The Regional Writing Centre, and the Centre for Teaching and Learning of the University of Limerick invites all Secondary Schools within the Republic of Ireland to participate in the annual Essay-writing Competition. This is the first year that the competition is being held nationally, and we would like to welcome all the new schools taking part, in line with their Transition, 5th, and 6th Year students that can participate in the competition. Our motivation for everything we do at the Writing Centre is centred on our desire to extend and perpetuate an island-wide conversation on writing, writers and the importance of writing.

The competition will require that students take a decisive stance on the following prompt, which is to be explored in an essay of 800-1,000 words:

'' The Leaving Cert...perpetuates a system of learning that poorly prepares students for either the realities of third-level education or modern life in general''

– ­Paul Rowe, Chief Executive, Educate Together. –

Is the Leaving Cert of value in its current form or does it need to be changed? Respond to this question with reference to the above quote.

The primary purpose of our competition is to give students the opportunity to engage in a social debate through writing and to prepare them for argumentative writing at third level. In addition, the competition highlights the University of Limerick’s commitment to supporting the educational advancement of prospective students. The Regional Writing Centre is dedicated to helping students to develop strategies to become more confident, critical and autonomous writers, able to write persuasively in all contexts, whether academic or professional.

The deadline for receipt of entries for this competition is Tuesday, 25th February, 2014, 12:00pm.

Four winners will be announced on Wednesday, 30th April 2014, and prizes will be awarded at a special ceremony by the President of the University of Limerick, Professor Don Barry, on Tuesday, 20th May, 2014. The overall winner of the National Essay-writing Competition will receive an iPad, while the three provincial winners will each receive a €200 voucher.

To view a printable, PDF version of the Rules, please click here.

To view a printable PDF version of the Identification Sheet, please click here.