Compete

Preparation guide

How to prepare for Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

The longest-running recognition programme for creative teenagers in the United States, across 29 categories.

Competitive · Grades 7 to 12.

Competition details and how to enter Official website

Where the points actually are

Jurors are told to look for three things: originality, technical skill, and personal voice or vision. Of these, personal voice is what most entries lack. Competent, careful work in a familiar mode does not medal; work that could only have been made by one specific person does. The second largest source of lost awards is category choice and deadline confusion, both of which are entirely within your control.

Topic breakdown

01Originality
Jurors reward work that breaks convention, blurs genre boundaries, or challenges how a concept is usually expressed. The safest version of a familiar idea is the least competitive submission you can make.
02Technical skill
Practised craft in service of a clear intention. For writing this means sentence-level control; for art it means the technique matches what the piece is trying to do.
03Personal voice or vision
An authentic and specific point of view. Concrete detail drawn from your own life and attention is the most reliable route to this.
04Category fit
There are 29 categories. A hybrid piece entered in a crowded category may lose to weaker work; the same piece in the right category can win. Read all the definitions before choosing.
05The senior portfolio
Graduating seniors can submit six-work portfolios, judged as a body. Coherence across the six matters as much as the quality of any one.

A study plan that works backwards from the date

  1. Summer Make a lot of work without thinking about the competition. You cannot select strong work from a small pool.
  2. September Read the winning anthologies and view past medalist galleries, which are published free. Calibrate what the actual bar is rather than guessing.
  3. October Entries open on 1 October. Choose your pieces and your categories. Get a teacher or working artist to read or view them and be genuinely critical.
  4. November Revise. For writing, this is where most of the improvement happens; a fifth draft beats a first draft reliably. Prepare high-quality photographs of art pieces.
  5. Two weeks before your regional deadline Submit. The portal is slow near deadlines and technical problems at 11pm are not grounds for an extension.

Tips that come from the format itself

  • Your deadline is regional. Look it up on the Region Locator rather than assuming the national date applies to you.
  • You may enter unlimited submissions across as many categories as you like. Several strong entries is a legitimate strategy.
  • Past winning work is published in free anthologies and galleries. Reading them is the single most useful preparation available.
  • Photograph artwork properly, in even light against a neutral background. Jurors see the photograph, not the object.
  • Fee waivers exist and are applied during submission. Cost should not stop you entering.

Practice resources

Past papers and official materials

Videos worth your time

Skills this builds

  • Creative writing or studio art practice
  • Self-editing
  • Selecting your strongest work
  • Writing an artist or writer statement
  • Meeting formal submission requirements

Read what other students said about preparing