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Writing prompts for high school

60 prompts for grades 9 to 12: personal narratives, arguments that weigh the other side, analysis, creative pieces and journal prompts. Ask Sparky for a set on the text your class just read.

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A teacher asks Sparky for argument writing prompts for 10th grade and gets five prompts in the chat, from schools monitoring social media to paying college athletes, with Sparky offering to tailor them to a book or theme

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Narrative writing prompts for high school

High school narratives can use more than one point of view or plot line, and they end by reflecting on what was experienced or resolved (Common Core W.9-10.3 and W.11-12.3). The first two groups work as starting points for a college essay.

Other grades have their own pages: 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade and middle school. The writing prompt generator writes prompts on your own topic.

  • Personal essays

    1. Write about a belief you held strongly and then questioned. What happened in between?
    2. Describe a moment when you saw a parent or guardian as a person, separate from their role in your life.
    3. Write about a job, chore or responsibility that taught you something school didn't.

  • Who you are

    1. Write about a problem in your school or town you want to fix, and what you have done about it so far.
    2. Write about an object you own that says something true about you.
    3. Write about a community you belong to and the part you play in it.

  • Turning points

    1. Tell the story of a conversation that changed the direction of your year.
    2. Write about leaving something behind: a place, a friend group or an earlier version of yourself.
    3. Write about a time you were wrong in front of other people and how you handled it.

  • Structure experiments

    1. Write a story with two plot lines that meet in the last scene.
    2. Write a story told entirely through texts, letters or voicemails.
    3. Write a story that starts at the end and moves backward in time.

Argument writing prompts for high school

High school arguments develop claims and counterclaims fairly, with the strengths and limits of each, in a formal and objective tone (W.9-10.1 and W.11-12.1). Each prompt here has a serious case on both sides.

  • Technology and work

    1. Should apps that recommend videos have to show users why each video was recommended? Present the opposing view fairly.
    2. Should tuition be free at public colleges and universities? Weigh the evidence on both sides before you decide.
    3. Is a four-day work week good for both workers and businesses? Use at least three credible sources.

  • Citizenship

    1. Should voting be required for every eligible citizen, as it is in Australia? Address the strongest objection.
    2. Should the United States replace the Electoral College with a national popular vote? Answer the best argument on the other side.
    3. Should high school students have to complete community service hours to graduate?

  • Ethics

    1. Is it ever right to break a law? Support your claim with a historical example.
    2. Should people be held responsible as adults for what they posted online as teenagers?
    3. Do the benefits of gene-edited crops outweigh the risks? Use evidence for each side.

  • Literature

    1. Choose a tragic hero from a play or novel you read. Argue whether the downfall comes from a flaw in the character or from forces outside their control.
    2. Is the narrator of a novel you read reliable? Argue your answer with three pieces of evidence.
    3. Which of two texts you read this year gives the more convincing picture of human nature?

Informative and analysis prompts for high school

High school informative writing organizes complex ideas so each part builds on the last, and analysis prompts ask how a writer creates an effect (W.9-10.2 and W.11-12.2). These fit English, history and science classes.

  • Analysis

    1. Analyze how an author develops one symbol across a novel and what it shows about the theme.
    2. Analyze the rhetorical choices in a famous speech, such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream."
    3. Explain how a primary source from your history class reflects the time and place it was written.

  • Science and economics

    1. Explain how vaccines prepare the immune system to fight a disease, and why some need booster doses.
    2. Explain how the greenhouse effect works and how human activity has changed it.
    3. Explain the main causes of the Great Depression and how they were connected.

  • Systems

    1. Explain how the U.S. Supreme Court decides which cases to hear.
    2. Explain how credit scores work and how a young adult can build one.
    3. Explain how a newsroom checks a story before it is published.

  • Research

    1. Research a career you are considering: the training it takes, the daily work and how the field is changing.
    2. Explain a scientific discovery from the last fifty years and how it changed everyday life.
    3. Trace how one English word's meaning has changed over time, using a dictionary's word history.

Creative writing prompts for high school

A rule to write within, or a text to rewrite, gives high schoolers something to push against. These work for creative writing electives and English classes.

  • Constraints

    1. Write a story of exactly 100 words with a twist in the last sentence.
    2. Write a scene with no dialogue tags in which the reader can still tell who is speaking.
    3. Write a poem in which every line is a question.

  • Rewrites

    1. Rewrite a scene from a Shakespeare play you read as if it happened at a high school today.
    2. Write a myth that explains a modern invention, such as Wi-Fi or the alarm clock.
    3. Write a missing chapter for a novel you read this year.

  • Voice

    1. Write a monologue for a character who is hiding something from the audience.
    2. Write a letter to yourself to open in ten years.
    3. Write a story narrated by someone who is lying, and let the reader work it out.

  • Poetry

    1. Write a sonnet about something ordinary, such as a bus ride or a cup of coffee.
    2. Write a poem about a painting or photograph that describes what is outside the frame.
    3. Write an ode to a place in your town most people overlook.

Journal prompts for high school students

Twelve questions for a warm-up or a weekly reflection. Students can answer most of them in ten minutes.

  • Becoming

    1. Which of your habits do you want to keep for life, and which do you want to drop?
    2. What do you want to be known for by the time you graduate?
    3. Describe who you were in 6th grade. What would you tell that person now?

  • Pressure and balance

    1. What takes up most of your time right now? Is that what matters most to you?
    2. How do you handle stress before a big test or deadline? What works and what doesn't?
    3. What does success mean to you, and where did that idea come from?

  • The world

    1. What issue in the news do you think about most, and why?
    2. What could adults learn from your generation?
    3. Which of your opinions would be hardest to change, and what would it take?

  • After high school

    1. Where do you see yourself the year after high school, and what is one step toward it this month?
    2. What is a risk you are glad you took, or wish you had taken?
    3. Who has shaped the way you think the most, and how?

Get more high school prompts from Sparky

  1. Name the text or topic

    Type one line, like "argument prompts about The Great Gatsby for 11th grade" or "journal prompts about stress for 9th graders".

  2. Push the prompts further

    Sparky writes them in the chat or in a document. Ask for a counterclaim to address, a quotation to analyze, or a version for a timed essay.

  3. Share them

    Paste them into your slides or course page, or ask for a printable sheet you can save as a Google Doc or a Word file.

Ways high school teachers use them

  • Timed essays

    Argument prompts that students can plan and write in one class period, as practice for timed writing on exams.

    Get timed prompts

  • Literary analysis

    Prompts on the novel, play or poem your class just finished, asking how the writer creates meaning.

    Use our text

  • Personal statements

    Personal narrative prompts that help seniors find a story for a college essay.

    Get essay starters

  • Journal warm-ups

    Short prompts for the first ten minutes of class, about students' lives, goals and the world.

    Get journal prompts

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Frequently asked questions

Are these high school writing prompts free?

Yes. Use or print any prompt on this page, and Sparky is free for teachers when you want more.

What are good journal prompts for high school students?

Questions about who students are becoming, what pressures them and what they think about the world, like which of their opinions would be hardest to change. The journal section has twelve, and Sparky can write more on a theme you choose.

What are good 10-minute writing prompts for high school?

A question with one clear focus that students can answer in a paragraph, such as most of the journal prompts here. For a longer argument, pick from the argument section and give students a class period.

How are high school writing prompts different from middle school ones?

High school arguments develop the opposing claim fairly, with its strengths and limits, rather than only answering it. High school narratives can use more than one point of view or plot line, and analysis prompts ask how a writer creates an effect, not only what happens.

Can I print these prompts or put them in slides?

Yes. Copy them into your slides, or ask Sparky for a printable sheet. It makes a document you can print, save to Google Drive as a Google Doc or download as a Word file.

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