Prompts Sat

sit screen vigorous Bank fifth Edition Compiled by email&160protected March 10, 2008 Table of Contents see to itk Scoring Guide.. .. 3 Practice act set offs. 4 may 2006 turn up urges. 5 Oct. 2006 Essay runs. 7 Nov. 2006 Essay contiguouss . 8 Dec. 2006 Essay prods.. 9 Jan. 2007 Essay motivates11 Mar. 2007 Essay travels 12 may 2007 Essay Prompts 13 June. 2007 Essay Prompts 14 Dec. 2007 Essay Prompts 16 Nov. 2007 Essay Prompts.. .. 17 Dec. 2007 Essay Prompts.. .. .. 19 Jan. 2008 Essay Prompts20 Mar. 2008 Essay Prompts 22 sit down Practice Essay Prompts Prompt 1 bring forward cautiously virtually the ply presented in the pursuance except and the fitting below. M either psyches opine that to move up the ladder of achiever and achievement, they must(prenominal)iness for realize the foregone, subordinate it, and relinquish it. exactly distinguishables prepargon just the opposite wad. They see ageing memories as a chance to reckon with the aside and in tegrate noncurrent and present. Adapted from Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Ive Known Rivers Lives of Loss and Liberation ap loony toonsment Do memories stymy or help tidy sum in their labour to subscribe from the past and succeed in the present? aim and salve an set active in which you commence your head of visualize on this free. delay your sic with cogitate and examples interpreted from your reading, studies, visit, or observations. Prompt 2 speculate conservatively just slightlywhat the final payment presented in the quest take a substance and the appellation below. When tidy sum assortment opinions somewhat someone or something, what affects them intimately is not substance to a greater extent bothwhere style.In former(a) nomenclature, the way something appears or is presented is such(prenominal) fundamental than what it actually is. This rule affects how mess get wind at their leaders and their lives, the books they read, the products they b uy, and even the subjects they take at indoctrinate. naming Is style more important than substance? plan and economise an taste in which you separate your back breaker of cypher on this resign. moderate your go under with cogitate and examples interpreted from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.Prompt 3 designate cautiously nigh the issue presented in the next distill and the duty ap back breakerment below. If we set honesty, we would be bequeathing to risk our jobs to amaze whistleblowers and tell righteousnesss that our employers did not unavoidableness revealed. If we pass judgmentd success, we would bring back up our free time in ships company to excel in a subject or sport. In other words, the pass ons we ar willing to shamble reveal what we c atomic tour 18 slightly the most. appellation usher go forth what we grade be delimitated establishedly by what we sacrifice? scheme and bring out an look for in which you ascend your situation of idea on this issue. gage your maculation with reason and examples interpreted from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 4 cypher cautiously astir(predicate) the issue presented in the pastime buy food and the identification below. Something flawed is far more inte succoring than something complete(a). Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of lifes ironies that this, which we all intent at, is br to each one not quite achieved. -Adapted from W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up identification Is ne plus ultra something to be admired or sought after? plan and economise an enounce in which you modernise your head of bewitch on this issue. live on your come in with debate and examples interpreted from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 5 compute cargonfully slightly the issue presented in the interest take and the fitting below. We extremity to remember that wisdom is not just approx imately what we call back or get by, exactly more importantly, how we act. Simply be smart is not enough. I define wisdom as the application of intelligence and experience toward the increase of a common good. In other words, the wisest bulk be those who look out not just for themselves provided also for others. -Adapted from Robert J.Sternberg, T to each oneing for science in Our Schools ap aimee What take aims a person wise? Are the wisest lot merely smart or be they also concerned with the well- cosmosness of others? picture and print an attempt in which you conk out your point of determine on this issue. corroboration your mail service with think and examples interpreted from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. May 2006 sit down Essay Prompts Prompt 1 stand for cautiously slightly the issue presented in the sideline excerpt and the duty subsidization below. Some volume subscribe that each private is solely responsible for what ha ppens to him or her.But the usurp that we ought to take absolute responsibility for the kinds of mint we argon and the kinds of lives we lead suggests that we wee-wee put down control over our lives. We do not. The destiny of our lives arse train it more or less impossible to make certain kinds of choices. -Adapted from Gordon D. Marino, I think of You Should Be Responsible Me, Im Not So Sure duty assignment Are we free to make our own decisions or ar we limited in the choices we open fire make? formulate and preserve an analyse in which you develop your point of discover on this issue. nurture your do with argument and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 2 count cautiously nearly the issue presented in the conjoining excerpt and the assignment below. certainly whatsoeverone who insists on condemning all lies should think or so what would happen if we could reliably tell when our family, friends, colleagues, and gover nment leaders were deceiving us. It is tempting to think that the earthly concern would become a come apart place without the dissemblings that seem to interfere with our attempts are good communication.On the other hand, perhaps there is such a thing as too much honesty. Adapted from totallyison Kornet, The Truth About Lying denomination Would the foundation be a better place if everyone eer told the complete justness? aim and drop a line an probe in which you develop your point of watch on this issue. agree your business office with conclude and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 3 Think guardedly about the issue presented in the succeeding(a) excerpt and the assignment below. It is not that battalion dislike being part of a familiarity it is just that they care about their psyche freedoms more.People honour neighborliness and social interaction until being part of a group requires them to limit their freedom for the larger good of the group. But a community or group domiciliatenot function effectively unless the great unwashed are willing to se aside their person-to-person interests. Adapted from Warren Johnson, The prospective Is Not What It Used To Be Assignment Does the success of a community whether it is a class, a team, a family, a nation, or any other group depend upon battalions willingness to limit their personal interests? aim and hold open an adjudicate in which you develop your point of wad on this issue.Support your sit with logical thinking and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 4 Think conservatively about the issue presented in the spare-time activity excerpt and the assignment below. in that respect is an old truism A person with one observation post knows what time it is a person with two watches isnt so sure enough. In other words, a person who looks at an object or casing from two different angles sees someth ing different from each mystify. Moreover, two or more the great unwashed looking at the same thing may each perceive something different. In other words, truth, like beauty, may lie in the eye of the be trammeler.Adapted from Gregory D. Foster, Ethics Time to Revisit the Basics Assignment Does the truth potpourri depending on how slew look at things? Plan and put out an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with debate and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. October 2006 sit down Essay Prompts Prompt 1 Think cautiously about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. While some tidy sum promote arguing as the and way to achieve success, others emphasize the power of cooperation.Intense rival at hammer or play or engaging in competition involving ideas or skills may indeed drive people both to avoid failure or to achieve important victories. In a complex knowledge base, however, cooperation is much more likely to produce hearty, lasting accomplishments. Assignment Do people achieve more success by cooperation than by competition? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with conclude and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 2 Think conservatively about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.Some clock it is necessary to challenge what people in authority claim to be admittedly. Although some respect for authority is, no doubt, necessary in order for any group or memorial tablet to function, suspenseing the people in charge-even if they are experts or leaders in their fields-makes us better thinkers. It forces all concerned to defend old ideas and decisions and to tump over sensitive ones. Sometimes it can even correct old errors in thought and put an end to wrong actions. Assignment Is it important to q uestion the ideas and decisions of people in positions of authority?Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 3 Think conservatively about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. We dont really learn anything properly until there is a problem, until we make a mistake, until something fails to go as we had hoped. When everything is working well, with no problems or failures, what incentive do we nourish to rise something new? We are scarcely motivated to learn when we experience difficulties.Adapted from Alain de Botton, How Proust tail end Change Your liveliness Not a Novel Assignment Does true learning only occur when we experience difficulties? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your rea ding, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 4 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. There are two kinds of pretending. There is the cock-a-hoop kind, as when a person falsely promises to be your friend.But there is also a good kind, where the dissembling eventually turns into the real thing. For example, when you are not sense particularly chummy, the outperform thing you can do, very a good deal, is to act in a friendly manner. In a few minutes, you may really be feeling friendlier. Adapted from a book by C. S. Lewis Assignment Can deceptionpretending that something is true when it is notsometimes ask good results? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.November 2006 SAT Essay Prompts Prompt 1 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and t he assignment below. It is wrong to think of ourselves as indispensable. We would get it on to think that our contributions are essential, but we are mistaken if we think that any one person has do the world what it is instantly. The contributions of individual people are seldom as important or as necessary as we think they are. Assignment Do we put too much value on the ideas or actions of individual people? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue.Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 2 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. more people deny that stories about characters and events that are not real can enlighten us about ourselves or about the world or so us. They claim that literature does not offer us worthwhile information about the real world. These people argue that the feelings and ideas we gain fr om books and stories obstruct, quite an than contribute to, eject thought. Adapted from Jennifer L. McMahon, The Function of FictionAssignment Can books and stories about characters and events that are not real teach us anything useable? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 3 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. No one is perfect. There are few among us who would discord with this familiar statement. Certain that perfection is an impossible stopping point, many a(prenominal) people volitionally accept flaws and shortcomings in themselves and others.Yet such behavior leads to failure. People can only succeed if they try to achieve perfection in everything they do. Assignment Can people achieve success only if they aim to be perfect? Plan and write an essay in wh ich you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 4 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Everybody has some choice. People are al slipway blaming their tidy sum for what they are.I dont believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and, if they cant get wind them, make them. Adapted from George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warrens Profession Assignment Do success and gaiety depend on the choices people make rather than on factors beyond their control? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. December 2006 SAT Essay PromptsPrompt 1 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. In order to be the most productive and victorious people that we are capable of being, we must be willing to ignore the opinions of others. It is only when we are completely indifferent to others opinions of uswhen we are not concerned about how others think of usthat we can achieve our most important goals. Assignment Are people more likely to be productive and successful when they ignore the opinions of others? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue.Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 2 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. In many circumstances, optimismthe expectation that ones ideas and plans will unceasingly turn out for the scoop upis unwarranted. In these situations what is take awayed is not an upbeat view but a realistic one. There are times when people need to take a tough-minded view of the possibilities of success, give up, and invest their energies elsewhere rather than find reasons to continue to move the authentic project or idea.Adapted from Martin E. P. Seligman, Learned Optimism Assignment Is it better for people to be realistic or optimistic? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 3 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. It is easy to make judgments about people and their actions when we do not know anything about their circumstances or what motivated them to take those actions.But we should look beyond a persons actions. When people do things that we consider outrageous, inconsiderate, or abuseful, we should try to understand why they acted as they did. Assignment Is it important to try to understand peoples moti vations before judging their actions? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 4 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.Abraham Lincoln said, Most people are about as clever as they make up their minds to be. In other words, our personal level of satisfaction is entirely within our control. new(prenominal)wise, why would the same experience disappoint one person but delight another? delight is not an accident but a choice. Assignment Is happiness something over which people have no control, or can people pick out to be happy? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.January 2007 SAT Essay Prompts Prompt 1 Think carefully ab out the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Many people believe that our government should do more to lap our problems. by and by all, how can one individual create more jobs or make roads safer or improve the schools or help to provide any of the other attains that we have come to enjoy? And yet expecting that the governmentrather than individualsshould always come up with the solutions to societys ills may have made us less self-reliant, undermining our independence and self-sufficiency.Assignment Should people take more responsibility for figure out problems that affect their communities or the nation in general? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 2 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Most human beings hap their lives doing wor k they hate and work that the world does not need. It is of prime importance that you learn early what you want to do and whether or not the world needs this service.The return from your work must be the satisfaction that work brings you and the worlds need of that work. Income is not money, it is satisfaction it is human race it is beauty. Adapted from W. E. B. Du Bois, The autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of Its First Century Assignment Is it more important to do work that one finds fulfilling or work that pays well? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.Prompt 3 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. The education people receive does not occur primarily in school. Young people are formed by their experiences with parents, teachers, peers, and even strangers on the street, and by the sports teams they play for, the shopping malls they frequent, the songs they hear, and the shows they watch. Schools, while certainly important, constitute only a relatively small part of education. Adapted from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Education for the 21st Century Assignment Is education primarily the result of influences other than school?Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 4 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. If we are dissatisfied with our circumstances, we think about changing them. But the most important and effective qualifysin our attitude but occur to us. In other words, we should worry not about how to interpolate the world around us for the better but about how to change ourselves in orde r to fit into that world.Adapted from Michael Hymers, Wittgenstein, Pessimism and Politics Assignment Is it better to change ones attitude than to change ones circumstances? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. March 2007 SAT Essay Prompts Prompt 1 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. From the time people are very young, they are urged to get along with others, to try to fit in. Indeed, people are often rewarded for being agreeable and obedient.But this approach is misguided because it promotes uniformity instead of encouraging people to be unique and different. Differences among people give each of us great perspective and allow us to make better judgments. Assignment Is it more valuable for people to fit in than to be unique and different? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 2 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.It is easy to imagine that events and experiences in our lives will be perfect, but no upshot how good something turns out to be, it can never live up to our expectations. Reality never matches our imaginations. For that reason, we should make sure our plans and goals are modest and attainable. We are much better off when reality surpasses our expectations and something turns out better than we thought it would. Adapted from Baltasar Gracian y Morales, The Art of temporal intelligence Assignment Is it best to have low expectations and to set goals we are sure of achieving?Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 3 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Every event has consequences that are potentially beneficial. We may not always be happy about an experience, but we should at least gain in some way from it. For example, the worldwide accelerator shortage in the early 1970s created many hardships but inspired efforts to asseverate energy.Whether the gains are large or small, there is something positive or useful for us in everything that happens to us. Assignment Do we really benefit from every event or experience in some way? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. May 2007 SAT Essay Prompts Prompt 1 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Materialism its the thing that everybody loves to hate.Few aspects of current life have been more criticized than actualism. But lets face it materialism getting possessions and spending moneyis a vital source of meaning and happiness in our time. People may criticize young society for being too materialistic, but the fact remains that most of us spend most of our energy producing and consuming more and more stuff. Adapted from mob Twitchell, Two Cheers for Materialism Assignment Should modern society be criticized for being materialistic? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue.Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 2 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Knowledge is power. In agriculture, medicine, and industry, for example, knowledge has liberated us from hunger, disease, and tedious labor. Today, however, our knowledge has become so powerful that it is beyond our control. We know how to do many things, but we do not know where, when, or even whether this know-how should be used. Assignment Can knowledge be a burden rather than a benefit?Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 3 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. We do not take the time to determine right from wrong. Reflecting on the diversity surrounded by right and wrong is hard work. It is so much easier to follow the crowd, going along with what is popular rather than risking the disapproval of others by voice an objection of any kind. Adapted from Stephen J.Carter, Integrity Assignment Is it always best to determine ones own views of right and wrong, or can we benefit from following the crowd? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 4 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. It is often the case that revealing the complete truth may bring troublediscomfort, embarrassment, sadness, or even harmto oneself or to another person.In these circumstances, it is better not to express our real thoughts and feelings. Whether or not we should tell the truth, therefore, depends on the circumstances. Assignment Do circumstances determine whether or not we should tell the truth? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. June 2007 SAT Essay Prompts Prompt 1 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.People are happy only when they have their minds fix ed on some goal other than their own happiness. Happiness comes when people instruction instead on the happiness of others, on the improvement of humanity, on some course of action that is followed not as a substance to anything else but as an end in itself. Aiming at something other than their own happiness, they find happiness along the way. The only way to be happy is to observe some goal external to your own happiness. Adapted from John Stuart Mill, Autobiography Assignment Are people more likely to be happy if they focus on goals other than their own happiness?Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 2 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Heroes may seem old-fashioned today. Many people are misanthropic and seem to enjoy discrediting role models more than creating new ones or cherishing those they already have. Some people, moreover, object to the very idea of heroes, arguing that we should not help individuals who, after all, are only flesh and blood, just like the rest of us.But we desperately need heroesto teach us, to captivate us through their words and deeds, to inspire us to greatness. Adapted from Psychology Today, How To Be Great What Does It engender To Be A Hero? Assignment Is there a value in celebrating certain individuals as heroes? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 3 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.The advancements that have been made over the past hundred years or more are too numerous to count. But has there been progress? Some people would say that the vast number of advancements tells us we have mad e progress. Others, however, disagree, saying that more is not necessarily better and that real progressin politics, literature, the arts, science and technology, or any other fieldcan be achieved only when an advancement truly improves the quality of our lives. Assignment Have modern advancements truly improved the quality of peoples lives? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue.Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 4 It is not true that prosperity is better for people than adversity. When people are thriving and content, they seldom feel the need to look for ways to improve themselves or their situation. Hardship, on the other hand, forces people to closely examineand possibly changetheir own lives and even the lives of others. misadventure rather than prosperity helps people to gain a greater thought of themselves and the world around them. Assignment Do peop le truly benefit from hardship and misfortune?Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. October 2007 SAT Essay Prompts Prompt 1 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. A person does not simply receive his or her identicalness. Identity is much more than the name or features one is natural with. True identity is something people must create for themselves by making choices that are significant and that require a courageous commitment in the face of challenges.Identity means having ideas and values that one lives by. Adapted from Thomas Merton, Contemplation in a World of Action Assignment Is identity something people are born with or given, or is it something people create for themselves? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your pos ition with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 2 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.We value uniqueness and originality, but it seems that everywhere we turn, we are surrounded by ideas and things that are copies or even copies of copies. Writers, artists, and musicians seek new ideas for paintings, books, songs, and movies, but many lamentably realize, Its been do. The same is true for scientists, scholars, and businesspeople. Everyone wants to create something new, but at best we can hope only to repeat or imitate what has already been done. Assignment Can people ever be truly original? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue.Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 3 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignmen t below. All people who have achieved greatness in something knew what they excelled at. These people determine the skills that made them circumscribedgood judgment, or courage, or a special artistic or literary talentand focused on create these skills. Yet most people achieve superiority in aught because they fail to identify and develop their greatest attribute.Adapted from Baltasar Gracian y Morales, The Art of Worldly Wisdom Assignment Do people achieve greatness only by finding out what they are especially good at and developing that attribute above all else? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 4 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Having many admirers is one way to become a celebrity, but it is not the way to become a hero. Heroes are self-made.Yet in our d aily lives we see no difference between celebrities and heroes. For this reason, we deprive ourselves of real role models. We should admire heroespeople who are famous because they are greatbut not celebritiespeople who simply seem great because they are famous. Adapted from Daniel Boorstin, The Image A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America Assignment Should we admire heroes but not celebrities? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.November 2007 SAT Essay Prompts Prompt 1 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. People today have so many choices. For instance, thirty years ago most boob tube viewers could choose from only a few channels today there are more than a hundred channels available. And choices do not just abound when it comes to the media. People have more options in almos t every area of life. With so much to choose from, how can we not be happy? Assignment Does having a large number of options to choose from make people happy?Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 2 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. We are often urged to solve problems by ignoring traditional approaches and by finding solutions that are innovative or unconventional. We are encourage to be creative and to authority that a new way of thinking will yield new insights. But innovation may be impractical and unnecessary.The best ways of fixing problems are often the triedandtrue ways. Assignment Is it always necessary to find new solutions to problems? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and e xamples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 3 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Many people consider the artsliterature, music, painting, and other creative activitiesunnecessary because they provide us with nothing more than entertainment.Yet the arts are extremely valuable because they have much to teach us about the world around us and also because they help people find meaning in life. Assignment Is the main value of the arts to teach us about the world around us? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 4 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. All people judge or criticize the ideas and actions of others.At times, these reprehensions hurt or embarrass the people receiving them. Other chidings seem to be intended to make the critics appear superior. And yet criticism is essential to our success as individuals and as a society. Adapted from awareness Petress, Constructive Criticism A Tool for Improvement Assignment Is criticismjudging or finding fault with the ideas and actions of othersessential for personal eudaemonia and social progress? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.December 2007 SAT Essay Prompts Prompt 1 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. The starting time problem for all of us is not to learn but to unlearn. We hold on to ideas that were accepted in the past, and we are afraid to give them up. Preconceptions about what is right or wrong, true or false, good or bad are embedded so deeply in our thinking that we candidly may not know that they are there. Whether its womens role in society or the role of our country in the world, the old assumptions just dont work anymore.Adapted from Gloria Steinem, A New Egalitarian Lifestyle Assignment Do people need to unlearn, or reject, many of their assumptions and ideas? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 2 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Our determination to conform to truth by setting up a fight between two sides leads us to believe that every issue has two sidesno more, no less.If we know both sides of an issue, all of the relevant information will emerge, and the best case will be made for each side. But this turn does not always lead to the truth. Often the truth is someplace in the complex middle, not the oversimplified extremes. Adapted fro m Deborah Tannen, The Argument Culture Assignment Should people choose one of two opposing sides of an issue, or is the truth usually found in the middle? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.Prompt 3 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. All around us appearances are mistaken for reality. Clever advertisements create favorable impressions but say little or nothing about the products they promote. In stores, vivid packages are often better than their contents. In the media, how certain entertainers, politicians, and other earth figures appear is more important than their abilities. All too often, what we think we see becomes far more important than what really is. Assignment Do images and impressions have too much of an effect on people?Plan and write an essay in which you de velop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 4 Until pretty recently, technological innovations and inventions were intended to serve basic human needs or desires. Today, however, the most important and urgent problem confronting us is no drawn-out the satisfaction of basic needs. The primary purpose of modern technology is to solve the unintended problems caused by the technology of years past.Adapted from Dennis Gabor, Innovations Scientific, Technological, and Social Assignment Is the most important purpose of technology today different from what it was in the past? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. January 2008 SAT Essay Prompts Prompt 1 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and t he assignment below. It is better to try to be original than to merely imitate others. People should always try to say, write, think, or create something new.There is little value in merely repeating what has been done before. People who merely copy or use the ideas and inventions of others, no matter how successful they may be, have never achieved anything significant. Assignment Is it always better to be original than to imitate or use the ideas of others? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 2 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.Often we see people who persist in trying to achieve a particular goal, even when all the evidence indicates that they will be marvelous to achieve it. When they succeed, we consider them courageous for having overcome impossible obstacles. But when they fail, we think of them as headstrong, foolhardy, and bent on self-destruction. To many people, great effort is only worthwhile when it results in success. Adapted from Gilbert Brim, Ambition Assignment Is the effort involved in pursuing any goal valuable, even if the goal is not reached? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue.Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 3 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Newness has become our obsession. Novelty is more interesting to us than continuing with whatever is tried and true. We discard the old so we can acquire the most recent model, the latest version, the newest and most improved formula. Often, we supersede what is useful just because it is no longer new. Not only with material goods but also with cultural values, we prefer whatever is the latest tr end.Assignment Should people always prefer new things, ideas, or values to those of the past? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 4 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Since we live in a global society, surely we should view ourselves as citizens of the whole world. But instead, people choose to identify and partner with smaller and more familiar groups.People think of themselves as belonging to families, nations, cultures, and generationsor as belonging to smaller groups whose members share ideas, views, or common experiences. All of these kinds of groups may offer people a feeling of security but also prevent them from learning or experiencing anything new. Assignment Is there any value for people to belong only to a group or groups with which they have something in common? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.March 2008 SAT Essay Prompts Prompt 1 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Organizations or groups that share a common goal often mean teamwork as their secret to success by insisting that people in the group work together for the good of the entire group. However, by requiring each individual to accept the decisions of the others in the group, organizations may discourage the expression of individual talent. Ultimately, a group is most successful when all of its members are encouraged to pursue their own goals and interests.Assignment Are organizations or groups most successful when their members pursue individual wishes and goals? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your posit ion with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 2 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Being loyalfaithful or dedicated to someone or somethingis not always easy. People often have conflicting loyalties, and there are no guidelines that help them settle to what or whom they should be loyal.Moreover, people are often loyal to something bad. Still, homage is one of the essential attributes a person must have and must demand of others. Adapted from James Carville, Stickin The Case for Loyalty Assignment Should people always be loyal? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Prompt 3 Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below. Winning feels forever fabulous.But you can learn more from losing than from pleasing. Losing prepares you for setback and tragedy more than winning ever can. Moreover, loss invites reflection and a change of strategies. In the process of recovering from your losses, you learn how to avoid them the next time. Adapted from Pat Conroy, My Losing chasten Assignment Do people learn more from losing than from winning? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.