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Writing prompts definition


Developing Writing Prompts | Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

A writing prompt introduces and focuses the writing topic. The purposes of a writing prompt are to encourage the student’s interest in a topic and encourage them to write about it in a thoughtful and creative way. While an effective prompt introduces and limits the writing topic, it should also provide clear instructions about the writing task.

An effective writing prompt includes two basic components;

  • A situation: The situation presents the general topic students are to write about. It is intended to spark the students interest and be consistent with their experience; and
  • Directions: The directions, describing the task students must complete, should be stated in a way that encourages students to share their knowledge and experience or inspires their thought and creativity.

When developing a writing prompt, the instructor should consider:

  • Essay type: The type of essay can influence the type and content of the prompt. When writing a prompt, first determine which type of essay the students will be writing. Common essay types include: argument, descriptive, expository (also known as evaluative, reflective, or analytic), narrative, opinion, and persuasive.
  • Prompt construction: One useful approach to prompt writing is to break it into three parts. The first part introduces the topic to the students; the second part encourages students to think about the topic, possibly with a pre-writing activity in which students brainstorm for ideas; the final part describes the writing task
  • Brevity: Writing prompt should be short and focused to avoid confusing students, but the instructor must ensure they provide sufficient information in order for students to clearly understand the assigned writing task.
  • Repetition: The parts of the prompt may be repetitive. Using parallel wording helps students remain focused on the specific writing task.
  • Bias and sensitivity: Topics should be inclusive of and equitable to all of your students. Prompts should be written in a manner that all students will have knowledge and experience to understand them regardless of cultural and other factors. Prompts should avoid cultural, ethnic, gender, or other stereotyping.

Writing prompt construction:

  • Part 1. Introduce the topic or writing situation with a statement or generalization to orient the student to the topic.
  • Part 2. Encourage students to brainstorm and to make a personal connection with the topic. The instructor might include specific ideas promote ideas.
  • Part 3. Describe the writing task, purpose, and audience. The instructor should provide sufficient information for the students to fully understand their task.

Before writing your prompt, be sure to determine the purpose of the assignment, how the assignment aligns with the learning objectives, and the criteria evaluate the writing, and, finally, which type of prompt will achieve those goals best. Writing prompts can be:

  • Descriptive: Asks students to create or describe an image or experience;
  • Narrative: Describes a real or fictitious scenario and invites students to tell a story about it;
  • Expository: Asks students to provide information about a topic. or
  • Persuasive:. Presents an opinion or viewpoint, requiring students to take a stance and defend it.

Descriptive Prompts

Descriptive prompts often contain cue terms, such as “describe in detail”, “describe how something looked/felt/smelled/tasted”, to help the reader to experience the same thing. This is in contrast to an expository prompt which would ask the student explain or tell “why”.

Example descriptive prompt

Many people have a favorite childhood toy. Sometimes these favorite childhood toys are not even expensive but were giving to you by someone special or as a reward. . Think about your favorite toy. It could be a stuffed animal or doll. It could even be the toy you made out of an everyday object, such as a blanket. Think about this favorite childhood toy, memories created with this toy, what it looked like, how it felt to have it with you. Write an essay that will be posted in your e-portfolio in which you describe your favorite childhood toy. Make sure you provide enough details so your readers can see it and feel what it is like to be there.

Narrative Prompts

Narrative writing recounts a personal or fictional experience or tells a story based on real or imagined events. Narrative writing is often characterized by insight, creativity, drama, suspense, humor, and/or fantasy. Narrative prompts use cue terms such as “tell about…”, “tell what happened”, or “write a story.” Similar to descriptive prompts, narrative prompts should avoid asking the students to explain “why.”

Example Narrative Prompt

Vacations can create some wonderful and not-so-wonderful memories. Sometimes vacations turn out to be funny, strange, scary, or weird. Think about a vacation with your family or friends that either became a favorite memory because it was the best, strangest, funniest, or worst vacation. Think about what you did, what else was happening at the time, where you were, who was involved, and the time of day or year it happened.

Write a story about the best, strangest, funniest, or worst vacation. Make sure you include enough details so the instructor can understand and follow your story.

Expository Prompts

Expository writing informs, clarifies, explains, defines, and/or instructs. Problem and solution, cause and effect, and how-to essays are subtypes of expository writing. Expository writing is guided by a purpose and with a specific audience in mind, therefore the voice and essay organization must align with the subject and audience. Expository prompts use the cue words: why, how, what, and explain.

Example Expository Prompt

Some animals have evolved to live and thrive under extreme climate conditions or to eat a very specific diet. Think about an animal that has evolved to live under extreme climate conditions or to eat a very specific diet. Think about where this animal lives, what the climate conditions are like, the types of food it eats, and how it gets its food. Think about the possible advantage and disadvantages for the animal of living in this habitat or eating this diet. Write an essay for your e-portfolio that identifies the animal and its unique habitat or diet and explains (with specific details to support your explanation) why it is an advantage for the animal to have evolved this way.

Persuasive Prompts

Persuasive writing is intended to convince the reader that a point of view is valid or to take a specific action. Persuasive writing should address the strengths and weakness of both sides of an issue but ultimately support one perspective. Persuasive prompts use the cue words “convince”, “persuade”, and “why,” rather than using terms like “how.”

Example Persuasive Prompt

Some parents are concerned about administering vaccines to their infants and children because they believe vaccines can lead to autism. Your sister who is currently pregnant is considering not vaccinating her child. Think about whether you agree or disagree with her plan to not vaccinate her child. Think about the advantages and disadvantages of vaccinating a child and what the scientific literature says. Write a letter to your pregnant sister in which you state your opinion on the decision to not vaccinate. Include enough specific details to support your opinion and to convince your sister that your position on the issue is correct.

Writing Prompts 101

By Simon Kewin

Even if you are not a professional writer you probably already heard about writing prompts. They represent a very effective tool for any writing project, so it’s a good idea to know how to use them.

What Is A Writing Prompt?

If you’re a fiction writer, you may want to consider using writing prompts to kick-start your creativity. A writing prompt is simply a topic around which you start jotting down ideas. The prompt could be a single word, a short phrase, a complete paragraph or even a picture, with the idea being to give you something to focus upon as you write. You may stick very closely to the original prompt or you may wander off at a tangent.

You may just come up with rough, disjointed notes or you may end up with something more polished and complete, a scene or even a complete story. The point is to simply start writing without being held back by any inhibitions or doubts.

Here are four good reasons for writing to prompts :

  1. Sometimes it’s hard to start writing when faced with a blank page. Focusing on an unrelated prompt for a while helps get the creative juices flowing. If you write for just ten minutes on a prompt, you should then find it easier to return to the piece you intended to write. You may also find that if you stop trying to think so hard about what you wanted to write and switch you attention to the prompt instead, the words and ideas for your original piece start to come to you after all.
  2. The things you write in response to a prompt may also end up as worthwhile material in their own right. The prompt may give you ideas from which a complete story grows or you may get fresh ideas for another piece you are already working on. It’s often surprising how much material you come up with once you start.
  3. Writing to a prompt regularly helps to get you into the habit of writing. This can act as a sort of exercise regime, helping to build up your “muscles” so that you start to find it easier and easier to write for longer and longer.
  4. Prompts can be a great way to get involved in a writing community. Sometimes writing groups offer a prompt for everyone to write about, with the intention being for everyone to come up with something they can then share. This can be a source of great encouragement, although knowing that others will read what you have written can also inhibit your creativity.

Examples of Writing Prompts

The following are twenty writing prompts that you could use to spark your imagination. If you want to use one, don’t worry about where the ideas take you or whether what you’ve written is “good”. The point is just to get into the flow of writing. You can come back later and polish if you wish to.

  1. It was the first snowfall of the year.
  2. He hadn’t seen her since the day they left High School.
  3. The city burned, fire lighting up the night sky.
  4. Silk.
  5. She studied her face in the mirror.
  6. The smell of freshly-cut grass.
  7. They came back every year to lay flowers at the spot.
  8. The streets were deserted. Where was everyone? Where had they all gone?
  9. This time her boss had gone too far.
  10. Red eyes.
  11. Stars blazed in the night sky.
  12. He woke to birdsong.
  13. ‘Shh! Hear that?’ ‘I didn’t hear anything.’
  14. He’d always hated speaking in public.
  15. She woke, shivering, in the dark of the night.
  16. The garden was overgrown now.
  17. He’d never noticed a door there before.
  18. She’d have to hitch a ride home.
  19. ‘I told him not to come back too!’
  20. His feet were already numb. He should have listened.

Where To Find Writing Prompts Online

The internet is a wonderful source of writing prompts. There are sites dedicated to providing them which a quick search will turn up. Examples include :

  • CreativeWritingPrompts.com
  • WritersDigest.com
  • Creative-Writing-Solutions.com

Perhaps even more valuable are the lists compiled by authors and websites. Here are some suggestions:

  • 200+ Writing Prompts to Inspire You

There are numerous blogs that offer a regular writing prompt to inspire you and where you can, if you wish, post what you’ve written. Examples include :

  • SundayScribblings.blogspot.com
  • DragonWritingPrompts.blogspot.com

There are also many other sites that can, inadvertently, provide a rich seam of material for writing prompts – for example news sites with their intriguing headlines or pictorial sites such as Flickr. com that give you access to a vast range of photographs that can prompt your writing.

If you’re on Twitter, there are users you can follow to receive a stream of prompts, for example :

  • twitter.com/writingprompt
  • twitter.com/NoTelling
  • twitter.com/writingink

Another idea is just to keep an eye on all the tweets being written by people all over the world, some of which can, inadvertently, be used as writing prompts.

How To Make Your Own Writing Prompts

You can find ideas for writing prompts of your own from all sorts of places : snatches of overheard conversation, headlines, signs, words picked from a book and so on. Get used to keeping an eye out for words and phrases that fire your imagination, jot them down and use them as writing prompts to spark your creativity. You never know where they might take you.

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Hint meaning of the word and examples of application in the sentence

Hint - some students sometimes wait for her at the lesson, while others consider it almost a humiliation. What is this word, and what is the meaning of the word "hint". Let's first deal with the morphology of this word. It is an inanimate feminine noun, in the singular, in the nominative case. The stress in the word is placed on the letter "a". With the advent and development of digital technologies, the word "hint" has received an additional meaning. We will consider this word from different positions, as well as talk about its synonyms and give examples of sentences with this word.

Content

Meaning of the word

So, initially the meaning of the word:

A hint is a phrase or a set of phrases that helps to get closer to a certain thought. This thought may be known to a person in advance and partially forgotten, or completely unknown, but a person can be led to it. In other words, a hint helps to lead a person to an idea or directly points to the necessary information.

Now a hint is often called a pop-up explanation in a game or in an application, on a website, helping the user to move forward in them. The tooltip usually explains the rules, or gives you a hint to relevant apps, games, or additional material on tutorial sites.

How the tooltip is labeled

Typically, a tooltip in a game's GUI is represented by the symbol . If you hover your mouse over this symbol, a tooltip will appear in a pop-up window. Sometimes such a symbol can be found in books and textbooks. In the textbook, hints are often indicated graphically differently, and these designations and their meanings are indicated at the beginning of the textbook.

Tips can surround us not only in books, or in computer games. Tips every day can be seen on the street - these are road signs. They tell both pedestrians and drivers what to do. For example, a walking man at a traffic light tells a pedestrian to cross the road. The sign, with the name of the city and the number, tells the driver how many kilometers are left to go to this city.

You can see a lot of clues in the subway. There are hints everywhere - they will tell you which station you are now, and where which street is, and in which direction it is better to get off the subway.

When a hint is inappropriate

The word hint has a double meaning - in the game, in the book, hints are desirable - they serve as an additional tool for learning and do not acquire a derogatory connotation. In a lesson, at an exam, hints are undesirable, and the teacher can severely punish both the one who prompts and the one who is prompted.

Therefore, you need to clearly understand where the hint is appropriate and where it is not. In China, for example, for a hint in an exam, a student can be deprived of the opportunity to take the exam at all in the future. That is, a student who received a hint may never receive a higher education in the future. They are so strict about independence in obtaining and controlling knowledge.

When prompting is needed

Prompts are desirable in the theater, and there is even such a profession as a prompter, a person who suggests words to actors if they suddenly forget them. If you like to prompt, pay attention to this profession.

Synonyms of the word “Hint”

Synonyms of the Words “Hint” can be considered the words:

  • Vlekka,
  • SPRU,
  • Chevpark,
  • Council,
  • Home,
  • Assistance.

For example, “I gave him advice and thus suggested how to make this project even better and more interesting.”

Examples of using the word

Interesting examples of using the word "hint" in sentences:

  • “Hints in class will be severely punished,” the Russian language teacher said.
  • I don't need your tips. I ask you never to tell me again.
  • Your hint has served me well. I remember her even now.
  • Ivanov, at least tell me correctly. Your clue will lead Petrov to a deuce.
  • There are absolutely no clues in this level of the game. And without them it is difficult to pass the level.
  • Don't worry, I'll help you - I'll give you a notebook with hints.
  • I should probably not use the hint in the database, I don't even understand its meaning.
  • These pop-up tips are boring - I know how to play this game myself .

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HINTS FOR WRITING AN EFFECTIVE JOB ADVERTISEMENT

To find the right employees for your salon, you first need to write a job ad. This section will provide tips and instructions for writing an effective job posting in your salon.

In general, a job description is a list of requirements, responsibilities and skill levels that a candidate needs for this job.

In the meantime, what makes an ad effective is that it describes the interior atmosphere of the salon, its business objectives, and the owners' expectations of future employees. With this submission, potential candidates may imagine themselves working in the described environment - or not, if this does not suit them. Not only will this give them a better idea of ​​the job offer, but it will also save you a lot of time looking at obviously unsuitable candidates.

Definitely, the description of the vacancy will vary depending on the specifics of the position - whether it is the work of an administrator, for example, or a stylist, colorist, etc. - as well as by level: master, senior master or top stylist.

Follow the guidelines to start your job description:

Salon Introduction

As mentioned above, it is highly desirable to describe the style and culture of your salon right away.

Job title

Be accurate in your job title within industry terminology.

Job Description

Write an introductory paragraph, 3-4 sentences that would describe in general terms to the candidates the nature, objectives, conditions of the proposed work.

Duties and responsibilities

List the tasks that will need to be solved in the process of work, and the contingent with which you will work. If necessary, describe more fully each of the tasks so that all components are as clear as possible.

Please note that some positions may be "hybrid" i.e. include knowledge and skills from several areas of work at once - describe them as fully as possible in order to attract the attention of qualified specialists.

Position level

Specify which position level the position belongs to - junior or senior employee, whether additional managerial skills are required for the position.

Specifics and Qualifications

List the basic minimum requirements for the specific job, including education, additional training, and qualifying experience.

Professional Skills

If you do not intend to conduct an induction training, it is better to inform about it right away.

Learn more