VOTING IS CLOSED
Important update: Voting is now CLOSED in the Sunday National Yessay competition – but you can still browse the 20 shortlisted Yessays at your leisure.
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WE'RE looking to crown a champion in our Sunday National Yessay competition – and as well as our judging panel, we thought it worthwhile getting subscribers involved too.
We asked our readers to answer the question "Why should Scotland be independent?" in 1600-2200 word essays. The intended reader is an undecided voter.
We received more than 100 entries and worked that down to a shortlist of 20, which, while crucial for judging purposes, is not enough to do justice to the incredible submissions we received.
(We'd encourage Unionist papers to run a competition on "Why should Scotland stay in the Union?" – we'd love to compare the entries.)
In some cases, the essays were fantastically written and well argued, but not quite what the judges were looking for in the specific terms of this contest – perhaps more about the Yes movement itself than targeting an undecided voter.
This means we're brainstorming how we can best highlight as many of the essays as possible, because we think they'll be of use to our readers and Yes groups.
However... we do have a contest to sort out.
As well as our judging panel of Sunday National editor Roxanne Sorooshian, columnist Lesley Riddoch and University of Glasgow professor of Scottish literature Alan Riach, we thought it'd be worth giving our readers a say too.
In order to minimise the impact of Unionist interference and casting multiple votes, we've put this article behind our paywall to be visible to subscribers only – and so, we ask that you use the email address under which you subscribe to The National to cast your vote below.
You can read our shortlist of 20 essays at https://www.thenational.scot/community/yessays/
After reading through them, select your top Yessay and tell us which that is through the voting form available below to help us decide on a winner. The votes cast in this form will, in effect, act as a fourth judge.
Voting will shut at 11.59pm on Sunday, August 1.
Thank you!
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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