Competition rules

1. Organizer

The Soundly Said Global Essay Prize 2026 (the “Competition”) is administered by Soundly Said (the “Organizer”). The Competition is free to enter and is not sponsored or administered by Jotform, Netlify, Google, WhatsApp, or any school shown on the School Cup leaderboard.

2. Eligibility

• Entrants must be current high-school or secondary-school students, or the local equivalent, when they enter.
• Entrants will ordinarily be 13–19 years old. A student outside that range may be asked to verify equivalent secondary-school status.
• The Competition is intended to be global, but entry and prizes are void where prohibited by applicable law.
• Members of the Organizer’s advisory team, competition administrators, judges, and their immediate family members may not enter.
• Entrants under 18 must provide a parent or guardian contact and obtain any consent required by local law.

3. How to enter

1. Complete the official online entry form before the deadline.
2. Provide accurate student and contact information. School or club information is optional.
3. Paste the essay text into the form or provide a Google Docs link that anyone with the link can view.
4. Confirm that the work is original and that you are permitted to submit it.

There is no entry fee and no purchase is required. Each entrant may send one form and designate one cash-prize essay. Incomplete, inaccessible, late, duplicate, or fraudulent entries may be excluded.

4. Essay requirements

An eligible essay must:

• be nonfiction, such as argumentative, analytical, research-based, personal, reflective, commentary, or opinion writing;
• be written by the entrant and express the entrant’s own thinking and voice;
• be submitted in English and be readable by the judging team;
• contain no more than 3,000 words, excluding the bibliography or works cited;
• have been written while the entrant was a high-school or secondary-school student;
• be work the entrant is legally permitted to share; and
• not be coursework still under active assessment, subject to confidentiality, or covered by an exclusive publication agreement.

Essays may have been written before the Competition opened and may have been graded or previously published if the entrant still has the right to submit them. Citations are expected where the essay relies on another person’s words or ideas.

Use of artificial intelligence

Basic spelling and grammar tools are permitted. Essays substantially drafted, rewritten, or generated by generative AI are not eligible. The Organizer may ask an entrant to describe their writing process or provide drafts when authorship is reasonably in question.

5. Judging

Eligible Essay 1 entries are evaluated on:

• Original insight — 35%
• Development and reasoning — 30%
• Clarity and style — 20%
• Overall impact — 15%

Likes, shares, referral counts, school size, and School Cup rank do not affect individual prize judging. The Organizer may use preliminary readers before a finalist review. Decisions are final once eligibility and authorship checks are complete.

6. Prizes

• First place: US$200
• Second place: US$100
• Third place: US$50

A person may receive no more than one cash prize. Potential winners must verify their identity, age, student status, authorship, and—in the case of a minor—guardian consent before receiving a prize. The Organizer will contact potential winners at the submitted email address; failure to respond within seven days may result in an alternate being selected.

Prizes are stated in US dollars. The Organizer will make reasonable efforts to use a lawful payment method available to the winner. Winners are responsible for any taxes or reporting obligations that apply where they live. Results will be posted after judging and verification; the announcement date will be published on the competition page.

7. Global School Cup

A student may use a school or club referral link. Each verified entrant and each eligible submitted essay can be credited to the selected school code. Duplicate, automated, incomplete, inaccessible, ineligible, or fraudulent entries do not count. Participation is optional; students may enter independently without a school code.

• 5 verified writers: Connector badge
• 20 verified writers: signed digital captain certificate
• 50 verified writers: Founding School recognition

The Organizer may verify school or club affiliation and merge duplicate school names or codes. School Cup recognition has no cash value and does not affect essay judging. Public rankings show school or club names and aggregate totals only—not student names.

School totals close at the competition deadline. The eligible school or club with the most eligible essays earns 2026 Global School Cup recognition and a signed digital certificate. Schools tied on eligible essays share that recognition. The displayed order among tied schools uses verified-writer totals and then school name only to keep the table stable.

8. Copyright, judging rights, and publication

Entrants keep copyright in their essays. Entering grants the Organizer a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free permission to store, reproduce internally, and share the essay with readers or judges only as needed to administer, verify, and judge the Competition.

Entry does not automatically grant public publication rights. If Soundly Said would like to publish an essay, it will send a separate invitation and obtain the entrant’s—and, where required, their guardian’s—permission. Declining publication does not change an entrant’s judging outcome.

9. Verification and fair play

The Organizer may disqualify an entry for plagiarism, false information, impersonation, prohibited AI use, harassment, manipulation of school totals, technical abuse, or any other material breach of these rules. Reasonable corrections to names, school attribution, or contact information may be accepted at the Organizer’s discretion.

Internet or form errors do not guarantee an extension. Entrants should retain a copy of their confirmation and essay. If two entries are materially identical, the Organizer may request clarification and determine which, if either, is valid.

10. Changes, cancellation, and questions

If circumstances outside reasonable control prevent fair operation, the Organizer may adjust dates, judging procedures, or the Competition itself. Any material change will be posted on the competition page and will preserve already submitted entrants’ rights as far as reasonably possible.

Questions may be sent through the contact options on the official Soundly Said website.

Rules version: August 30, 2026.