Examples that show the thinking.
534 examples and lessons to explore. Find an approach, follow the thinking, and try it in your own writing.
Education Should Prepare Students to Read Real-World Data
An explanatory essay arguing that students need practice interpreting costs, enrollment statistics, surveys, and forecasts so they can make informed decisions while recognizing the limits of evidence.
Physical Activity in Daily American Life: Access Matters as Well as Motivation
An explanatory essay on the health benefits of physical activity and why everyday opportunities, supportive settings, and individual circumstances matter alongside motivation.
Should Parents Control Social Media? Parental Permission Laws for Minors
A qualified argument for parental permission for younger teens, combined with privacy-conscious safeguards, platform responsibilities, and greater independence for older teenagers.
Jane Eyre’s Need for Belonging and Independence
An analysis of how Jane’s search for emotional belonging and self-determination shapes her choices at Thornfield and Marsh End, and how the novel presents love as most meaningful when it respects autonomy.
Should U.S. Cities Make Public Transit Free?
A qualified argument for making transit free for targeted riders and trips while protecting the funding needed for frequent, reliable service.
Colonial Change and the American Revolution, 1700–1776
A qualified argument that political conflict over authority most directly turned social and economic change into a revolutionary movement. Popular protest, consumer boycotts, women’s participation, and Britain’s response illustrate how resistance widened and escalated by 1774.
GRE Argument: Does Competition for High Grades Undermine Learning?
An evidence-based argument that competition for grades can motivate effort but may undermine learning when high stakes reward narrow performance, opportunities are unequal, or feedback is limited. It explains how these risks can vary across educational levels.
Society’s Heroes as Evidence of Its Ideals
An argument that public heroes reveal a society’s aspirations, but must be considered alongside the institutions and conduct that test those ideals.
Should Students Be Allowed to Use AI for Brainstorming?
A qualified argument for allowing AI brainstorming when students remain responsible for their ideas, verify suggestions, protect personal information, and disclose assistance.
Why Students Should Encounter Art From Different Communities
A developed argument for studying creative traditions across communities through attentive, contextual interpretation that resists stereotypes.
Politics: Idealism or Reasonable Consensus?
An argument that political leadership should keep ideals as its destination while using reasonable consensus as its ordinary method, with limits for compromises that entrench injustice or undermine democratic principles.
The Webster–Hayne Debate and Sectional Politics, 1830–1865
Webster’s defense of national unity served the political purpose of making national action possible across state lines. From Missouri-era sectional disputes through expansion and the free-soil movement, political conflict increasingly centered on slavery’s future in the West. The later crisis over secession echoed the question of national versus state authority but unfolded on a far more consequential scale.