Our 10th Annual Student Editorial Contest

What makes you mad?
What would you like to see change?
What do you wish more people understood?

Over the last nine years, tens of thousands of teenagers from around the world have answered these questions in the form of short opinion essays submitted to our annual spring Editorial Contest.

They’ve made compelling arguments on issues big and small, from anti-Asian hate, climate change, stolen art, endangered languages, school shootings and Black Lives Matter, to snow days, video game culture, memes, and why pineapple pizza deserves more respect.

The best of them — our annual winners — not only ground their claims in strong evidence, but also engage us with voice and style.

Now we’re inviting you to do the same. Make an argument in 450 words or fewer about something that matters to you, and persuade us that we should care, too.

Take a look at the full guidelines and related resources below. And consider hanging this PDF one-page announcement on your class bulletin board. Please post any questions to the comments here, or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.

Please read these rules carefully before submitting an entry. You can find more details in the Frequently Asked Questions section below.

1. Choose a topic you care about, and make an argument that will persuade readers to care about that topic, too.

Start by choosing something you are genuinely interested in. We’ve been running student writing contests for over a decade, and one thing we know for sure is that the best writing is inspired by students’ real interests and experiences. You might start by asking yourself the three questions at the top of this post and brainstorming a few answers.

You might also think about what topics you are an authority on, no matter how small. Take some 2022 winners, for example. Maybe, like Lucas Cohen-d’Arbeloff, you’re concerned about what the “Don’t Say Gay” bill means for same-sex parents and their children. Or maybe, like Ketong Li, you feel guilty about participating in “voluntourism” and would like to see a change. Or, like Aria Capelli, you want to spread the joys of multigenerational living.

2. Your editorial must not exceed 450 words, so make sure your argument is focused enough that you can still make a strong case.

Let’s say you choose to write about college admissions. While it might be possible to write an essay for this contest that would upend the entire admissions system as we know it, 450 words are probably far too few to take on everything that’s problematic about the process. Instead, try carving out a smaller claim, the way Erin Tan did in 2020 when she focused on how changes wrought by the pandemic could impact college admissions forever. In other words, make a claim that you have room to defend so that you can focus on the logic of your argument.

(Please note: Your title and list of sources are separate and do not count as part of your 450-word limit.)

3. Research and gather evidence to bolster your argument, using at least one source published in The New York Times and at least one source from outside The Times.

At a time when breaking out of one’s “filter bubble” is more important than ever, we hope this contest encourages you to deepen your opinions by using multiple sources, ideally ones that offer a range of perspectives on your chosen issue. Just make sure those sources are reliable ones.

There is no limit on the number of sources you can use, but we ask that you cite at least one Times article and at least one article from outside The Times. There is a dedicated field in the submission form to cite a number of sources, because readers (and judges) should always be able to tell where you got your evidence. (You do not need to provide in-text citations.)

Please be very careful to put quotations around any direct quotes you use, and to cite the source of anything you paraphrase. If we put a sentence from your submission into a search engine, we don’t want to find it anywhere else — unless you’re clearly quoting or citing that source. We take evidence and allegations of plagiarism very seriously.

4. You can write your editorial by yourself or with a group, but please submit only one editorial per student.

Because editorial writing at newspapers is a collaborative process, you can write your entry as a team or by yourself — though, please, only one submission per student.

If you are working as a team, just remember to submit all of your names when you post your entry. And if you’re submitting as part of a team, you should not also submit as an individual.

5. We will use this rubric to judge your work, but the best way to get a feel for what we’re looking for is to read a few essays by previous winners.

We believe in using student work as mentor texts, so much so that we’ve published a book — and teacher’s guide — with 100 award-winning essays drawn from this contest.

But you don’t have to buy the book to see many examples; just skim through this column of recent winners and choose some that interest you. As you go, ask yourself: What ideas does this give me for my own work? What do I admire? What “writer’s moves” did this student use that I might try to use to make my own piece stronger?

6. We have a new required field this year about your research and writing process.

While our judges will NOT use what you write in this section to select finalists, we’d love some insight into how you decided what to write about, as well as how you researched and composed.

7. You must be a student ages 13 to 19 in middle school or high school to participate.

All students must have parent or guardian permission to enter. Please see the F.A.Q. section for additional eligibility details.

8. Your essay should be original for this contest.

It should not already be published at the time of submission, whether in a school newspaper, for another contest or anywhere else. The work should be fundamentally your own — it should not be plagiarized, written by someone else or generated by A.I.

9. The work you send in should be appropriate for a Times audience.

That is, something that could be published in a family newspaper (so, please, no curse words).

10. All entries must be submitted by April 12, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific using the submission form at the bottom of this post.

We provide a small window of time after that deadline to allow for technical difficulties. However, we will not judge late entries.

Please read through all the guidelines before submitting your editorial. If you have questions, please see the F.A.Q. section below.

Resources for Teachers and Students

As teachers know, the persuasive essay has long been a staple of high school education, but the Common Core standards seem to have put evidence-based argumentative writing on everybody’s agenda. You couldn’t ask for a more real-world example of the genre than the essays published in newspaper opinion sections every day, and The Times publishes a bounty of them.

Beyond that daily section, however, we have many more resources to help teachers and students plan for this contest:

• An argumentative writing unit: This step-by-step unit plan includes writing prompts, lesson plans, ideas from teachers and on-demand webinars to help you teach and learn with New York Times editorials. Our video webinar “Teaching Argumentative Writing” walks you through how to use this resource.

• Writing prompts: Our daily Student Opinion feature is a low-stakes opportunity to practice honing arguments for an audience. You can find all of our argumentative prompts here as they publish. Anyone 13 to 19 years old is welcome to post on any question past or present.

  We also have two curated collections: 401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing and 300 Questions and Images to Inspire Argument Writing.

• Advice from Times columnists: Watch a three-minute video on how to write an editorial from Andy Rosenthal, the former editor of the Times Opinion page.

  Read an annotated editorial from Nicholas Kristof, a Times Opinion columnist, and watch this webinar in which he shares a wealth of practical writing tips.

  Or participate in this on-demand classroom workshop with Mara Gay, a member of the New York Times editorial board, where she and Learning Network editors guide students through prompts designed to inspire their own argumentative pieces.

• Tips from teenage writers: You can find the work of our Student Editorial Contest winners from 2017-2022 here.

  To go even deeper into the writing process, read annotated essays from two winners of our 2020 contest: Ananya Udaygiri on “How Animal Crossing Will Save the World” and Abel John on “Collar the Cat!” These resources also include videos in which Ananya gives advice for choosing a topic and Abel tells us how to cite evidence effectively.

  Finally, check out the video above, which has even more advice from past student winners for entering this contest.

• Lesson plans and ideas from teachers: Our lesson plan “10 Ways to Teach Argument-Writing With The New York Times” links to many more resources relevant to this contest, including ideas from educators who teach with it annually.

  We also have a more recent roundup of ideas from 17 teachers and students for ways to use the “authentic, powerful and unafraid” essays of previous student winners as mentor texts.

• A book: Our book “Student Voice” collects 100 of the best student essays from this contest all in one place, categorized by subjects like “Teenage Life Online,” “Gender and Sexuality” and “Sports and Gaming.” There is also a related teacher’s guide.

• Our contest rubric: These are the criteria we will use to judge this contest. Keep this rubric handy to make sure your piece meets all of the qualifications before entering.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are answers to your questions about judging, the rules and teaching with this contest. Please read these thoroughly and, if you still can’t find what you’re looking for, post your query in the comments or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.

QUESTIONS ABOUT JUDGING

How will my editorial be judged?

Your work will be read by New York Times journalists, as well as by Learning Network staff members and educators from around the United States. We will use this rubric to judge entries.

What’s the “prize”?

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

When will the winners be announced?

About two months after the contest has closed.

My essay wasn’t selected as a winner. Can you tell me why?

We receive thousands of entries for this contest, so unfortunately, our team does not have the capacity to provide individual feedback on each student’s essay.

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QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RULES

Who is eligible to participate in this contest?

This contest is open to students ages 13 to 19 who are in middle school or high school around the world. College students cannot submit an entry. However, high school students (including high school postgraduate students) who are taking one or more college classes can participate. Students attending their first year of a two-year CEGEP in Quebec Province can also participate. In addition, students age 19 or under who have completed high school but are taking a gap year or are otherwise not enrolled in college can participate.

The children and stepchildren of New York Times employees are not eligible to enter this contest. Nor are students who live in the same household as those employees.

Can I have someone else check my work?

We understand that students will often revise their work based on feedback from teachers and peers. That is allowed for this contest. However, be sure that the final submission reflects the ideas, voice and writing ability of the student, not someone else.

Do I need a Works Cited page?

Yes. We provide you with a separate field to list the sources you used to write your essay. You’re allowed to format your list however you want; we will not judge your entry based on formatting in this section. Internal citations are not necessary.

My essay has already been published in my school newspaper. Can I submit it to this contest?

No. We ask that your editorial be original for this contest. Please don’t submit anything you have already published at the time of submission, whether in a school newspaper, for another contest or anywhere else.

Who can I contact if I have questions about this contest or am having issues submitting my entry?

Leave a comment on this post or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.

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QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING WITH THIS CONTEST

I’m a teacher. What resources do you have to help me teach with this contest?

Here is our full unit on teaching argumentative writing. It includes writing prompts, mentor texts and lesson plans that can support this contest.

Do my students need a New York Times subscription to access these resources?

No. All of the resources on The Learning Network are free.

If your students don’t have a subscription to The New York Times, they can also get access to Times pieces through The Learning Network. All the activities for students on our site, including mentor texts and writing prompts, plus the Times articles they link to, are free. Students can search for articles using the search tool on our home page.

How to Submit

This contest begins on March 15, 2023. We will add the submission form below on the day the contest opens.

Please note: Students 13 to 19 years old are invited to enter. Students who are 13 and older in the United States or the United Kingdom, or 16 and older elsewhere in the world, can submit their own entries. Those who are 13 to 15 and live outside the United States or the United Kingdom must have an adult submit on their behalf.

All students must have a parent or guardian complete the Parent/Guardian Permission section before submitting.

For this contest there is no bulk-submission option.

Our system does not send a confirmation email. If you saw the message “Thank you for your submission” when you entered, that means we received your essay.