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
How Will You Get Your Message Out?
You learn important skills in essay writing that you can apply to other forms of writing, but are essays always the best way to communicate ideas to others?
When Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wanted to save a piece of American history in 1830, what did he do?
Did he write his senator? Take out an ad in the local papers? Write a letter to the editor? Make protest signs?
Although all of those things are legitimate ways of communicating with people, he did none of them yet still succeeded in saving the USS Constitution, an old warship that had fought in the important War of 1812.
How did he do it? (more…)
What Are You Waiting For?
Former U.S. presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson used to be hot rivals but became close friends later in life. In fact, for the last twelve years of their lives, they wrote to each other almost daily. In one letter about a year before his death, Jefferson wished the ailing Adams “nights of rest” and “days of tranquility.”
Near the end of their lives, they wrote to each other that they wanted something very special. Do you know what they wanted? (more…)
How to Complain Constructively
True story: I was eating dinner in a restaurant recently when I heard a woman in the booth behind me state, “This is an abomination!”
My ears perked up. My curiosity was piqued. I rarely hear the word “abomination” any more and wondered what could be so horrific as to need that word. I imagined she and her dining partner were reading a magazine article on human trafficking or perhaps watching a YouTube video about persecution in Indonesia.
I strained my ears to learn what she was referring to. (more…)
You and the Jurassic World
Many exciting stories have come from scientific ponderings. Take, for instance, Frankenstein. It was written by Mary Shelley while the scientific world debated the idea of reanimation. Could something dead, a frog, perhaps, be reanimated by electricity? And if a frog could be brought back to life, what about a human? And if a human could be brought back to life, does that mean we should?
So Dr. Frankenstein sews together pieces of cadavers and, after many failed attempts, actually brings to life this cobbled-together thing, this human, if you can call it that.
Eighty years later, H. G. Wells is exploring a similar topic in The Island of Dr. Moreau. Can humans and animals be joined together?
Science Goes Awry?
Fast-forward 200 years from Shelley’s Frankenstein. What happens if scientists (more…)
Storywriting: Put Your Character into Hot Water, Part 2
In a recent tutorial, you practiced plunging your character into hot water with two powerful methods many writers use. You can find that prompt here.
This week you’ll examine three more methods of getting your main character deep into a story. As Stanley Elkin reveals, “I would never write about someone who is not at the end of his rope.” (more…)
Storywriting: Put Your Character into Hot Water, Part 1
You have an idea for a story but don’t know how to get it going. Or you would like to write a story but are out of ideas.
When you write a story, you have to throw a lot of things at your main character, things he or she would rather not have to deal with. In this prompt, you’ll learn two proven methods to get ideas and plunge your character into hot water. In this prompt, you’ll explore three more. (more…)
