Web Page: SAT Essay Prompts
Web Pages: ACT Sample Essays
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Writing on Demand
Often, exit and entrance exams include an on-demand writing component. Its purpose is to assess both your writing and thinking ability. This kind of writing task usually begins with a prompt that you must analyze and then respond to.
Analyzing Prompts
A writing prompt provides the writing situation. You can analyze a prompt by answering the STRAP questions.
Subject: What should I write about? (Topic? Focus?)
Type: What form should my writing take? (Essay? Letter? Editorial?)
Role: What role do I have as writer? (Student? Citizen? College applicant?)
Audience: Who will read my response? (Tester? Classmates? Administrators?)
Purpose: What should this writing do? (Inform? Persuade? Reflect?)
Read the prompt carefully, watching for key words that answer the STRAP questions. Note that you will sometimes need to infer answers if a prompt does not address all five points.
Example Prompt and Analysis
A strong education may be the greatest single possession that a person can own. What makes a strong education so valuable? Is it more important than all other possessions? As a college applicant, write an essay that evaluates the importance of education and compares it to the other possessions you have.
Subject: The value of a strong education
Type: College entrance essay
Role: College applicant
Audience: College admissions board (implied)
Purpose: To evaluate education’s importance and compare it to other possessions
Your Turn Answer the STRAP questions to analyze the following prompt.
Some people believe travel provides the best education. How can travel teach you? How is learning by traveling better than or worse than learning by studying? In an editorial, compare book learning to learning on the road and tell which you as a student prefer and why.
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Responding to Prompts
In the allotted time, you need to generate an appropriate response to the prompt, including the following parts:
- A beginning that gets the reader’s attention, introduces the topic, and provides the thesis of the response
- A middle that develops the thesis using a variety of details in well-formed paragraphs
- An ending that revisits the thesis and leaves the reader with a strong final thought
Example Prompt and Response (Beginning)
Goals provide you direction. If you have a goal, even when you aren’t actively moving toward it, you are passively drifting that direction. How do goals shape your life? What goals do you have? What steps are you taking to reach your goals? In an essay, reflect on the goals you have for the future.
Subject: my goals
Type: essay
Role: high school student
Audience: tester
Purpose: reflect on my goals for the future
The beginning gets the reader’s attention and leads to the thesis statement.
Goals usually start small. Young kids aren’t thinking as much about their careers as they are about the next recess or slumber party. Sometime in middle school, though, most students realize they’ve got to start making some plans. In middle school, I decided I wanted to be a veterinarian, a goal that defines me.
My dog Grover began my goal to be a veterinarian. He got a bad cut, and a vet saved his life. Standing in that examination room in seventh grade, I knew I had to become a vet. What I didn’t know was how hard it would be. Volunteering at the Humane Society changed my understanding. There I worked with many animals that had been abandoned or neglected. I had to do a lot of cleaning up, but I worked hand in hand with vets. They told me that the hard part was only beginning.
The middle uses paragraphs to cover different main points.I now understand what I need to do to reach my goal. Vets get their licenses after eight years of schooling. They start by taking a four-year undergraduate degree studying biology, chemistry, physics, nutrition, and animal science. The pre-vet courses are really rigorous, and graduates have to have top grades and connections to be able to move to veterinary schools. Vet school takes four more years, which includes learning to do surgery and run tests. Some vets specialize, but many have to learn to treat anything from a parakeet to a horse. After vet school comes a test, a license, and an internship.
Each paragraph has a topic sentence and supporting sentences.When I discovered how much work went into becoming a vet, I realized I had to accomplish many short-term goals to reach my long-term goal. In high school, I’m focusing on biology, chemistry, and physics, and I’m targeting my college applications to outstanding undergraduate schools. I’m also consciously developing relationships with veterinarians and asking them for help in shaping my career. Already I have two recommendation letters from vets I’ve worked closely with. My experiences . . . .