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Prepare to write your best.
Reading the rubric is half the battle; the other half is craft. These guides break down what each contest rewards, offer practical notes on narrative, argument and revision, and point you to the official past winners worth studying.
01 · Craft notes
What strong entries do.
- Narrative & memoir
- Pick one moment, not a whole year. Use concrete sensory detail, let a small image carry the meaning, and resist explaining the lesson — trust the reader to feel it.
- Opinion & the open letter
- Lead with a sharp, arguable claim. Support it with real evidence, name the strongest counter-argument and answer it, and address a specific reader. A clear voice beats a neutral one.
- Photo essays
- Sequence matters as much as any single frame. Shoot more than you need, then cut to the images that tell one story; write captions that add information, not just labels.
- Audio & podcast
- Write for the ear: short sentences, one idea at a time. Record clean audio, use natural sound to set a scene, and keep tightly to the time limit.
- Revision
- Finish a draft early, then read it aloud, cut ten percent, and check it against the rubric line by line. Most winning entries went through many drafts.
02 · Learn from winners
Study the real thing.
The single most useful preparation is reading the entries that won. The Learning Network publishes winning and honorable-mention work for each contest, along with the judges’ rubric and reflections. Read several in your contest, notice what they have in common, and reverse-engineer the choices the writer made.
We don’t republish those entries here — they belong to their authors and The Times — but our Winners page explains how judging works and links you to the official announcements so you can read them at the source.
A pre-submission checklist
- My entry answers the actual prompt and fits the rubric.
- It is within the exact word or time limit.
- Every source, image or clip is mine or properly credited.
- I read it aloud and cut what didn’t earn its place.
- At least one other reader gave me feedback before I submitted.
03 · The notes we give most often
The same handful of fixes, again and again.
Across hundreds of drafts, the advice that moves an entry from good to shortlisted is remarkably consistent. Cut the warm-up. Most first drafts spend the opening lines clearing their throat; the real beginning is usually a sentence or two in. Find it and start there.
Be specific, then more specific. “A difficult year” becomes “the year we packed the kitchen into eleven boxes.” Concrete detail is what readers remember and what judges reward; abstraction is what they skim. Show the thing, don’t announce it — let the reader feel the moment rather than being told how to feel about it.
Read it aloud. Your ear catches what your eye forgives: a clumsy clause, a repeated word, a sentence with no air in it. And land the ending — the last line is the one that stays with a judge, so make it earn its place rather than trailing off or over-explaining. None of this is mysterious; it is simply the work most entrants skip.
04 · A reading & practice plan
Get better between deadlines.
The students who place are almost always the ones who write when nothing is due. The simplest practice is a running notebook: one small, true observation a day — something you saw, overheard or felt. By the time the memoir contest opens, you will have months of raw material instead of a blank page.
Read like a writer, too. Each week, read one published winner in the contest you are aiming for and ask a single question: what choice did this writer make that I wouldn’t have? Read opinion pieces for how an argument is built, photo essays for how images are sequenced, and short audio stories for how sound sets a scene. The official Learning Network publishes all of these, and our Winners page links you straight to them.
Finally, treat the year-round features as a gym: respond to the weekly Current Events Conversation or What’s Going On in This Picture? prompt even when you are not entering a contest. Low stakes, a real audience, and steady repetition — that is how the writing actually improves.
05 · Form by form, in depth
What each form really asks of you.
Personal narrative & memoir. Resist the urge to summarise a whole period of your life; choose one moment and slow it down. Anchor it in physical, specific detail — what you saw, heard, held — and let the meaning surface through the scene rather than a closing line that explains the lesson. The strongest memoirs trust the reader to feel it.
Opinion & the open letter. Lead with a claim someone could reasonably disagree with, then address it to a specific reader who could actually act on it. Bring real evidence, name the strongest objection and answer it, and keep your own voice in the prose. A letter that could have been written by anyone persuades no one.
Photo essay. Treat the sequence as the argument: the order of images should build, not just collect. Shoot far more than you need, then cut to the frames that carry the story, and write captions that add information a viewer can’t see. A consistent visual logic — light, distance, subject — is what ties the set together.
Audio & podcast. Write for the ear: short sentences, one idea at a time, a clear hook in the first fifteen seconds. Real tape — an interview, ambient sound, a voice that isn’t yours — almost always beats straight narration. Plan a shape (open, turn, land) and respect the time limit; concision is part of the craft.
The review (My List). Here the grouping is the thesis — the connection between your three to five picks is what makes the list yours. Be specific about why each one belongs, write with a point of view rather than a star rating, and make clear who the list is for. Enthusiasm is welcome; vagueness is not.
06 · Coaching
One-to-one writing coaching.
If you want guided help, our experienced mentors work with students one-to-one — choosing a contest, planning a piece, and revising drafts against the official rubric before the deadline. It is optional, and entirely separate from the free contests themselves.
