What’s bothering you? Who may do one thing about it? What may you say to them that will persuade them to care, or to make change?
And … what if we all learn your letter? How may you make us care too?
These are a few of the questions we’re asking you to ponder for our Open Letter Contest. An open letter is a broadcast letter of protest or enchantment normally addressed to a person, group or establishment however supposed for most of the people. Consider the various “Pricey Taylor Swift” open letters yow will discover on-line and on social media: Positive, they’re addressed to Ms. Swift, however they’re actually a approach for the author to share opinions and emotions on feminism, or ticket gross sales, or the music business, or … the record goes on.
As you may already know when you’ve learn Martin Luther King’s well-known Letter From Birmingham Jail, an open letter is a literary system. Although it appears on the floor to be supposed for only one particular person or group, and subsequently normally reads like a private letter (and might make readers really feel they’re by some means “listening in” on personal ideas), it’s actually a persuasive essay addressed to the general public. This letter signed by over 1,000 tech leaders in regards to the risks of A.I., this humorous 2020 letter addressed to Harry and Meghan, and this video letter from younger Asian Individuals to their households about Black Lives Matter are all examples of the custom.
Now we’re inviting you to strive it your self. Write your individual open letter, to anybody you want on any difficulty you care about, so long as additionally it is applicable and significant for a basic Occasions viewers.
Whom must you write to? What must you say? How do open letters work?
The principles and FAQ beneath, together with our Pupil Opinion discussion board and associated how-to information, can stroll you thru methods to get began.
Please submit any questions you have got within the feedback and we’ll reply you there, or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com. And, think about hanging this PDF one-page announcement in your class bulletin board.
The Problem
Write an open letter to a selected viewers that calls consideration to a problem or downside and prompts reflection or motion on it.
Whether or not you select to put in writing to your mother and father, academics, faculty board members or mayor; a member of Congress; the top of an organization; an artist or entertainer; or a metonym like “Silicon Valley” or “The Kremlin,” ask your self, What do I care about? Who could make modifications, massive or small, native or international, to deal with my difficulty or downside? What particularly do I need my viewers to grasp or do? And the way can I write this as an “open letter,” compelling not simply to me and the recipient, however to the final viewers who can be studying my phrases?
The Occasions has printed quite a few open letters through the years, to each well-known and unusual individuals. Yow will discover an extended record of free examples in our associated information.
This contest invitations college students to specific themselves and picture that their phrases can result in actual change.
Your open letter ought to:
Give attention to a problem you care about and with which you have got some expertise. You’ll be able to write about virtually something you want, whether or not it’s a critical difficulty like bullying, or one thing extra lighthearted like why bugs deserve respect, however we now have discovered through the years that probably the most attention-grabbing scholar writing grows out of non-public expertise. Our associated Pupil Opinion discussion board and how-to information may also help you provide you with concepts.
Deal with a selected viewers related to the problem. Select a person, group, group or establishment who is able to make change or promote understanding about your matter.
Name for motion, whether or not the change you search is one thing tangible, like asking Congress to enact a legislation or demanding an organization cease a dangerous follow, or one thing extra summary, like inviting your viewers to replicate on one thing they might have by no means thought-about.
Be appropriate and compelling for a large basic viewers. An open letter concurrently addresses an specific recipient — whether or not the president or your health club trainer — in addition to us, most of the people, your implicit viewers. Although your letter may appear to be meant only for one particular person, it’s actually making an attempt to steer all readers. Be sure to write it in such a approach that it’s related, comprehensible, applicable and significant for anybody who may come throughout it in The New York Occasions. (Once more, our associated information may also help.)
Be written as a letter, in a voice and tone that’s applicable for each your viewers and goal. Are you merely taking an argumentative essay you’ve written for college already and slapping a “Pricey X” on high of it and a “Sincerely, Y” on the underside? No. A letter — even an open letter — is totally different from a proper essay, and your writing ought to replicate that. Are you able to be casual? Humorous? If that is smart on your goal and viewers, then sure, please.
Our associated information, and the various examples we hyperlink to, may also help you concentrate on this, however we hope the format of a letter will allow you to loosen up a bit and categorical your self in your pure voice. (For instance, you’ll be writing as “I” or “we,” and addressing your letter’s recipient as “you.”)
Additionally try to steer a basic viewers. Although it’s written within the type of a letter, it’s an opinion piece, and you are attempting to make a case and assist it with proof, as you’ll any argument. Bear in mind that you’re making an attempt to alter hearts and minds, so that you’ll be drawing on the identical rhetorical methods as you might need for our long-running editorial contest. (Once more, extra on this within the associated information.)
Make your case in 500 phrases or fewer. Your title and sources are usually not a part of the phrase rely.
Inform with proof from at the least two sources, together with one from The Occasions and one from outdoors The Occasions. We hope this contest encourages you to deepen your understanding of your matter by utilizing a number of sources, ideally ones that provide a variety of views. Simply be certain that these sources are reliable.
As a result of this can be a letter, not a proper essay, we’re not asking you to offer in-text citations, however we can be asking you to record the sources you used — as many as you want — in a separate area that doesn’t contribute to your phrase rely. Take into accout, nevertheless, that when you embrace proof from these sources, our readers (and judges) ought to all the time have the ability to inform the place it got here from. Watch out to place quotations round any direct quotes you utilize, and cite the supply of something you paraphrase.
A Few Guidelines
Along with the rules above, listed here are just a few extra particulars:
You have to be a scholar ages 13 to 19 in center faculty or highschool to take part, and all college students will need to have dad or mum or guardian permission to enter. Please see the F.A.Q. part for extra eligibility particulars.
Your open letter needs to be authentic for this contest. Meaning it mustn’t have already got been printed on the time of submission, whether or not in a faculty newspaper, for an additional contest or wherever else.
Understand that the work you ship in needs to be applicable for a Occasions viewers — that’s, one thing that might be printed in a household newspaper (so, please, no curse phrases).
You might work alone or in teams, however college students ought to submit just one entry every.
It’s essential to additionally submit a quick, casual “artist’s assertion” as a part of your submission, that describes your writing and analysis course of. These statements, which won’t be used to decide on finalists, assist us to design and refine our contests. See the F.A.Q. to study extra.
All entries have to be submitted by April 16, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time utilizing the digital type that we are going to add to the underside of this web page when the competition opens.
Assets for College students and Academics
Use these assets that can assist you write your open letter:
Our step-by-step information: For use by college students or academics, this information walks you thru the method of writing an open letter.
A listing of free examples of open letters printed each in and out of doors The New York Occasions, which yow will discover in our step-by-step information.
The 9 profitable letters from our first Open Letter Contest.
New for 2025: An version of our Conversations With Journalists collection by which college students are invited to pose questions for Margaret Renkl, a contributing author for the Occasions Opinion part, who typically makes use of the open letter format in her work.
A writing immediate: To Whom Would You Write an Open Letter? This immediate affords college students a “rehearsal area” for fascinated by to whom they’d like to put in writing, the explanation they’re writing and why they assume that difficulty is vital — not just for the recipient but in addition for a wider viewers.
Many, many extra argumentative writing prompts: We publish new argumentative writing prompts for college students every week in our Pupil Opinion and Image Immediate columns. Yow will discover all of them, as they publish, right here, or lots of them, organized by matter, in our assortment of over 300 prompts.
Argumentative writing unit: This unit contains writing prompts, lesson plans, webinars and mentor texts. Whereas it was initially written to assist our Pupil Editorial Contest, the assets may also help college students make compelling arguments, cite dependable proof and use rhetorical methods for his or her open letters as nicely.
Our contest rubric: That is the rubric judges will use as they learn submissions to this contest.
Continuously Requested Questions
Beneath are solutions to your questions on writing, judging, the foundations and instructing with this contest. Please learn these completely and, when you nonetheless can’t discover what you’re on the lookout for, submit your question within the feedback or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
Questions About Writing
How is that this contest totally different out of your long-running Editorial Contest? Can we nonetheless use these supplies?
For a decade we ran an editorial contest, and the scholars who participated wrote passionately about all types of issues — A.I., quick style, race, trans rights, faculty admissions, parental incarceration, fan fiction, snow days, memes, being messy and a lot extra. You’ll be able to nonetheless write in regards to the points and concepts that fireside you up — it’s simply that this time round you’ll be framing your work as a letter to an individual who has the facility to make change on or deliver understanding to that difficulty.
Our associated information has extra in regards to the variations between a standard opinion essay and an open letter, however the many supplies we developed for that earlier contest are additionally woven into the information, as ideas like ethos, logos and pathos are nonetheless very a lot related to this problem.
I do not know what to put in writing about. The place ought to I begin?
Our Pupil Opinion discussion board may also help through its many questions that encourage you to brainstorm each the viewers you may write to and the matters you’d like to deal with.
Can I really ship my open letter?
You’ll be able to! Simply wait till after you have got submitted your work to us to take action. (As all the time for our contests, you keep the copyright to the piece you submit, and might do no matter you want with it.)
_________
Questions About Judging
How will my open letter be judged?
Your work can be learn by New York Occasions journalists, in addition to by Studying Community workers members and educators from round america. We are going to use this rubric to guage entries.
What’s the “prize”?
Having your work printed on The Studying Community.
When will the winners be introduced?
About 8-10 weeks after the competition has closed.
My piece wasn’t chosen as a winner. Are you able to inform me why?
We sometimes obtain 1000’s of entries for our contests, so sadly, our workforce doesn’t have the capability to offer particular person suggestions on every scholar’s work.
_________
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RULES
Who’s eligible to take part on this contest?
This contest is open to college students ages 13 to 19 who’re in center faculty or highschool around the globe. Faculty college students can not submit an entry. Nonetheless, highschool college students (together with highschool postgraduate college students) who’re taking a number of faculty courses can take part. College students attending their first yr of a two-year CEGEP in Quebec Province can even take part. As well as, college students age 19 or beneath who’ve accomplished highschool however are taking a niche yr or are in any other case not enrolled in faculty can take part.
The youngsters and stepchildren of New York Occasions staff are usually not eligible to enter this contest. Nor are college students who reside in the identical family as these staff.
Can I’ve another person examine my work?
We perceive that college students will typically revise their work primarily based on suggestions from academics and friends. That’s allowed for this contest. Nonetheless, make sure that the ultimate submission displays the concepts, voice and writing means of the scholar, not another person.
Do I would like a Works Cited web page?
Sure. We give you a separate area to record the sources you used to tell or write your open letter. You’re allowed to format your record nevertheless you need; we won’t choose your entry primarily based on formatting on this part. Inside citations in your letter are usually not crucial.
Why are you asking for an Artist’s Assertion about our course of? What’s going to you do with it?
All of us who work on The Studying Community are former academics. One of many many issues we miss, now that we work in a newsroom moderately than a classroom, is having the ability to see how college students are reacting to our “assignments” in actual time — and to supply assist, or tweaks, to make these assignments higher. We’re asking you to replicate on what you probably did and why, and what was onerous or simple about it, largely in order that we are able to enhance our contests and the curriculum we create to assist them.
Another excuse? We’ve heard from many academics that writing these statements is immensely useful to college students. Stepping again from a chunk and making an attempt to place into phrases what you wished to specific, and why and the way you made inventive selections to try this, may also help you see your piece anew and determine find out how to make it stronger. For our workers, they provide vital context that assist us perceive particular person college students and submissions, and study extra in regards to the situations beneath which college students around the globe create.
Whom can I contact if I’ve questions on this contest or am having points submitting my entry?
Go away a touch upon this submit or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
_________
QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING WITH THIS CONTEST
Do my college students want a New York Occasions subscription to entry these assets?
No. All the assets on The Studying Community are free.
In case your college students don’t have a subscription to The New York Occasions, they will additionally get entry to Occasions items via The Studying Community. All of the actions for college students on our web site, together with mentor texts and writing prompts, plus the Occasions articles they hyperlink to, are free. College students can seek for articles utilizing the search instrument on our house web page.
How do my college students show to me that they entered this contest?
After they press “Submit” on the shape beneath, they are going to see a “Thanks on your submission.” line seem. They will take a screenshot of this message. Please notice: Our system doesn’t at present ship affirmation emails.
Submission Kind
Please learn the next rigorously earlier than you submit:
College students who’re 13 and older in america or the UK, or 16 and older elsewhere on this planet, can submit their very own entries. Those that are 13 to fifteen and reside outdoors america or the UK will need to have an grownup submit the entry (push the “Submit” button) on their behalf. We’ve this rule as a result of in some nations kids beneath age 16 can not legally conform to the phrases on the backside of the submission type.
All college students who’re beneath 18 should present a dad or mum or guardian’s permission to enter. The permission is a part of the submission type beneath.
You’ll not obtain e mail affirmation of your submission. After you submit, you will notice the message “Thanks on your submission.” Meaning we acquired your entry. Should you want proof of entry on your trainer, please take a screenshot of that message.
Source link
#Open #Letters #OpinionWriting #Contest
