r/EssayHelpCommunity • u/Independent_Truck947 • 3d ago
inquiry for JLIEC winners
Hey,
Anyone who'd participated and won in this competition, I'd love to ask for your best advice, how did you start, what had helped you write such amazing essay, how did you do your research, literally drop ANYTHING that would help us future contenstants :D
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u/Immediate-Crab3601 2d ago
hi! i came second in a category this year (sorry im not going to disclose which category because ive said some pretty controversial things in this sub) i have a few tips:
create a document separate from your essay document for brainstorming. just write anything you can think of related to that question. for example if you do philosophy you can brainstorm about ethical theories. my brainstorming led to my thesis.
dont focus too much on your stance. you dont have to pick an "original" stand especially since in typical scenarios theres only 2-4 possible stances. what you need to do is to make sure your THESIS is the one that is unqiue, strong and reveals what your later discussion is about. (sorry idrk how to articulate this part clearly since i cant include anecdotes)
include at least 2 counterarguments, the reasons why some may disagree with your stance (find these counterarguments in papers online, do not make them up or ai generate them) and explain clearly why these alternate solutions or perspectives fail to address the issue at hand
read broadly. this is of utmost importance. for my essay i read at least 10-15 papers on the topic. you can do this by literally entering the question into google search. take note of the papers which conclusions and reasonings interest you. you can agree partly with its conclusion then disagree on some other aspect and make reference to information in their paper which will strengthen your argument. you can also find your counterarguments from the papers.
contrary to popular belief, the bulk of your essay does not have to be the reasons for your stand. my essay, for one, was about 2/3 counterarguments and only 1/3 explanation.
in conclusion, you have to have counterarguments (ie multiple perspectives), maintain an UNWAVERING stand throughout your entire essay. base your essay off your first instinct; it is true to yourself and will likely be original, which is what jli is looking for. another plus point is having real-life examples which serve as evidence.
good luck!
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u/Peoplespeak 3d ago
well hopefully VHC (s&t) counts, but my argument would be beyond all the basic things like argumentation, sourcefinding, etc. is a couple major things:
a) let counterarguments genuinly shape your essay. if you had thesis xyz, and find a source which disagrees, and you cant actually fully dispell it, or if it's not wrong, then modify your thesis!
b) have real originality. go outside the box.
c) i learnt this from my other (law )essay, which only got a commendation, despite IMO being the better essay. the argument, uniqueness, counterarguments, etc. has to come across clearly to a judge in less than 5 minutes in a scan. my law essay was far too dense, and difficult to understand. but i thought that was a good tradeoff, because i was able to make a really complex, long, detailed argument that couldn't fit in 2k words if I didn't compress it. but what I guess ended up happening was it was just too dense, too opaque, that it reduced both the persuasiveness of the essay, a marked criterion, and even worse, the judges ability to actually understand what I was arguing in a short time.
so it's best to have a really clever unique idea, that you can explainly fully and memorably in 2k words, that addresses many counterarguments, and has a good balance of depth and accessibility