This year’s competition was held under two different conditions compared to past events. One change was that the competitors were not given the ability to browse the internet for supportive ideas and information. The second difference is that the event was open to both non-native speakers of English (NNS) and native speakers of English (NS). These changes reflect the ubiquity of online information at the tip of a finger and how diverse the student body is in Korean universities. Technological advancements have made it particularly difficult to gauge individuals’ writing ability, principally due to the Open AI ChatGPT language processing tool. Therefore, the competitors of the 2023 English Essay contest completed their essays in an off-internet setting, unable to research any information that might support their argumentative essay.
    Despite this unusual writing environment, the quality of writing produced by the competitors demonstrated thought, world knowledge, argumentation rationale, and English skill, and was skillful enough to persuade their audience. Above all, the off-internet setting helped the writers to concentrate on the organization and rationale of their thesis statements, in addition to English skills and rhetoric composition.
  This year’s topics on activating strategies for next generation campus journalism for the NNS and the position of copyrighting AI art for NS gave the contestants the opportunity to produce strong argumentative thoughts and organization. The most ideal argumentative essay was considered to have three essential components: a central thesis statement, supporting ideas, and specific lively examples. Some contestants showed a clear mastery in some areas, but areas for improvement in others. For example, contestants with a simple, but fully reasonable thesis, were not able to provide specific examples to support their central claims. While others gave elaborate detailed examples, but lacked proper rationale for their supporting ideas. More specifically, one writer provided “video interviewing” as a method to improve campus journalism, but did not specify the kind of video that would work, while another suggested a YouTube clip to advertise the institute, but no supporting ideas on what the YouTube clip would encompass.
    In the same vein, adding too many thesis statements or adding extra points in the concluding paragraph confused the readers. In a timed essay contest, using more than three different thesis ideas required a tremendous amount of supporting details, which prevented many from completing a polished essay. In an awardee’s essay, choosing one theme, such as “reformation” in campus journalism could unfold into supporting details of a “fast-paced media,” “content reformation,” and a “long-time direction to go forward.” Finding one embracing theme and providing a number of supporting ideas were crucial to succeed in this contest.
    Regarding the final thoughts of the contestant, which work differently from a novel or a movie, the reader of the argumentative essays is getting ready for a brief review of identifying and understanding the major argumentations of the essay. In particular, the last paragraph should signal the argumentation is nearing the end for summarization. For this reason, adding an extra idea surprised the reader and showed disorganization in the construction of the essay. The judges’ advice for this type of essay was to keep the thesis statement broad enough to provide a number of supporting details, while keeping in mind the time limit of two hours and a word limit of 700 words.
    To summarize, we were grateful for the chance to read these outstanding essays and we encourage the contestants to use this experience to help them think and write about changes to the world around us each day, be that in English or in their native language. This ordinary practice will enhance critical thinking and writing competency in both their native language and in English. Thank you and we look forward to reading your submissions next year.

By Kim Jeong-a, Ph.D., Lecturer, Language Education Center, Chonnam National University
Jeffrey Hamilton, Associate Professor, Dept. of English Literature and Literature, Chosun University