worth doing an essay competition

8

I have a history related topic that I am interested in doing some further research into, this would be relevant to my alevel history course and something I could talk about on my personal statement. However, I have never written an academic essay like this before, and I am aware that history/english coursework is about to hit me. I was thinking of doing either the Julia Woods essay competition or the Historical Association local history one (if anyone knows what kind of thing they expect for the latter please let me know!)

thanks :smile:

Reply 1

actual-clam

3

Hi, I didn't study history, however I did enter the John Locke essay competition around this time last year for Psychology. Personally I found it really helpful to to put on my personal statement, as I could relate it to so much and I didn't do loads of other super curriculars. The point of the personal statement is to display your interest in the subject, so for you since its a topic your already interested in, it can be a good example. for me I kind of learnt how to properly write an academic essay through the process. I looked at past winners examples which was really helpful especially in how I could structure it and with the referencing system etc. Honestly its completely up to you and if you think the pros outweigh the cons. sorry I couldn't be more help on the history side of stuff, but I hope everything goes well :smile:

Reply 2

sunshine_child

OP

8

Original post

by actual-clam

Hi, I didn't study history, however I did enter the John Locke essay competition around this time last year for Psychology. Personally I found it really helpful to to put on my personal statement, as I could relate it to so much and I didn't do loads of other super curriculars. The point of the personal statement is to display your interest in the subject, so for you since its a topic your already interested in, it can be a good example. for me I kind of learnt how to properly write an academic essay through the process. I looked at past winners examples which was really helpful especially in how I could structure it and with the referencing system etc. Honestly its completely up to you and if you think the pros outweigh the cons. sorry I couldn't be more help on the history side of stuff, but I hope everything goes well :smile:

Thanks for the quick reply! do you have any resources you could recommend for getting started with academic essay writing? I'm a bit overwhelmed and don't know where to start :smile:

Reply 3

actual-clam

3

Original post

by sunshine_child

Thanks for the quick reply! do you have any resources you could recommend for getting started with academic essay writing? I'm a bit overwhelmed and don't know where to start :smile:

Okay, so I looked at past winners of the competition and just essays online to get an idea of how I could structure it, and how it was written, so i think it's worth having a look for some if you can. The essay was based on a pre-chosen question that the competition provided. So with that, I started a document and just bullet pointed the points I wanted to make based on what I've been taught and just other things that came to mind. I also organised them into introduction, conclusions, and subtopics that they fit into. And in for and against categories.

I then started looking for references to support them (I used the website 'mybib', for the references - also I had a quick look at how to reference properly because I hadn't fully been taught it). Then, as I was researching and reading articles, I came across other points to make. I kind of ended up with a basic essay with references integrated into it, then went in and started tweaking it to make it sound more academic. I also went to my teacher for some advice on the drafts i made, and that was super helpful.

Hopefully that's useful to some extent, I might watch some YouTube videos on it if your stuck, and if you can, ask a teacher. Again, sorry for the lack of info on history specifically. I hope everything goes well :smile:

(edited 3 weeks ago)

Reply 4

BernadetteAmber

11

Original post

by sunshine_child

I have a history related topic that I am interested in doing some further research into, this would be relevant to my alevel history course and something I could talk about on my personal statement. However, I have never written an academic essay like this before, and I am aware that history/english coursework is about to hit me. I was thinking of doing either the Julia Woods essay competition or the Historical Association local history one (if anyone knows what kind of thing they expect for the latter please let me know!)
thanks :smile:

what exactly are you doing

Reply 5

study23!

Study Forum Helper

16

Original post

by sunshine_child

I have a history related topic that I am interested in doing some further research into, this would be relevant to my alevel history course and something I could talk about on my personal statement. However, I have never written an academic essay like this before, and I am aware that history/english coursework is about to hit me. I was thinking of doing either the Julia Woods essay competition or the Historical Association local history one (if anyone knows what kind of thing they expect for the latter please let me know!)
thanks :smile:

I’d say have a go. You don’t need to commit until you send in the finished essay. So you can start it and if you think coursework and academics will be impaired by it you can stop. That way worst case scenario you waste a bit of time, but you said it’s interesting and fairly relevant to a level anyway so it should be fairly worthwhile. Best case scenario then you win an award or get highly commended, otherwise you’ve participated and wrote and academic essay! It’s a good practice to do where you won’t get an official grade for it. And regardless of ‘how well’ you do on it you can discuss in your statement what you found interesting in researching it etc.

worth doing an essay competition

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