<p>If you participated in an essay contest and spent a lot of time writing the essay, but did not win any awards should you mention it in your activity sheet? What if you're not entering in the contest this year?</p>
<p>No, don’t mention it. It’s meaningless. If you won, mention it.</p>
<p>Now if you spend a lot of time doing something like creative writing or maintaining a political blog, that is something to mention even if you haven’t gotten any awards for it.</p>