Description | Exposition | Narration | Persuasion | All
Want to inspire your teens to write? Could you use some engaging writing prompts that won’t put your teens to sleep? You’ve come to the right place!
You’ll find prompts for opinions, descriptions, story writing, current events, prompts that are really tutorials in disguise, and much more. Complete instructions are included with each prompt.
Looking for tutorials on essay writing, proofreading, and so on? Interested in writing prompt bundles that span many grades? Click here.
Find prompts for your middle school students here.
Thanks for visiting the High School Prompts page. If you have a writing prompt you would like to submit, please contact Sharon Watson.
“You can’t wait for inspiration.
You have to go after it with a club.”
— JACK LONDON
Thanksgiving and the Hard Life
The Dilemma
You’re living in a new country with a small band of people and are surrounded by wilderness. There are no grocery stores, no clothing stores, no houses, no fast-food restaurants, and no furnaces. A few people live nearby, but they do not speak your language and sometimes are not friendly.
You’ve just come through a horrible winter in which many of your people died from disease and starvation, and you’re facing another terrible year unless you can plant some food to harvest later.
The Rescue
Out of nowhere, a man (more…)
Benefits of Bike Riding: Brainstorm and Organize
Is it tough to come up with ideas when your teacher gives you a writing assignment?
And if you have ideas, is it hard to plan and put them into an effective order with main and supporting points? This prompt will help with these problems.
Many students feel that brainstorming is a waste of time, but you’ll see otherwise in this prompt as you brainstorm the benefits of bike riding. Also, you’ll practice organizing your ideas so they make sense. These worksheets will make your tasks much, much easier. (more…)
Veterans Day Compare and Contrast
We honor our U. S. veterans on Veterans Day every year.
Do you know someone who has served in the U. S. Armed Forces: Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, National Guard, or Reserves? Chances are you know quite a few men and women who have served, defended, and protected our country and those of our allies.
Working in the Armed Forces is very different from working in the private sector. Let’s explore this idea.
What Comes to Mind When You See This Picture?
Have you ever looked at a picture and written from it?
When you write anything that comes to mind, you are free-writing or writing in a stream-of-consciousness mode. Anytime you get stuck for something to write, this is a helpful method to get you going again. Just begin writing about anything. Keep the pencil moving. Eventually, something interesting will creep into your mind, and you’ll take off! (more…)
Proofreading: The Good News and the Bad News
Proofreading is not a happy activity. It takes attention to detail and maybe even some groaning.
After all, you feel as if your first draft is enough. You’re done. Finished.
Students tell me that writing the first draft and then proofreading it is like writing their paper twice.
The Bad News
.Here’s the bad news: The skill of proofreading your own papers is essential to the writing process. Why?
First, you learn to write more effectively.
Second, you show respect for your teachers by handing in a well-thought-out paper with few mistakes.
And third, you begin to understand that there is an audience at the other end of your essays. You aren’t writing simply to keep yourself busy; you’re writing to communicate, educate, explain, persuade, or entertain.
The Good News
Here’s the good news: You’re about to learn four sure-fire ways to catch more mistakes when you proofread..
(more…)
Eavesdrop Your Way to Tension and Dialog in Stories
I was shopping one day last week when I heard an elderly woman say to her daughter, “I’d like to find a white sweater.”
Her daughter came back with, “Oh, Mother, you always do this to me. You know we can’t find white after Labor Day.”
I thought, Hmm. That daughter is having trouble with her mother.
A few minutes later, in the same store, I heard a 30-something granddaughter talking with her elderly grandmother. “Oh, Grandma,” she said, (more…)
