WriteOn! 2024
Winning Essays
2017 Winning Essays
2016 Winning Essays
Grades 6-9
Topics:
6th Grade
1. You can have a door in your room that opens anywhere. Where would it open and why?
2. Describe the everyday thoughts of a dog in your country.
7th Grade
1. You can turn everything in the world a different color. What would your new world look like?
2. Would you rather explore space or the oceans? Why?
8th Grade
1. One day you wake up to find yourself to be the opposite gender. What is it like? How is life different?
2. You can go back to any time in history. What time would you go to? What would you do there?
9th Grade
1. What’s behind the door? Why is it closed?
2. The Evil Emperor must be stopped. You, the hero of the story, have the powers to summon any mystical creature to help you fight him. Which mystical creature do you choose, and how do you two stop the Evil Emperor?
Grades 10-Uni
10th Grade
1. You have invented something that will change the world. What is it? How does it work?
2. You get onto a spaceship- where is it going? Why?
11th Grade
1. You can become a character in any television show, but you can never come back to the real world. Would you do it? What show would you enter? Why?
2. You can spend your whole life traveling anywhere you want to go, but you can never stay in one place for more than three months OR you can spend your whole life in your hometown, but you can never leave. Which would you choose and why?
12th Grade
1. For one year, you can do anything you want. Money is not a problem and you will not get in trouble for anything you do. But at the end of the year, you forget everything that happened. What do you do?
2. You, the captain of a large ship, are heading towards an island. On your ship is a crew of eight sailors. Once you are a hundred miles from the island, your ship hits a rock and can now only support you and two other sailors. How do you convince six sailors to jump ship?
University 1
1. Is it better to be smart and mean or to be kind and stupid? Why?
2. There are two boxes in a room. Inside one box is the best thing in life, inside the other box, the worst. What is in each of the two boxes? Describe them.
University 3
1. You are a professional salesperson advertising a highly improbable product. What is the product and how do you convince people to buy it? Write the advertisement.
2. Respond to the quote: "Comparison is the death of joy".
2015 Winning Essays
Grades 6-9
Topics:
If you could be any animal for a day, what would you be and what would you do?
Imagine you were 15 meters tall. Describe one day in your life.
Pretend that you have been shrunk down to the size of an ant for a day. What do you do and see?
If you could invent a candy, what would it be? What ingredients would it have and what would it taste like?
If you could make a new animal, what would it be like?
If you were elected president, what would you do on your first day in office?
You've been in a coma for 30 years. You wake up in the year 2044. Describe what the world is like.
What do trees think about?
2014 Winning Essays
Topics:
If you could be any animal for a day, what would you be and what would you do?
Imagine you were 15 meters tall. Describe one day in your life.
Pretend that you have been shrunk down to the size of an ant for a day. What do you do and see?
If you could invent a candy, what would it be? What ingredients would it have and what would it taste like?
If you could make a new animal, what would it be like?
If you were elected president, what would you do on your first day in office?
You've been in a coma for 30 years. You wake up in the year 2044. Describe what the world is like.
What do trees think about?
Grades 6-9
Topics:
Invent a new day of the year to celebrate. What would it be, when would t be, and how would people celebrate it?
Describe a custom or tradition in your country that you would like people from other countries to adopt.
What is the most important invention in the history of the world?
You are one of the first settlers on Mars. You have lived there for one year. Write about your first year.
Write a letter to yourself to be read in 15 years.
If you were a superhero, what would be your weakness?
If music had flavor, what would different types of music taste like?
Invent a new form of government and describe how it works.
How did cavemen and women communicate with each other? What did they say? What were their concerns?
What will be the most important invention in the next century? How will it change the world?
Grades 10th - University 2nd Year
2013 Winning Essays
Topics:
You wake up one morning and can understand chickens. They never shut up. What do you do?
Imagine the food in your refrigerator could talk. When the door is closed, what do you think they talk about? What do they say to each other?
What would happen if children ruled the world?
Describe the world through a dog's eyes.
Topics:
What is the worst thing parents can do to their children?
What is something that everyone around the world can agree on? Why?
How would the world be different if there were no jails? What would happen to people who commit crimes?
If international money existed, what would it look like?
Respond to this quote - "Youth is wasted on the young."
What is something that everyone around the world can agree on? Why?
Topics:
You just found a way to travel through time. You only have one round trip. Where & when do you go?
If you had a remote control that controlled your parents, what buttons would it have?
What does a blind person see?
What would you do if you knew you were going to lose your memory at the end of every day?
If death were a person, what would he/she be like?
2012 Winning Essays
Read all of the winning essays from 2012-2016 below by
clicking on each of the grade levels below.
2019 Winning Essays
Prompts
Grade 6
A. Billy was no ordinary horse.
B. I found a key, a compass and a map.
Grade 7
A I live in a rainbow.
B You wake up one morning and discover that you are invisible.
Grade 8
A I got on the wrong plane.
B Food can talk, but you are the only one who can hear them.
Grade 9
A You're washing dishes after dinner, but with your soapy hands you drop and break a plate! Suddenly, smoke clouds your vision and a genie creeps out of the plate.
B You have a growing concern you may actually be a robot.
​
Grade 10
A You find an odd looking egg in the forest. When you take it home, you never could have predicted what was inside it.
B One day you are exploring the area near your home an find an abandoned village.
​
Grade 11
A Describe that one time when the princess got tired of waiting and rescued herself.
B You live in a world where everyone must tell the truth ... but nobody knows you are the only person who can lie.
​
Grade 12
A Imagine you wake up and discover you're a different person. You want to return to your old life, but there is someone else living it.
B It's a sunny day. You are walking on the street and fine a blue stone. You pick it up. You look up and you're surrounded by snow and ice.
​
University 1
A. You see a bunch of flowers left on a bench in the park.
B. You look in a mirror and your reflection starts speaking.
​
University 2
A. "I know what happens at the end of time"
B. You'll never guess what grows in my garden ... and how I use it.
​
University 3
A Historians got it wrong. How did it actually happen?
B You're standing in line at border patrol. The border agent calls out, "Next. Business or Pleasure?"
​
University 4
A What would life be like if you were a color? Write from the perspective of Blue, Green, Red, etc.
B Write a story where someone has to choose between family and individual progress.
​
Professional
A As time passes all your friends get older, but you stay the same age.
B Love and Pain are two people walking around a park together. They decide to sit down on a bench and have a conversation.
2018 Winning Essays
Prompts
Grade 6
A. You live alone with a pet cat. One day the cat starts talking. What does it say, and what happens next?
B. On your way to school you meet a dragon. The dragon is lost and you decide to spend your day with him. Describe your day with the dragon
Grade 7
A You're on a hike in the forest when the trees start talking to you! What do they say and what do you do?
B You and your family have been chosen to host Earth’s first visitor from outer space; an alien. They are your age and will go to school with you, write about your day.
Grade 8
A Describe a future where robots have taken over the world.
B You're on a field trip to the art museum with your class. As you're walking through the gallery, you suddenly realize that the people in the paintings can talk to you! What are they saying?
Grade 9
A You wake up and discover that you are the ruler of a planet. Describe a day in your life.
B You find yourself locked inside an old abandoned building. How did you get there? How do you get out?
​
Grade 10
A You are lost in the woods with a friend when you get lost. You meet a person who offers to lead you out and you accept. However, before long you get the feeling you are being led somewhere nobody would want to go.
B Every morning you receive a newspaper that shows the news for the day. You do not know where this paper comes from, but it tells you all of the good and bad things that happen for the next 24 hours. What do you do with this information?
​
Grade 11
A Invent a new season and how it affects the world.
B Scientists discover that the Earth and other planets are actually giant animals moving through space and time, and that humans are basically insects living on top of them. How does society change? What would you do?
​
Grade 12
A You wake up in prison, but you don't belong there. How do you escape?
B You are a kid’s imaginary friend but you find yourself slowly fading away as they grow older.
​
University 1
A Write about a normal day in the year 4000 2. You witness a boy asking a girl out on a date. It’s awkward. Narrate it as if it is a nature documentary.
​
University 3
A Imagine living in a place where there were no rules. How would people act, what jobs would people have, would people live in peace and harmony?
B You bolt awake but you're not immediately sure what awakened you. You fumble for your cell phone to check the time, but as you reach for the bedside table your hand passes through it as if it were mist. After a moment,...
​
Professional
A Imagine you are someone's shadow for one day. Who's shadow would you be and why? What would you do?
B Write about your worst hello and your favorite goodbye
2017 Winning Essays
2016 Winning Essays
Grades 6-9
Topics:
6th Grade
1. You can have a door in your room that opens anywhere. Where would it open and why?
2. Describe the everyday thoughts of a dog in your country.
7th Grade
1. You can turn everything in the world a different color. What would your new world look like?
2. Would you rather explore space or the oceans? Why?
8th Grade
1. One day you wake up to find yourself to be the opposite gender. What is it like? How is life different?
2. You can go back to any time in history. What time would you go to? What would you do there?
9th Grade
1. What’s behind the door? Why is it closed?
2. The Evil Emperor must be stopped. You, the hero of the story, have the powers to summon any mystical creature to help you fight him. Which mystical creature do you choose, and how do you two stop the Evil Emperor?
Grades 10-Uni
10th Grade
1. You have invented something that will change the world. What is it? How does it work?
2. You get onto a spaceship- where is it going? Why?
11th Grade
1. You can become a character in any television show, but you can never come back to the real world. Would you do it? What show would you enter? Why?
2. You can spend your whole life traveling anywhere you want to go, but you can never stay in one place for more than three months OR you can spend your whole life in your hometown, but you can never leave. Which would you choose and why?
12th Grade
1. For one year, you can do anything you want. Money is not a problem and you will not get in trouble for anything you do. But at the end of the year, you forget everything that happened. What do you do?
2. You, the captain of a large ship, are heading towards an island. On your ship is a crew of eight sailors. Once you are a hundred miles from the island, your ship hits a rock and can now only support you and two other sailors. How do you convince six sailors to jump ship?
University 1
1. Is it better to be smart and mean or to be kind and stupid? Why?
2. There are two boxes in a room. Inside one box is the best thing in life, inside the other box, the worst. What is in each of the two boxes? Describe them.
University 3
1. You are a professional salesperson advertising a highly improbable product. What is the product and how do you convince people to buy it? Write the advertisement.
2. Respond to the quote: "Comparison is the death of joy".
2015 Winning Essays
Grades 6-9
Topics:
If you could be any animal for a day, what would you be and what would you do?
Imagine you were 15 meters tall. Describe one day in your life.
Pretend that you have been shrunk down to the size of an ant for a day. What do you do and see?
If you could invent a candy, what would it be? What ingredients would it have and what would it taste like?
If you could make a new animal, what would it be like?
If you were elected president, what would you do on your first day in office?
You've been in a coma for 30 years. You wake up in the year 2044. Describe what the world is like.
What do trees think about?
2014 Winning Essays
Grades 6-9
Topics:
If you could be any animal for a day, what would you be and what would you do?
Imagine you were 15 meters tall. Describe one day in your life.
Pretend that you have been shrunk down to the size of an ant for a day. What do you do and see?
If you could invent a candy, what would it be? What ingredients would it have and what would it taste like?
If you could make a new animal, what would it be like?
If you were elected president, what would you do on your first day in office?
You've been in a coma for 30 years. You wake up in the year 2044. Describe what the world is like.
What do trees think about?
Topics:
Invent a new day of the year to celebrate. What would it be, when would t be, and how would people celebrate it?
Describe a custom or tradition in your country that you would like people from other countries to adopt.
What is the most important invention in the history of the world?
You are one of the first settlers on Mars. You have lived there for one year. Write about your first year.
Write a letter to yourself to be read in 15 years.
If you were a superhero, what would be your weakness?
If music had flavor, what would different types of music taste like?
Invent a new form of government and describe how it works.
How did cavemen and women communicate with each other? What did they say? What were their concerns?
What will be the most important invention in the next century? How will it change the world?
Grades 10th - University 2nd Year
2013 Winning Essays
Topics:
You wake up one morning and can understand chickens. They never shut up. What do you do?
Imagine the food in your refrigerator could talk. When the door is closed, what do you think they talk about? What do they say to each other?
What would happen if children ruled the world?
Describe the world through a dog's eyes.
Topics:
What is the worst thing parents can do to their children?
What is something that everyone around the world can agree on? Why?
How would the world be different if there were no jails? What would happen to people who commit crimes?
If international money existed, what would it look like?
Respond to this quote - "Youth is wasted on the young."
What is something that everyone around the world can agree on? Why?
Topics:
You just found a way to travel through time. You only have one round trip. Where & when do you go?
If you had a remote control that controlled your parents, what buttons would it have?
What does a blind person see?
What would you do if you knew you were going to lose your memory at the end of every day?
If death were a person, what would he/she be like?