Moment's social action writing contest for high school students, grades 9-12

The contest is closed at this time. Check back for next year's contest question!

Essays will be judged for creativity of ideas, quality of thought, writing style and factual accuracy.

Essay Guidelines

Thanks for your interest in our essay contest! Before submitting your essay, take a look at the following writing guidelines.

1) Be creative! Consider this a chance for you to show us through your creativity how you can help motivate your friends and peers to make a positive difference in the world. Throw out your ideas of the standard five-paragraph essay and think outside the box – we invite you to interpret the term “essay” as loosely as you choose. Feel free to submit a story, poem, or even a song that answers the appropriate question. But, of course, we also love well-written essays.

2) Answer the question! Again, we want you to be creative, but please make sure that your writing addresses what you can do to encourage your peers to get motivated.

3) Check your facts! Any scientific information that you include in your essay must be correct and come from a reliable source. It is important to remember that the winning essays will be read by thousands of people and must be factually accurate.

4) Edit your work! Winners will be chosen based on creativity, writing style, factual accuracy and mechanics, so please carefully edit your essay before submitting it to the magazine.