Ayn Rand

Subject(s): Philosophy, Literature

Eligibility:
✓ Students worldwide
✓ Grades 8-11

J&B Sessions:
1) 8w, Jan-Feb 2023
2) 8w, Feb-Mar 2023

Harvard International Review

Subject(s): International Affairs

Eligibility:
✓ Students worldwide
✓ Grades 9-11

J&B Sessions:
- 8w, Feb-Mar 2023 
- 8w, May-Jun 2023
- 8w, Jul-Aug 2023 

- 8w, Oct-Nov 2023

The New York Times Editorial Contest

Subject(s): Critical Essays

Eligibility:
✓ Students worldwide
✓ Grades 8-11 

J&B Sessions:
1) 6w, Feb-Mar 2023

John Locke Essay Competition

Subject(s): Philosophy, History, Theology, Politics, Economics, Psychology, Law

Eligibility:
✓ Students worldwide
✓ Grades 8-11

J&B Sessions:
1) 8w, Apr-May 2023
2) 8w, May-Jun 2023 

Harvard International Economics Essay Contest

Subject(s): Economics

Eligibility:
✓ Students worldwide
✓ Grades 9-11
J&B Sessions:
- 8w, Nov-Dec 2023 

Scholastic

Subject(s): Critical/Creative Essays, Journalism

Eligibility:
✓ U.S. student residing in any of U.S. states, DC, and territories
✓ Grades 8-11
J&B Sessions: 

- 6w, Oct-Nov 2023 
- 6w, Nov-Dec 2023

John F. Kennedy

Subject(s): History

Eligibility:
✓ U.S. student residing in any of U.S. states, DC, and territories 
✓ Grades 9-11 

J&B Sessions:
- 8w, Nov-Dec 2023

Step 1. Ideation & Brainstorming
One does not need to emphasize how important it is to have good ideas in essay writing. We (“J&B”) certainly know what they are. Good ideas are the ones uniquely generated and selected by the writer, and they directly contribute to producing a final draft both logical and creative. In Step 1, J&B methodologically help clients come up with not just so-so but superb ideas for their competition essays.

Step 2. Topic Confirmation
By the end of Step 1, clients should expect to have working but less concrete ideas for their potential essay topic(s). That is absolutely fine. In Step 2, J&B helps polish the rough, incomplete ideas. How so? Well, by providing clients with highly relevant reading sources in PDF format! The reading materials not only help them gain necessary knowledge, understanding and diverse ideas on potential essay topics but also help the clients confidently select the topic of highest interest at the end of the step.

Step 3. Lecture
Once the topic is selected and finalized, we are ready for the lecture. In Step 3, Essay Advisor from the consulting team prepares and provides clients with a detailed, PowerPoint-based lecture on the selected topic. The clients are additionally provided with ten scholarly journals to review and prepare to actively engage in discussions for Step 4, which is a seminar session.

Step 4. Seminar
Prior to this step, we expect clients to thoroughly re-review the lecture slides as well as scholarly journals provided with in Step 3. In this step, we engage in active discussions with clients on three to five journals of our choice. Clients should expect to, for example, restate the writer’s thesis in their own words, formulate counterarguments that would potentially invalidate the writer’s claim(s) and others. By the end of Step 4, clients should be ready to begin working on an outline.

Step 5. Philosophical Logic & Outline
In this step, clients will be provided with J&B outline template, model outline and reading sources. It is vital to fully understand the underlying structure and logic in the outline template. A pursuit of essay writing is both creative and logical. Merely having creative ideas is not enough; having a solid, logical structure with compelling evidence to adequately embrace those ideas is equally important to produce a unique, superior final draft. We need both art and science to create a masterpiece.

Step 6. First Draft
Once clients fully review and understand the outline template, model outline and reading materials provided in Step 5, they are now ready to work on a first draft. A significant number of our clients have greatly benefited from the Step 5 resources, especially the model outline. The outline – typically 7-12 page-long – is detailed and clear enough for the clients to fully understand the content (e.g. thesis, claims, etc.) as well as underlying logical structure. Don’t worry if the first draft seems rough and incomplete! It is supposed to be, indeed, rough and incomplete at this stage.

Step 7. Editing & Feedback
In this step, it is J&B’s full responsibility to make thorough, detailed edits as well as provide meaningful feedback to the first draft produced by clients in Step 6. We utilize comments when giving feedback; moreover, we ensure to correct inconsistencies, logical fallacies, awkward, ungrammatical sentences, and others. Our edits and feedback are detailed, clear and meaningful.

Step 8. Second Draft
After thoroughly reviewing the edits and feedback provided in Step 7, clients are now ready to revise the first draft, which ultimately becomes a second draft. We expect they carefully review and consider our feedback left in comments accordingly. In case clarification or/and elaboration required, we can be readily reached on a clients’ project platform.

Step 9. Final Editing & Polishing
In this step, we ensure to review and correct, if needed, all errors, both big and small. Moreover, we polish any word, sentence or paragraph that requires further improvement. J&B believes, based on experience, that an infinite number of revisions do not necessarily lead to a more quality draft; rather, it often results in, oy vey, a worse quality draft. Our edits, feedback and polishing are quality-oriented not quantity-oriented.

Step 10. Evaluation
Upon satisfactorily producing a final draft, our next and final step of consulting is so-called evaluation. We thoroughly evaluate clients’ writing skills based on session participation (e.g. ideation & brainstorming, seminar, etc), first and second drafts. It is our aim that clients meaningfully utilize the evaluation along with other academic resources and experience gained from consulting when working on other essays in future. We truly hope the experience with us will help them become more independent, competent essay writers.