and dedication to the task at hand.
• Going over the word limit. Part of showing your brilliance is being able to work within arbitrary rules and limitations. Going over the word count points to a lack of self-control, which is not a very attractive feature in a college applicant.
• Repeating the same word(s) or sentence structure over and over again. This makes your prose monotonous and hard to read.

Bad College Essay Examples—And How to Fix Them

The beauty of writing is that you get to rewrite. So if you think of your essay as a draft waiting to be revised into a better version rather than as a precious jewel that can't bear being touched, you'll be in far better shape to correct the issues that always crop up!

Now let's take a look at some actual college essay drafts to see where the writer is going wrong and how the issue could be fixed.

Essay #1: The "I Am Writing This Essay as We Speak" Meta-Narrative

Was your childhood home destroyed by a landspout tornado? Yeah, neither was mine. I know that intro might have given the impression that this college essay will be about withstanding disasters, but the truth is that it isn't about that at all.

In my junior year, I always had in mind an image of myself finishing the college essay months before the deadline. But as the weeks dragged on and the deadline drew near, it soon became clear that at the rate things are going I would probably have to make new plans for my October, November and December.

Falling into my personal wormhole, I sat down with my mom to talk about colleges. "Maybe you should write about Star Trek ," she suggested, "you know how you've always been obsessed with Captain Picard, calling him your dream mentor. Unique hobbies make good topics, right? You'll sound creative!" I played with the thought in my mind, tapping my imaginary communicator pin and whispering "Computer. Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. And then an Essay." Nothing happened. Instead, I sat quietly in my room wrote the old-fashioned way. Days later I emerged from my room disheveled, but to my dismay, this college essay made me sound like just a guy who can't get over the fact that he'll never take the Starfleet Academy entrance exam. So, I tossed my essay away without even getting to disintegrate it with a phaser set on stun.

I fell into a state of panic. My college essay. My image of myself in senior year. Almost out of nowhere, Robert Jameson Smith offered his words of advice. Perfect! He suggested students begin their college essay by listing their achievements and letting their essay materialize from there. My heart lifted, I took his advice and listed three of my greatest achievements - mastering my backgammon strategy, being a part of TREE in my sophomore year, and performing "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" from The Pirates of Penzance in public. And sure enough, I felt inspiration hit me and began to type away furiously into the keyboard about my experience in TREE, or Trees Require Engaged Environmentalists. I reflected on the current state of deforestation, and described the dichotomy of it being both understandable why farmers cut down forests for farmland, and how dangerous this is to our planet. Finally, I added my personal epiphany to the end of my college essay as the cherry on the vanilla sundae, as the overused saying goes.

After 3 weeks of figuring myself out, I have converted myself into a piece of writing. As far as achievements go, this was definitely an amazing one. The ability to transform a human being into 603 words surely deserves a gold medal. Yet in this essay, I was still being nagged by a voice that couldn't be ignored. Eventually, I submitted to that yelling inner voice and decided that this was not the right essay either.

In the middle of a hike through Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, I realized that the college essay was nothing more than an embodiment of my character. The two essays I have written were not right because they have failed to become more than just words on recycled paper. The subject failed to come alive. Certainly my keen interest in Star Trek and my enthusiasm for TREE are a great part of who I am, but there were other qualities essential in my character that did not come across in the essays.

With this realization, I turned around as quickly as I could without crashing into a tree.

What Essay #1 Does Well

Here are all things that are working on all cylinders for this personal statement as is.

Killer First Sentence

Was your childhood home destroyed by a landspout tornado? Yeah, neither was mine.

• A strange fact. There are different kinds of tornadoes? What is a "landspout tornado" anyway?
• A late-night-deep-thoughts hypothetical. What would it be like to be a kid whose house was destroyed in this unusual way?
• Direct engagement with the reader. Instead of asking "what would it be like to have a tornado destroy a house" it asks "was your house ever destroyed."

Gentle, Self-Deprecating Humor That Lands Well

I played with the thought in my mind, tapping my imaginary communicator pin and whispering "Computer. Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. And then an Essay." Nothing happened. Instead, I sat quietly in my room wrote the old-fashioned way. Days later I emerged from my room disheveled, but to my dismay, this college essay made me sound like just a guy who can't get over the fact that he'll never take the Starfleet Academy entrance exam. So, I tossed my essay away without even getting to disintegrate it with a phaser set on stun.

The author has his cake and eats it too here: both making fun of himself for being super into the Star Trek mythos, but also showing himself being committed enough to try whispering a command to the Enterprise computer alone in his room. You know, just in case.

A Solid Point That Is Made Paragraph by Paragraph

The meat of the essay is that the two versions of himself that the author thought about portraying each fails in some way to describe the real him. Neither an essay focusing on his off-beat interests, nor an essay devoted to his serious activism could capture everything about a well-rounded person in 600 words.

(Image: fir0002 via Wikimedia Commons .)

Where Essay #1 Needs Revision

Rewriting these flawed parts will make the essay shine.

Spending Way Too Long on the Metanarrative

I know that intro might have given the impression that this college essay will be about withstanding disasters, but the truth is that it isn't about that at all.

After 3 weeks of figuring myself out, I have converted myself into a piece of writing. As far as achievements go, this was definitely an amazing one. The ability to transform a human being into 603 words surely deserves a gold medal.

Look at how long and draggy these paragraphs are, especially after that zippy opening. Is it at all interesting to read about how someone else found the process of writing hard? Not really, because this is a very common experience.

In the rewrite, I'd advise condensing all of this to maybe a sentence to get to the meat of the actual essay .

Letting Other People Do All the Doing

I sat down with my mom to talk about colleges. "Maybe you should write about Star Trek ," she suggested, "you know how you've always been obsessed with Captain Picard, calling him your dream mentor. Unique hobbies make good topics, right? You'll sound creative!"

Almost out of nowhere, Robert Jameson Smith offered his words of advice. Perfect! He suggested students begin their college essay by listing their achievements and letting their essay materialize from there.

Twice in the essay, the author lets someone else tell him what to do. Not only that, but it sounds like both of the "incomplete" essays were dictated by the thoughts of other people and had little to do with his own ideas, experiences, or initiative.

In the rewrite, it would be better to recast both the Star Trek and the TREE versions of the essay as the author's own thoughts rather than someone else's suggestions . This way, the point of the essay—taking apart the idea that a college essay could summarize life experience—is earned by the author's two failed attempts to write that other kind of essay.

Leaving the Insight and Meaning Out of His Experiences

Both the Star Trek fandom and the TREE activism were obviously important life experiences for this author—important enough to be potential college essay topic candidates. But there is no description of what the author did with either one, nor any explanation of why these were so meaningful to his life.

It's fine to say that none of your achievements individually define you, but in order for that to work, you have to really sell the achievements themselves.

In the rewrite, it would be good to explore what he learned about himself and the world by pursuing these interests . How did they change him or seen him into the person he is today?

Not Adding New Shades and Facets of Himself Into the Mix

So, I tossed my essay away without even getting to disintegrate it with a phaser set on stun.

Yet in this essay, I was still being nagged by a voice that couldn't be ignored. Eventually, I submitted to that yelling inner voice and decided that this was not the right essay either.

In both of these passages, there is the perfect opportunity to point out what exactly these failed versions of the essay didn't capture about the author . In the next essay draft, I would suggest subtly making a point about his other qualities.

For example, after the Star Trek paragraph, he could talk about other culture he likes to consume, especially if he can discuss art forms he is interested in that would not be expected from someone who loves Star Trek .

Or, after the TREE paragraph, the author could explain why this second essay was no better at capturing him than the first. What was missing? Why is the self in the essay shouting—is it because this version paints him as an overly aggressive activist?

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Essay #2: The "I Once Saw Poor People" Service Trip Essay

Unlike other teenagers, I'm not concerned about money, or partying, or what others think of me. Unlike other eighteen year-olds, I think about my future, and haven't become totally materialistic and acquisitive. My whole outlook on life changed after I realized that my life was just being handed to me on a silver spoon, and yet there were those in the world who didn't have enough food to eat or place to live. I realized that the one thing that this world needed more than anything was compassion; compassion for those less fortunate than us.

During the summer of 2006, I went on a community service trip to rural Peru to help build an elementary school for kids there. I expected harsh conditions, but what I encountered was far worse. It was one thing to watch commercials asking for donations to help the unfortunate people in less developed countries, yet it was a whole different story to actually live it. Even after all this time, I can still hear babies crying from hunger; I can still see the filthy rags that they wore; I can still smell the stench of misery and hopelessness. But my most vivid memory was the moment I first got to the farming town. The conditions of it hit me by surprise; it looked much worse in real life than compared to the what our group leader had told us. Poverty to me and everyone else I knew was a foreign concept that people hear about on the news or see in documentaries. But this abject poverty was their life, their reality. And for the brief ten days I was there, it would be mine too. As all of this realization came at once, I felt overwhelmed by the weight of what was to come. Would I be able to live in the same conditions as these people? Would I catch a disease that no longer existed in the first world, or maybe die from drinking contaminated water? As these questions rolled around my already dazed mind, I heard a soft voice asking me in Spanish, "Are you okay? Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" I looked down to see a small boy, around nine years of age, who looked starved, and cold, wearing tattered clothing, comforting me. These people who have so little were able to forget their own needs, and put those much more fortunate ahead of themselves. It was at that moment that I saw how selfish I had been. How many people suffered like this in the world, while I went about life concerned about nothing at all?

Thinking back on the trip, maybe I made a difference, maybe not. But I gained something much more important. I gained the desire to make the world a better place for others. It was in a small, poverty-stricken village in Peru that I finally realized that there was more to life than just being alive.

What Essay #2 Does Well

Let's first point out what this draft has going for it.

Clear Chronology

This is an essay that tries to explain a shift in perspective. There are different ways to structure this overarching idea, but a chronological approach that starts with an earlier opinion, describes a mind changing event, and ends with the transformed point of view is an easy and clear way to lay this potentially complex subject out.

(Image: User:Lite via Wikimedia Commons)

Where Essay #2 Needs Revision

Now let's see what needs to be changed in order for this essay to pass muster.

Condescending, Obnoxious Tone

Unlike other teenagers, I'm not concerned about money, or partying, or what others think of me. Unlike other eighteen year-olds, I think about my future, and haven't become totally materialistic and acquisitive.

This is a very broad generalization, which doesn't tend to be the best way to formulate an argument—or to start an essay. It just makes this author sound dismissive of a huge swath of the population.

In the rewrite, this author would be way better off just concentrate on what she want to say about herself, not pass judgment on "other teenagers," most of whom she doesn't know and will never meet.

I realized that the one thing that this world needed more than anything was compassion; compassion for those less fortunate than us.

Coming from someone who hasn't earned her place in the world through anything but the luck of being born, the word "compassion" sounds really condescending. Calling others "less fortunate" when you're a senior in high school has a dehumanizing quality to it.

These people who have so little were able to forget their own needs, and put those much more fortunate in front of themselves.

Again, this comes across as very patronizing. Not only that, but to this little boy the author was clearly not looking all that "fortunate"—instead, she looked pathetic enough to need comforting.

In the next draft, a better hook could be making the essay about the many different kinds of shifting perspectives the author encountered on that trip . A more meaningful essay would compare and contrast the points of view of the TV commercials, to what the group leader said, to the author's own expectations, and finally to this child's point of view.

Vague, Unobservant Description

During the summer of 2006, I went on a community service trip to rural Peru to help build an elementary school for kids there. I expected harsh conditions, but what I encountered was far worse. It was one thing to watch commercials asking for donations to help the unfortunate people in less developed countries, yet it was a whole different story to actually live it. Even after all this time, I can still hear babies crying from hunger; I can still see the filthy rags that they wore; I can still smell the stench of misery and hopelessness.

Phrases like "cries of the small children from not having enough to eat" and "dirt stained rags" seem like descriptions, but they're really closer to incurious and completely hackneyed generalizations. Why were the kids were crying? How many kids? All the kids? One specific really loud kid?

The same goes for "filthy rags," which is both an incredibly insensitive way to talk about the clothing of these villagers, and again shows a total lack of interest in their life. Why were their clothes dirty? Were they workers or farmers so their clothes showing marks of labor? Did they have Sunday clothes? Traditional clothes they would put on for special occasions? Did they make their own clothes? That would be a good reason to keep wearing clothing even if it had "stains" on it.

The rewrite should either make this section more specific and less reliant on cliches, or should discard it altogether .

The conditions of it hit me by surprise; it looked much worse in real life than compared to the what our group leader had told us. Poverty to me and everyone else I knew was a foreign concept that people hear about on the news or see in documentaries. But this abject poverty was their life, their reality.

If this is the "most vivid memory," then I would expect to read all the details that have been seared into the author's brain. What did their leader tell them? What was different in real life? What was the light like? What did the houses/roads/grass/fields/trees/animals/cars look like? What time of day was it? Did they get there by bus, train, or plane? Was there an airport/train station/bus terminal? A city center? Shops? A marketplace?

There are any number of details to include here when doing another drafting pass.

Lack of Insight or Maturity

But this abject poverty was their life, their reality. And for the brief ten days I was there, it would be mine too. As all of this realization came at once, I felt overwhelmed by the weight of what was to come. Would I be able to live in the same conditions as these people? Would I catch a disease that no longer existed in the first world, or maybe die from drinking contaminated water?

Without a framing device explaining that this initial panic was an overreaction, this section just makes the author sound whiny, entitled, melodramatic, and immature . After all, this isn't a a solo wilderness trek—the author is there with a paid guided program. Just how much mortality is typically associated with these very standard college-application-boosting service trips?

In a rewrite, I would suggest including more perspective on the author's outsized and overprivileged response here. This would fit well with a new focus on the different points of view on this village the author encountered.

Unearned, Clichéd "Deep Thoughts"

But I gained something much more important. I gained the desire to make the world a better place for others. It was in a small, poverty-stricken village in Peru that I finally realized that there was more to life than just being alive.

Is it really believable that this is what the author learned? There is maybe some evidence to suggest that the author was shaken somewhat out of a comfortable, materialistic existence. But what does "there is more to life than just being alive" even really mean? This conclusion is rather vague, and seems mostly a non sequitur.

In a rewrite, the essay should be completely reoriented to discuss how differently others see us than we see ourselves, pivoting on the experience of being pitied by someone who you thought was pitiable. Then, the new version can end by on a note of being better able to understand different points of view and other people's perspectives .

The Bottom Line

• Bad college essays have problems either with their topics or their execution.
• The essay is how admissions officers learn about your personality, point of view, and maturity level, so getting the topic right is a key factor in letting them see you as an aware, self-directed, open-minded applicant who is going to thrive in an environment of independence.
• The essay is also how admissions officers learn that you are writing at a ready-for-college level, so screwing up the execution shows that you either don't know how to write, or don't care enough to do it well.
• The main ways college essay topics go wrong is bad taste, bad judgment, and lack of self-awareness.
• The main ways college essays fail in their execution have to do with ignoring format, syntax, and genre expectations.

What's Next?

Want to read some excellent college essays now that you've seen some examples of flawed one? Take a look through our roundup of college essay examples published by colleges and then get help with brainstorming your perfect college essay topic .

Need some guidance on other parts of the application process? Check out our detailed, step-by-step guide to college applications for advice.

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Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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How to write a good essay… and win prizes

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Sabina Dosani explains how and why medical students should write essays

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Why should medical students worry about writing essays? Surely they don't need to write essays--or do they? At medical school you will probably write dissertations, elective reports, and essays at the end of special study modules. Examinations for intercalated degrees often include essays, especially in more “arty” subjects such as history of medicine and anthropology. Like driving a car, essay writing is a skill for life. You need good essay skills for some Royal College membership examinations, higher degrees, and, perhaps most significantly in the days of student hardship, to win prizes.

Prizes look good on a curriculum vitae. Winning a prize gives confidence, a sense of achievement, and may even get you that special job. Prize money is an added incentive. Look on notice boards or ask senior tutors for details of essay prizes.

Just like making pots

This article suggests how you might write an essay and debunks some common myths. One myth is that good essay writers are inspired and scribble strong and sassy sentences. In reality, essay writing is more like making a clay pot. If you did pottery at school, you'll be familiar with pot making stages and can skip to the next section. For those who studied ancient Greek instead, here's a summary. Before designing the pot, you need to consider the pot's use and who will buy it. Then you can make the pot. Choose the clay, cut off the amount needed, prepare the clay, knead it, shape it, reshape it, fire it, paint it, refire it, varnish it, fire it again, and sell it.

The craft of essay writing

Essay writers, like potters, work systematically through predefined stages. Otherwise, essays can end up being something that only your mum appreciates.

Think about the title

Early stages of essay writing are similar to pot design. Think about the title just as you would think about the purpose of a pot. It often helps to write the title out on a piece of blank paper that you can use for your plan.

Say you have been given the title, “Is the rapid growth of problem based learning in medical schools a bad thing?” Look at each of the words and phrases. Clearly, this is an essay about problem based learning but is broader than that. It is not about problem based learning in general, but specifically in medical schools. And it is not about problem based learning in detail but about its rapid growth. Your main focus is whether this rapid growth is a bad thing. But from whose point of view? Once you have made these sorts of decisions you can plan your essay. 1

Writing an essay without a plan is like driving without a map or directions. Plans can be obsessively neat--colour coded works of art--or a scrawl on the back of an envelope, as long as you can read and follow it. You need to write down what you want to include and where. Indicate on your plan those ideas that will be in the introduction, main body, and conclusion. If you have a strict word limit, it is useful to divide word limits between your proposed arguments. Many writers find it useful to construct a mind map. Mind maps are a pictorial way of organising large amounts of information on one page. This allows you to have a quick overview of a long complex topic. 2

Introduction

An introduction should introduce. Define all the terms in the title; they may have different meanings in different contexts or have been defined in various ways by previous authors. For instance, if you are writing an essay entitled, “All patients seen by medical students are ill, discuss,” your answer depends on definitions of health and illness. Does “ill” mean that they display symptoms that inhibit function and cause subjective distress, or will you use a more social concept of illness? Are you going to include a discussion of patients seen by medical students in hospital or those in the community as well? If you narrow your focus, can you justify doing so without losing marks?

The main body of your essay should be made up of arguments for and against the title. Even if the title suggests a particular response it is important to argue the other side, as there will be equal marks for both, and ignoring one half of the argument makes it difficult to pass. Back up arguments with evidence from textbooks or academic research. If you can critically appraise articles you are using, even better. 3

You know where your essay is going; direct your readers, or they will get lost. Use direction phrases, such as, “Before discussing X, I will attempt to answer question Y,” or “Having considered P, we now turn to Q.”

The end in sight

Essays are not soap operas: don't leave readers wondering what will happen next. A conclusion can be written in different ways. Look to the future, or cast readers' minds back with a historical perspective. Discuss wider implications related to the media, economics, or politics. Some arguments are thorny, and you may not want to risk antagonising your marker by preferring one view to another. Conclude essays like this with a “who can tell” statement. Alternatively you can finish with a quotation. If you need a punchy exit, you can use someone else's, as long as you reference it.

References acknowledge ideas which are not your own and provide information about the author, the title of the work, the location and name of the publisher, and the date of publication. The two main systems are Harvard and Vancouver. Become familiar with both; you may not have any choice about which is used.

The first part of a Harvard reference gives the author and publication date (and sometimes the page number). After the text that needs referencing, put this information in brackets--for example, (Cross P, 2000). The rest of the information is given in a reference list at the end of the essay. Each item in the reference list looks like this:

Cross P. Earning a crust . Gloucestershire: Management Books, 2000.

The Harvard system takes up slightly more room in the text than the Vancouver system but it gives readers information without consulting the reference list.

The Vancouver system is the numbered system used in the Student BMJ . References are numbered sequentially as they occur in the text and are given in the reference list. Sound straightforward? Some people manage to get into a muddle. Don't try to order references alphabetically in your reference list. This will jumble numbering in the text. The Vancouver system of referencing takes up less space in the text than the Harvard system, but no information about the reference is available from the citation in the text.

Assuming that you have left yourself enough time, three drafts are a minimum. In the first draft, imagine a reader and talk through your argument with them. Don't worry too much about spelling, grammar, or word count; just get it down. Put it in a drawer for a week and don't touch it. Review your draft after a week and correct any errors or omissions. Edit so that it fits the word count. Put it back in the drawer. Leave it there for another week if you have one, but overnight will do. Reread your second draft and check for punctuation and errors that the spell checker has missed. Then use different fonts, colour, and paper on the title page to make it beautiful. Have it bound.

Your essay, like a perfectly designed and manufactured pot, is now ready to be critically judged. It could be the beginning of a prize winning career.

Originally published as: Student BMJ 2002;10:408

• ↵ Nothedge A. The good study guide . Milton Keynes : Open University , 1990 .
• ↵ Buzan T, Buzan B. The mind map book . London : BBC , 1993 .
• ↵ Sackett DL, Rosenberg WM, Muir Gray JA, Haynes RB, Richardson WS. Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't. BMJ 1996 ; 312 : 71 – 2 . OpenUrl FREE Full Text

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• 9 Essay Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Writing essays is a mainstay of education from secondary school through to university, and no matter how well you know the subject in question, if you can’t write a good essay, your marks will suffer. Different academic traditions approach essays in different ways, so in this article we’re going to focus on the kind of essay expected in British schools and universities; the kind you’d be taught how to write, for instance, at our Oxford summer school . That kind of essay should put forward an argument, develop it through several different points, and conclude in a way that marries the points together and reinforces your original argument. It sounds straightforward, but as anyone who’s ever had to write an essay knows, it isn’t always so simple. Here are the types of error people make when writing essays, and how you can avoid them.

1. The list

Perhaps the most common type of bad essay is the list. This can be a result of bad essay writing, but bad question-setting also plays a role. Take the classic essay topic of the causes of the First World War . One way of phrasing a question on this could be simply, “What were the causes of the First World War?” It naturally lends itself to a list; you could almost answer in bullet point. To avoid the list, you’d have to distort the question. Another question could explore the same area of knowledge, but encourage a better-structured essay, such as “Was the First World War inevitable?” or “Was imperialism responsible for the First World War?” You’ll know if you’ve fallen into the trap of writing a list if words like “moreover”, “furthermore” and “additionally” are creeping into your essay more than “therefore” and “however”. To avoid just writing a list, first see if the question invites a list, and if so, reframe it in your head in order to construct an argument. In the First World War example, you could say, “It is popularly believed that the chief cause of the First World War was… but the causes of war in fact went much deeper…” – and then you’re arguing, rather than listing, right away. Consider also which items on your list are more important or less important, and how they interact with each other, and make sure that you come to a firm conclusion that picks a stance and doesn’t settle for “there were many causes, all important” or related waffle.

2. The weighing scales

The “weighing scales” approach to writing an essay is when you have a choice of two options, and you come down firmly on the fence. This is particularly common in essays on a difficult or controversial topic, such as, “Would justice be better served if criminals were given longer prison sentences?” The weighing scales approach would say, “on the one hand, some criminals are treated too leniently… on the other hand, longer prison sentences can increase recidivism… then again, longer sentences may act as more of a deterrent… but they also cost the state a lot of money.” The essay then concludes that there are strong arguments in favour of both sides, and perhaps that more research is needed (even when there has been plenty of research on the topic). In some academic disciplines and some cultures, the “weighing scales” approach to an essay is considered actively desirable. But that’s not the case for British universities. While it’s important to mention both sides (more on that in a moment), an essay should advance an argument. If you conclude that both sides have merit, your argument should at least propose a way of navigating between them. Make sure that by the end of your essay, your reader knows what your opinion is.

3. The polemic

The direct opposite of the “weighing scales” approach is the polemic. In this kind of essay, your reader is in no doubt at all about what your point of view is; unfortunately, they’ve heard rather too much of it and rather too little of anything else. Continuing on the same example as above, in the polemic, you might argue that prison is wholly negative, based on punishment not rehabilitation, leading to worse outcomes for prisoners than alternatives like community service, and introducing ‘new’ criminals to experienced ones so that they end up learning not how to avoid crime, but how to become better at it. While all those points are reasonable, the issue is that the other side is altogether missing. In a “polemic”-style essay, the writer rejects the other side so much that they won’t even discuss their ideas. That’s not persuasive; you also need to spend time acknowledging and refuting the alternative point of view. You don’t need to accept it, only explain where it comes from, and why it’s mistaken.

4. The literature review

A literature review is a perfectly valid piece of writing: it’s where you look at everything that’s been written on a particular topic, and compare, contrast and analyse the writers’ stances without interjecting too much of your own views. It’s a standard part of theses and dissertations, allowing you to establish the thoughts of the major authorities in the field so that you can refer to them later in the piece without the need for a lengthy introduction. But if you’re not supposed to be writing a literature review, then your essay shouldn’t resemble one. After all, it’s about assessing your knowledge, ideas and opinions, not everyone else’s. When a subject has been written about extensively, it can feel impossible to produce an original thought on it. You can end up attributing every point you want to make to another writer, because otherwise it can feel like plagiarism. But while every point might have been said before, your route through them and your reasoning will still be original. Make sure your own point of view is established, without relying too heavily on the literature.

5. The plagiarist

The opposite of the literature review, the “plagiarist” is the essay that passes off a little too much as your own work when it really ought to be credited to someone else. To be clear, we’re not talking about genuine copy-and-paste plagiarism (or the same thing with a couple of words tweaked and examples changed, which is no better) – that’s not a pitfall, that’s grounds for expulsion. This is instead where you’ve maybe read an idea, forgotten which article or book you read it in – or even that it wasn’t your idea in the first place – and put it in an essay without a citation. But even if you didn’t do it deliberately, it’s likely to be frowned on by your teachers. The only way to avoid the “plagiarist” essay is to take more thorough notes when you’re working on an essay. If you read something interesting, even if you don’t think it’s relevant, make a note of where you found it in case you do want to refer back to it. If you’re feeling really lazy, just take a photo of the details on your phone. Then you can make sure you’re not taking credit for ideas that aren’t your own.

6. The long introduction

This one is reasonably self-explanatory – it’s when it feel like the majority of the essay is introduction or scene-setting, and you never really get to the point. To go back to the earlier example of an essay on the causes of the First World War, a “long introduction” essay would spend paragraphs describing the context, the different countries and personalities involved, not to mention their histories – and then, running out of word count, would cram in a paragraph or two at the end about how all of this resulted in war. A “long introduction” essay can be the result of misjudging the word count (and more on that later) but it can also be the result of knowing a great deal about a topic and not wanting to commit to an argument. Avoid the long introduction by making sure your argument is clear from your introduction onwards. Sometimes students also structure an essay by starting with their weaker points and leading to their best point, as a kind of rhetorical crescendo. This can be effective if done well, but it can also lead to a “long introduction” essay as your reader has to sit through paragraphs of muddle waiting for you to get to your real knock-out idea.

7. The textbook

Another perfectly valid piece of writing that nonetheless makes for a poor essay is the “textbook” approach. Instead of writing an essay – with points, examples, explanations and an argument running through it all like a stick of rock – you write an explainer on the topic. This is akin to the list, but typically better written and structured. A “textbook” essay is not necessarily a bad piece of work; it’s just not what’s being asked of you when you write an essay. Sometimes, when students are shy about expressing their opinion, a “textbook”-style essay is the end result. They outline all the examples and explanations that they might have included without committing to the points. The end result is an essay where the student’s point of view could perhaps be inferred from the approach taken, but where it isn’t made explicit. If this is you, try to express your opinion more assertively; you might be avoiding saying things like “I believe” (as usually essays shouldn’t contain the first person) but try phrases like “it is clear that” or that such and such an alternative argument “is flawed”.

8. The revision notes

The “revision notes” essay is not an essay that resembles revision notes; instead, it’s an essay that’s so painfully light on detail that it reads like you used revision notes rather than doing the reading or research that you were supposed to. It skims over dates; it focuses only on the main characters of a novel; where a reader might expect it to cite another theorist, it avoids it with vague statements such as “many people have argued that…”. Assertions go unexplained and unproven. Typically the reason a student writes an essay like this is because they’re out of their depth; they haven’t done the work or understood the topic well enough to go into any more detail. If you’re finding that you’re writing this sort of essay even when you do know your topic, go through and see where more detail could be added. Even something like adding dates for events in brackets can give the sense that you know what you’re talking about. Similarly, try to use examples that aren’t the most obvious or default choice for the point that you’re making. It might feel unnecessary when you know the person marking your essay knows these details already, but you have to prove that you know the details as well.

9. The word count challenge

This goes in both directions – the essays where you’re restricted to 2,000 words and you feel like you could write a novel on the subject, and the ones where you have to write 2,000 words and you feel like you could barely manage a paragraph. Every student will have developed some tricks for getting round this, such as changing the margins or font size, or adding or removing contractions and adjectives. Of course, your teachers are wise to this. It’s much better to write an essay that’s appropriate for the length set in the first place, which means planning it out carefully. If you have what feels like too few points for the word count, can you go into more detail on those points? And if you have too much to say, can your points be grouped together for more of an overview that skips out the finer detail? Or perhaps your approach is too broad, and you can stick more closely to the question asked to condense what you want to say. This is particularly relevant for exams, where realising that you have more to say than time to say it in can be disastrous; the way to avoid it is practising until you have a better sense for how much content you need for a certain exam duration or word count.

Image credits: writing an essay ; list ; scales ; speaker ; books ; citation ; long book ; textbooks ; post-it note ; miniature book .

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THE 2024 ESSAY PRIZE IS NOW CLOSED TO SUBMISSIONS

The 2024 Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize, an annual competition for unpublished writers, is open to submissions from 8 January until midnight on 17 March 2024. The judges will be looking for essays that explore and expand the possibilities of the essay form, with no restrictions on theme or subject matter. Initially made possible by an Arts Council Grant in 2015, the prize awards £3,000 to the best proposal for a book-length essay (minimum 25,000 words) by a writer resident in the UK & Ireland who has yet to secure a publishing deal. In addition to the £3,000 prize the winner will have the opportunity to spend up to two months in residency at the  Mahler & LeWitt Studios  in Spoleto, Italy, to work on their book. The book will then be published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.

The prize aims to find the best emerging essay writers and to give them a chance to develop and showcase their talent. It also provides the winner with their first experience of publishing a book, from the planning, research and writing of it through to the editing, production and publicity stages. The prize is judged by Joanna Biggs, Brian Dillon, Joanna Kavenna, Max Porter and Jacques Testard. Full submission guidelines can be found below.

In 2023, Ghalya Saadawi was awarded the Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize for her proposal Between October and November , an essay on time and loss under an extended, capitalist modernity, on what we keep and what is taken away. The essay has its beginnings in a letter to a friend, in which Saadawi explored political family histories, fashion and music’s retromania, postponement of writing, and the eruption of the past in the present. Written in fragments and digressions that thread cultural criticism, family memoir and life writing, the essay continues to think through the continued cultural obsession with the past and the future, foreclosed revolutionary legacies, the contradictions of destruction and tradition, mourning and the mediation of memory. The other shortlisted authors, chosen from 107 entries, were Luke Allan for There is another world, but it is this one , Toby Chai for  Embryos Denied Mitosis , Pete Kowalczyk with  Time is a Border , Matthew Porges for  The Balkan Bridge by Matthew Porges, and Asa Serezin with The Divorce Plot . The 2023 Essay Prize was judged by Joanna Biggs, Brian Dillon, Joanna Kavenna, Max Porter and Jacques Testard.

Marianne Brooker won the 2022 Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize for her proposal I ntervals , an essay about choice, interdependence and end-of-life care, to be published in February 2024. Blending memoir, polemic and feminist philosophy in order to transform grief into a resource for politics, Intervals explores the space between proximity and complicity, charting the author’s care for her mother as she refused food and water at the end of her life, determined to end her suffering from Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis. The other shortlisted authors, chosen from 124 entries, were Chloe Evans for Elastic Bands , Holly Isard for Molecular Visions , Benoit Loîseau for Fast , Oliver Shamlou for Shabaneh and Radio Silence by Stephanie Y. Tam. The 2022 Essay Prize was judged by Joanna Biggs, Brian Dillon, Joanna Kavenna, Max Porter and Jacques Testard.

Heather McCalden was awarded the 2021 Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize with The Observable Universe , a prismatic account of grief conveyed through images, anecdotes and Wikipedia-like entries, calibrated specifically for the Internet Age. Centred on the loss of her parents to AIDS in the early ’90s, The Observable Universe questions what it means to ‘go viral’ in an era of explosive biochemical and virtual contagion. It will be published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in March 2024. The other shortlisted entries were Q is for Garden by Jenny Chamarette, The Report by Joshua Craze, Terra Nullius by Joanna Pidcock, The Raven’s Nest by Sarah Thomas, and Broken Rice by April Yee. The 2021 Essay Prize was judged by Joanna Biggs, Brian Dillon, Joanna Kavenna, Max Porter and Jacques Testard.

Thea Lenarduzzi was awarded the 2020 Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize with her proposal for Dandelions , a family memoir and social history about two women piecing together themselves and each other from the fragments of four generations’ worth of migration between Italy and England, and the stories scattered along the way. Dandelions was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in September 2022. The other shortlisted entries were Not Revolving by Rashed Aqrabawi, Black Space in the Basement by Elliot C. Mason, Which As You Know Means Violence by Philippa Snow, We Blew Them Into Shards of Dust by Sean Stoker and Mrs Gargantua: Cuba, the United States and the New Man by JS Tennant. The 2020 Essay Prize was judged by Joanna Biggs, Brian Dillon, Joanna Kavenna, Paul Keegan and Jacques Testard. 

In 2019, Polly Barton was awarded the fourth iteration of the Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize for Fifty Sounds , an attempt to exhaust her obsession with the country she moved to at the age of 21, before eventually becoming a literary translator. From min-min, the sound of air screaming, to jin-jin, the sound of being touched for the very first time, from hi’sori, the sound of harbouring masochist tendencies, to mote-mote, the sound of becoming a small-town movie star, Fifty Sounds is a personal dictionary of the Japanese language, recounting her life as an outsider in Japan. Fifty Sounds was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in April 2021. The other four shortlisted entries were On Lunar Thinking  by Amy Budd,  There is California Champagne: Dignity and Work at the End of the World  by Michael Docherty,  Tender as Memory  by Maria Howard, and  Common Periwinkle  by Bryony White. The 2019 Essay Prize was judged by Joanna Biggs, Brian Dillon, Joanna Kavenna, Paul Keegan and Jacques Testard. 

In 2018, Joanna Pocock won the prize for Surrender , a narrative non-fiction work on the changing landscape of the West and the scavenger, rewilder and Ecosexual communities, inspired by a two-year stay in Montana.  Surrender  was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in May 2019 . The other five shortlisted entries were  A Woman’s Place  by Rachel Andrews, Oliver Basciano’s  Tichileşti , Felix Bazalgette’s  Natural Magic ,  Gay Bar  by Jeremy Atherton Lin, and Rebecca Perry’s  Four Invocations . The 2018 Essay Prize was judged by Joanna Biggs, Brian Dillon, Joanna Kavenna, Paul Keegan and Jacques Testard. 

In 2017, Katy Whitehead was awarded the prize for  Adventures in Synthetic Fun , an essay exploring the concept of ‘synthetic fun’ coined in the 1960s by Jeremy Sandford, and the changing nature of fun in an era of increasing automation, disputed oppression, widespread affective labour, illusory meritocracy, costly social mobility, divisive politics, and a degraded imagination. The other four shortlisted entries were  Wolf: An Anatomy of an Illness  by Elinor Cleghorn;  English as a Foreign Language  by Evan Harris;  Other, Mixed  by Will Harris; and  Possession by Rebecca Ley. The 2017 Essay Prize was judged by Joanna Biggs, Brian Dillon, Joanna Kavenna, Paul Keegan and Jacques Testard. 

In 2016, Matthew McNaught was awarded the inaugural Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize for  Immanuel , an essay about faith, doubt and radical religion, inspired in part by his experiences growing up in an evangelical Christian community in the south of England. Immanuel was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in June 2022. The other four shortlisted entries were Corona  by Felix Bazalgette;  Bad For You  by Alice Hattrick;  Growing up Modern  by Jennifer Kabat; and  Double-Tracking by Rosanna Mclaughlin. The 2016 Essay Prize was judged by Joanna Biggs, Brian Dillon, Paul Keegan, Ali Smith and Jacques Testard. 

THE MAHLER & LEWITT STUDIOS

The Mahler & LeWitt Studios are established around the former studios of Anna Mahler and Sol LeWitt in Spoleto, Italy. The residency programme provides a focused and stimulating environment for artists, curators and writers to develop new ways of working in dialogue with peers and the unique cultural heritage of the region. For more information please visit  mahler-lewitt.org . 

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

Joanna Biggs is a writer and editor at Harper’s  and co-founder of Silver Press. Her book about the way we work,  All Day Long , was published by Serpent’s Tail in 2015. Her second book, A Life of One’s Own , was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in May 2023. 

Brian Dillon is a writer and critic. His books include  Suppose a Sentence (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2020),  Essayism (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2017),  The Great Explosion  (Penguin, 2015),  Objects in This Mirror: Essays  (Sternberg Press, 2014), Sanctuary  (Sternberg Press, 2011),  Tormented Hope  (Penguin, 2009) and  In the Dark Room (Penguin, 2005; Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2018). He teaches creative writing at the Queen Mary. Affinities , a book about the intimate and abstract pleasures of reading and looking, was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in February 2023. 

Joanna Kavenna is the author of  The Ice Museum (Viking, 2006),  Inglorious  (Faber & Faber, 2007),  The Birth of Love  (Faber & Faber, 2011),  Come to the Edge  (riverrun, 2012),  A Field Guide to Reality  (riverrun, 2017) and  Zed  (Faber & Faber, 2019). Her writing has appeared in the  New Yorker ,  Guardian, Observer ,  Telegraph ,  Spectator ,  London Review of Books  and  New York Times  and she has held writing fellowships at St Antony's College Oxford and St John's College Cambridge. In 2011 she was named as one of the  Telegraph ’s 20 Writers Under 40 and in 2013 was listed as one of  Granta ’s Best of Young British Novelists. She lives in Oxfordshire.

Max Porter is the author of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers (Faber & Faber, 2016), winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize and shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Goldsmiths Prize; Lanny (Faber & Faber, 2019), longlisted for the Booker Prize; and an essay, The Death of Francis Bacon (Faber & Faber, 2021). His latest novel, Shy , was published in April 2023 by Faber & Faber. 

Jacques Testard is the publisher of Fitzcarraldo Editions and a founding editor of The White Review .  

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Please read these eligibility and entry rules carefully before submitting. Submission of an entry is taken as acceptance of the entry rules. For any queries not covered below, please email [email protected]. 

1) The competition is open to unpublished writers residing in Great Britain and Ireland only.

2) Entrants should submit a proposal for a book-length essay (over 25,000 words) to [email protected]. The proposal itself should be no longer than 5,000 words. Entrants may also submit a separate writing sample of up to 5,000 words. Proposals and samples should be double-spaced, 12pt. 

3) Each proposal should outline the subject matter, scope, style and structure of the proposed essay, and include a word count, delivery date and biographical note.  

4) The proposals must be original, not previously submitted to a publisher. The writing sample may be previously published work. 

5) Entries can also be sent by post to Fitzcarraldo Editions, A103, 8-12 Creekside, London SE8 3DX. 

6) Only submissions received by email or by post by midnight on 17 March 2024 (GMT) will be considered.

7) Entries that are incomplete, are corrupted or submitted after the deadline will not be considered.

8) The entry must be the entrant’s own original creation and must not infringe upon the right or copyright of any person or entity.

9) Co-authored entries will not be accepted. 

10) Writers who have existing contracts, or who have previously held contracts, with publishers for books of fiction or non-fiction are not eligible to enter.

11) Writers who have published writing (fiction or non-fiction) in magazines and journals are eligible to enter.

12) Writers who have published books of poetry are eligible to enter.

13) Writers may submit only one proposal per iteration of the prize. 

14) The proposed essay must be written in English (no translations).

15) Submissions must be made by the author of the proposal.

16) There are no age restrictions.

17) When submitting, please include a short covering letter including your contact details, your name and the title of your proposed essay. The covering letter should be in the same document as your submission. Entrants should also submit a separate one-page cover letter on how they propose to use the residency at the Mahler-LeWitt Studios. 

18) Submissions from writers residing outside of Great Britain and Ireland will not be considered.

19) All submissions should include page numbers.

20) The essay must be original and should not have been previously published anywhere in full or in part. Published work is taken to mean published in any printed, publicly accessible form, e.g. anthology, magazine, newspaper. It is also taken to mean published online, with the exception of personal blogs and personal websites.

21) A meeting will be organised with all shortlisted writers to discuss their book proposal before the award of the prize. 

22) Unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted.

23) No editorial feedback will be provided to unsuccessful entrants.

24) The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the judging process.

25) Fitzcarraldo Editions will have the exclusive right to publish the winning essay once it has been written, but reserves the right not to publish. 

26) Only submissions which meet all Terms and Conditions will be considered.

27) By entering this competition, each entrant agrees to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.

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• 20 March 2024
• Correction 21 March 2024

Mathematician who tamed randomness wins Abel Prize

• Davide Castelvecchi

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Michel Talagrand studies stochastic processes, mathematical models of phenomena that are governed by randomness. Credit: Peter Bagde/Typos1/Abel Prize 2024

A mathematician who developed formulas to make random processes more predictable and helped to solve an iconic model of complex phenomena has won the 2024 Abel Prize, one of the field’s most coveted awards. Michel Talagrand received the prize for his “contributions to probability theory and functional analysis, with outstanding applications in mathematical physics and statistics”, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo announced on 20 March.

Assaf Naor, a mathematician at Princeton University in New Jersey, says it is difficult to overestimate the impact of Talagrand’s work. “There are papers posted maybe on a daily basis where the punchline is ‘now we use Talagrand’s inequalities’,” he says.

Talagrand’s reaction on hearing the news was incredulity. “There was a total blank in my mind for at least four seconds,” he says. “If I had been told an alien ship had landed in front of the White House, I would not have been more surprised.”

The Abel Prize was modelled after the Nobel Prizes — which do not include mathematics — and was first awarded in 2003. The recipient wins a sum of 7.5 million Norwegian kroner (US$700,000).

‘Like a piece of art’

Talagrand specializes in the theory of probability and stochastic processes, which are mathematical models of phenomena governed by randomness. A typical example is a river’s water level, which is highly variable and is affected by many independent factors, including rain, wind and temperature, Talagrand says. His proudest achievement was his inequalities 1 , a set of formulas that poses limits to the swings in stochastic processes. His formulas express how the contributions of many factors often cancel each other out — making the overall result less variable, not more.

“It’s like a piece of art,” says Abel-committee chair Helge Holden, a mathematician at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. “The magic here is to find a good estimate, not just a rough estimate.”

Abel Prize: pioneer of ‘smooth’ physics wins top maths award

Thanks to Talagrand’s techniques, “many things that seem complicated and random turn out to be not so random”, says Naor. His estimates are extremely powerful, for example for studying problems such as optimizing the route of a delivery truck. Finding a perfect solution would require an exorbitant amount of computation, so computer scientists can instead calculate the lengths of a limited number of random candidate routes and then take the average — and Talagrand’s inequalities ensure that the result is close to optimal.

Talagrand also completed the solution to a problem posed by theoretical physicist Giorgio Parisi — work that ultimately helped Parisi to earn a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2021. In 1979, Parisi, now at the University of Rome, proposed a complete solution for the structure of a spin glass — an abstracted model of a material in which the magnetization of each atom tends to flip up or down depending on those of its neighbours.

Parisi’s arguments were rooted in his powerful intuition in physics, and followed steps that “mathematicians would consider as sorcery”, Talagrand says, such as taking n copies of a system — with n being a negative number. Many researchers doubted that Parisi’s proof could be made mathematically rigorous. But in the early 2000s, the problem was completely solved in two separate works, one by Talagrand 2 and an earlier one by Francesco Guerra 3 , a mathematical physicist who is also at the University of Rome.

Finding motivation

Talagrand’s journey to becoming a top researcher was unconventional. Born in Béziers, France, in 1952, he lost vision in his right eye at age five because of a genetic predisposition to detachment of the retina. Although while growing up in Lyon he was a voracious reader of popular science magazines, he struggled at school, particularly with the complex rules of French spelling. “I never really made peace with orthography,” he told an interviewer in 2019 .

His turning point came at age 15, when he received emergency treatment for another retinal detachment, this time in his left eye. He had to miss almost an entire year of school. The terrifying experience of nearly losing his sight — and his father’s efforts to keep his mind busy while his eyes were bandaged — gave Talagrand a renewed focus. He became a highly motivated student after his recovery, and began to excel in national maths competitions.

Just 5 women have won a top maths prize in the past 90 years

Still, Talagrand did not follow the typical path of gifted French students, which includes two years of preparatory school followed by a national admission competition for highly selective grandes écoles such as the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Instead, he studied at the University of Lyon, France, and then went on to work as a full-time researcher at the national research agency CNRS, first in Lyon and later in Paris, where he spent more than a decade in an entry-level job. Apart from a brief stint in Canada, followed by a trip to the United States where he met his wife, he worked at the CNRS until his retirement.

Talagrand loves to challenge other mathematicians to solve problems that he has come up with — offering cash to those who do — and he keeps a list of those problems on his website. Some have been solved, leading to publications in major maths journals . The prizes come with some conditions: “I will award the prizes below as long as I am not too senile to understand the proofs I receive. If I can’t understand them, I will not pay.”

Nature 627 , 714-715 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00839-6

Updates & Corrections

Correction 21 March 2024 : An earlier version of this article stated that Giorgio Parisi won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001. He in fact won in 2021.

Talagrand, M. Publ. Math. IHES 81 , 73–205, (1995).

Article   Google Scholar  

Talagrand, M. Ann. Math. 163 , 221–263 (2006).

Guerra, F. Commun. Math. Phys. 233 , 1–12 (2003).

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I Hope You All Feel Terrible Now

How the internet—and Stephen Colbert—hounded Kate Middleton into revealing her diagnosis

Updated at 4:04 p.m ET on March 22, 2024

For many years, the most-complained-about cover of the British satirical magazine Private Eye was the one it published in the week after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997. At the time, many people in Britain were loudly revolted by the tabloid newspapers that had hounded Diana after her divorce from Charles, and by the paparazzi whose quest for profitable pictures of the princess ended in an underpass in Paris.

Under the headline “Media to Blame,” the Eye cover carried a photograph of a crowd outside Buckingham Palace, with three speech bubbles. The first was: “The papers are a disgrace.” The next two said: “Yeah, I couldn’t get one anywhere” and “Borrow mine, it’s got a picture of the car.” People were furious. Sacks of angry, defensive mail arrived for days afterward, and several outlets withdrew the magazine from sale. (I am an Eye contributor, and these events have passed into office legend.) But with the benefit of hindsight, the implication was accurate: Intruding on the private lives of the royals is close to a British tradition. We Britons might have the occasional fit of remorse, but that doesn’t stop us. And now, because of the internet, everyone else can join in too.

Read: Just asking questions about Kate Middleton

That cover instantly sprang to mind when, earlier today, the current Princess of Wales announced that she has cancer. In a video recorded on Wednesday in Windsor, the former Kate Middleton outlined her diagnosis in order to put an end to weeks of speculation, largely incubated online but amplified and echoed by mainstream media outlets, about the state of her health and marriage.

Kate has effectively been bullied into this statement, because the alternative—a wildfire of gossip and conspiracy theories—was worse. So please, let’s not immediately switch into maudlin recriminations about how this happened. It happened because people felt they had the right to know Kate’s private medical information. The culprits may include three staff members at the London hospital that treated her, who have been accused of accessing her medical records, perhaps driven by the same curiosity that has lit up my WhatsApp inbox for weeks. Everyone hates the tabloid papers, until they become them.

In her statement, Kate said that after her abdominal surgery earlier in the year, which the press was told at the time was “planned”—a word designed to minimize its seriousness—later tests revealed an unspecified cancer. She is now undergoing “preventative chemotherapy,” but has not revealed the progression of the disease, or her exact prognosis. “I am well,” she said, promising that she is getting stronger every day. “I hope you will understand that as a family, we now need some time, space and privacy while I complete my treatment.”

This news will surely make many people feel bad. The massive online guessing game about the reasons for Kate’s invisibility seems far less fun now. Stephen Colbert’s “spilling the tea” monologue , which declared open season on the princess’s marriage, should probably be quietly interred somewhere. The sad simplicity of today’s statement, filmed on a bench with Kate in casual jeans and a striped sweater, certainly gave me pause. She mentioned the difficulty of having to “process” the news, as well as explaining her condition to her three young children in terms they could understand. The reference to the importance of “having William by my side” was pointed, given how much of the speculation has gleefully dwelt on the possibility that she was leaving him or vice versa.

Read: The eternal scrutiny of Kate Middleton

However, the statement also reveals that the online commentators who suggested that the royal household was keeping something from the public weren’t entirely wrong. Kate’s condition was described as noncancerous when her break from public life was announced in late January . The updated diagnosis appears to have been delivered in February, around the time her husband, Prince William, abruptly pulled out of speaking at a memorial service for the former king of Greece. Today’s statement represents a failure of Kensington Palace to control the narrative: first, by publishing a photograph of Kate and her children that was so obviously edited that photo agencies retracted it, and second, by giving its implicit permission for the publication of a grainy video of the couple shopping in Windsor over the weekend. Neither of those decisions quenched the inferno raging online—in fact, they fed it.

Some will say that Kate has finally done what she should have done much earlier: directly address the rumors in an official video, rather than drip-feed images that raised more questions than they answered. King Charles III has taken a different approach to his own (also unspecified) cancer, allowing footage to be filmed of him working from home. But then again, Kate has cancer at 42, is having chemo, and has three young children. Do you really have it in you to grade her media strategy and find it wanting?

Ironically, Britain’s tabloid papers have shown remarkable restraint; as I wrote earlier this month , they declined to publish the first paparazzi pictures of Kate taken after her withdrawal from public life. They have weighted their decisions toward respect and dignity—more so than the Meghan stans, royal tea-spillers, and KateGate theorists, who have generated such an unstoppable wave of interest in this story that its final destination was a woman with cancer being forced to reveal her diagnosis. If you ever wanted proof that the “mainstream media” are less powerful than ever before, this video of Kate Middleton sitting on a bench is it.

Essay  COMPETITION

2024 global essay prize.

The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style. Our Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum.

Entering an essay in our competition can build knowledge, and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of our essay prizes are judged by a panel of senior academics drawn from leading universities including Oxford and Princeton, under the leadership of the Chairman of Examiners, former Cambridge philosopher, Dr Jamie Whyte.

The judges will choose their favourite essay from each of seven subject categories - Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law - and then select the winner of the Grand Prize for the best entry in any subject. There is also a separate prize awarded for the best essay in the junior category, for under 15s.

Q1. Do we have any good reasons to trust our moral intuition?

Q2. Do girls have a (moral) right to compete in sporting contests that exclude boys?

Q3. Should I be held responsible for what I believe?

Q1. Is there such a thing as too much democracy?

Q2. Is peace in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip possible?

Q3. When is compliance complicity?

Q1. What is the optimal global population?  

Q2. Accurate news reporting is a public good. Does it follow that news agencies should be funded from taxation?

Q3. Do successful business people benefit others when making their money, when spending it, both, or neither?

Q1. Why was sustained economic growth so rare before the later 18th century and why did this change?

Q2. Has music ever significantly changed the course of history?

Q3. Why do civilisations collapse? Is our civilisation in danger?

Q1. When, if ever, should a company be permitted to refuse to do business with a person because of that person’s public statements?

Q2. In the last five years British police have arrested several thousand people for things they posted on social media. Is the UK becoming a police state?

Q3. Your parents say that 11pm is your bedtime. But they don’t punish you if you don’t go to bed by 11pm. Is 11pm really your bedtime?

Q1. According to a study by four British universities, for each 16-point increase in IQ, the likelihood of getting married increases by 35% for a man but decreases by 40% for a woman. Why? 

Q2. There is an unprecedented epidemic of depression and anxiety among young people. Can we fix this? How?

Q3. What is the difference between a psychiatric illness and a character flaw?

Q1. “I am not religious, but I am spiritual.” What could the speaker mean by “spiritual”?

Q2. Is it reasonable to thank God for protection from some natural harm if He is responsible for causing the harm?

Q3. Does God reward those who believe in him? If so, why?

JUNIOR prize

Q1. Does winning a free and fair election automatically confer a mandate for governing?

Q2. Has the anti-racism movement reduced racism?

Q3. Is there life after death?

Q4. How did it happen that governments came to own and run most high schools, while leaving food production to private enterprise? 

Q5. When will advancing technology make most of us unemployable? What should we do about this?

Q6. Should we trust fourteen-year-olds to make decisions about their own bodies? 

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS & FURTHER DETAILS

Please read the following carefully.

Entry to the John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2024 is open to students from any country.

Registration  

Only candidates who registered before the registration deadline of Friday, 31 May 2024 may enter this year's competition.

All entries must be submitted by 11.59 pm BST on  the submission deadline: Sunday, 30 June 2024 .  Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on that date. (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on that date.)

Entry is free.

Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration). 

The filename of your pdf must be in this format: FirstName-LastName-Category-QuestionNumber.pdf; so, for instance, Alexander Popham would submit his answer to question 2 in the Psychology category with the following file name:

Alexander-Popham-Psychology-2.pdf

Essays with filenames which are not in this format will be rejected.

The candidate's name should NOT appear within the document itself. 

Candidates should NOT add footnotes. They may, however, add endnotes and/or a Bibliography that is clearly titled as such.

Each candidate will be required to provide the email address of an academic referee who is familiar with the candidate's written academic work. This should be a school teacher, if possible, or another responsible adult who is not a relation of the candidate. The John Locke Institute will email referees to verify that the essays submitted are indeed the original work of the candidates.

Submissions may be made as soon as registration opens in April. We recommend that you submit your essay well in advance of th e deadline to avoid any last-minute complications.

Acceptance of your essay depends on your granting us permission to use your data for the purposes of receiving and processing your entry as well as communicating with you about the Awards Ceremony Dinner, the academic conference for essay competition finalists, and other events and programmes of the John Locke Institute and its associated entities.  

Late entries

If for any reason you miss the 30 June deadline you will have an opportunity to make a late entry, under two conditions:

a) A late entry fee of 20.00 USD must be paid by credit card within twenty-four hours of the original deadline; and

b) Your essay must be submitted  before 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 10 July 2024.

To pay for late entry, a registrant need only log into his or her account, select the relevant option and provide the requested payment information.

Our grading system is proprietary. Essayists may be asked to discuss their entry with a member of the John Locke Institute’s faculty. We use various means to identify plagiarism, contract cheating, the use of AI and other forms of fraud . Our determinations in all such matters are final.

Essays will be judged on knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style and persuasive force. The very best essays are likely to be those which would be capable of changing somebody's mind. Essays which ignore or fail to address the strongest objections and counter-arguments are unlikely to be successful .

Candidates are advised to answer the question as precisely and directly as possible.

The writers of the best essays will receive a commendation and be shortlisted for a prize. Writers of shortlisted essays will be notified by 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 31 July. They will also be invited to London for an invitation-only academic conference and awards dinner in September, where the prize-winners will be announced. Unlike the competition itself, the academic conference and awards dinner are not free. Please be aware that n obody is required to attend either the academic conference or the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London.

All short-listed candidates, including prize-winners, will be able to download eCertificates that acknowledge their achievement. If you win First, Second or Third Prize, and you travel to London for the ceremony, you will receive a signed certificate. 

There is a prize for the best essay in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior category, is a scholarship worth US$2000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme, and the essays will be published on the Institute's website. Prize-giving ceremonies will take place in London, at which winners and runners-up will be able to meet some of the judges and other faculty members of the John Locke Institute. Family, friends, and teachers are also welcome.

The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, which comes with a US$10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools and/or visiting scholars programmes. 

The judges' decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

R egistration opens: 1 April, 2024.

Registration deadline: 31 May, 2024. (Registration is required by this date for subsequent submission.)

Submission deadline: 30 June, 2024.

Late entry deadline: 10 July, 2024. (Late entries are subject to a 20.00 USD charge, payable by 1 July.)

Notification of short-listed essayists: 31 July, 2024.

Academic conference: 20 - 22 September, 2024.

Awards dinner: 21 September, 2024.

Any queries regarding the essay competition should be sent to [email protected] . Please be aware that, due to the large volume of correspondence we receive, we cannot guarantee to answer every query. In particular, regrettably, we are unable to respond to questions whose answers can be found on our website.

If you would like to receive helpful tips  from our examiners about what makes for a winning essay or reminders of upcoming key dates for the 2024  essay competition, please provide your email here to be added to our contact list. .

Thanks for subscribing!

The John Locke Institute's Global Essay Prize is acknowledged as the world's most prestigious essay competition. 

We welcome tens of thousands of submissions from ambitious students in more than 150 countries, and our examiners - including distinguished philosophers, political scientists, economists, historians, psychologists, theologians, and legal scholars - read and carefully assess every entry. 

I encourage you to register for this competition, not only for the hope of winning a prize or commendation, and not only for the chance to join the very best contestants at our academic conference and gala ceremony in London, but equally for the opportunity to engage in the serious scholarly enterprise of researching, reflecting on, writing about, and editing an answer to one of the important and provocative questions in this year's Global Essay Prize. 

We believe that the skills you will acquire in the process will make you a better thinker and a more effective advocate for the ideas that matter most to you.

I hope to see you in September!

Best wishes,

Jamie Whyte, Ph.D. (C ANTAB ) 

Chairman of Examiners

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The Review of English Studies Essay Prize

Instructions to authors, 1. submissions.

Submissions for the essay competition must arrive no later than 30 June annually.

Please send your entries via the online submission system . Click on the 'Publish' link and select 'Essay Prize' from the drop-down menu in the 'Manuscript Type' box. If you need assistance regarding the online submission system, please click on the 'Online Submission Instructions' link.

It is the responsibility of the author to secure permission for the reproduction of illustrations and quotations from copyrighted material.

2. Presentation

Manuscripts.

• All material should be double-spaced; leave ample margins (unjustified to the right) and number pages consecutively.
• An abstract of about 200 words summarising the main points of the submission should appear before the main text commences. When you submit your entry using the online submission system, please ensure you include your abstract in the separate box and also at the start of your essay. The abstract of the prize-winning essay will appear both in the journal and online.
• Number footnotes consecutively throughout the paper. Notes appear as footnotes in the published journal, but please use endnotes in your manuscript submission. An initial unnumbered footnote may be included giving brief acknowledgements, but this should be omitted from the text for peer review.

Contributions should be presented in the house style of RES . References should be used sparingly, and follow the models:

L. Danson, Wilde's Intentions: The Artist in His Criticism (Oxford, 1997).

For articles:

Alison Smith, 'Becoming a Historian', RES , 51 (1998), 44-52.

Subsequent references should use surname and short title (not 'op.cit' or author's surname only). For a full style guide, refer to New Hart's Rules.

Enquiries about the competition should be addressed to the General Editor, Thomas Keymer [email protected]. Technical enquiries about the online submission system should be addressed to Penny Brown, at [email protected]

Editorial statement

The Review of English Studies was founded in 1925 to publish literary-historical research in all areas of English literature and the English language from the earliest period to the present. From the outset, RES has welcomed scholarship and criticism arising from newly discovered sources or advancing fresh interpretation of known material. Successive editors have built on this tradition while responding to innovations in the discipline and reinforcing the journal's role as a forum for the best new research.

The Review of English Studies (RES) is pleased to continue the sponsorship of The RES Essay Prize, launched in 1999. The aim of the RES Essay Prize is to encourage fine scholarship amongst postgraduate research students in Britain and abroad. The essay can be on any relevant subject from the earliest period to the present.

Recent prize-winning essays .

The winner's prize will consist of:

• Publication of the winning essay in  The Review of English Studies
• £500 worth of Oxford University Press books
• One year's free subscription to RES

Other entries of sufficient quality may be invited to publish.

Entry Requirements

The Review of English Studies Essay Prize is open to anyone currently studying for a higher degree, in Britain or abroad, or to anyone who was awarded one no earlier than January 2022, except employees of Oxford University Press and other persons connected to Oxford University Press.

• Essays are to be no longer than 10,000 words, inclusive of all footnotes and references
• The closing date for entries will be 30 June annually
• The winner of the RES prize will be required to verify his or her status as a current or recent
• The Editors hope to notify shortlisted entrants by 30 September annually
• The winner of the RES prize will be required to verify his or her status as a current or recent postgraduate student
• Essays can be on any topic or period of English literature or the English language, provided that they fulfil the requirements of the editorial statement of The Review of English Studies , as reproduced above
• Entries submitted to The RES Essay Prize must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere
• It is a condition of entry that all entrants will be prepared to license copyright in all media in their entries to Oxford University Press if accepted for publication
• The decision of the judges will be final, and no correspondence will be entered into by the Editors
• No alternative prizes will be available
• In the unlikely event that, in the judges' opinion, the material submitted is not of a suitable standard, no prize or prizes will be awarded
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A Comprehensive Guide to the Cambridge College Essay Competitions

Cambridge college essay competitions, thinking of applying to oxbridge but need new ways to get ahead of the game with your application what plenty of students aren’t aware of is the fact that many of the cambridge colleges hold essay prizes for students in year 12 focusing on various subjects, allowing prospective applicants to get a taste of what uni-level essay writing might be like, as well as giving you something great to put on your cv. below is a comprehensive list of the essay competitions help by the various cambridge colleges, listed by subject. if any of them take your fancy, be sure to head over to the college website to get more details about how to enter and when the deadlines are we’ve also included past and present questions to give you a bit of an idea about what each competition is likely to entail., multi-disciplinary/humanities robinson college essay prize the robinson college essay prize is open to all students in year 12 (lower sixth, or equivalent) at a uk school during the 2020-21 academic year. it is designed to give students the opportunity to develop and showcase their independent study and writing skills. entrants are invited to submit a response to any one of the questions given, which should be no longer than 2,000 words (including footnotes and captions). the questions may be discussed with reference to any academic discipline or area of interest. up to three entries may be submitted per school, so please discuss your application with your school prior to entry. 2021 questions: 1. "a person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury." (js mill). do you agree 2. 'creativity should be the highest goal of education.' discuss. 3. "in policy making, there is no such thing as 'the data', and therefore no such thing as 'acting on the data'." do you agree 4. "the translated text must add up to the original... [translation] is like a problem in math—using different numbers, the answer must be the same, different numbers must add up to the same answer." (lydia davis). discuss. 5. watch this video featuring the poet kamau braithwaite and discuss the significance of 'archives of freedom'. girton college humanities writing competition this annual competition is an opportunity for year 12 students to research and write beyond the curriculum, using one or more of the lawrence room museum objects, as their focus. essays or creative responses (such as dramatic monologues or short stories) are equally welcome. the judges are looking for the ability to connect different areas of knowledge, to think about details and to communicate clearly. archaeology fitzwilliam college archaeology essay competition this essay competition is for students in year 21 or equivalent; limit of 2500 words. 2022 questions: 1. what can responses to climate in the past teach us today 2. in what ways does the study of archaeology remain political 3. how is construction and building in the past symptomatic of imminent social collapse architecture fitzwilliam college architecture design competition 2022 brief: you are challenged to design a new building somewhere on the fitzwilliam college site. this building will serve as a hub for interaction between teaching staff and students, where they can share and explore ideas. during the design process, you will need to think about what programmes or activities need to be accommodated in the new building. for instance, you can consider including spaces for social interaction such as a new cafe, as well as spaces to have quieter conversations in groups of different sizes. you must also consider possible locations for the new building within the college site, taking into consideration the other college buildings in your design, as well as the landscaped areas preserving mature trees as much as possible. this should be seen as an opportunity to create an interesting relationship between the interior and exterior spaces. you are required to submit: - project title that best describes your design intention and final design solution - design narrative of 500 words that concisely explains your design inspiration, design objective, and final design strategy developed to meet your design objective - drawings that show the following: 1) floor plan(s) of your building at 1:200 scale 2) one elevation and one section of the building that best describes main features of the design solution 3) one site plan that indicates the location of the building in relation to existing buildings in the college site. a detailed site plan showing the ground floor plans of the individual buildings is available on the essay competition website for reference, but you should produce a new drawing for the competition submission. 4) one perspective drawing of your building that highlights your design intention and shows the placement of a new building in relation to existing college buildings nearby. classics fitzwilliam college ancient world and classics essay competition this essay competition is for students in year 21 or equivalent; limit of 2500 words. 2022 questions: 1. do ancient audiences / readers / listeners matter to our interpretations of ancient texts discuss with reference to any text or texts of your choice. 2. why do we need new translations of ancient texts discuss with reference to any text or texts of your choice. 3. “the ancient world was more concerned with controlling nature than conserving it.” discuss with reference to any area or period of your choice. 4. when does childhood end in the ancient world discuss with reference to any area or period of your choice. 5. why does aristotle say that people are ‘political animals’ was he right 6. how important was trade with the near east and / or egypt in any period of your choice english trinity college gould prize for essays in english literature trinity college launched the gould prize for essays in english literature in 2013. this is an annual competition for year 12 or lower 6th students. the prize has been established from a bequest made by dr dennis gould in 2004 for the furtherance of education in english literature. candidates are invited each year to submit an essay of between 1,500 and 2,500 words on a topic to be chosen from the list of questions. newnham college the woolf essay prize n 1928, virginia woolf addressed the newnham arts society on the subject of ‘women and fiction’, and from this talk emerged her seminal text, a room of one’s own. a room of one’s own raises a number of questions surrounding the place of women in society and culture, and the competition allows students to contemplate these themes and ideas while developing the independent research and writing skills essential to university-level study. 2021-22 questions: 1. ‘only the fellows and scholars are allowed here; the gravel is the place for me.’ how have female writers been inspired by limitations placed on their educational experiences you may discuss historical or modern-day examples. 2. ‘a woman might write letters while she was sitting by her father’s sick-bed. she might write them by the fire whilst the men talked without disturbing them’. how might letters add to our understanding of female writers and their work you may discuss the letters of any female author, poet or playwright. 3. ‘anonymity runs in their blood. […] they are not even now as concerned about the health of their fame as men are, and speaking generally, will pass a tombstone or a signpost without feeling an irresistible desire to cut their names into it’. should the women of the past be commemorated in a different manner to their male counterparts explain. queen’s college the estelle prize for english queens' college invites submissions for the english prize 2021, which will be awarded to the best essay submitted by a year 12 (lower sixth form) student. essays must be less that 2500 words., fitzwilliam college history essay competition this essay competition is for students in year 21 or equivalent; limit of 2500 words. 2022 brief: fitzwilliam college traces its origins to 1869, when the university of cambridge launched an initiative to facilitate access to higher education for the many students who could not afford the costs of college membership. the initiative was part of the broader transformation of education in britain, as the changes wrought by industrialisation and urbanisation created a need to cater for a growing, increasingly diverse and literate population. earlier decades had already witnessed the establishment of king’s college london, durham university, and the university of london, for instance, and colleges for women were beginning to open in cambridge and oxford. these radical social and economic changes were themselves connected to the intensification of globalisation in the second half of the nineteenth century, which placed britain at the heart of an ever-tighter web of economic relations between the world’s continents. but the same year also witnessed the birth of mohandas – later mahatma – gandhi, who would come to challenge britain’s colonial rule and lead india on the path to independence; the death of alphonse de lamartine, the poet and politician who had proudly proclaimed france’s second republic in 1848, but whose final years were lived under the more authoritarian second empire; the marriage of emperor meiji, which consolidated japan’s monarchy as the country began a new process of industrialisation; and the establishment by susan b. anthony and elizabeth cady stanton of the national woman suffrage association in a united states still recovering from the civil war. in 1869, as throughout history, old and new worlds collided. we invite applicants to examine, in their essays, a topic of their choice, connected to the changes taking place in or around the year 1869. essays may focus on a particular event, a person, a political movement, or even a process of social, economic or cultural change, but they should consider the interaction of ‘old’ and ‘new’ forces which the chosen topic illuminates. fitzwilliam college rosemary horrox medieval world essay competition this essay competition is for students in year 21 or equivalent; limit of 2500 words. 2022 questions: 1. how can the study of dead languages help us understand medieval cultures 2. what qualities made heroes heroic and villains villainous in medieval literature 3. how far do medieval texts give us any cause for optimism in their presentation of gender 4. did the european middle ages witness the “invention of race” 5. were war and/or rebellion the defining features of medieval society 6. “medieval europe cannot be studied in isolation from the rest of the world”. do you agree trinity college robson history prize the robson history prize is an annual competition for year 12 or lower 6th students. the prize was established in 2007 in memory of the historian robert robson, who was for many years a fellow and tutor at trinity. the aims of the robson prize are twofold: firstly, to encourage ambitious and talented year 12 or lower sixth students considering applying to university to read history or a related discipline; and secondly, to recognize the achievements both of high-calibre students and of those who teach them. 2022 questions: the robson history prize for 2022 had 94 questions in the categories of british history, european history, world history, and historiography, so head to the website for the full list. newnham college history essay prize the newnham history essay prize is open to all female students currently in year 12 (lower sixth) at uk state school. essays should be between 1500 and 2500 words. 2021-22 questions: 1. ‘historians shouldn’t be political pundits’. discuss 2. can the history of clothing tell us about anything other than changes in fashion 3. is historical change driven by great individuals, land economy fitzwilliam college land economy essay competition this essay competition is for students in year 21 or equivalent; limit of 2500 words. 2022 questions: 1. do you believe that environmentalist civil society organisations, such as extinction rebellion and greenpeace, can be effective at pushing governments to adopt environmental policies aimed at addressing the climate and ecological crises 2. ‘territorial inequality between different parts of the uk is extremely high. this undermines the principle of equality of opportunities, because individuals’ life chances crucially depend on where one happens to be born and raised.’ discuss, possibly drawing on examples from your own area of residence. 3. some argue that the covid-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted the fate of inner cities and, in the future, expensive, commuter-driven urban cores will decline in favour of less compact/dense areas such as towns and the countryside. do you agree, law trinity college robert walker prize for essays in law the prize is named after an honorary fellow of the college, lord walker of gestingthorpe, a retired justice of the supreme court and former law student at trinity. essays can be of any length up to 2,000 words (including footnotes). 2022 question: ‘what responsibilities in connection with the environment and sustainability, if any, should the law assign to owners and to occupiers of land’, linguistics trinity college linguistics essay prize this annual essay competition aims to raise awareness of the systematic study of language as an interesting and multifaceted subject in and of itself. the competition is open to all students with an interest in how language works regardless of the specific subjects they are currently studying at a-level (or similar qualification). for example, it may be of interest to students taking a-levels in modern languages, english language or classics, but also to students taking psychology or mathematics. 2022 topic: ‘people who speak two or more languages or dialects sometimes switch between them within the same conversation, and even within the same sentence. what reasons make people switch languages (or dialects) why is this interesting for linguists should linguists prescribe if switching is good or bad’, philosophy trinity college philosophy essay prize the philosophy essay prize is open to year 12 or lower 6th students. the aim of the prize is to encourage able sixth formers to pursue their interest in philosophy, with the hope that they will be encouraged to read this or related subjects at university. 2022 questions: - which philosophical insight that you have come across in your life so far has been the most important one for you - what is the difference between knowledge and understanding - is truth a human invention newnham college philosophy essay prize the newnham philosophy essay prize is open to all female students currently in year 12 (lower sixth) at a uk state school. it is designed to give students the opportunity to think and write about philosophy and philosophical matters in the broadest sense, while developing their independent study and writing skills. through exposure to the type of work they might be expected to do at cambridge, newnham hope to encourage philosophy applicants to the university – and hopefully to newnham, where women’s history and educational excellence are, of course, central. 2021-22 question: ‘sentences such as “a good oak tree has deep roots” can be true, and true irrespective of anybody’s opinion. in other words, such sentences can be objectively true. now, the word “good” doesn’t change its meaning just because it’s being applied to members of one species rather than another. so, sentences such as “a good human being is kind” can be objectively true as well.’ should we be convinced by this kind of argument for the objectivity of ethical judgements, politics trinity college r.a. butler politics prize the objectives of the r.a. butler prize are twofold. firstly, it aims to encourage students with an interest in modern politics and world affairs to think about undertaking university studies in politics, international studies or a related discipline; it is not limited to those already studying these subjects or indeed other social sciences. secondly, its intention is to recognise the achievements both of high-calibre students and of those who teach them. essays can be up to 3,000 words, including all footnotes and references but excluding the bibliography. 2022 questions: - whom do elected representatives, in practice, represent - are the police institutionally discriminatory -  is it ever legitimate for one country to invade another - should countries be punished for the actions of their leaders - do international regional organisations offer the best prospects for cooperation between states in the contemporary world - are international organisations biased towards the interests of wealthy countries - what should the uk be doing to help refugees - should every family own its own home - what statues should come down, and which (if any) should stay up - what policies should the uk government be implementing to ensure it meets its commitments made at the un climate change conferences, maths newnham college philippa fawcett mathematics essay prize the philippa fawcett mathematics prize is open to all female students currently in year 12 (lower sixth) at a uk state school. the prize may be of particular interest to those studying mathematics, statistics or further mathematics but we welcome entries from interested students studying any combination of subjects. entrants are invited to submit a response to any one of the questions below. submissions should comply with the following: • 4-6 a4 sides maximum including all figures, diagrams, tables and bibliography • 12 point font minimum • 2 cm margins minimum • 2500 words max. 2021-22 questions: 1. how does mathematics protect your privacy online 2. what are the most fascinating aspects behind the mathematics of music discuss how mathematics is related to the theory of musical structures and/or instruments. 3. mathematics and climate change: what role do you think mathematics can play in guiding policy makers and in helping public understanding, medicine newnham college medicine prize the newnham college medicine prize is open to all female students currently in year 12 (lower sixth) at a maintained sector uk school. the prize may be of particular interest to those studying biology and chemistry, but we welcome entries from interested students studying any combination of subjects. entrants are invited to submit a response to any one of the questions below. submissions should comply with the following: • 6 a4 sides maximum including all figures, diagrams, tables and bibliography • 12 point font minimum • 2 cm margins minimum • 1500-2500 words total (including footnotes and figure captions, but excluding bibliography) 2021-22 questions: 1. how realistic is it to develop a small molecule therapy for covid-19 could such a therapy be rolled out in a timeframe that it could have an impact on the current pandemic 2. sleep deprivation in clinical health settings. does it matter 3. looking to the future. will stem cell therapies be outpaced by machine-brain interfaces for the treatment of retinal disease, music newnham college music essay prize the newnham music essay prize is open to all female students currently in year 12 (lower sixth) at a maintained sector uk school. it is designed to give students the opportunity to think and write about music in its broadest context, while developing their independent study and writing skills. 2021-22 questions: 1) how have improvements in transport and communications infrastructure affected the history of music – and in what ways might they do so in future 2) evaluate the challenges and opportunities presented to musical culture in a time of global pandemic. 3) in some ways music can be thought of as the ultimate interdisciplinary subject, but it is also highly specialised in other respects. examine this paradox in the context of the debate about music’s role in primary and secondary education., sciences newnham college engineering essay prize the newnham engineering prize is open to all female students currently in year 12 (lower sixth) at a uk state school. the prize may be of particular interest to those studying physics, mathematics, further mathematics, chemistry, biology, design and technology or economics, but they welcome entries from interested students studying any combination of subjects. 2021-22 questions: 1. what can engineers do to mitigate climate change - atmospheric levels of co2 are increasing and the world is waking up to the problem of climate change brought about by human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. as engineers, we have the skills and expertise to make a difference, providing technological solutions to reduce global carbon emissions. all engineering disciplines have a role to play and some areas are suggested below. (a) electric power generation and consumption. what are ‘renewable sources’ of electric power generation how do they work and what are their strengths and limitations are there any new sources being researched and developed that might provide solutions for the future could the uk generate all its electricity from renewable sources - how can we reduce our demand for electric power so that we don’t need to generate so much - there may be opportunities in both domestic and commercial/industrial consumption, e.g. energy efficient homes, energy-efficient manufacturing, low power consumer electronics. (b) transport. modern lifestyles involve a lot of transport, of people as well as goods. how energy-efficient are different modes of transport, and what is the potential for reducing their carbon footprint (c) construction. this sector is one of the biggest emitters of carbon globally. the carbon emissions arise from many sources, especially the huge amount of concrete used in construction projects but also including the energy to power machines. do we have any alternatives for materials or technology strategies to reduce these emissions (d) other engineering areas. technological solutions can be found in all engineering disciplines. you are encouraged to choose for the topic of your essay an example that interests you. 2. data and information engineering data and information engineering is being used everywhere around us. our life increasingly relies on data analysis, from the recent developments in the automotive sector to social media, from machine assisted surgery to law forensics. the data deluge provided by recent technological advances has made automation in data analysis necessary to identify hidden patterns of information within the considered datasets. it is also true that a fully automated world could bring new risks and dangers that did not exist even just a few years ago (e.g., the ethical dilemmas of self driving cars). write an essay on the major aspects of social awareness in ai development, and how this could impact: a) the health sector. b) government, democracy and policing. c) sustainable development. d) another major topic of your interest. you are encouraged to think about the engineering considerations related to some of these topics as well as the ethical considerations. what makes an algorithm particularly helpful or harmful newnham college biological sciences essay prize the newnham college biological sciences prize is open to all female students currently in year 12 (lower sixth) at a uk state school. the prize may be of particular interest to those studying biology, chemistry, physics, or mathematics, but we welcome entries from interested students studying any combination of subjects. entrants are invited to submit a response to any one of the titles overleaf. submissions should comply with the following: - 5 a4 sides maximum including all figures, diagrams, tables and bibliography - 12 point font minimum - 2 cm margins minimum - 2500 words max. 2021-22 questions: 1. is biology in a reproducibility crisis 2. assess the contribution of artificial intelligence (ai) to recent scientific advances. 3. past and present: how has infection shaped the human genome newnham college computer science essay prize the computer science essay prize is open to all female students currently in year 12 (lower sixth) at a maintained sector uk school. the prize may be of particular interest to those studying computer science, mathematics, physics, or chemistry, but we welcome entries from interested students studying any combination of subjects. entrants are invited to submit a response to any one of the questions overleaf. submissions should comply with the following: - 4-6 a4 sides maximum including all figures, diagrams, tables and bibliography - 12 point font minimum - 2 cm margins minimum - 2500 words maximum 2021-22 questions: 1. is there a fundamental difference between self-driving cars and a "slaughter army" of killer drones 2. mobile phone apps are generally written by commercial entities for private gain. if you had the same resources to design one mobile phone app that would make the world better, what would it be and how would it work, get in touch.

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Kiran Sury Wins Montague Boyd Prize Essay Contest

Congratulations to Dr. Kiran Sury , the current Duke Reconstructive Urology and Genitourinary Cancer Survivorship fellow, for placing first in this year’s Montague Boyd Prize Essay Contest!

With Dr. Andrew Peterson as the senior mentor and Dr. Kevin Krughoff as collaborator, Dr. Sury won for their entry titled “Material Fatigue in the Artificial Urinary Sphincter Pressure Regulating Balloon.”

Dr. Montague Boyd was the founder of the Southeastern Section of the American Urological Association. He served as president in 1933 and 1934. The prize was established in 1967 and is given to a resident, fellow, or urologist in private practice for less than 10 years.

Dr. Sury joins a long list of former Duke trainees who have won the award. 

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U.S. House Price Index - March 2024

​​U.S. house prices fell in January, down 0.1 percent from December, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) seasonally adjusted monthly House Price Index (HPI®). House prices rose 6.3 percent from January 2023 to January 2024. The previously reported 0.1 percent price increase in December remained unchanged.

For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from December 2023 to January 2024 ranged from -0.6 percent in the South Atlantic division to +1.5 percent in the West North Central division. The 12-month changes were all positive, ranging from +3.8 percent in the West South Central division to +8.7 percent in the East North Central division.

Monthly index values and appreciation rate estimates for recent periods are provided in the tables and graphs in the attached report. Downloadable data and HPI release dates for all of 2024 are available here: https://www.fhfa.gov/HPI .

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