Winning Essay Corpus

12 archived first-prize essays from 2020 and 2023, with PDFs where available and links to the original publication. The corpus is small by design: only essays the John Locke Institute has published in full are included here. Use them to study cadence, evidence density, thesis placement, and how a winning essay opens and closes.

7 PDFs 12 source links 2,000-word competition cap (older essays ran longer when the cap was higher)

Year	Category	Prompt	Words	Read
2020	History	2020 First Prize History Essay	2,176	Source
2020	Junior (under 18) Standalone Junior format (retired)	2020 First Prize Junior Essay	4,220	Source
2020	Law	2020 First Prize Law Essay	2,398	Source
2020	Psychology	2020 First Prize Psychology Essay	2,039	Source
2020	Theology	2020 First Prize Theology Essay	2,466	Source
2023	Economics	A government funds its own expenditure by taxing its population. Suppose, instead, it relied solely on money newly created by the central bank? What would be the advantages and/or disadvantages?	2,735	Source · PDF
2023	History	Which characteristics distinguish successful movements for social change from unsuccessful ones?	182	Source · PDF
2023	History	Should we judge those from the past by the standards of today? How will historians in the future judge us?	2,570	Source · PDF
2023	Law	Should ‘innocent until proven guilty’ apply not only to courts of law, but also to public censure?	2,292	Source · PDF
2023	Law	Should the law ever prevent people from freely making self-harming decisions? If so, what should and shouldn’t be forbidden – and according to which principles?	2,039	Source · PDF
2023	Philosophy	Are beliefs voluntary?	1,255	Source · PDF
2023	Theology	If you cannot persuade your intelligent, sympathetic friends to embrace your religious belief system, do you have enough reason to believe what you believe?	1,683	Source · PDF