“If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.” – Martin Luther

Our 2024 writing competition invites students of all ages to express themselves through fiction and non-fiction. Challenge both your creativity and critical thinking to compete with students from across Hong Kong and Macau. With HK$60,000 worth of prizes available, as well as trophies and certificates, the i-Learner Writing Competition 2024 is a significant milestone on your writing journey.

The competiton is segmented into Lower and Upper Primary and Lower and Upper Secondary. Choose one question at your level, and follow the guidelines below to submit your entry.

Learn more about the Oxford and Boarding School Programmes here.

 

i-Learner Writing Contest 2024 – Primary

 

i-Learner Writing Contest 2024 – Secondary

 

Generating Essay Ideas

For Students in S1-3 / Yr 7-9

Should governments have any control over the housing market?

 

There is no correct answer to this essay. It’s a very open essay, so you can answer it in
many different ways. To do well on an essay like this, you should think of several different
ideas and tie the best ones together into a strong argument. You can answer yes, no, or
somewhere in the middle. The important thing is to support your answer with reasons and
evidence.

 

Questions to ask yourself to build an argument for this essay:

● Is the government responsible for helping people have homes?

● How much should the government support people who can’t afford homes? Is the
answer different for poor and rich countries?

● Who would help me if I had no home? Would the answer be different if I were an old
person without any family?

● What does the government currently do to control the housing market? Is the topic in
this year’s policy address?

● Do governments in other countries control the housing market? Do they usually help
rich people or poor people?

● What are the good and bad consequences of the government controlling the housing
market? Would my answer change if I had no home or lots of homes to rent to other
people?

 

Search terms for learning more about this essay topic:

● Housing crisis

● Hong Kong public housing

● Government housing control

 

A website related to this essay topic:

Look for ideas from the World Economic Forum, an international organisation that works to
improve all societies. Their website has a dedicated section for articles on Urban
Transformation: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/urban-transformation/

For Students in S4-6 / Yr 10-13

Should young people obey their parents and teachers without question?

Questions to ask yourself to build an argument for this essay:

● Do I always obey my parents and teachers? Is there any situation in which I should
not obey them?

● Do any of my friends disobey their parents and teachers? What consequences do
they face?

● Are young people different in other countries? What consequences do they face for
disobeying their parents and teachers?

● What benefits do I experience from obeying my parents and teachers? Might this
change as I get older?

● What disadvantages do I experience from obeying my parents and teachers? Might
this change as I get older?

● If I had children, would I treat them the same way my parents treat me?

 

Search terms for learning more about this essay topic:

● Parenting in different countries

● Psychology of child obedience

● Long-term effects of controlling children

 

A website related to this essay topic:

An easy-to-read site that may raise some new issues related to obedience is
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ . The articles there are written by experts, but they use
simple language, and they have great links to other sources.

 

Is there any point to learning another language when technology is able
to translate quickly and accurately?

 

Questions to ask yourself to build an argument for this essay:

● What languages do I speak, and how do I use them?

● Do I experience any benefits from speaking other languages? Would this change if I
spoke a different first language?

● Are there any disadvantages to learning languages?

● What technology is available to translate different languages, and does it have any
limitations?

● What does it mean for something to have a point?

 

Search terms for learning more about this essay topic:

● Benefits of learning languages

● Can translation technology replace people?

● The neuroscience of language learning

 

A website related to this essay topic:

Cambridge University Press and Assessments has a blog all about ELT, which is the
teaching of English as an additional language. There are lots of articles there about how to
use technology in language teaching and how this might change in the future:
https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/

 

A recent study revealed that income-happiness correlation is stronger in
places with greater income inequality. What does this tell us about the
link between money and happiness?

 

Questions to ask yourself to build an argument for this essay:

● Does money make people happy?

● The question asks about an income-happiness correlation, why does it not ask about
causation?

● Why do people compare themselves to each other?

● How would you feel if you had a very low income? Would this change if everyone
around you had a very high income?

● Why do some places have greater income inequality than others?

● How are incomes decided?

 

Search terms for learning more about this essay topic:

● Income-happiness correlation

● Gini coefficient

● Does money buy happiness?

 

A website related to this essay topic:

Look at different aspects of this question using https://ourworldindata.org/ . This site is a
great way to visualise lots of complex concepts, and it has helpful digests on big topics that
are packed with useful links. Here’s one on happiness and life satisfaction:
https://ourworldindata.org/happiness-and-life-satisfaction .

 

Reading for Essays and Quoting Your Research

A Guide for Students Entering i-Learner's Writing Competition

 

Details and Guidelines:

1 Categories and Questions

1.1 Primary – Short Story

1.1.1 Lower (P1-3 / Yr 1-3)

Word count limit: 500

Question:

• Write a short, descriptive story with the title: My Day at the Beach.

1.1.2 Upper (P4-6 / Yr 4-6)

Word count limit: 1000

Question options:

• Write a story with the opening line: ‘I had always wondered what was behind the door at the end of the hallway.’
• Write a short story about a pair of siblings who make a discovery in the forest.

1.2 Secondary – Essay

1.2.1 Lower (S1-3 / Yr 7-9)

Word count limit: 1500

Question:

• Should governments have any control over the housing market?

1.2.2 Upper (S4-6 / Yr 10-13)

Word count limit: 2000

Question options:

• Should young people obey their parents and teachers without question?
• Is there any point to learning another language when technology is able to translate quickly and accurately?
• A recent study revealed that income-happiness correlation is stronger in places with greater income inequality. What does this tell us about the link between money and happiness?

2 Rules and Guidelines

2.1 All entrants

Deadline: 30th November 2024 (midnight, UTC+8)

Email address for entries: books@i-learner.edu.hk

Email submissions must include:

• In the body of the email:
  • Candidate’s name
  • Candidate’s school
  • Candidate’s school grade
• Attached to the email:
  • A PDF of the entry with the file named following this convention: FirstName-LastName-Category-Section.pdf; so, for instance, Hayley Chan, in P5, would submit her answer with the following file name: Hayley-Chan-Primary-Upper.pdf

The candidate’s name must not appear anywhere in the entry document. It should only appear in the filename, which will be anonymised upon receipt.

The word count for each category must be adhered to. Candidates may not go over the limit, and entries over the word count will be disqualified. The count includes the title.

All entries must be entirely the candidate’s own work. Submissions will be run through checkers for plagiarism and/or use of AI. Entries flagged by this software will be reviewed, and we may ask candidates for academic references to verify that flagged work is their own.

Candidates may only submit one entry each.

Entries must not have been previously submitted to another competition.

Candidates must currently reside in Hong Kong or Macau.

All entries must be in English.

2.2 Primary (story) entrants only

Email Subject line: Writing Competition Entry Primary (short story)

All stories must:

• Be complete, and should not be the opening to a longer piece of work
• Be the candidate’s own original idea
• Be written by the candidate themselves

All stories will be judged on the following criteria:

• Characterisation
• Plot
• Creativity
• Language / Vocabulary choices
• Spelling & Grammar accuracy

Handwritten and scanned entries as well as typed entires are admissible at this level. Please ensure images are clear and legible.

2.3 Secondary (essay) entrants only

Email Subject line: Writing Competition Entry Secondary (essay)

Candidates are scored both on the quality of their answers and the depth at which they have engaged with the question.

Candidates should include, as footnotes or endnotes, citations in support of their evidence. No material arguments are to be made in these notes, which should be limited to citations and sparing details of where to verify evidence if needed. Candidates may use any citation format (e.g. APA, their school’s style) of their choice, but they must be consistent throughout and give at least the author’s name, title, year of publication and page for printed texts and author’s name, title, website name, webpage link, and the date accessed for online sources. Footnotes or endnotes are not included in the word count restriction.

Candidates in the S4-6 / Yr 10-13 category are strongly discouraged from using encyclopaedias, such as Wikipedia, as their sources. They are expected to be using more detailed sources, such as books and articles from subject experts.

All entries must be typed and formatted in size 12pt Times New Roman and double line spaced.

Handwritten entries are not admissible at this level.

3 Judging and Prizes

All admissible entries will be shortlisted by a panel including i-Learner’s Head of English and experienced educators from our UK sister company, Seven Springs Education. The final selection will be made by a panel of expert adjudicators, whose details can be found in section 6 of this document.

All prizes are non-transferrable.

Division	Awards	Prizes
Lower Primary	Overall Lower Primary Winner for Best Short Story	10,000 HKD scholarship for 2025 Oxford Scholars Tour Winner’s trophy
	Runner-Up Lower Primary Winner for Best Short Story	3,000HKD scholarship for i-Learner Education programmes Runner-Up Certificate
Upper Primary	Overall Upper Primary Winner for Best Short Story	10,000 HKD scholarship for 2025 Oxford Scholars Tour Winner’s trophy
	Runner-Up Upper Primary Winner for Best Short Story	3,000 HKD scholarship  for i-Learner Education programmes Runner-Up Certificate
Combined Primary	Commendation Award (for creativity, interesting characters, or dramatic plot)	500 HKD scholarship for i-Learner Education programmes Commendation Certificate

 

Division	Awards	Prizes
Lower Secondary	Overall Lower Secondary Winner for Best Essay	10,000 HKD scholarship for 2025 Oxford Scholars Tour or British Boarding School Summer Programme Winner’s trophy
	Runner-Up Lower Secondary Winner for Best Essay	3,000 HKD scholarship for i-Learner Education programmes Runner-Up Certificate
Upper Secondary	Overall Upper Secondary Winner for Best Essay	15,000 HKD scholarship for 2025 Oxford Scholars Tour or British Boarding School Summer Programme Winner’s trophy
	Runner-Up Upper Secondary Winner for Best Essay	5,000 HKD scholarship for i-Learner Education programmes Runner-Up Certificate
Combined Secondary	Commendation Award (for originality, interesting arguments, or well-researched references)	500 HKD scholarship for i-Learner Education programmes Commendation certificate

Winners will be announced in January 2025 via i-Learner Education Centre’s website at www.i-learner.edu.hk. Letters will be sent to the winners’ schools to arrange delivery of prizes.

4 Data and Copyright

By entering this competition, parents, on behalf of candidates, give permission for usage as follows:

Worldwide copyright for each entry will remain with the author, but all candidates give permission as the author of the submitted story for i-Learner Education Centre and Seven Springs Education to hold, process and display the work on their websites, social media accounts and in other company media e.g e-newsletters, in relation to this competition. Candidates will always be credited by their first and surname alongside their story, if provided.

i-Learner Education Centre and Seven Springs Education of Nebula Group Ltd. may contact you only in relation to your story, and your data will not be used for any other purpose.

5 Competition Partners

This competition is organised in grateful partnership with:

• Society for Community Organisation (SoCO)
• Hong Kong Reads
• Seven Springs Education, UK
• i-Learner Publishing

6 Adjudicators

Shortlisted entries will be judged and selected by the following panel of experts:

6.1 Primary

Dr Zoe Jaques

• University Reader in Children’s Literature, University of Cambridge Centre for Research in Children’s Literature
• Dean of Homerton College, University of Cambridge

Darren Chetty

• Lecturer at University College London (UCL)
• Author of I’m Going to Make a Friend and What Is Masculinity? Why Does It Matter? And Other Big Questions 
• Judge for the Blue Peter, YA, The Week Junior, CLiPPA, and Little Rebels book awards and the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award

6.2 Secondary

Dr Blanka Grzegorczyk

• Teaching Associate / Affiliated Lecturer, University of Cambridge Centre for Research in Children’s Literature

Dr Jessica Patterson

• Affiliated Lecturer, University of Cambridge Faculty of History
• Assistant Professor in History and Politics, Fellow and Director of Studies, Trinity College, University of Cambridge

7 Next Steps – Quill Assessment

Young writers wanting to understand their skill level and where they can next improve should take a Quill Assessment from i-Learner.

The Quill Writing Assessment is designed to help students acquire the vital writing skills they need to achieve the highest levels of academic success. The personalised quantitative and qualitative data provided by the Quill Writing Assessment will enable teachers and parents to pinpoint effective learning strategies for each young person.

Find more details at https://i-learner.com.hk/quill-writing/