LSESU Economics Essay Planner
The LSESU competition does something most essay prizes never do: it publishes its judging rubric. That means you can plan an essay against the exact marks on offer — 25 points for argument and originality, 20 for economic theory, and so on down the table. And because 1,500 words is short, structure decides everything. This is the planning sheet our Economics Scholar students complete before they draft a single paragraph.
Prints on two pages · A4 or Letter
LSESU Economics Essay Planner
Essay Competition · 1,500 words · plan against the rubric
Step 1 — Choose your question
pick the question where you can say something others won't
The question, copied word for word
What is it really asking? (the underlying economic tension)
The answer most entrants will give
Your answer — and how it differs
Step 2 — The economic machinery
Economic Theories is worth 20 of 100 points
Framework 1
Theory or model
How it applies to this question specifically
Framework 2
Theory or model
How it applies to this question specifically
The key mechanism of your argument, in one sentence (X causes Y because…)
Step 3 — Evidence and examples
worth 15 points — real data beats stylised examples
Evidence 1
Source (for your Harvard reference list)
What it shows for your argument
Evidence 2
Source (for your Harvard reference list)
What it shows for your argument
Evidence 3
Source (for your Harvard reference list)
What it shows for your argument
Step 4 — Structure and word budget
1,500 words excluding references
Step 5 — Rubric self-audit
score yourself honestly before submitting
- Argument & Originality (25): my thesis is a position, not a summary — and it is not the first answer most entrants would reach.
- Economic Theories (20): named frameworks are applied to this question, not just recited.
- Evidence & Examples (15): every empirical claim has a source in the reference list.
- Critical Analysis (15): I state where my argument is weakest — and why it survives.
- Structure & Clarity (10): each paragraph advances the argument; a reader could outline the essay from topic sentences alone.
- Citations & Sources (10): Harvard referencing, consistent, references excluded from the word count.
- Topic Relevance (5): the conclusion answers the exact question set — reread the wording one last time.
Step 6 — Submission rules
- 12pt Times New Roman · 1.5 line spacing · page numbers.
- Under 1,500 words, excluding references.
- Exactly one question answered.
- No AI-generated content — the work is entirely mine.
- Submitted before September 1.
How to use this planner
- 01
Choose by originality, not familiarity
Pick the question where you can be original, not the topic you happen to know best — Argument & Originality is the single biggest line on the rubric, worth 25 of 100 points.
- 02
Build the mechanism sentence first
Before anything else, complete the sentence "X causes Y because…". If you cannot finish it, you have a topic, not an argument — and no amount of drafting will hide that.
- 03
Budget words on paper first
1,500 words disappears fastest into overlong introductions. Allocate the budget per section before drafting, then hold yourself to it.
- 04
Run the rubric audit twice
Score yourself against Step 5 once after the outline, and again on the final draft. The first pass fixes the plan; the second catches what the drafting eroded.
Why the rubric matters
Most essay competitions never tell you how the marks are weighted — entrants guess at what the judges want. The LSESU Economics Society publishes its rubric in full, so an entrant who plans against it starts ahead of one who simply writes well. The full rules and the 2026 questions are on the society's competitions page; for a question-by-question analysis, see our breakdown of all five 2026 questions.
- Deadline
- September 1, 2026
- Word limit
- 1,500 words
- Entry fee
- Free
One-on-one mentorship to September 1
The Economics Scholar program pairs your student with a dedicated mentor for 10 or 20 hours of one-on-one coaching — question choice through final draft, with flexible summer scheduling.