The competition is officially announced, and the prompt is revealed.
Submissions will not open immediately.
Participants will have one full week to reflect on the prompt, develop their ideas,
and begin drafting their essays independently (outside of TwoCents).
March 9 - March 15 - Submission Window Opens
Submissions open on March 9 and will remain open for one week.
During this period, you may:
Upload a completed draft, or
Write your essay directly on TwoCents
You may edit your essay as many times as you like throughout this week.
Once satisfied, you may publish your final version.
Even after publishing, you may continue editing until the submission window closes on March 15.
Please note:
During this stage, only judges and TwoCents administrators will be able to view published essays.
Participants will not be able to see one another's submissionsāonly their own.
March 16 - March 22 - Judging Period
Judging begins on March 16. At this point:
Editing will be permanently disabled.
All submitted essays will become visible to participants.
No further changes of any kind will be allowed.
Judging will run for one week, and winners will be announced on Sunday, March 22.
Participation in this competition is open to all registered TwoCents users.
If you have an active TwoCents account, you are eligible to submit an entry.
There are no restrictions based on location, profession, academic background, or experience level.
This is a community-wide competitionāopen to every voice on the platform.
To ensure fairness, originality, and a high standard of discourse, all participants
must adhere to the following guidelines:
Original Work Only
All essays must be written by you. Fully AI-generated submissions are strictly prohibited and may result in disqualification.
Respectful Language
Expletives, profanity, hate speech, or offensive language of any kind will not be permitted. Essays should maintain a respectful and thoughtful tone, even when expressing strong opinions.
Responsible Use of AI Tools
You may use AI tools to refine grammar, improve clarity, enhance structure, or polish flow. However, the core ideas, arguments, analysis, and voice must be entirely your own.
Please note: Essays that are clearly AI-generated tend to lack originality, depth, and
authentic voiceāand will likely score poorly with judges.
Submissions that violate these rules may be disqualified at the discretion of the judging panel and TwoCents administrators.
2026 Essay Competition
Hi there,
Below is the prompt for our first ever, community-wide Essay Competition.
"The average man, regardless of creed, family background, religion, personal convictions, or social, economic, or marital status, will always feel threatened or intimidated by a successful, strong, independent woman."
Write a compelling, well-structured essay responding to this prompt. Clearly state your
positionāwhether you agree, disagree, or take a nuanced stanceāand defend it with
persuasive arguments, real-world examples, research, historical context, or lived experiences. Demonstrate critical thinking, depth of insight, and originality.
Submissions will begin on the 9th of March.
You may use this week (March 2nd to March 8th), to brainstorm and develop your arguments. Use the button
below to view additional details and guidelines for the competition.
The prizes for the 1st to 3rd positions (In Nigerian Naira ₦) are as follows:
At the end of the month, we give out prizes in 3 categories: Best Content, Top Engagers and
Most Engaged Content.
Best Content
Top Engagers
Most Engaged Content
Best Content
We give out cash prizes to 7 people with the best insights in the past month. The 7 winners are picked
by an in-house selection process.
The winners are NOT picked from the leaderboards/rankings, we choose winners based on the quality, originality
and insightfulness of their content.
Here are a few other things to know for the Best Content track
1
Quality over Quantity — You stand a higher chance of winning by publishing a few really good insights across the entire month,
rather than a lot of low-quality, spammy posts.
2
Share original, authentic, and engaging content that clearly reflects your voice, thoughts, and opinions.
3
Avoid using AI to generate contentāuse it instead to correct grammar, improve flow, enhance structure, and boost clarity.
4
Explore audio contentāhigh-quality audio insights can significantly boost your chances of standing out.
5
Use eye-catching cover imagesāif your content doesn't attract attention, it's less likely to be read or engaged with.
6
Share your content in your social circles to build engagement around it.
Top Engagers
For the Top Engagers Track, we award the top 3 people who engage the most with other user's content via
comments.
The winners are picked using the "Top Monthly Engagers" tab on the rankings page.
Most Engaged Content
The Most Engaged Content recognizes users whose content received the most engagement during the month.
We pick the top 3.
The winners are picked using the "Top Monthly Contributors" tab on the rankings page.
Contributor Rankings
The Rankings/Leaderboard shows the Top 20 contributors and engagers on TwoCents a monthly and all-time basis
— as well as the most active colleges (users attending/that attended those colleges)
The all-time contributors ranking is based on the Contributor Score, which is a measure of all the engagement and exposure a contributor's content receives.
The monthly contributors ranking tracks performance of a user's insights for the current month. The monthly and all-time scores are calcuated DIFFERENTLY.
This page also shows the top engagers on an all-time & monthly basis.
All-time Contributors
All-time Engagers
Top Monthly Contributors
Top Monthly Engagers
Most Active Colleges
Contributor Score
The all-time ranking is based on users' Contributor Score, which is a measure of all
the engagement and exposure a contributor's content receives.
Here is a list of metrics that are used to calcuate your contributor score, arranged from
the metric with the highest weighting, to the one with the lowest weighting.
1
Subscriptions received
2
Tips received
3
Comments (excluding replies)
4
Upvotes
5
Views
6
Number of insights published
Engagement Score
The All-time Engagers ranking is based on a user's Engagement Score — a measure of how much a
user engages with other users' content via comments and upvotes.
Here is a list of metrics that are used to calcuate the Engagement Score, arranged from
the metric with the highest weighting, to the one with the lowest weighting.
1
A user's comments (excluding replies & said user's comments on their own content)
2
A user's upvotes
Monthly Score
The Top Monthly Contributors ranking is a monthly metric indicating how users respond to your posts, not just how many you publish.
We look at three main things:
1
How strong your best post is —
Your highest-scoring post this month carries the most weight. One great post can take you far.
2
How consistent the engagement you receive is —
We also look at the average score of all your posts. If your work keeps getting good reactions, you get a boost.
3
How consistent the engagement you receive is —
Posting more helps ā but only a little.
Extra posts give a small bonus that grows slowly, so quality always matters more than quantity.
In simple terms:
A great post beats many ignored posts
Consistently engaging posts beat one lucky hit
Spamming low-engagement posts won't help
Tips, comments, and upvotes from others matter most
This ranking is designed to reward
Thoughtful, high-quality posts
Real engagement from the community
Consistency over time ā without punishing you for posting again
The Top Monthly Contributors leaderboard reflects what truly resonates, not just who posts the most.
Top Monthly Engagers
The Top Monthly Engagers ranking tracks the most active engagers on a monthly basis
Here is what we look at
1
A user's monthly comments (excluding replies & said user's comments on their own content)
2
A user's monthly upvotes
Most Active Colleges
The Most Active Colleges ranking is a list of the most active contributors on TwoCents, grouped by the
colleges/universities they attend(ed)
Here is what we look at
1
All insights posted by contributors that attended a particular school (at both undergraduate or postgraduate levels)
2
All comments posted by contributors that attended a particular school (at both undergraduate or postgraduate levels) —
excluding replies
Below is a list of badges on TwoCents and their designations.