Examples that show the thinking.
534 examples and lessons to explore. Find an approach, follow the thinking, and try it in your own writing.
Common App Essay on Any Topic: A Self-Chosen Personal Story
An illustrative personal essay about learning to treat uncertainty as a reason to investigate rather than a reason to withdraw.
Career Guidance and Fields with Plentiful Jobs: GRE Issue Essay
An argumentative essay that supports active, evidence-based career guidance while warning institutions not to turn employment projections into pressure or a narrow definition of success.
Moving to a New School
An illustrative first-person narrative about how small, repeated choices can make a new school feel less unfamiliar.
Scientific Images: Beautiful Pictures or Evidence?
An argumentative essay explaining how Hubble images engage viewers while also serving as evidence that scientists interpret through careful analysis.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Hyde’s Violence and the Novel’s Moral Theme
A literary analysis of how Hyde’s cruelty to a child and murder of Sir Danvers Carew expose the harm enabled by Jekyll’s attempt to separate private pleasures from his public identity.
Economic Security and the Ability to Handle an Unexpected Expense
An explanation of what emergency-savings measures reveal about U.S. households’ financial resilience—and why those measures cannot describe every household’s security.
Industrialization’s Economic and Social Effects, 1750–1900
Industrialization substantially changed production, labor, and urban life, but its effects spread unevenly and did not erase older economic practices.
Why Local Conditions Matter When Choosing Renewable Energy
An evidence-based essay explaining how geography, resource variability, and electricity-system needs shape the suitability of hydropower and solar power in the United States.
UC PIQ 6: Pursuing an Academic Subject That Inspires You
An illustrative response about developing an interest in astronomy through observation, reading, and explaining scientific ideas.
Facts and Emotion in Persuasion
An argumentative essay weighing the persuasive strengths and limits of facts, statistics, and emotional appeals, with examples from two presidential addresses.
Family Traditions and a Sense of Belonging
An explanatory essay about how recurring family activities preserve memory and create belonging, while adapting to new circumstances.
Wilderness Protection Laws: Should Remaining Areas Stay Undisturbed?
An argument that nations should legally protect remaining wilderness from permanent development while allowing carefully limited exceptions for urgent public needs and Indigenous rights.