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Example prompt 1: Should public libraries charge late fees, reduce them, or eliminate them? Explain what goal your policy serves.
8 Opinion 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 opinion writing prompts provide enough specificity to spark a scene or argument, remain open enough for original responses, vary the kind of thinking required, and avoid reducing writers practicing supported opinion writing to one ability level or experience.
- Clear task or story engine rather than a one-word theme.
- Concrete situation, choice, observation, audience, or constraint.
- Enough openness for different experiences, claims, characters, or outcomes.
- Variation across narrative, explanatory, reflective, descriptive, and argumentative modes where appropriate.
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Example prompt 2: Is it better for meetings to default to 25 minutes or 50 minutes instead of 30 or 60? Defend your choice with tradeoffs.
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Example prompt 3: Should restaurants automatically provide disposable cutlery for takeout orders or only when customers request it?
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Example prompt 4: Which is more useful for beginners learning a skill: immediate correction or time to attempt the task independently first?
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Example prompt 5: Should cities prioritize shaded sidewalks, more parking, or wider bike lanes on streets where space is limited?
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Example prompt 6: Is reading one long book better practice than reading several short texts on the same topic? Define what “better” means.
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Example prompt 7: Should schools publish assignment rubrics before students begin work? Explain benefits and possible drawbacks.
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Example prompt 8: Is it reasonable for employers to require cameras on during remote meetings? State conditions where your answer might change.
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.