The University of Limerick Regional Writing Centre announces its thirteenth annual National Secondary School Essay-writing Competition for Transition and 5th-year students. We would love to invite students from your secondary school to take part!
The competition requires students to take a decisive stance on the following prompt, explored in an essay of 800-1,000 words:
According to the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI), 7 in 10 young people are “considering emigration for a better quality of life than in Ireland.”
In response to the figures, Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik stated that “Ireland feels like no country for young people.”
“The housing crisis, cost of living, poor pay and working conditions, inadequate public services and a lack of things to do for young people that don’t involve alcohol” are listed among the reasons compelling young people to emigrate (Delmer, 2023).
Do you agree with Bacik’s statement? If you agree, what needs to change to reverse the trend reported by NYCI? If you disagree, how do you explain the trend?
The overall winner of this National competition will receive a high-end Android tablet, while the two runners-up will receive a €100 One4All voucher each.
The primary purpose of our competition is to give students the opportunity to write persuasively on social issues that are relevant to them in preparation for the argumentative writing they will perform later at third level.
In addition, the competition highlights the Regional Writing Centre’s commitment to a life-long learning approach to writing, helping students to develop strategies to become more confident, critical and autonomous writers, able to write persuasively in all contexts, whether academic, professional or personal.
Feel free to contact writingcentre@ul.ie for further questions and you can access our website’s page on the essay competition for more information.
