John Locke Essay Planner
The planning sheet we use with our own John Locke students — 63,000+ essays entered the Global Essay Prize in 2025, and the essays that survive the cut are planned, not improvised. Deconstruct the question, build a layered argument, budget your 2,000 words, and audit the draft against what the judges actually reward.
Prints on two pages · A4 or Letter
John Locke Essay Planner
Global Essay Prize · 2,000 words · plan before you draft
Step 1 — Deconstruct the question
every key term in a John Locke question is contestable
Your question, copied word for word
Key term 1 — what must it mean for your answer?
Key term 2
Key term 3
What kind of answer does it demand? (yes/no · to what degree · under what conditions)
Step 2 — Your thesis
one arguable sentence, stated within the first 150 words
Thesis, in one sentence
The strongest reason an informed reader would disagree
Step 3 — The layered argument
each link must depend on the one before it — not three separate points
Link 1
Claim — one sentence
Evidence and reasoning
Implication — what this sets up for Link 2
Link 2
Claim — one sentence
Evidence and reasoning
Implication — what this sets up for Link 3
Link 3
Claim — one sentence
Evidence and reasoning
Implication — what this proves for the thesis
Step 4 — The counterargument turn
engage the strongest objection, not the easiest
Steelman — the best objection, stated so fairly its author would sign it
Your reply — concede what is true, then show why the thesis survives
Step 5 — Word budget
2,000 words max, not counting diagrams, tables, endnotes, or bibliography
Step 6 — Self-audit before you submit
run this a week before the deadline, not the night before
- The thesis appears, in full, within the first 150 words — and it is a claim someone could dispute, not a description of the topic.
- Removing any single body paragraph breaks the argument. Nothing is there just because it is interesting.
- The counterargument is the strongest one available, and your reply concedes whatever is genuinely true in it.
- Every empirical claim traces to an endnote or the bibliography. Endnotes and a clearly titled bibliography only — the rules do not permit footnotes.
- The conclusion extends the argument — a wider implication or an honest limitation — rather than repeating the introduction.
- Ask honestly: would a hundred other entrants write this same essay? If yes, the angle is not yet yours.
- Final count is at or under 2,000 words (excluding diagrams, tables, endnotes, bibliography, and the authorship declaration), answering exactly one question from one subject category.
How to use this planner
- 01
Print it before you read anything
Fill in Step 1 the day the questions are released. Deconstructing the question before you research stops you from bending the question to fit the reading you happen to find.
- 02
Write the thesis early, in pencil
A thesis you cannot state in one sentence is not yet an argument. Revise it as your research sharpens — the planner is meant to be rewritten.
- 03
Test every link
The layered argument section works when removing any one link makes the chain collapse. If a paragraph can be deleted without damage, it is decoration, not argument.
- 04
Budget words before drafting
The 2,000-word limit punishes essays that spend 800 words clearing their throat. Allocate the budget on paper, then hold yourself to it per section.
- 05
Run the self-audit a week before the deadline
Leave enough time to act on what the audit finds. A failed originality check usually means re-angling the thesis, not polishing sentences.
What the judges reward
The John Locke Institute's panel — senior academics drawn from universities including Oxford, Cambridge, and Princeton — judges essays on knowledge and understanding, quality of reasoning, structure, originality, and persuasive force. Notice what is missing from that list: recall of facts. The planner is built around the criteria that actually separate shortlisted essays — a genuinely arguable thesis, a chain of reasoning in which every link is load-bearing, and honest engagement with the best objection. Details and official rules are on the John Locke Institute website.
- Questions released
- late January
- Submission deadline
- end of May
- Word limit
- 2,000 words
93% of our students were shortlisted in 2026
The planner is the skeleton; the coaching is the muscle. Our John Locke preparation courses pair small-group teaching with supervised drafting from question release to submission.