Do you like sharing your opinion with others? Do you have strong reactions to books, movies, restaurants or fashion? Are you a foodie or a gamer? A music buff or a theater aficionado?

If so, this contest is for you. We invite you to play critic and write an original review for our Ninth Annual Student Review Contest.

What can you choose to review? Anything that fits into a category of creative expression that The New York Times covers — from architecture to music. But this year we’ve added a new requirement: Anything you choose to review must have debuted in 2023. That means not that you watched a movie, read a book or heard an album for the first time this year, but that the work premiered in 2023. With this new rule, we hope to encourage students to help shape the cultural conversation about today’s world, just like Times reviewers do.

Take a look at the full guidelines and related resources below. Please post any questions you have in the comments and we’ll answer you there, or write to us at [email protected]. And, consider hanging this PDF one-page announcement on your class bulletin board.

The Rules

Please read these rules carefully before submitting an entry. You can find more details in the Frequently Asked Questions section below.

• Review something that debuted in 2023 and fits into one of the following categories of creative expression that The New York Times reviews:

  — architecture
  — art
  — books
  — cars
  — comedy
  — dance
  — fashion
  — hotels
  — movies
  — music
  — podcasts
  — restaurants
  — technology
  — theater
  — TV shows
  — video games

  You do not need to review the exact same piece of work that The Times has reviewed — just something that fits into the categories listed above. For example, you can review a new restaurant in your town because The Times reviews restaurants.

• The review must be 450 words or fewer, not including the title.

• Whatever you choose to review, it should be new to you and you should experience it yourself.

• You must be a student ages 13 to 19 in middle school or high school to participate, and all students under 18 must have parent or guardian permission to enter. Please see the F.A.Q. section for additional eligibility details.

• The work should be fundamentally your own — it should not be plagiarized, written by someone else or generated by artificial intelligence.

• Your essay should also be original for this contest, meaning, it should not already be published at the time of submission, whether in a school newspaper, for another contest or anywhere else.

• Keep in mind that the work you send in should be appropriate for a Times audience — that is, something that could be published in a family newspaper (so, please, no curse words).

• Submit only one entry per student. And while many of our contests allow students to work in teams, for this one you must work alone.

• New for 2023: As part of your submission, you must also submit an “artist’s statement” that describes your process. These statements, which will not be used to choose finalists, help us to design and refine our contests. See the F.A.Q. below to learn more.

• All entries must be submitted by Dec. 6, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time, using the contest form at the bottom of this post.

Resources for Teachers and Students

Use these resources to help you write your review:

• A new step-by-step guide for writing a review, coming soon: To be used by students or teachers, this guide walks writers through the review-writing process, from brainstorming a topic, to experiencing a work as a critic to finally putting your review on paper. Along the way, we’ll give you tons of free links to Times and student-written criticism, as well as tips from the experts on how to write a piece that is honest, engaging and fair.

• Advice from Times critics: Read these three essays or check out these four short videos in which New York Times critics share their best review-writing advice. We also have an annotated movie review by Manohla Dargis, the Times’s chief film critic.

• Tips from teenage writers: You can read the work of our 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015 winners. Or, read two annotated reviews — one on a Lizzo concert, the other on New York’s Penn Station — and watch two short videos from students who won our 2019 contest. Finally, check out the video above, which has even more advice from past student winners for entering this contest.

• Two new writing prompts, coming soon: Which new works of art or culture did you experience this year that you would encourage others to experience? Which would you caution them to avoid? These prompts offer students a “rehearsal space” for thinking and writing about the art, entertainment and culture that interests them.

• An on-demand webinar for teachers: Learning Network staff and expert educators walk you through our resources for teaching review writing with The Times.

• Our contest rubric: These are the criteria we will use to judge this contest. Keep this rubric handy to make sure your piece meets all of the qualifications before entering.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are answers to your questions about writing, judging, the rules and teaching with this contest. Please read these thoroughly and, if you still can’t find what you’re looking for, post your query in the comments or write to us at [email protected].

QUESTIONS ABOUT WRITING

What is a review?

In a cultural review, a reviewer experiences a work of art or culture, asserts an opinion about it, and backs up his or her claims with compelling evidence.

In this sense, a review is like an argumentative essay. This is what makes a review more than just a book report: a reviewer has to read (or watch, or listen to, or experience) a work closely; analyze it and understand its context; and explain what is or isn’t meaningful, interesting or relevant about it.

In other words, don’t simply summarize or describe the work you are reviewing. State an opinion and support it with details to make your case.

How can I make my review stand out?

We’re primarily looking for reviews that assert an opinion about the work being reviewed — whether positive or negative — and have something fresh, meaningful and interesting to say about it. But we’re also looking for writing that is vivid, engaging and fun to read.

A few pieces of advice:

• Express an opinion. Your review should both tell your audience about the work you are reviewing and communicate your intellectual, emotional and visceral experience of it.

• Back up your opinions with relevant and descriptive details from the work itself. The more specific you can be, the better.

• Bring readers into the experience with you by using sensory images. Metaphors, similes, descriptive adjectives, strong verbs, vivid imagery that draws on all five senses — these are the difference between a good review and a great one.

• Be mindful of your audience. You are writing a review for The New York Times, so your readers will include a broad cross-section of people. You’ll need to give appropriate context for those who might not be familiar with the work you’re reviewing. At the same time, be sure to take into account the creative work’s target audience. For example, if you are reviewing a video game intended for 10-year-old girls, aim to write a review that will be useful for 10-year-old girls (and their parents).

I’m not sure what to write about. Where should I start?

We suggest heading over to our step-by-step guide for writing a review, coming soon, which walks you through the entire process from brainstorming a topic, to experiencing a work as a critic to finally putting your review on paper.

But to help you discover what strong opinions may be lying underneath that self-doubt, try responding to these writing prompts:

• Do You Read Reviews?

• What New Work of Art or Culture Would You Recommend That Everyone Experience? (Coming soon)

• What New Work of Art or Culture Would You Warn Others to Avoid? (Coming soon)

You say we have to review something that “debuted in 2023.” What does that mean?

That means that the work of art or culture you choose must be new this year. And yes, that applies to all of the categories of expression that we have listed above.

Why? Our contests have always challenged students to try to do what The New York Times does, and this requirement more closely aligns this contest with that goal. Reviews for The Times are on current works. They not only help readers decide what to read, watch, see or listen to now, but they also often play a significant role in shaping the cultural conversation around the works critics write about.

As A.O. Scott, a longtime arts critic, puts it, “Criticism is a kind of news reporting.” He writes of the role of a reviewer:

Whether or not we like the thing we’re reviewing, we are interested in what it means, how it works (or doesn’t), why it matters (or doesn’t), and how it reflects and is part of the larger world.

While we’re not asking you to race to your desk to type out a review for the next day’s paper like Times critics, we are asking that you choose to review something you think is worth talking about right now. We hope that, by writing about something current, you can more easily accomplish the task of justifying why a work “matters” and “how it reflects and is part of the larger world.”

And keep in mind that this doesn’t mean you only have to review today’s most popular works. As Mr. Scott writes, in addition to the “latest big Hollywood movies, Broadway shows, premium cable dramas, blockbuster museum retrospectives or whatever Jay-Z and Beyoncé are up to,” critics also “pay significant attention to small triumphs as well as grand ambitions, to interesting failures as well as astonishing successes.”

Here are some examples of works that would be eligible to review for this contest: a restaurant or building that opened in your town this year; a new season of a TV show or podcast that debuted this year; a new production of a Broadway play being performed at your high school this fall; a new translation of a classic book; a movie, album, video game or tech gadget that was released this year; a concert or fashion show you attended sometime during 2023.

Is there anything I can’t write about?

We invite you to review anything that has debuted in 2023 and fits into a category of creative expression covered by The Times.

For example, you could review a concert you saw this year, such as Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, because The Times reviews music, including events. But you could not review Santa Cruz decks and wheels because The Times does not review skateboards. You could also not review Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” album, even though it does fall into the music category, because it came out in 2017.

We also ask that you focus on one specific piece of work or experience — such as a particular video game, a fashion show you saw, or a restaurant in your town — rather than a broad genre, such as pop music, dresses or barbecue restaurants in general.

Still not sure if what you want to review is acceptable? Post a comment or email us at [email protected].

Do I need a Works Cited page?

Our submission form does not allow for a separate Works Cited page for this contest. If you are quoting from another source or referencing someone else’s ideas, you should give appropriate credit in the review itself.

Here is an example of how to do so from one of our past winning reviews about New York City’s Penn Station:

As Vincent Scully, the late art critic, famously noted, “One entered the city like a god … One scuttles in now like a rat.” That blustery Friday afternoon, it wasn’t too hard to see Mr. Scully’s point.

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QUESTIONS ABOUT JUDGING

How will my review be judged?

Your work will be read by New York Times journalists as well as by Learning Network staff members and educators from around the United States. We will use this rubric to judge entries.

What’s the prize?

Having your work published on The Learning Network.

When will the winners be announced?

About two months after the contest has closed.

My essay wasn’t selected as a winner. Can you tell me why?

We receive thousands of entries for this contest, so, unfortunately, our team does not have the capacity to provide feedback on individual student essays.

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QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RULES

Why are you asking for an Artist’s Statement about our process this year? What will you do with it?

All of us who work on The Learning Network are former teachers. One of the many things we miss, now that we work in a newsroom rather than a classroom, is being able to see how students are reacting to our “assignments” in real time — and to offer help, or tweaks, to make those assignments better. We’re asking you to reflect on what you did and why, and what was hard or easy about it, in large part so that we can improve our contests and the curriculum we create to support them.

Another reason? We have heard from many teachers that writing these statements is immensely helpful to students. Stepping back from a piece and trying to put into words what you wanted to express, and why and how you made artistic choices to do that, can help you see your piece anew and figure out how to make it stronger. For our staff, they offer important context that help us understand individual students and submissions, and learn more about the conditions under which kids around the world create.

We won’t be using your statements to choose our finalists, or publishing them alongside the winning work. Instead, they will strictly be for our staff to read. If we later decide to post something about student process using these statements, we will ask for your permission before quoting you. In other words, this is fairly informal; just be yourself and be honest in telling us as much as you can about how you worked and why.

Who is eligible to participate in this contest?

This contest is open to students ages 13 to 19 who are in middle school or high school around the world. College students cannot submit an entry. However, high school students (including high school postgraduate students) who are taking one or more college classes can participate. Students attending their first year of a two-year CEGEP in Quebec Province can also participate. In addition, students age 19 or under who have completed high school but are taking a gap year or are otherwise not enrolled in college can participate.

The children and stepchildren of New York Times employees are not eligible to enter this contest. Nor are students who live in the same household as those employees.

Whom can I contact if I have questions about this contest or am having issues submitting my entry?

Leave a comment on this post or write to us at [email protected].

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QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING WITH THIS CONTEST

I’m a teacher. What resources do you have to help me teach with this contest?

Start with our step-by-step guide for writing a review, coming soon, which can be used by teachers or students. It includes writing prompts, links to free Times reviews, advice from professional critics, mentor text lessons and other resources that can support this contest.

You might also invite your students to read the winners of last year’s contest to get inspiration for their own work.

Do my students need a New York Times subscription to access these resources?

No.

Students can get free access to Times pieces through The Learning Network. All the activities for students on our site, including mentor texts and writing prompts, plus the Times articles they link to, are free. Students can search for articles using the search tool on our home page.

However, if you are interested in learning more about school subscriptions, visit this page.

How do my students prove to me that they entered this contest?

After they press “Submit” on the form below, they will see a “Thank you for your submission.” line appear. They can take a screenshot of this message. Please note: Our system does not currently send confirmation emails.

Submission Form

We will update this page with the submission form when the contest opens on Nov. 1.