To run an essay contest you have a few options, you can choose whether or not a photo upload field is shown in your essay contest entry form and whether or not it is mandatory. You could add a file upload field for PDF, Word Documents, Text Documents, etc and specify the file formats you accept. If you want the contestants to simply paste the text of the essay in the description field without a photo then you can use the default Essay Contest Settings. When determining the excerpt size for grid and list view you will have to make some adjustments to the Excerpt Settings which are shown below.

Shortcode used in this example:
showcontestants id=38 order=ASC orderby=date view=list

Essay Contest Category Settings used in this example: