If you are thinking of entering our annual writing competition for early-career statisticians, we recommend you read articles from past winners and finalists to get a sense of the style of writing and storytelling that judges are looking for.
Below is a list of published articles from previous years’ competitions.
2021
Winner: Pietro the weather tortoise and the pursuit of soggy bun prevention by Conner Jackson
Finalist: Are professors and football stars just lucky? by Anna Beukenhorst
Finalist: We’re not getting any younger! Or should that be “older”? by Nicola Rennie
2020
Winner: Primum non nocere (First, do no harm) by Maria Ibrahim
2019
Winner: The flying bomb and the actuary by Liam P. Shaw and Luke F. Shaw
2018
Winner: Cooking up statistics: The science and the art by Letisha Smith
Finalist: Preventing cancer: mere rhetoric or a promising plan? by Mats Julius Stensrud and Morten Valberg
2017
Winner: We, the millennials: The statistical significance of political significance by Kevin Lin
Finalist: The Promise: When truth overshadows power by Levon Demirdjian
Finalist: A time to kill: Great British serial killers by Charlotte Moragh Jones-Todd
2016
Winner: The frequency of “America” in America by Adam B. Kashlak
Finalist: Queen Elizabeth II – an extreme event monarch? by Anastasia Frantsuzova
2015
Winner: Warren Buffett: Oracle or orang‐utan? by James Skeffington
Finalist: The Great British Bayes-off: How much difference (statistically) does a soggy bottom make? by Annie Herbert
Finalist: The joy of clustering by Samantha Tyner
2014
Winner: Does New York City really have as many rats as people? by Jonathan Auerbach
Finalist: Does Christmas really come earlier every year? by Nathan Cunningham
Finalist: Do NHS records reflect patient ethnicity? by Katie Saunders
2013
Winners: GUESTimation: Breaking the deadlock on wedding guest lists by Damjan Vukcevic
Finalist: Uncertainties in climate models: Living with uncertainty in an uncertain world by Lindsay Lee
2012
Winner: What’s the point of a point estimate?: Why statistics lectures confuse students by Danielle Morris
Finalist: Listening to uncertainty: Information that sings by Ethan Brown and Nick Bearman
Finalist: Side‐effects in antidepressants: The drug or the disease? by Linda Wijlaars
Finalist: What Petri dishes have to do with your research by Douglas VanDerweken
