nyt editorial essay contest

The New York Times

The learning network | making the argument: student winners from our editorial contest.

Making the Argument: Student Winners From Our Editorial Contest

Update | Dec. 9, 2014: In late January or early February of 2015 we will be announcing our second annual Student Editorial contest.

Update: May, 2014: All of the Top 10 winners have now been published. You can find them here .

When we announced our first-ever Student Editorial Contest earlier this year, we expected a thousand or so entries — 2,000, maybe, if we were really lucky.

But when your impassioned essays started pouring at the rate of 200 per hour the last day of the contest — faster than we could approve them — we and our partners at The Center for News Literacy knew we would need at least a month to choose the best.

You dazzled us in many ways, but perhaps most in your range of topics. Sure, we expected pieces on bullying, body image, stereotyping, standardized testing and the dangers of social media; teenagers confront these complex issues every day. We also knew from our long-running Summer Reading Contest that — despite the stereotype — young people care very much about international news, whether climate change, rape in India or unrest in Ukraine.

But even we were surprised to read editorials on the depletion of the helium reserve, the downside of artificial turf or the cost overruns of the F-35 fighter jet .

Over all, we were delighted to find that most essays grew out of a real personal passion, whether an enthusiasm for N.B.A. basketball or the Beatles, or a desire to right injustices you encountered in your own families, schools or neighborhoods. We also loved when you surprised us by taking unusual stances, like arguing the benefits of divorce or the ways in which Barbie is a feminist .

A winning editorial needed to fulfill the guidelines of our rubric , of course, and nearly 200 did that well enough to go to the second round.

But to make our list of finalists, editorials couldn’t simply follow the “here’s my first reason, here’s my second and here’s my third” formula of persuasive-essay writing. Nor could they just be a list of quotations strung together with a little transitional glue. The very best were those that not only had clear arguments and carefully chosen evidence, but also argued their claims in original, persuasive voices.

The writers we honor today pulled us in with clever openings, personal anecdotes and concise overviews that communicated the urgency of a topic. They had the confidence to inject their own experiences and perspectives into their editorials, when appropriate, without distracting the reader from the larger context of the issue. They stuck to the facts, without getting lost in conjecture or hyperbole. They offered us new insights.

For students who will be doing more argumentative writing in the future, here are some final tips from our judges:

• Choose a topic you genuinely care about. Essays that read like they were assigned generally did less well than those that clearly grew out of a writer’s own imagination.
• Double check spelling and grammar. A few mistakes in the first paragraph can lose your readers before they even get to consider your arguments. (Writing “band” when you mean “banned,” for example, can make your serious essay unintentionally funny.)
• While an argument should have an introduction, body and conclusion, the best editorials massage the form. A unique voice stands out, and the piece over all doesn’t read like a cut-and-paste formula.
• We noticed many students incorporating counterarguments, something the Common Core Standards emphasize. The best editorials were able to organically weave those in so they seemed natural and conversational, not like an artificial add-on required by a teacher.

Finally, for the many thousands of students who participated in this contest but didn’t get recognized, we would like to put the numbers in perspective. Even though the chances of getting admitted to elite colleges like Stanford and Harvard were slimmer than ever this year (around 5 percent), the odds of getting chosen by our judges were even smaller than that.

Student Editorial Contest Winners

And now, at last, the winners. Starting April 23, we’ll also be publishing the Top 10 separately, one each day, in posts that showcase each and are suitable for hanging on family refrigerators or class bulletin boards. As we go, we’re tagging them “editorial winner” so that you can find them all here .

Each category below lists our favorites in order of submission and, where titles were missing, by first line.

Top 10 Winners

“Since 2006, over 70,000 deaths in Mexico …” by Brody Ford

“Stop ‘I Spy’ Game With Allies” by Edgar Hu

“Why I, a Heterosexual Teenage Boy, Want to See More Men in Speedos” by Noah Spencer

“Cutting it Short” by Eric Vogt.

“Intelligence Over Diversity” by Ashley K.

“National Parks: Ecology and Economy” by Matty Hack

“Short-Changing Canada’s Veterans” by Talia Vogt

“Cisgender people …” by Adrianna N.

“Substitute Teachers – From a Student’s Perspective” by Candice C. and Cheryl B.

“The Wonders of Wandering” by Lucas Schroeder

“Taxpayer’s money for playdough, building blocks and recess?” by Lizzie O

“As a high school junior interested in engineering…” by Abby W.

“SAT Reform Needs Improvement” by Tim D.

“Love is Love” by Lulu S. G.

“How Do Barbie Dolls Influence Young Girls Today?” by Kathryn Perez

“I have grown up in a town whose history and reputation centers around its two correctional facilities…” by Marissa Brannick

“For many students, the recital of the Pledge of Allegiance …” by Ai Hue N.

“Prisoner Education: Thinking of the Future” by Madeleine C. TAP

“Avonte’s Law” by Sanaz H.

“Ignoring the Intolerable: The Rape Epidemic on Indian Reservations” by Gillian W.

“The irrationality of the Chinese government to block websites” by Lisa Q. (BHSFIC)

Honorable Mentions

“Success of an Arts Education” by Jessie F

“School Web Filters Block Improvements in Students’ Education” by Lilian T.

“So uhm like the problem with the uhm English language…” by Kelsey S

“Why Ukraine Should Not Associate With The E.U.” by Maxim Meleganich

“Saying ‘No’ Is Not Reverse Psychology” by Gabrielle S.

“Ban Bloomberg’s Ban” by Kira N

“The Murky Ethics of Athletic Prosthetics” by Hannah Llorin

“The Women Left Behind” by Chapel P.

“Is a Longer School Calendar Beneficial?” by Kallie20143

“Is Graffiti Really Art?” by Sydonne’ B.

“Education 2.0″ by Kevin C., NPHS

“Like, Speak Before You Think?” by Jeffrey S.

“Is Installing Artificial Turf a Good Idea?” by Victoria T., Judson S HHK7Q

“Picky and Deprived” by Kai Krajeck

“If we don’t talk to teenagers about sex, teenagers won’t have sex. Right?” by Isabel B.

“It Can Wait” by Maisie Cook

“The ‘Age of Consent’ Should Not Just Be An Age” by Bronwyn M.

“Imagine hearing someone had been robbed …” by Laine B.

“Applying to college, in numbers” by Nikki T.

“Network TV suffers ‘Two and a Half Men’ syndrome” by Kathryn T.

“Redefining Courage” by Chantelle L.

“Generation-Why” by Nora G.

Note: Here’s how to get your full name posted .

Thank you, again, students, and thank you teachers … and stay tuned: Our Found Poetry Contest ends April 29, after which we’ll be announcing the details of this year’s Summer Reading Contest.

And keep your pencils sharpened and your newspapers open, because we hope to run this contest again next year — though this time we’ll be prepared for the volume.

Judges: Rory O’Connor and Dean Miller from the Center for News Literacy; Shannon Doyne, Amanda Christy Brown, Annissa Hambouz, Daniel Slotnik, Michael Gonchar and Katherine Schulten from The Learning Network.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

Shannon Webskowski Regan Skoogman The Perfect Body

“Girls of all kinds can be beautiful – from the thin, plus-sized, short, very tall, ebony to porcelain-skinned; the quirky, clumsy, shy, outgoing and all in between. It’s not easy though because many people still put beauty into a confining, narrow box…Think outside of the box…Pledge that you will look in the mirror and find the unique beauty in you.” -Tyra Banks Society tells us that we are either too thin or too fat, we seek perfection, when in reality we are striving for something that is non-existent. Nobody is perfect, we all have individual flaws that make us who we are. No matter how many hours we spend running, crying, and purchasing the latest beauty products we will never meet the media’s standards of having the ideal body type. Strive to embrace individuality.

Just because someone is thin, does not automatically mean they have an eating disorder. Some people are born thin, no matter what they eat there is always a struggle to gain weight. When people tell thin people to “go eat a cheeseburger”or “ you look anorexic”, it hurts just as much as if someone called an overweight person fat. Nicknames like bag of bones or a twig are cruel and can destroy one’s self-confidence. In an article called “Why Do People Find It So Unbelievable That I’m Naturally Skinny?”, is about a girl named Anna who also is thin. People at school gave her a nickname, which was “Anna- rexia”. Names like these are what can push someone over the edge and sometimes take a life. It is rude to point out someone’s flaws no matter what they are. There will always be a cruel person who tears you down, but that is also the time to get back up and tell them they are wrong. Media plays a big role in how people see themselves compared to others. For example, in the Victoria’s Secret commercials you see women with amazing bodies and every girl wants to be just like them. The reason is because these women are pretty and skinny which is what people like to see. According to a New York Times article called “Be Yourself, Music Videos Tell the Young”. In the article there is a song that talks about being who you are and not changing anything about you. This song is called “All About That Bass,” by Meghan Trainor. She brags about not being thin: “Yeah, it’s pretty clear, I ain’t no Size 2. But I can shake it, shake it, like I’m supposed to do.” She is saying that you should be proud of your body size. No matter what the media says it will always tell you that your body is not good enough, you shouldn’t try to lose or gain weight unless it is what you truly want for yourself. How you keep your body is a personal choice, and you shouldn’t be ashamed. No matter what size you are you should be proud of who you are and embrace your true beauty. Bibliography

Bernstein, Jacob. “Be Yourself, Music Videos Tell the Young.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Aug. 2014. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.

“Why Do People Find It So Unbelievable That I’m Naturally Skinny?” Thought Catalog. N.p., 02 Mar. 2014. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.

“5 Reasons Why We Need to Stop Thinking of Skinny-Shaming as ‘Reverse Discrimination'” Everyday Feminism. N.p., 21 Oct. 2014. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.

“30 Inspirational Body Confidence Quotes From Women Who Know What They’re Talking About.” Marie Claire. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2015.

Do the Negative Impacts of Social Media Outweigh Any Positive Effects? Most people often spend free-time looking at their social media. The two of us often find ourselves wasting an hour or two looking at people’s posts on Facebook, or pictures on Instagram. Recently, while scrolling through Facebook posts we came across an article that seemed interesting, although we now can’t recall what the article was about. After reading the wordy article we found ourselves wondering why we had just spent our time reading it. The article wasn’t exactly informative, or particularly funny or even that well-written. In fact we hardly cared about it at all. This wasn’t the first time something like this has happened. It was,however, the first time both of us realized we didn’t care about all of the things we spend excessive amounts of time obsessing over on social media. Now, that might make us sound a little insensitive, but a lot of the things we see on social media are things we really don’t care about at all and are wasting so much of our time on. Just wasting a lot of time isn’t much to be concerned about though, after all there are many ways to waste time without social media sites. When we looked into the subject a little more, we found that there are many more negative effects-besides wasting time- than there are positive outcomes. Studies have concluded that there are numerous ways social media can affect someone’s health. According to Karen Frazier, a public relations specialist, hyper-networking often associates with depression, substance abuse, poor academic performance and sometimes even suicide. Most people don’t realize that their excessive social networking can affect their health in this way. Not only does your health suffer, but it can also lead to increased isolation. People would rather be going through their social media pages than interacting and having conversations with others in-person. Little do they know, this lack of social interaction could lead to depression, anxiety, stress, and other mental issues. A senior partner at a Boston law firm talked about the atmosphere in his workplace: “Young associates lay out their suite of technologies: laptops, iPods and multiple phones” (Turkle). Even in the professional environment at a law firm, everyone is constantly connected to the cyberspace world. This puts into perspective how much time people are actually spending on social media, and how common it may become to damage your health through the excessive amount of time being spent online.

Works Cited:

Fraizer, Karen. “Negative Impact of Social Networking Sites.” LoveToKnow. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

Turkle, Sherry. “The Flight From Conversation.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.

Rights are what we are given at birth, and rights are what should be protected. Dying with dignity should be one of these rights. Think about anyone you know who has suffered or is suffering from a terminal illness. Some of these sufferers are given likely chances of survival, but what happens to the ones that are not given these odds? Should they suffer and receive treatment for years, just to die? Should these people who know their fate, go through surgeries upon surgeries, just to die? Or should they live out the remainder of their life with their family, instead of being cooped up in a cold hospital? I think we all know what would be best for our family if death is inevitable. Death with Dignity provides people with an option, instead of being forced into a hospital bed. It gives families a chance to come together in unison and support their loved ones.

Death with dignity should be a fallback that we all have the option to chose. This is a controversial issue that we are faced with today. Many people are opposed to the premise of an individual having the right to take their own life, but why should others have a say in how a terminally ill person spends there fleeting time?

There are many situations where assisted death is necessary and warranted. We should take the strides necessary to bring awareness to this issue, and mandate laws that correspond. Brittany Maynard is an example of someone who found this as an option. She has become the face of death with dignity due to the angsts brought upon her and her family. Brittany was a 29 year old newlywed, diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She was given a short six months to live and there wouldn’t be a treatment to save her. The only recommended treatments would, “destroy the time she had left.” As a result, she chose a route unorthodox to many. This was to end her own life when her condition became unbearable. Brittany found it ridiculous that she couldn’t live out the last months of her life, “comfortably in her own home.”

This has been a growing debate among our country due to the moral stance that we are faced with. Death is something that is inevitable, but happens differently for everyone. We are now called on to decide whether or not we, as individuals, have the right to choose to die on our own terms. We should all have this option if the suffering is too extreme to manage or if we are put into a situation parallel to Brittany’s. Today, as more of us start to understand this issue, we are coming to terms as seeing death with dignity as a moral right.

//www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/us/brittany-maynard-death-with-dignity-ally-dies-at-29.html?_r=0

Slotnik, Daniel E. “Brittany Maynard, ‘Death With Dignity’ Ally, Dies at 29.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Nov. 2014. Web. 03 Mar. 2015. View in list Edit

//www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0201-byock-physician-assisted-suicide-20150201-story.html#page=1

Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

Billy Bisset & Joe Basile Ms. Lorenzo AP Language 11 2/26/15

Cereal Killers, Sociopaths, and Children

What do soldiers, aliens, hunters, and even plumbers have in common? They are all the basis of video games that people like me, the average American youth, plays everyday. These games provide hours upon days of entertainment, develop skills that influence everyday life, and connect us with friends, but at what cost?

With the malleability of children’s minds combined with the addictive personalities of our youth, it is all than inevitable that this generation will develop differently than that of yesteryear.

Video games today are inherently more violent. When I was young I played Mario brothers and Donkey Kong, but now children are playing games in which the objective is to murder other people, most often with firearms and explosives. But, do these games have psychological effects, do they change how a person thinks and acts, and ultimately will it make them a more violent person?

Video games have gained this targeted scrutiny since the late 90s in connection with the School shooting at Columbine, In which two students that had played a popular video game with extreme violence in the past, attacked their school and killed 13 other students and injured many more. Since then whenever a young person has acted violently or hurt anyone the immediate reproach set fourth by the General public is ” Well he must played to many video games” or ” If he didn’t play this darn Video games this wouldn’t of happened” However I believe that this is simply just not the case.

Studies have shown that ” The links between video games and violence has suggested that it is the difficulty of the game and not its content that leads to players feeling aggressive.” This leads to the crux of my argument, myself, I have spent hours playing Games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto and have never felt nor thought of being violent yet I have also played a fair share of extraordinarily difficult games and this on the other hand infuriates me, often causing me to lash out in fits of rage. The fact is that “The relationship between television viewing and negative outcomes may be more complicated” than we we think.

It is evident that with destructively graphic games we may become uncensored to the most violent of acts at a young age and being exposed to these things causes us to know more. Violence is something that yo can either be born with or developed, and at a young age we must filter the things our children see.

“Videos Games and Violence.” The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.

Carey, Benedict. “Shooting in the Dark.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Feb. 2013. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

How Personalized Can Learning Become?

As the modern world advances both technologically and intellectually, a greater emphasis on personalized learning throughout the education system has emerged. Because of this movement, a new question has arisen: how personalized can learning become? We, the authors, define authentic personalized learning as students taking specific classes that are tailored to their skills and strengths, however the exact definition of “personalized learning” is often disputed. Sean Cavanagh from edweek.org states in an article about personalized learning that, “the term ‘personalized learning’ seems to be everywhere, though there is not yet a shared understanding of what it means.” This leaves some room for breadth within specific school districts to decide how personalized they can make their curriculum, however, norms have been set within the education system that are not so easy to disengage from traditional learning. Requirements set by colleges and high schools make pure personalized learning an unrealistic goal. With a myriad of different academic requirements for top tier colleges and universities, it makes it very difficult for students to excel in one particular area of study during junior and senior high school. These various requirements are demonstrated when applying to the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities. On their website, they state that one needs four years of mathematics, four years of English, three years of science, three years of social studies, two years of a second language, and a year of visual/performing arts classes to attend their school. This makes it increasingly difficult for a student who excels at performing arts to get into this university due to the fact that it requires other classes in addition and only one year of performing arts. Many high schools also require a plethora of different classes in order to graduate. These factors make truly personalized learning almost impossible to achieve. That said, personalization within a specific field of study is prominent throughout the United States. Online education programs, such as Khan Academy, are making personalized learning more accessible. Khan Academy is an online self-pacing math tutoring site created by Salman Khan, an Ivy-League graduate. Somini Sengupta of the New York Times stated in an article that, “Now he [Khan] wants to weave those digital lessons into the fabric of the school curriculum- a more ambitious and as yet untested proposition.” Khan’s website has helped students all around the nation learn math at their own pace. This evidence proves that it is possible to have personalized learning within a specific field, in this case math. However, it also shows that true, unadulterated personalized learning is unfeasible when taking into account the requirements of colleges and high schools across the nation.

Works Cited: //admissions.tc.umn.edu/admissioninfo/fresh_overview.html //www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/10/22/09pl-overview.h34.html //www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/technology/khan-academy-blends-its-youtube-approach-with-classrooms.html?pagewanted=all

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New York Times' Student Editorial Contest - 7 Tips to Help You Win

“You can make anything by writing,” goes the quote by C.S. Lewis, and the prolific author, wasn't wrong! 

Your words, if crafted clearly, can shape opinions, change minds, uncover the truth, and much more. 

If you’re a high school student with a passion for writing concise and persuasive arguments, then you should consider applying for the New York Times’ Annual Student Editorial Contest ,  which invites students from across the U.S. to send in their best writing on topics they’re passionate about.

Argumentative writing is a critical skill you need to excel in college, and winning competitive essay competitions is a great way to showcase your clarity of thought, ability to build cohesive arguments, and write concisely.

What is the Student Editorial Contest all about?

Now in its 11th year, NYT launched the contest to encourage students to write convincing evidence-backed opinion essays on topics they are passionate about — LGBTQ+ rights, school shootings, Black Lives Matter, anti-Asian hate, memes, art repatriation, video game culture, and pineapple on pizza, to name a few — in 450 words or less. The key here is to choose a topic you care deeply about and convince readers that they should care too. 

Who can apply for the contest?

All middle school and high school students around the world aged 13-19 can apply for the contest.  You can apply even if you’re in a gap year but must not be enrolled in a college at the time of application. Students attending their first year of a two-year CEGEP in Quebec Province, Canada, can also apply.

Note:  you are ineligible if you are the child or stepchild of an NYT employee or if you live in the same household as an NYT employee.  

What do the contest winners get?

Winning essays will be published on the NYT’s Learning Network , an online resource for teaching and learning. There is no financial award.

Is the contest prestigious?

The Student Editorial Contest is highly selective and prestigious. While there is no financial award, NYT receives thousands of entries every year and selects only a handful of winners. In 2023, the paper received 12,592 submissions and selected 11 winners. That means 0.09% of all submissions won! 

What are the rules of the contest?

Your editorial submission must meet the following requirements:

1. Be 450 words or less  

This word limit does not include the title and your reference list.

2. Submit original writing  

You cannot submit an essay published in a school newspaper or elsewhere.

3. Cite your sources

You must use at least one NYT article source and another external source.

4. You must be the author of your own work  

While other people (teachers. parents, etc) may review your work, your final submission must reflect your own ideas in your voice.

How will your submission be judged?

NYT journalists, Learning Network staff members, and educators from across the U.S. judge the essays and pick the winners. This is done based on the following criteria:

1. Viewpoint

Your essay has a clear argument and provides an evidence-based call to action for a cause.

2. Evidence

Your essay cites reliable sources and uses compelling evidence to support your argument

3. Analysis and persuasion

Your essay argues a particular point of view by providing historical context, acknowledging counter-arguments, using examples, and developing claims. 

4. Language

Your essay uses the correct grammar and punctuation and is free from errors. Additionally, it uses a language and style appropriate for an editorial and is an engaging read

5. Guidelines

Your essay follows all the contest rules, including citing and least one NYT and one non-NYT source

When is the submission deadline?

Tentatively, submissions for the 2024 contest will open from March 15 to April 19, 2024. 

What did previous winners write about?

Previous years’ winners have written compelling essays on the joys of multigenerational living , the cultural insensitivity of “voluntourism,” ,   navigating life with an incarcerated parent , the importance of student journalism , stigma and shame young girls feel when they get their period , and many more. You can find a list of the 2023 winning and runner-up essays here , and the 2022 essays here .  

Without further ado, here are 7 tips to help you win the contest!

1. Think of a relevant topic, especially one you can connect with personally

You only have 450 words to make your case, so choose a topic you have the strongest connection with. NYT says that the best writing they see is from students who are personally attached to the subject matter. For example, Ketong Li wrote about the ethical problems with voluntourism after traveling to Myanmar, while Lucas Cohen-d’Arbeloff wrote  about the impact of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill based on the experiences of his two dads.

2. Find a good reviewer to give you constructive feedback on your draft

While the idea and writing must be your own, NYT acknowledges that editorial writing is a collaborative process in newsrooms, with staff coming together to shape an argument. Thus, it's important you have a mentor, ideally, someone with editorial experience, who can help you make more sense of your thoughts, help you think critically, and finally craft an effective argument.

3. Break out of your “filter bubble”

NYT encourages you to include a diversity of opinions in your essay, addressing their merits and finally making your own independent argument. Additionally, NYT pays special attention to your citations: you must use at least one NYT article as a source and one or more from other reliable publications when presenting differing arguments. 

4. Make good use of the NYT’s resources

The NYT has a trove of resources to help you ace the contest, including a step-by-step lesson plan on argumentative writing ,  a webinar on teaching argumentative writing , and NYT columnists have videos explaining how to write editorials .  

5. Learn from previous winners

You will gain a deeper understanding of the kind  of editorials NYT looks for by reviewing previous years’ winning submissions . Additionally, two winners of the 2020 contest have annotated essays explaining how they crafted their winning writing:  Ananya Udaygiri on “How Animal Crossing Will Save the World”  and Abel John on “Collar the Cat!”  Ananya and Abel have also recorded videos with advice on choosing a topic  and how to cite evidence in your submission .

6. Keep your audience in mind

Remember, you’re writing for NYT readers. To that end, your tone and writing style should reflect the NYT’s editorial voice. You would learn a lot by reading and analyzing the NYT’s daily editorials! 

7. Practice, practice, and practice

Few people are gifted writers, and fewer still can make their point in 450 words! We highly recommend that you simulate the contest by choosing different prompts and writing editorials, and then incorporate any feedback that you receive. NYT has a list of prompts  use can use to practice.

Our final verdict — what do we think of the contest?

The Student Editorial Contest is highly competitive and being one of the winners would add significant prestige to your college application.  It would also go a long way in helping you get into a top journalism school. We like that the competition is global and there are no financial barriers to entry (the contest is free!). The contest is thought-provoking and seeks unique perspectives on issues part of our lives. Even if you don’t win, you will gain a lot of important experience in argumentative writing which would certainly help you in university!

Bonus — the Lumiere Research Scholar Program

If you are interested in doing university-level research in literature, media, and journalism, then you could also consider applying to the Lumiere Research Scholar Program , a selective online high school program for students founded with researchers at Harvard and Oxford. Last year, over 4000 students applied for 500 spots in the program! You can find the application form   here.

Also check out the   Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation , a non-profit research program for talented, low-income students.

Kieran Lobo is a freelance writer from India, who currently teaches English in Spain.

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New York Times Students Editorial Contest

Competition Overview

Students ages 13 to 19 around the world, march 15 to april 19, 2023, 2 months after the contest has closed, competition details.

1. Introduction New York Times invited students to write short, evidence-based, persuasive essays through the New York Times Students Editorial Contest. Students can choose a topic of interest, then gather evidence from sources both within and outside The NY Times and write a concise editorial (450 words or fewer) to convince readers of their view. The Editorial should focus on a topic that matters to students, cite reliable sources that illustrate different perspectives, and persuade readers of the students’ opinions. Last year, the competition received a peak of 16,664 submissions came in, about 5,000 more than ever before.

2. Eligibility This contest is open to students ages 13 to 19 in middle school or high school worldwide (high school postgraduate students who haven’t enrolled in a college can apply). Students attending their first year of a two-year CEGEP in Quebec Province can also participate.  If students are directly related to New York Times employees or live in the same household as those employees are not eligible to enter this contest.

3. Results The results will be announced about two months after the contest has closed.

4. Prizes Having your work published on The Learning Network and being eligible to have your work published in the print New York Times.

How Will Your Work Be Judged?

The submission states a clear opinion and issues a call to action through an evidence-based argument.

Submission uses compelling evidence to support the opinion, and cites reliable sources.

Submission convincingly argues point of view by providing relevant background information, using valid examples, acknowledging counter-claims, and developing claims – in a clear and organized fashion.

Submission has a strong voice and engages the reader with language, style, and tone appropriate to its purpose and features correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. 

Submission follows all contest guidelines, including the citation of at least one Times and one non-Times source. 

• Student Awards

Submission Details

All entries must be submitted by April 19, 2023 at 11:59pm

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For this contest, we invite you to write a personal narrative of your own about a meaningful life experience. We’re not asking you to write to a particular theme or to use a specific structure or style, but we are looking for short, powerful stories about a particular moment or event in your life. We want to hear your story, told in your unique voice, and we hope you’ll experiment with style and form to tell a tale that matters to you, in a way you enjoy telling it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/learning/our-3rd-annual-personal-narrative-writing-contest.html

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Guest Essay

Europe Is About to Drown in the River of the Radical Right

Ms. Ypi, a professor of political theory at the London School of Economics, wrote from London.

Europe is awash with worry. Ahead of parliamentary elections widely expected to deliver gains to the hard right, European leaders can barely conceal their anxiety. In a speech in late April, President Emmanuel Macron of France captured the prevailing mood. After eloquently warning of threats to the continent, he pronounced the need for a newly powerful Europe, a “Europe puissance.”

As I watched the speech , I was reminded of Niccolò Machiavelli’s comments in the opening pages of “The Prince,” his seminal 16th-century treatise on political power. In a dedication to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the ruler of the Florentine Republic, Machiavelli suggested that politics is in many ways like art. Just as landscape painters imaginatively place themselves in the plains to examine the mountains and on top of mountains to study the plains, so too should rulers inhabit their domains. “To know the nature of the people well, one must be a prince,” Machiavelli wrote, “and to know the nature of princes well, one must be of the people.”

Here was a politician grappling with the first part of Machiavelli’s sentence, an officeholder trying to comprehend the lay of the land. What is power in contemporary Europe, and how should it be exercised by the European Union? Mr. Macron answered in princely fashion, showing awareness of both the finite nature of every political community — Europe is “mortal,” he said — and its cyclical vulnerability to crisis. He concluded with a passionate defense of European “civilization” and urged the creation of a paradigm to revive it.

Yet for all his aspirations, Mr. Macron neglected the second half of Machiavelli’s sentence: that people also form views on their rulers, which rulers ignore at their peril. Mr. Macron brushed aside the many Europeans who feel the bloc is aloof and inaccessible, describing their disenchantment as a result of “false arguments.” The dismissal was no aberration. For decades, the leaders of the European Union have overlooked the people in the plains, shutting out the continent’s citizens from any meaningful political participation. This exclusion has changed the contours of the European landscape, paving the way for the radical right.

When Machiavelli reflected on the crises of his time — among them conflicts between major European powers, discontent with public officials and the collapsing legitimacy of the Roman Catholic Church — he turned to the Roman Republic for inspiration. When there is skepticism about values, he wrote, history is our only remaining guide. The secret to Roman freedom, he explained in the “Discourses on Livy,” was neither its good fortune nor its military might. Instead, it lay in the Romans’ ability to mediate the conflict between wealthy elites and the vast majority of people — or as he put it, “i grandi” (the great) and “il popolo” (the people).

While the inherent tendency of the great, Machiavelli argued, is to accumulate wealth and power to rule the rest, the inherent desire of the people is to avoid being at the elites’ mercy. The clash between the groups generally pulled polities in opposite directions. Yet the Roman Republic had institutions, like the tribunate of the plebs, that sought to empower the people and contain the elites. Only by channeling rather than suppressing this conflict, Machiavelli said, could civic freedom be preserved.

Europe has not heeded his advice. For all its democratic rhetoric, the European Union is closer to an oligarchic institution. Overseen by an unelected body of technocrats in the European Commission, the bloc allows for no popular consultation on policy, let alone participation. Its fiscal rules, which impose strict limits on the budgets of member states, offer protection for the rich while imposing austerity on the poor. From top to bottom, Europe is dominated by the interests of the wealthy few, who restrict the freedom of the many.

Its predicament, of course, is not unique. Businesses, financial institutions, credit rating agencies and powerful interest groups call the shots everywhere, severely constraining the power of politicians. The European Union is far from the worst offender. Still, in nation-states, the semblance of democratic participation can be sustained through allegiance to a shared constitution. In the European Union, whose founding myth is the free market, the case is much harder to make.

The transnational character of the bloc is often supposed to be behind Europeans’ dislike of it. Yet those who resist the current European Union do not do so because it is too cosmopolitan. Very simply, and not unreasonably, they resist it because it fails to represent them. The Parliament for which Europeans will be voting next month, to take one glaring example of the bloc’s lack of democracy, has little legislative power of its own: It tends to merely rubber-stamp decisions made by the commission. It is this representative gap that is filled by the radical right, turning the problem into simple binaries — either you or them, the state or Europe, the white worker or the migrant.

It is perhaps surprising that the bloc’s democratic deficit has become a rallying cry for the radical right, but it explains much of its success. A recent poll , for example, showed that Europe’s citizens are much more concerned about poverty, jobs, living standards and climate change than they are about migration. This suggests that the appeal of the radical right lies less in its obsessive hostility to migrants than in its criticism of the bloc’s failures to address people’s everyday concerns. European politicians could seek to remedy that by changing institutions to improve citizens’ bargaining power and make them feel heard. Instead, they prefer to give stern lectures.

The radical right may be on the rise in Europe, but it does not have to be this way. Politics is always at the mercy of fortune. Yet fortune, as Machiavelli emphasized in “The Prince,” is like a river whose overflow can be prevented by building dikes and dams. If European politicians are increasingly trapped in emergency management, it’s because they have failed in the first task of politics worthy of the name: to diagnose the causes of crisis, to explain who is represented and who is excluded and to defend those whose freedom is endangered.

The politics of the people presented by the radical right may be narrowly ethnocentric, but it is the only one on offer that speaks directly to people’s disillusionment. Our modern princes may choose to look away. Yet as long as the radical right continues to dominate the terms of mainstream debate, while its historical roots are discreetly ignored, no appeal to European values will stop the river in which we’re all about to drown.

Lea Ypi ( @lea_ypi ) is a professor of political theory at the London School of Economics and the author of “Free: Coming of Age at the End of History.”

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