Essay Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A written composition on a set topic, sat alone under timed conditions and marked out of 100 for content, language and structure.

Essay is a desk-based writing item. Each entrant sits alone, receives a topic, and produces a continuous piece of prose within a fixed time. Nothing is performed on a stage; the script is collected and marked afterwards, so the result depends on preparation, language control and planning rather than confidence in front of an audience. That places it in the Off Stage group alongside other written items.

In the Kerala Sunday-school competition template, Essay is run for the Higher Secondary division only, as an individual item open to boys and girls together, written in Malayalam and marked out of 100. The template carries a 45-minute limit with a warning at the 44th minute, matching the other written papers that division sits. The organiser’s printed rules for this item were not fully legible when the template was built, so the duration follows the pattern of the sibling papers; organisers should confirm it against their own circular.

Other eTalenter templates use Essay in a much lighter form: a short, individual written item of 15 to 20 minutes marked out of 10, run as one of several quick written tasks in a talent test. The same item name therefore covers both a full-length composition and a short timed piece, and the time limit, marks and language are set by each organiser when the event is built.

A round is run like a small examination: candidates seated apart, topic paper handed out, a start call, a warning near the end, then scripts collected. One hall can seat a whole division at once, and several markers can work against the same marking scheme, which keeps results quick even when entries are large.

Where Essay is run

In eTalenter’s data, Essay appears in four templates: the Kerala Sunday-school competition, where it is a 45-minute paper for the Higher Secondary division, and three talent-test templates where it is a short written item with a small mark total. Essay competitions are a staple of school, church-school and youth events in many countries, but this page describes only the formats those templates define. Essay Writing is a separate item with its own page and rules.

• India (Kerala) – Sunday-school competition circuit
• Talent-test style events in other eTalenter templates

Key facts

• Individual item: each entrant writes alone; there is no team entry.
• Written, not spoken: scripts are collected and marked after the round.
• Sunday-school template: Higher Secondary division only, Malayalam, marked out of 100, 45 minutes with a warning at 44 (duration to be confirmed against the organiser’s circular).
• Talent-test templates: short written item of 15 to 20 minutes, marked out of 10.
• Open to boys and girls together in every template that carries it.
• Distinct from the Essay Writing item, which has its own page.

On eTalenter, Essay is filed under Off Stage, Written and typically scored with Count, Marks. It appears in 4 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Essay is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 10, commonly time-limited to 15–45 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Essay

What a Essay panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Content and relevance – the essay must answer the topic set, and drifting into a memorised general essay loses marks
• Structure – a clear opening, a developed middle and a conclusion that follows from the argument
• Language – correct grammar, spelling and sentence control in the language of the paper
• Originality of thought – a personal angle or fresh example scores above a stock list of points
• Use of examples – specific, accurate illustrations (scripture, history, daily life) support each main point
• Legibility and completion – an unfinished or unreadable script cannot be fully credited

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Essay under Scoring Setup, or start from the full essay & story writing judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Essay

How entrants and their teachers usually get Essay right on the day:

• Write at least one full timed essay a week in the exam language, then have a teacher mark it against the criteria above
• Practise planning first: spend the opening five minutes listing three or four points and a conclusion before writing
• Build a bank of short, accurate examples and quotations you can fit to many topics instead of memorising whole essays
• Read a model essay and note how each paragraph earns its place, then rewrite it in your own words
• Practise the whole time limit with a timer so the conclusion is never left unwritten
• Write neatly and leave the final minutes to proofread spelling and punctuation
• After a district-level loss, compare your script with a high scorer’s and work on the weakest area, whether structure, language or examples

Frequently asked questions

Is Essay judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

How long is the Essay item?

It depends on the event. The Kerala Sunday-school template carries 45 minutes with a warning at the 44th minute, and talent-test templates use 15 to 20 minutes. Check the circular for the event you are entering.

Is Essay judged individually or as a team?

Individually. Every template that carries Essay treats it as an individual item.

Is Essay the same as Essay Writing?

They are separate items in eTalenter, each with its own page and rules, although both are written compositions.

Which language is the Essay written in?

In the Kerala Sunday-school template it is Malayalam. In other templates the language is set by the organiser.

Can I bring notes into the Essay round?

The templates do not provide for notes, and written rounds are normally closed-book. Confirm with the organiser’s rules.

Want the full judging picture? Read the full essay & story writing judging criteria guide, or browse every off stage competition item.