Take a look at the sentence again:
Charlie believed that he had __________ the best essay of the semester,
but when Mrs. Varner returned the paper, the slashes of red ink and caustic
comments immediately changed his opinion of the work.
The sentence requires the past participle of write, an irregular verb. Written is the past participle.
| Verb | Simple Present | Simple Past | Past Participle |
| write | write(s) | wrote | written |
Wrote, the form you chose, is the simple past; you cannot use simple past with an auxiliary verb like had. Before you continue, review the rules for irregular verbs.
Go back to the sentence to try again.