Your Guide to the John Locke Essay Competition
An article explaining what the competition is and how to maximise your chances of success, written by one of last year’s markers.
What is the John Locke Essay Competition?
The John Locke Essay competition is acknowledged as the most prestigious essay competition in the world. Free to enter, it is hosted by the John Locke Institute, named after the Oxford philosopher John Locke (b. 1634 – d. 1704), who is often called the ‘father of liberalism’ and is one of the most important thinkers from the Enlightenment period.
Candidates must register for competition entry by 31st May and submit an essay of no more than 2,000 words by 30th June, addressing one of the essay questions listed on the Institute’s website. The essays are judged for prizes by ‘a panel of senior academics drawn from leading universities including Oxford and Princeton, meaning that entering the competition offers you the rare chance to have your work assessed by top scholars in your field of interest.
Who is the competition for?
The main competition is open to anyone aged eighteen or under and is comprised of seven separate subject-categories: Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Law, Psychology, and Theology. If you are currently studying for your A-levels, then you are a perfect candidate to enter. There is also a Junior Prize open to anyone aged fifteen or under. If you meet the criteria for one of these competitions and wish to develop your research and writing skills, then you are highly advised to enter. Moreover, receiving a commendation or prize would make for an outstanding embellishment to your UCAS personal statement.
What are the prizes?
One essay across all subject-categories will be selected for the Grand Prize: a massive $10,000 scholarship to attend any of the John Locke Institute’s prestigious educational programmes, which include summer schools at Oxford and Princeton. The opportunity to study at the John Locke Institute is invaluable: your tutors will be world-leading academics, and previous students have subsequently gained admission to the most competitive international universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, Harvard, and Yale. Additionally, three essays under each subject-category will be selected for a prize scholarship of $2,000 to attend any of the John Locke Institute’s programmes. All prize winners will also be invited to a prize-giving ceremony in London.
Besides the prizes to be won, the process of entering the competition is of value in itself. Independently researching a foundational subject and answering a demanding, important question develops intellectual qualities which will be of use to you in university and beyond.
Three tips for writing a superb essay
Drawing on my experience as a marker for the John Locke Essay Competition in 2023, I have put together three tips for writing a successful essay.
1. Understand the objectives:
If you want to write a superb essay for the John Locke Essay Competition, you must first know what the examiners are looking for. The purpose of the essay competition is to cultivate the intellectual capacities of young people across the globe. These include:
Independent and original thought
Critical textual analysis
The ability to research and accumulate knowledge
Logical reasoning
The ability to write clear and persuasive prose
The judges are not so much interested in the mere possession of information, which Director Martin Cox says comes cheap in the present digital age. More important is the ability to ‘process, evaluate and use information to form sound judgments about difficult or controversial questions’, alongside the ‘skills of expression to organise one’s thoughts to offer an articulate, persuasive case in favour of those judgments’.
In other words, it is what you can do with information that counts. Armed with facts and evidence, what can you plausibly argue? What interesting claim can you defend? The subjects that the competition include, such as Philosophy, History, and Law, are deliberately chosen to foster the cultivation of higher academic virtues such as original thought and the capacity to contest difficult ideas: issues in these subjects, and the corresponding essay questions, are not the sort of thing that a quick Google search can resolve. In trying to answer them, a good answer will require you to reach deep insights that will develop your mind.
2. Read well in advance
If you are going to write an excellent essay then you will need exposure to great ideas. Social Science subjects demand some acquaintance with the relevant empirical studies; Humanities subjects demand acquaintance with the relevant ideological positions. Either way, your chances are best if you start reading around your subject as soon as you can.
It can be difficult to know how to research – what books to read, which articles are relevant– if you aren’t already familiar with some of the relevant literature. Your tutor or teacher should be able to help you with a few suggestions to get you started. Follow the principle of ‘quality over quantity’: a thoughtful discussion of one important piece of literature will demonstrate your capacities far more than a thoughtless discussion of a vast literature, because it is more difficult to read critically and with insight than it is to simply read a lot.
Make sure to read with a critical eye. Absorb both sides of a debate and aim to adjudicate: if you read an article which defends one particular view, read another which contests that same view. Doing so will give you a balanced, reasonable, and well-informed perspective. Take thorough notes and ask yourself questions: What is the author’s position? What reasons are there to adopt this position? What objections might there be against this position? How does this relate to other things I have read? By reflecting deeply on what you read, you will develop original insights and convey your ability to critically evaluate ideas.
Furthermore, make sure to read the exemplar essays from past years of the competition, which you can find on the John Locke Institute’s website, especially those for the specific subject-category that you have chosen to enter. Again, don’t just read them but think about them and consider how they meet the stated objectives: How do they demonstrate insight and originality? How do they critically evaluate literature? What features of their writing style have aided the clarity of their argument? Do they counter possible objections to their argument? Use these excellent essays as models when it comes to writing your own.
3. Demonstrate clarity of thought
As the Institute’s Director Martin Cox says, ‘the John Locke Institute aims, above all else, to teach the principles of logical, analytical, and rational thought’. This should be taken as a statement of the Institute’s intellectual values and priorities: while your essay must be persuasive, persuasion should primarily take the form of logical reasoning and evidence. Rhetorical flourishes must be undergirded and supported by argumentative quality and substance. In general, flowery prose should not take priority over clarity of expression and precision of thought.
One of the best ways to demonstrate rational thought is through a good analysis of the essay question which identifies ambiguities and subtleties of meaning – key skills particularly in the Humanities. Let’s consider an example of how to do this. One of last year’s Philosophy questions, which I marked, was ‘In what sense are you the same person that you were ten years ago?’ The phrase ‘in what sense’ is crucial here and needs to be addressed. It is too crude to simply assert that you are or are not the same person that you were ten years ago. How are you the same? What is it by virtue of which you are the same? What would have to be the case in order for you to be a different person? Reflecting on this should make you think, ‘What are the criteria by which we can determine whether or not a person has or has not remained the same across time?’ And once you start thinking about that, you are engaged in a philosophical analysis of the concept of personhood – and that is what the judges really want from you. Therefore, by properly reflecting on the essay question, you will sharpen your analytical skills and come to a deeper understanding of the issue.
Overall, start researching as soon as possible, think critically about what you read, and focus on logical arguments and the use of evidence when putting forth your answer to the question. Entering the John Locke Essay Competition is bound to be an instructive experience for any student keen to develop themselves as a thinker and writer. I wish you luck!
This article is credited to Karim. If you would like Karim’s support with the John Locke essay competition, you can visit his tutor profile here https://doxa.co.uk/undergraduate-mentors/karimphil.