How to Choose the Right Topic for Your Competitive Essay

In this guide, we'll help you decide on the right topic that will win you your competition and take your essay from good to great!

10:33 29 April 2022

As you look at the competition topics, you might feel intimidated. After all, it's hard to come up with an original idea that hasn't been used before and will be judged by the best of the best. Don't worry; choosing the right topic doesn't have to be difficult or intimidating if you know what to look for. In this guide, we'll help you decide on the right topic that will win you your competition and take your essay from good to great! In a competition, there is no chance to buy essay online from sites like buyessay.net.

 

Read All Competition Rules

Whether you are entering a competition in school or at work, read all of the rules before you start writing. You never know what additional requirements could be added on. For example, if you are asked to write about your favorite book, and there is a rule that you must use quotes from specific pages, check out those pages before writing your essay. Doing so will prevent headaches later on, and make sure that your paper follows all guidelines. Also, make sure that deadlines are realistic, so your work isn't rushed and sloppy because of an aggressive schedule.

 

Answer the Question Correctly

To win a competition, you have to answer their question correctly. That's why it's so important to read over their instructions carefully and make sure you understand exactly what they're asking. Mistakes here are painful because no matter how great your essay is, if it doesn't address their issue, then you won't win. The best thing you can do is understand what they want from your essay and figure out how that fits into your life experience. This will probably require some serious soul-searching—and that can be painful and uncomfortable but ultimately worthwhile. Remember: just because it feels hard doesn't mean it's not worth doing!

 

Find the Essence of Your Personal Experience

Writing a powerful personal statement or essay is about finding and harnessing your voice. Before you start writing, take some time to think about what experiences shaped you as a person—and, more importantly, which experiences have helped shape your unique perspective on life. Maybe you were raised in a military family. Maybe you overcame a challenging childhood illness. Maybe there's an experience that taught you something profound about people or humanity. Try to find some common themes among these experiences and identify your focus point: What did you learn from these experiences? How do they help define who you are? Why are they important? Use these questions as stepping stones on your journey toward creating a strong narrative about yourself.

 

Engage in Active Process

Although it's tempting to jump right into writing your essay, take some time to brainstorm, engage in an active process, and define your purpose. Do you want to write about a personal experience or something else? Once you know what you want to write about and why, you can begin drafting a thesis statement. But even before that point, you can start researching your topic of choice. Using information from outside sources often separates a good essay from an excellent one. If there is something especially interesting or useful in your findings, incorporate it into your outline and first draft so that your readers know that hard work has gone into creating their reading material.

Outline before Writing

Research, research, research! Make sure you're an expert on your topic before you begin writing. Outlining can also help relieve writer's block or any uncertainty you might have about where to start your essay. Even if it's not for a competition, outlining can be a great exercise in clarifying your thoughts and distilling them into a logical order. And don't forget to engage in active reading as well; doing so will improve your vocabulary and make you more articulate—plus, it could give you some ideas on interesting topics that you wouldn't have thought of otherwise. You should also choose a good topic sentence early on: It'll provide a blueprint for how everything else will flow and keep things organized throughout.

 

Do Not Use Jargons or Slang Phrases

Unless you are writing a creative essay, avoid using slang or jargon specific to a group of people. Don't write about your crew when referring to your circle of friends because not everyone will know what that means. Likewise, do not use industry terminology like a non-GAAP financial statement or slang words like "turnt up" in a formal piece of writing unless you have no other choice. If you use any unique terms, be sure to define them at their first mention and then use those definitions when appropriate throughout your essay. With only a few exceptions (the occasional yo and bro), they should not be used more than once per paragraph!