Act Writing Prompt Teaching the Arts in Public Education

The Human action recently changed the format of the optional essay, debuting the new essay on the September 2015 examination. From September on, all essay prompts volition require you to non just respond to a specific question, but to also read and address three unique perspectives on the question.

While the new essay format is admittedly more complex than the earlier version, it'southward still very predictable and you can practice very well on it with the right preparation. For advice on how to arroyo the essay, check out my mailHow To Write the New Act Essay .

Unfortunately, the Deed has only released a meager two sample prompts for you to preview. The first one is available on the ACT's website here. The second is included in the most recent practise ACT the exam makers have released, available as a PDFhere.

In order to practice your best on the essay, you'll want to make certain you practice with more merely two essay question prompts. Here are ten boosted new Human activity sample essay question prompts I've written to help you prepare. You lot'll accept xl minutes to complete each essay.

Accelerating Globalization (Sample Essay Prompt one)

But a few hundred years ago, communication between countries on reverse ends of the world was painstakingly slow or not-existent. Nearly people knew piddling most distant lands, peoples and cultures. What they idea they knew was ofttimes erroneous or ill conceived. Inside the past hundred years, notwithstanding, the footstep of globalization has accelerated rapidly. Today travel across the globe in less than 24 hours is a real possibility for many people. Individuals and nations can instantly communicate with one another beyond dandy distances. For better or worse, the earth has become more connected than was ever imaginable earlier, and it continues to go more continued every twenty-four hours. Has globalization made the world a better or a worse place?

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a item way of thinking nigh the effects of globalization.

Perspective i

Globalization, despite its lustrous promises, has created more problems than it has solved. It has allowed rich countries to get richer at the expense of poorer countries, and it has increased, non decreased, the number of armed conflicts in the world.

Perspective 2

The world is undoubtedly a better place today because of globalization. It has allowed critical resources to be distributed to the governments and people that need them the most.

Perspective three

While I celebrate the productive substitution of cultures globalization has facilitated, I worry about how globalization is homogenizing those cultures. Take languages—practice we really want to alive in a world where one day everyone just speaks only one global language?

Essay Chore

Write a unified, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on the touch of globalization on the earth. In your essay, be sure to:

• analyze and evaluate the perspectives given
• state and develop your own perspective on the consequence
• explain the relationship betwixt your perspective and those given

Your perspective may exist in full agreement with any of the others, in partial agreement, or wholly different. Whatever the example, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

Technology and Everyday Life (Sample Essay Prompt 2)

Technology has radically changed the way we interact with the world. Not long ago, individuals who wanted to arrive touch had to practise so either by coming together in person or sending messages through postal mail. In order to perform well-nigh types of enquiry, people were forced to visit concrete libraries, bookstores or archives. Over the past 2 decades, applied science has rendered many of these time-consuming tasks obsolete. Messages tin can be sent anywhere in the world via email in only a matter of seconds. All sorts of information is available with the click of a smart phone button. People tin can not just call individuals someday, simply they can also access their geolocation on demand. Information technology seems similar everyone is on his or her smart telephone every waking minute. Has this increase in the power and reach of engineering bettered out lives?

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a detail way of thinking almost the presence of technology in our lives.

Perspective one

Today'due south engineering science has greatly bettered our lives. Individuals are more than connected to the information and people they desire to connect with, and the effect is smarter, happier and more fulfilled human beings.

Perspective 2

Engineering promises to "connect" u.s.a. with one some other. Just wait effectually and you'll see how asunder it's made us—individuals no longer interact with i some other because they've become so consumed by their phones and devices.

Perspective 3

Technology may have made the globe a amend place for those who have access to it, only its prohibitive costs have fabricated information technology inaccessible, and consequently unhelpful, to too many people.

Essay Job

Write a unified, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on the impact of technology on our lives. In your essay, be certain to:

• analyze and evaluate the perspectives given
• country and develop your ain perspective on the consequence
• explicate the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may be in full agreement with any of the others, in fractional agreement, or wholly dissimilar. Whatever the case, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

College Sports (Sample Essay Prompt 3)

College sports have become incredibly popular in the United States. Large games air on the most coveted Television receiver channels at the most coveted times. Teams are followed not only by loyal students and alumni simply as well by diverse fans from beyond the country. Major athletic programs bring millions of dollars to university coffers. Star coaches can frequently earn more than than university presidents, making them the highest paid employees on campus. Full scholarships are awarded to star athletes because of their athletic prowess rather than their academic record. In some instances, athletes are even given fake grades to help them stay on the team. Given all of this, should colleges continue to support their sports teams?

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a detail way of thinking about the role of athletics at colleges.

Perspective 1

Colleges should strongly support their sports teams. These teams not simply generate millions of dollars for schools, simply they also assist sell prospective students on attending the higher.

Perspective 2

Sports have no official place in college. Colleges are institutions created for learning, not for athletics. College sports compromise academic standards and disadvantage students who don't participate.

Perspective 3

While college sports play a valuable role on university campuses, it is of import for administrators to non lose perspective. That some football coaches earn more than university presidents, for instance, is conspicuously wrong.

Essay Task

Write a unified, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on college support for sports teams. In your essay, exist certain to:

• analyze and evaluate the perspectives given
• state and develop your own perspective on the issue
• explain the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may be in total agreement with any of the others, in partial understanding, or wholly dissimilar. Whatever the example, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

Higher Curricula (Sample Essay Prompt iv)

For years, American colleges have emphasized the liberal arts over more narrow technical and professional training. College students have been required to written report a wide range of academic disciplines, such as literature, philosophy, history and mathematics. Today, yet, a growing number of colleges and students have rejected the liberal arts in favor of what some consider to exist more than practical subjects, such every bit accounting, finance and nutrition. Global economical hardship has led many to question the value of a liberal arts educational activity that, in their eyes, fails to adequately prepare students for the realities they volition face after graduation. Is it important for colleges to promote the study of the liberal arts, or should they emphasize professional and technical training in its identify?

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular way of thinking about college curricula.

Perspective 1

The liberal arts are essential to a quality educational activity because they teach students how to think critically about a broad range of topics, thus preparing them to tackle whatsoever result that might arise in the workplace.

Perspective ii

Information technology is time to coffin the liberal arts model at our colleges. Reading Shakespeare and studying pure mathematics will non aid anyone be successful in whatever sort of business organization.

Perspective three

Colleges should closely integrate the liberal arts with professional studies, as each tin benefit from the other. Business organisation courses, for instance, are enriched by the philosophical written report of ethics.

Essay Task

Write a unified, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on the relative importance of the liberal arts and professional studies. In your essay, be certain to:

• clarify and evaluate the perspectives given
• state and develop your own perspective on the result
• explain the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may be in full agreement with any of the others, in fractional agreement, or wholly different. Whatever the case, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

Arts Funding (Sample Essay Prompt 5)

Authorities funding for the arts is commonplace in many countries today. In the Us, the regime funds writers, musicians and visual artists through a variety of initiatives. Critics of this type of funding argue that the authorities has no place in the arts. Why should taxpayers, the majority of whom have no interest in the works being supported by such funding, be forced to pay for those works? Others, all the same, contend that government funding for the arts is critical to the wellness of our society. Given the dismal financial prospects in the arts, many artists would exist unable to support themselves without the blazon of funding that the government provides. Should the government continue to fund the arts?

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a detail way of thinking nigh the regime funding for the arts.

Perspective 1

The authorities has no place in the arts because the regime is not qualified to judge which projects should receive funding and which should not.

Perspective 2

Without financial back up from the regime, many great works of art would never exist created. Government funding is thus essential.

Perspective 3

The gratuitous marketplace, not the government, is the best source of arts funding. If an creative person can't get any money, the reason is uncomplicated—her work is not very good!

Essay Job

Write a unified, coherent essay in which you lot evaluate multiple perspectives on government funding of the arts. In your essay, be sure to:

• analyze and evaluate the perspectives given
• state and develop your own perspective on the issue
• explain the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may exist in full agreement with any of the others, in fractional agreement, or wholly different. Whatever the case, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

Corporate Responsibility (Sample Essay Prompt 6)

Large corporations make upwardly some of the wealthiest entities in the world today. Some see these corporations as engines of economic development and progress, bringing meliorate products at amend prices to a wider range of people every twenty-four hour period. Others, however, criticize corporations for their shortcomings when it comes to social responsibility: failing to assistance the less fortunate in our society, including their workers, while focusing too narrowly on profits at the expense of social welfare. Should corporations exercise more than simply aim to improve their turn a profit margins? Is information technology of import for big corporations to gear up aside profits from fourth dimension to time in society to donate to charities and to help the needy?

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular way of thinking well-nigh corporate responsibility.

Perspective ane

Corporations have only one responsibility: to brand the greatest profit they possibly can. It is simply by doing so that they can benefit their workers, shareholders, and social club.

Perspective 2

Profits ofttimes go in the fashion of doing the right thing. Large corporations should focus less on profits and more on developing meaningful ways of helping the disadvantaged.

Perspective 3

It is important that corporations adhere to any and all laws that pertain to them. Beyond this, however, they are free to do equally they delight.

Essay Job

Write a unified, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on corporate responsibility. In your essay, exist certain to:

• analyze and evaluate the perspectives given
• state and develop your own perspective on the upshot
• explain the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may exist in full agreement with any of the others, in fractional agreement, or wholly dissimilar. Whatever the instance, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

The Federal Government (Sample Essay Prompt seven)

The United States authorities is made up of diverse national, country and local governing bodies. Certain responsibilities, like the building of interstate roadways, are looked after by the national, or federal, government, whereas more local issues are often overseen by local government bodies like state legislatures or city councils. Many fence that states and cities in the United States wield too much power, ability that they believe should belong in the hands of the federal government. Others contend that the federal authorities is besides big and is unresponsive to the particular needs of states and cities; they would like to run into local government overtake many of the responsibilities now delegated to the federal government. Should the federal government or local governing bodies accept more power?

Read and advisedly consider these perspectives. Each suggests a item way of thinking well-nigh the role of the federal government.

Perspective 1

States and cities are ill-equipped to handle well-nigh of their own governing. The federal government tin do not only a better chore of governing them, but a faster and cheaper ane.

Perspective 2

The federal regime is too big to adequately accost the needs of individual states and cities. States and cities know what is best for them, not the federal government.

Perspective iii

Local regime fails but when it lacks the backing of the federal government. The federal government should provide logistical and financial support to states and cities in society to enable them to govern themselves finer.

Essay Task

Write a unified, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on the relative roles of local and federal government. In your essay, be sure to:

• analyze and evaluate the perspectives given
• land and develop your own perspective on the issue
• explicate the relationship betwixt your perspective and those given

Your perspective may be in total agreement with any of the others, in partial understanding, or wholly dissimilar. Whatsoever the case, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

Religious Liberty (Sample Essay Prompt eight)

The relationship betwixt religious freedom and individual rights has often been a problematic one throughout American history. Today, for case, many businesses feel compelled to refuse service to homosexuals because of the religious beliefs of the business owners. Some argue that this refusal of service constitutes unlawful bigotry. Public school boards are often uncertain which religious holidays to add to the bookish calendar. Should a Christian educatee, for instance, have to miss schoolhouse because of a Jewish holiday? How should the state rest the demand to respect religious liberty with demand to preserve the rights of all members of society?

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a item style of thinking almost religious liberty and private rights.

Perspective one

The state must accommodate all religions to the fullest extent possible. This means schoolhouse days off for all major religious holidays and protecting the right of business concern owners to refuse service based on religious beliefs.

Perspective ii

The authorities has no special obligation to protect religious liberties when they interfere with the freedoms and well-being of the public at big.

Perspective 3

Government should seek, to the greatest extent possible, ways to conform both religious freedom and private rights when the two discover themselves in conflict.

Essay Task

Write a unified, coherent essay in which y'all evaluate multiple perspectives on the land and religious freedom. In your essay, be certain to:

• analyze and evaluate the perspectives given
• state and develop your own perspective on the consequence
• explain the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may exist in full agreement with whatsoever of the others, in partial agreement, or wholly different. Whatever the case, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

Solving Gild'due south Problems (Sample Prompt 9)

The earth today faces a wide range of challenges. Despite the slap-up economic and scientific progress flesh has fabricated, many in the world are nonetheless struggling to survive. Fifty-fifty in developed nations, individuals and communities face bug similar poverty, disease and violence. Individuals and private organizations have done much to help alleviate many of these problems. Government have as well played a function in addressing issues like poverty and public wellness. In your opinion, who has a bigger role to play in solving today'southward problems: governments or individuals?

Read and advisedly consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular manner of thinking about the part of government and individuals in solving today's problems.

Perspective one

Individuals could non possibly promise to solve issues as large equally the ones we confront today. Just large governments with sizable resources can help.

Perspective two

Governments are, by nature, equanimous of individuals working as a team. Governments can solve major problems because they harness the power of individuals.

Perspective 3

The best solutions to society's problems always come from individuals, not governments. Governments lack the creativity and drive necessary to tackle major problems successfully.

Essay Task

Write a unified, coherent essay in which y'all evaluate multiple perspectives on the function of individuals and governments as trouble solvers. In your essay, exist sure to:

• analyze and evaluate the perspectives given
• state and develop your own perspective on the issue
• explicate the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may be in full understanding with whatever of the others, in partial agreement, or wholly different. Whatever the instance, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

Avoiding Armed Conflicts (Sample Prompt ten)

Armed conflicts betwixt nations have always been and remain, unfortunately, a abiding fact of life. How politicians and governments seek to avert of these conflicts, however, varies greatly. Many leaders and political thinkers insist on the importance of demonstrating military might in club to reduce the likelihood of such conflicts. Others debate that flexing military musculus is basically inviting armed conflict, and that the best way nations can avert conflicts is simply by keeping an open line of communication with one another. When forced to choose between a strong showing of military might and diplomatic efforts, which should nations choose in order to avoid armed conflicts?

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular manner of thinking about how military might and diplomatic efforts tin forbid armed conflicts.

Perspective i

Without a stiff showing of military might, a nation volition lead its enemies to believe that it is weak and vulnerable to set on. The upshot is, inevitably, such an attack.

Perspective ii

International conflicts can quickly escalate into full-blown armed conflicts unless the nations involved talk to i another and acquire to settle their differences through words rather than bombs.

Perspective 3

Demonstrating armed services might is ever a meliorate way to preclude armed conflict than affairs, because whereas military machine might is a deterrent to disharmonize, diplomacy rarely succeeds in resolving international disagreements.

Essay Chore

Write a unified, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on the respective roles of diplomacy and military might. In your essay, be sure to:

• analyze and evaluate the perspectives given
• state and develop your own perspective on the issue
• explain the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may be in full agreement with any of the others, in partial agreement, or wholly different. Whatsoever the example, back up your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

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