Our student from 2024 New York Times contest writing class just received a Honorable Mention! Only 1.6% of contestants could get this honored prize! Go Jennifer!

The New York Times Summer Reading Contest gets an average of 1200 students submitting every week.  They give one first prize and then Runner Up’s and Honorable Mentions, which are the top 20 submissions.  That means that you need to be in a tiny pool of 1.6%, much harder than getting into Harvard College. Sometimes there are fewer Runner Up’s and more Honorable Mentions: the number of each is not set, but the total of both combined is 20. 

However, every summer 15-20% of our students get either a first prize, an Honorable Mention or Runner-Up if they are talented, work hard, and follow teacher's  suggestions.  In order to be in the running, however, students need to be willing to do more than the minimum. That means reading at least three articles a week in order to find pieces that really move you, as well as getting a sense of what good newspaper writing looks like.  Students must write and revise every week–preferably one new submission and one revision.  Submitting pieces to the NYT without showing me the revision lessens the chances of receiving any attention from the NYT editors.  It’s also important for students to be actively engaged with other students’ writing.  This means carefully reading and leaving comments during the class and being willing to talk about their suggestions.  Only by becoming a good reader and a good editor can you become a good writer.