top of page

Guidelines and Rules

The International Literature Olympiad consists of two rounds: regional and international. Finalists from each region will advance to the international round.

Regional Round:

Regions are broken up into the following: 

​

  1. East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania

  2. Europe, Russia, and Central Asia

  3. Middle East, North Africa, Central and South Africa

  4. South America, Central America, Mexico, and the islands of the Caribbean

  5. North America

At the start of the Olympiad the participant chooses which question(s) to answer, the response cannot exceed 1000 words, and must be in PDF form. 

 

The MLA style bibliography citing their sources, must be at the the bottom of the participants response to the question.

Judges will evaluate submissions based on the following criteria:

 

​Depth of understanding 25%

Show us how well you understand the subject matter​ by finding something in your research that nobody else has come up with. 

 

Clarity in Articulation 25%

Be clear and concise in your explanation​. Choose a perspective and stand by it, you will not lose points for the position you take, but weakly substantiated arguments will detract from your score. 

 

Purpose of text 25%

Ensure every sentence contributes meaningfully to your argument​. Meaningful articulation comes with a solid grasp of what you are writing about. 

 

Creativity and personal touch 25%

There is rarely a wrong answer in literature, so make sure that your response is your own and something you stand by. 

International Round:

For the International Literature Olympiad, the first place finalist from each region will be sent the international round question(s) and they will have 7 days to answer and submit their work.

 

The word count cannot go beyond 1500 words.

Participants will be assessed on the same criteria as the regional round:

​

​See our Resources page to prepare for the international round. 

Do not cheat
 

At the Literature Olympiad we have a ZERO tolerance policy towards plagiarism. No submission with any amount of plagiarism or cheating will be accepted. 

 

Each participant is responsible for creating their own individual work for the competition. Each submission will be submitted through plagiarism software and any works deemed plagiarized will automatically be disqualified. 

bottom of page