Student Mode Prompt Review
Instructions: Make sure you’ve completed all of the following prompts and then pick two for which you’re
especially proud and you’d like me to grade more closely. These two writings should reflect your ability to write
fluidly, persuasively, and stylistically.
Example/Illustration (Should have responses to both prompts)
1. Prompt #1:Take 10 minutes to select a topic that you have personal experience with and write a
paragraph in which you:
a. Have a clear topic sentence with connotatively rich words
b. Make an argument using specific examples
c. Include at least 3 moments of rhetorical / syntactical manipulation
At a loss for ideas? Here are some possible topics (should pre-teen kids have cell phones?;
Facebook—useful tool or mindless distraction?; homework—useful practice or pointless
requirement; some famous actor or musician—skillful or talentless?)
2. Prompt #2: Take 30 minutes to write a brief essay responding to the following prompt:
a. Analyze how Ehrenreich uses specific examples and language to highlight the plight of the low
wage worker.
Comparison / Contrast
1. Prompt: Take a moment to practice categorizing similarities/differences in a chart (similar to the chart in
packet) between any two subjects. Here are some sample topics you can select…
a. Classes
b. Sports
c. Extracurricular activities
d. Music genres
e. Cats & dogs
**Note: Since this was a chart, you shouldn’t use this as one of your two prompts you want me to look
more closely at
Classification (should have responded to one of the prompts)
1. Prompt Options
a. Option 1: Comparison/Contrast Handout (received this in class)
b. Option 2: Write an essay that analyzes how Ericsson uses classification, examples, and rhetorical
devices to describe the ways we lie.
Process Analysis
1. Prompt: Create a brief process analysis of a topic of your choosing.
a. Remember to
i. organize things chronologically
ii. use transitions (first, next, after two days, finally)
iii. make things interesting by inserting examples, personal commentary, varied syntax,
and stylistic devices
Here are some ideas to get you started…
1. The transformation of a high school student from freshman year to senior year
2. Excelling at a sport or other extracurricular activity
3. Putting on a play production
Cause / Effect
1. Prompt Options:
a. Option 1: In writing, analyze how well Winn proves through her essay “Television: The Plug-in
Drug” that television causes negative impacts in individuals and family life.
b. Option 2: Write a cause and effect essay explaining what you believe to be television’s most
important influence on American life. Synthesize your reading, experience, and observations to
support your opinion.
c. Valentine’s Day & Love?
i. Option 3: Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, and essayist once
claimed “The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them:
there ought to be as many for love.” Think about the implications of Atwood’s
statement about love. Then write an essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies
Atwood’s claim about love. Use specific, appropriate evidence to develop your position.
ii. Option 4: "I used to think that being nice to people and feeling nice was loving people.
Now I know it isn't. Love is the most immense unselfishness and it is so big I've never
touched it." Florence Allshom, British missionary
Think about the implications of Allshom’s statement about love. Then write an essay
that defends, challenges, or qualifies Allshom’s claim about love. Use specific,
appropriate evidence to develop your position.
iii. Option 5: “A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” Elbert
Hubbard, American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher
Think about the implications of Hubbard’s statement about love. Then write an essay
that defends, challenges, or qualifies Hubbard’s claim about love. Use specific,
appropriate evidence to develop your position.
Definition
1. Prompt: Write a paragraph in which you both describe something and show your control of style,
rhetorical devices, and voice
a. Can use negation to clarify definition
Possible Topics
1. Freshman, Sophomores, Juniors, or Seniors
2. Some favorite type of media (music or movie genre, etc.)