Standardized Writing Assessment Prompt Tendencies

Hi there! If you're reading this, then you must either be preparing to take a standardized writing assessment of some kind or are morbidly fascinated with the divisive and crushing nature of modern pedagogy. Either way, welcome!

First off, be aware that you will be provided with three choices of prompt. Each of these will ask you to do one of four different things. Since you won't know which three prompt types you will be receiving, you should be prepared to respond to at least two of them. Here they are:

1. Personal Narrative: Here you will be asked to tell a "true" story about something that you or someone you know did, and how everyone felt about it. It is important to note, however, that what is of paramount concern here is that it SEEM TRUE, not necessarily that it IS TRUE.

2. Persuasive Essay: Here you will be given a situation or issue and asked to take a stand on it and convince others to support you. You can do this through logical reasoning, supporting evidence, or emotional appeal. Choose which of these tactics will work best for the given situation and, more importantly, who you are trying to persuade.

3. Imaginative Story: Simply put, you must write a short story that incorporates an idea or phrase like "The Old Cheese," "Disasterous Tuesday," or "Designer People." These are usually vague enough that they can effectively be incorporated into just about any kind of story, so write in the style that appeals to you, be it sci-fi, fantasy, realism, noir or whatever. Mostly what they're looking for is creative imagery and fluidity of language. Avoid too many characters... you only have two pages!

4. Expository Essay: Here you will be given some pretty broad guidelines. Usually you need to choose an interest or talent that you have or want... or some current issue that strikes you as important in some way. Then you need to explain why it's important, or why you want it, or how it has impacted or helped you.

The most important thing to consider is that, while you have three class periods in which to craft your response and only two pages into which to fit it, what you do outside of class time is ENTIRELY UP TO YOU!!! You could be working on phrasing, imagery, outlining, word choice, compiling references and supporting evidence, logical reasoning... ANYTHING! The more wisely you use this time, the more compelling and effortless your writing is going to seem. Do try to make the most of the opportunity.