Introduction:
Writing essays is an important part of academic learning for high school students. Essay writing helps develop important research, analytical thinking, and composition skills that will serve students well in their future educational and professional careers. For many high school students, writing essays can seem like a daunting task, especially as the stakes get higher with more advanced coursework. Looking at essay writing samples from other high-performing students can help break down the process and provide models for students to follow as they write their own essays. This article will explore several essay writing samples on various topics that high school students may encounter and analyze what makes each sample effective.
Sample Expository Essay:
Expository essays aim to explain or inform the reader about a topic. Here is a sample 500-word expository essay on the topic of peer pressure in high school:
Peer Pressure in High School
High school is a time of change and personal growth as young people transition into adulthood. It can also be a time of struggle as teenagers face increased social pressures from their peers. Peer pressure takes many forms in high school and can negatively influence behavior if students are not equipped to think independently. This essay will examine some common types of peer pressure faced by high school students and provide suggestions for how to deal with such pressures in a healthy manner.
One form of peer pressure experienced nearly universally in high school is the pressure to fit in socially and be popular. Teenagers at this age are highly focused on their social status and relationships with peers. As a result, they may feel inclined to dress, act, or behave in certain ways to gain acceptance by their social group or be seen as “cool.” Giving in to superficial peer pressure to gain status actually undermines one’s sense of self and individuality. Students should focus on forming genuine friendships based on shared interests and values rather than superficial traits.
Academically, some students face pressure from peers to skip classes, not do homework, or cheat on tests. While wanting to socialize with friends is natural, prioritizing academics lays the foundation for future success. Blowing off schoolwork to fit in actually harms one’s future rather than helping social bonds. Students should draw boundaries with friends pressuring them academically and concentrate on using their high school years to learn and better themselves.
Substance abuse peer pressure is another serious issue, with some teenagers facing influence to drink alcohol, smoke, or use drugs recreationally to look mature or fit in. Giving in only jeopardizes one’s health, risks addiction, and leads down an unwise path. Firmly declining to give peer pressure power over choices regarding substance use is important for safety and well-being.
While wanting peer approval is normal and fitting in feels protective, giving in to pressure that compromises one’s values undermines self-respect and integrity. Students cope best by focusing on interests, not traits, forming genuine friendships, trusting themselves above social perceptions, and prioritizing learning, health, and future success over superficial status concerns. With self-confidence and clear priorities, teenagers can navigate peer influence positively.
Analysis: This expository essay sample effectively breaks down a complex topic into clear subdivisions with examples. Each paragraph examines a different type of common peer pressure faced in high school and provides specific details and suggestions. Transitions between paragraphs are smooth. The conclusion ties the subsections together and leaves the reader with a takeaway message. Overall, the structure and depth of analysis in this essay would serve as an excellent model for students writing their own expository essays.
Sample Persuasive Essay:
Persuasive essays aim to convince the reader of a particular position on a debatable topic. Here is a 700-word persuasive essay sample arguing that high schools should offer more advanced placement courses:
High Schools Should Expand Advanced Placement Course Offerings
In today’s globally competitive world, a high-quality education is essential for students’ future success. As students prepare to enter college and their careers, advanced high school coursework provides important academic challenges that cultivate independent, higher-order thinking skills prized by postsecondary institutions and employers alike. Yet many high schools limit their advanced placement (AP) course selections, providing students with less opportunity to take rigorous college-level classes in high school. This essay argues school districts should expand AP offerings to better prepare all students for the demands of higher education and today’s knowledge-based job market.
Current AP course selection at many high schools is inadequate and does not meet student demand. According to the College Board, over 2.8 million students took over 4.4 million AP exams in 2019, yet almost 20% of U.S. high schools still do not offer any AP courses at all. Even in schools with some AP classes, subjects like physics, computer science, foreign languages, arts, and other electives commonly do not have advanced options. Students wishing to challenge themselves academically or gain college credit are thwarted by limited selection. Expanding AP offerings would allow interested students to further their education without AP limiting being a barrier.
Opponents counter that expanding AP courses requires more resources, trained teachers, and smaller class sizes that strains school budgets. The costs of AP are outweighed by long-term academic and economic benefits both to students and society. AP course participation correlates to higher college graduation rates, upward of 90% for AP exam passers, saving time and tuition dollars. AP exam scores can also earn college credits saving further costs. Workers with postsecondary degrees on average earn $1 million more over a lifetime than peers with only high school diplomas. Expanding AP to benefit more students pays clear future dividends that boost individual opportunity and economic prosperity for all.
Preparing youth through rigorous academics is crucial for individual success and America’s ability to compete globally. While budgetary concerns exist, the academic and economic arguments for expanding AP course access in high schools overwhelmingly support enhancing student opportunity through a diversity of advanced learning options. Giving students chance to challenge themselves and gain college-level skills magnifies long-term returns. School districts should prioritize AP expansion to lay the strongest foundation possible for each student’s bright future.
Analysis: This persuasive essay effectively builds an evidence-based case in favor of its position through reasonable arguments and compelling details. Each paragraph smoothly introduces a new point and ties it back to the overarching thesis. Statistics and facts are used persuasively to support key assertions. Counterarguments are acknowledged and rebutted reasonably. The conclusion wraps up the points made and leaves the reader convinced of expanding AP course access in high schools. Overall, this essay accomplishes the goal of persuasion through logical structure and appeal to credible evidence and would provide a exemplary model for students writing their own persuasive essays.
Sample Literary Analysis Essay:
Literary analysis essays require close examination of elements in stories, poems, plays or novels. Here is a 800-word analysis of themes in John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men:
Loneliness and the Human Condition in Of Mice and Men
Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men illustrates the timeless themes of loneliness and companionship through the story of ranch hands George and Lennie working during the Great Depression. George and Lennie’s friendship counters the isolation permeating the rural farmland of California in the 1930s. Underlying message suggests loneliness as an inevitable human condition despite companionship. Careful analysis reveals how Steinbeck explores this through character development and relationships in the novella.
On the surface, George and Lennie’s partnership prevents loneliness through camaraderie and shared aspirations of obtaining their own farm one day. Described as opposites in physique yet equally dependent on one another, together they retain vestiges of dignity in bleak circumstances. Deeper reading indicates companionship itself does not eliminate loneliness but rather momentarily suppresses its permanent effects. George scolds and nags Lennie, highlighting his struggling guardianship of a childlike yet powerful man casting doubt upon true equal partnership.
Other ranch hand characters experience loneliness despite numbers. Small groups eat dinner together yet remain socially isolated, trapped within their individual thoughts, as exemplified through parallel descriptive phrasing. Candy loses his livelihood to age yet finds new loneliness in his old dog being put down, symbolic of lost final connection to purpose and belonging. Parallel can also be seen between Curley’s controlling micro-management of wife due to his own self-imposed isolation through compensatory power trip.
Ultimately George and Lennie’s relationship demonstrates no man is an island yet close human bonds contain cracks where loneliness emerges. One cannot ‘own’ another’s life no matter intimacy levels resulting in disconnect beyond companionship. The cyclical nature of isolation portrayed through various characters implies loneliness as intrinsic human condition not easily escaped regardless external factors that may worsen but not cause its metaphysical roots. No place or relationship offers a permanent antidote to loneliness permeating our fundamental aloneness in a vast indifferent universe.
Through economical yet impactful prose, Steinbeck captures humanity’s deepest longing for connection while acknowledging its elusiveness. His archetypal characters portray a profound yet simple insight – that loneliness simultaneously plagues yet paradoxically unites the shared lot of being human. Of Mice and Men presents a poignant meditation on these dilemmas as eternal as the fields where George and Lennie grapple with the limitations of our dearest yet intangible ties.
Analysis: This literary analysis essay effectively breaks down complex themes in Of Mice and Men through close examination of characters, imagery, and plot elements. Each paragraph introduces an aspect of loneliness as explored through Stein
Andrew Stroud