Ethos High School Writing Competition 2025
The Ethos High School Writing Competition 2025 invites students to engage with an array of thought-provoking questions beyond traditional academic curricula. This competition aims to foster independent thinking, deep understanding, clear reasoning, and effective argumentation.
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The essays will be udged by a distinguished panel of experts from the LKS Faculty of Medicine at The University of Hong Kong and the Ethos Editorial Board. This competition provides students the unique opportunity to have their work evaluated by leading academics, students, and professionals.​​​​​
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Medical Narratives / Humanities
Choose one of the quotes provided below for your narrative or fictional piece, ensuring that the theme of your story aligns with the essence of the quote, and includes the quote verbatim.
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“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” (Albert Einstein, German Physicist)
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“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another” (Charles Dickens, English novelist)
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“Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability” (Sir William Osler, Canadian physician)
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Non-Fiction
Choose one of the provided questions from one of the themes. Craft an essay that showcases your understanding, argumentation skills, and creativity.
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Planetary Health: If the planet is sick, can humanity be healthy?
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Ethics of Body Commodification: To what extent is Iran's legal human kidney market the envy of the world, and why is/isn't a commercial human kidney market a solution to the shortage of organs?
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Global Inequity: To what extent are doctors morally obligated to extend their care and expertise to people beyond their immediate communities or borders, especially when they have the means to do so?
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THEMES​
HOW TO ENTER
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Select a Question: Each participant may submit only one piece, which must be based on either a Medical Humanities quote or a Non-Fiction question, not both.
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Write Your Essay: Craft an essay that showcases your understanding, creativity, argumentation skills, and originality.
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Submit Your Entry: Upload your essay to this form by the submission deadline.
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COMPETITION RULES
Only original, unpublished work may be submitted. By entering the competition, the entrant confirms that the work is solely their own and has not been previously published or submitted elsewhere.
Plagiarism, defined as the use of third-party works without proper citation or written permission from the author, will result in disqualification.
Artificial intelligence (AI) may be used as a supporting tool in the creation of a submission but must not generate the entire work or replace the entrant’s original ideas and effort. Submissions must reflect the entrant’s own intellectual contribution.
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AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
Awards will be announced during our flagship event Dialogues with Ethos on August 29th, Friday, 6:00 - 7:30pm, at 3 Sassoon Road. Award-winning works will be featured on our platform.
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​​​SUBMISSION DETAILS:
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Eligibility: Students in Years 10 to 13 or Forms 3 to 6 studying in a Hong Kong secondary school for the 2024-25 academic year.
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Submission Deadline: All entries must be submitted by 11:59 pm HKT on Monday, 7th July 2025 (Monday).
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Submission Format: Essays should be submitted in Microsoft Word or Google Doc format with the filename in the structure: QuestionNumber-LastName-FirstName.docx (e.g., 2-Chan-TaiManAlex.docx).
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Word Count: Essays should be between 800 and 1200 words.
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Citation: Vancouver Style Submission Portal: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSen7Tdz9_K0kWMfWZLPTNOkdyLRSesOCG5hv6EtMzJ-jGgxrQ/viewform?usp=dialog
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For any queries regarding the essay competition, please contact us at ethos@hku.hk via email or through any of our social media accounts.