What Are Essay Prompts?

Essay prompts are statements that concentrate on an issue or topic followed by a question. They are supposed to stimulate a person for a response that should be made in the form of an essay. Essays test your analytical, writing, and reasoning skills. The prompts for essay are usually used in literature classes and English composition, as well as in entrance exams to a college.

Types of UC Essay Prompts

Prompt #1: If you have a talent, background, interest, or identity that you think your college application will be incomplete without it, then share your story.
It doesn’t matter what hobby, interest, accomplishment, or personality trait a student selects to talk about in an essay, it will be probably very easy to fit it to this prompt. Think about what helped you shape your personality and share this story.

It can be anything, seeing some episode in a TV show, or relocating to a different country. However, make sure that your subject is dynamic and specific to you. Use the following questions to help you build the structure of your essay:

• What do you love to do and why do you love it?
• Did a family get-together help you change your view on the family, traditions, and teamwork?
• How does your experience in changing your image identify you?
• Did the visit to an art exhibit make you want to open your own art collection?
• How would you describe yourself and what have led you to your path?
• What story do you usually tell your friends and why does it always come up?
• How do these qualities represent you and your personality?

Prompt #2: What failures did you have in your life and what did you learn from them? Tell us about your failure, how it affected you, and what you learned from the experience.

It has been known for a while that a question about a failure is a question about success. When choosing this prompt, students have to show both humiliation and the ability to resist mistakes. Tell about how you dealt with hardships and whether or not you are a person who can turn every experience, bad or good, into a lesson that can teach you something.

Avoid dull and not interesting failures. For example, the time you failed to get a high score on an examination or couldn’t buy tickets to the concert of Justin Bieber. Also, avoid telling about how you ruined your car because you were dunk, or how you ate five packs of chips.

If there was an incident in your life that taught you a lesson, this prompt can be pretty rewarding. These essay prompts might include:

Did your futile attitude to playing tennis have you make you understand that in order to achieve the success you need to go to lessons and train a lot?

Did your failed trial to be an actor introduced to directing, your professional aim and passion?

Did your failure to follow directions lead to a science experiment?

If you choose this prompt, make sure you keep your story as positive as possible. These essays are not about how you lost a game and failed to meet your academic expectations. They are about how you managed to overcome obstacles and adapt to challenges in life.

Prompt #3: Have you ever challenged some idea or belief? What made you do that? Would you do that again?

This prompt in comparison to other essay prompts requires students to openly speak about their beliefs, which are often difficult topics that can be hardly fitted into a short story. Answers to this prompt can be very personal, for example, if a student stood up to the old-fashioned looks on life of her parents. They can also be controversial and you need to be careful when expressing the opinions that might cause others to adopt extreme positions when reading your essay. If you like this prompt and you have a story to tell then go with it. Keep in mind the following ideas:

• Have you worked on a political campaign and witnessed a scandal? Tell us about your reaction.
• Was your opinion on some issues unpopular?
• Are you gay and was raised in a strict Catholic environment? Tell us how it influenced your personal relationships.
• Why are you ready to stand up for what you believe in?
• What is it significant to you on a primary level of values and morals?

Prompt #4: Tell us about the problem you have solved or you want to solve. It can be a research query, an intellectual challenge, ethical dilemma, or anything else of personal importance. Explain why it is significant to you and what step you took or about to take to find the solution.

This prompt trains students’ skills in solving problems and gives a look into an applicant’s mind when dealing with problems. Students can write about obstructions they have overcome to reach some solution or what predicaments made them find a solution to a particular problem.

• Has your love of nature induced you to begin a charity to assist in saving endangered species?
• What changes would you like to make in the world?
• If you could make an impact in a certain area, would that be?
• How can you contribute to a cause important to you in a positive way?

You should choose a problem that is connected to your life in a significant way. Remember that you need to tell something important about yourself to the admission committee. Mention at least several steps you would take to solve the problem you have chosen. This prompt allows you to take an imaginative approach to your essay.

Prompt #5: Tell us about your accomplishment or formal or informal event that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood.

An essay written based on this prompt can discuss anything from an event to a small occasion. Students should interpret the words “event” and “accomplishment” in their own pay. It can be anything from weddings and birthdays to achievements like getting a promotion or earning an award.

Usually, the description of smaller and less formal occasions make essays more surprising. However, if you put an unexpected twist to your essay, all ideas, informal and formal, are fair.

• When did you learn something that made you feel like an adult?
• Tell us about the moments in life that changed you as a person?
• Did it make you feel as an adult when you were rescuing a child from the pool?

When you search for the moments in your life to write about, make sure to have elements of transformation and transition. The accomplishment you are writing about should be something that assisted you to comprehend the world around.

About ACT Essay

Students usually have 30 minutes to write ACT essay. You need to write an essay on a given topic, usually a social one. It is a short assignment and requires a specific approach. You need to cram as many components as possible.

4 elements you need to remember when writing an ACT essay:

• Ideas and analysis: you need to think about the argument that engages with many perspectives on the subject you are writing about. The argument employs an insightful context for analysis of the problem and its perspectives.
• Development and support: development of ideas deepens insight and extends the context. Presentation of reasoning and illustration conveys the significance of the argument.
• Organization: your response should be unified by a purpose or idea. Logical progression of ideas enhances the effectiveness of your argument.
• Use of language: your word choice should be precise and skillful. The structure of your sentences should be clear and carried.

ACT Essay Prompts

ACT essay prompts can give you an idea on what you can write about at your ACT exam:

• If you have an interest, hobby, identity, or talent, you think your application would be incomplete without, you can tell us about it.
• Tell us about the lessons you took from your failures. How did they lead you to success? Tell us about the time or incident you experienced. How did it affect you? What did you learn from the experience?
• Tell us about a time when you challenged some idea or belief. Would you make the same decision again?
• Tell us about the problem you have solved or you intend to solve.
• Tell us about an even or accomplishment that became the transition point from childhood to adulthood for you.

UC Application Essay

Application essay is the most memorable part of all the documents that you provide for the admission commission at college. Essays help the committee to see you as a person and your personality. Thousands of students have the same points for exams, so the application essay identifies you and reveals your identity. In addition, the essay shows how you can present yourself, analyze information, and communicate with other people in writing. Employees of the admission committee, when they read the essay not only learn information about you and judge you by grammatical structures and the language you use, but also pay attention to what you say and what the ideas you present in his essay.

Collect all of the topics for the essay and write them down. Remember the situations from your life experience that can match the topic of your essay. Write whatever comes to mind. It is a good idea to ask your parents or teachers to help you describe a certain moment from your life so you don’t forget anything