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Example prompt 1: Should schools require students to complete a practical financial-literacy course before graduation?
8 Argumentative Writing Prompts Examples
Use these examples to study structure, specificity, tone, and variation. They are demonstrations—not claims about a real person or organization unless the example itself makes that explicit.
Before you copy
What to notice in the examples
Strong argumentative writing prompts are specific enough to begin drafting immediately, varied enough to support different voices and experiences, and open enough that two writers can produce meaningfully different pieces from the same starting point.
- A clear starting word, image, question, audience, problem, or constraint.
- A task that implies what the writer should notice, explain, argue, invent, or develop.
- Enough openness for different interpretations, settings, evidence, or outcomes.
- Variety in tone, scale, perspective, and difficulty across the prompt bank.
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Example prompt 2: Should cities charge private vehicles to enter the most congested downtown areas?
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Example prompt 3: Should employers be allowed to use automated screening as the first stage for every job application?
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Example prompt 4: Should public libraries eliminate late fines for most materials?
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Example prompt 5: Should universities record all large lectures and make recordings available to enrolled students?
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Example prompt 6: Should restaurants be required to disclose total prices including mandatory service charges on menus?
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Example prompt 7: Should schools restrict smartphone use during the entire school day rather than only during lessons?
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Example prompt 8: Should local governments prioritize shade and tree cover over additional parking in heat-prone neighborhoods?
Keep the underlying decision or pattern, then replace the subject, evidence, relationship, constraints, and tone with details that belong to your situation. If your final line still works after swapping only one noun, it may be too close to the example.