New SAT Topics (March 2005 – January 2007)
2005 March ESSAY PROMPT
Prompt 1
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below:
We must seriously question the idea of majority rule. The majority grinned and jeered when
Adapted from James A. Reed, "Majority Rule"
Assignment: Is the opinion of the majority - in government or in any other circumstances-a poor guide? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
Prompt 2
Given the import!!ance of human creativity, one would think it should have a high priority among our concerns. But if we look at the reality, we see a different picture. Basic scientific research is minimized in favor of immediate practical applications. The arts are increasingly seen as dispensable luxuries. Yet as competition heats up around the globe, exactly the opposite strategy is needed.
Adapted from Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, Creativity: Flow and Psychology of Discovery and Invention
Assignment: Is creativity needed more than ever in the world today?
Prompt 3
Even scientists know that absolute objectivity has yet to be attained. It is the same for absolute truth. But, as many news reporters have observed, the idea of objectivity as a guiding principle is too valuable to be abandoned. Without it, the pursuit of knowledge is hopelessly lost.
Adapted from “Focusing Our Values,” Nieman Reports
Assignment: Are people better at making observations, discoveries, and decisions if they remain neutral and impartial?
Prompt 4
If you think that what you do is your own business, you are wrong. In this world your conduct affects not only you but the conduct of other people as well. If you behave in a way that is considered unacceptable and other people copy your behavior!, you are responsible for the consequences.
Adapted from Margaret Banning, “Letter to Susan"
Assignment: Is a person responsible, through the example he or she sets, for the behavior! of other people?
2005 May ESSAY PROMPT
Prompt 1
It's easy to see why - aside from the income it provides - having a job is so desirable in our culture. Work works for us. It structures our time and imposes a rhythm on our lives. It gets us organized into various kinds of communities and social groups. And perhaps most import!!ant, work tells us what to do every day.
Adapted from Joanne B. Ciulla, The Working Life
Assignment: Do people depend on work - whether it is a job, schoolwork, or volunteer work - to determine what their daily activities and interactions with others should be?
Prompt 2
There is no progress unless someone comes up with a new way of looking at things, of trying things that have never been done or thought of before. We cannot move forward by looking backward to old customs and past experience. There can be no advancement or improvement unless there are people who look forward in pursuit of the new and untried.
Assignment: Does progress depend on people with new ideas rather than on people whose ideas are based on the current way of doing things?
Prompt 3
We are afraid that our cause is unjust, or that it is unclear, or that it is too insignificant to justify the horrors of a confrontation with authority. We will endure almost any inconvenience before undertaking head-on, I’m- here- to- tell- you complaint.
Adapted from William F Buckley, Jr. “Why Don’t We Complaint?"
Assignment: Are people afraid to speak out against authority, whether the authority is an individual, a group, or a government?
2005 June ESSAY PROMPT
Prompt 1
The media not only transmit information and culture, they also decide what information is import!!ant. In that way, they help to shape culture and values.
Adapted form Alison Bernstein, "Artists Thrive on Freedom and Freedom Thrives on the Arts"
Assignment: Do newspapers, magazines, television, radio, movies, the Internet, and other media determine what is import!!ant to most people?
Prompt 2
Many persons believe that to move up the ladder of success and achievement, they must forget the past, repress it, and relinquish it. But others have just the opposite view. They see old memories as a chance to reckon with the past and integrate past and present.
Adapted form Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, “I’ve known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation"
Assignment: Do memories hinder or help people in their effort to learn from the past and succeed in the present?
Prompt 3
I cannot comprehend those who emphasize or recognize only what is useful. I am convinced that learning for learning’s sake is no longer considered desirable, that everything we do and think must be directed toward the solution to a practical problem. More and more we seem to try to teach how to make a good living and not how to live a good life.
Adapted form Philip D Jordan, “The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge"
Assignment: Do people put too much emphasis on learning practical skills?
Prompt 4
Most of our schools are not facing up to their responsibilities. We must begin to ask ourselves whether educators should help students address the critical moral choices and social issues of our time. Schools have responsibilities beyond training people for jobs and getting students into college.
Adapted form Svi Shapiro
Assignment: Should schools help students understand moral choices and social issues?
2005 October ESSAY PROMPT
Prompt 1
Adapted from Barry Farber, "Selling Points"
Prompt 2
1. Celebrities have the power to attract "communities" of like-minded followers; they provide an identity that people can connect to and call their own. Celebrities are trusted; they stand for certain ideas and values to which followers can express allegiance.
Adapted from William Greider, Who Will Tell the People?
2. Admiration for celebrities is often accompanied by contempt for "average" people. As we focus on the famous, other people become less import!!ant to us. The world becomes populated with a few "somebodies" and an excess of "near-nobodies."
Adapted from Norman Solomon and Jeff Cohen, Wizards of Media Oz
Prompt 3
This is a time for shallowness. Seriousness is so rare these days that we tend to make all kinds of allowances for those who only seem to possess it. In this way, shallow ideas are not recognized for what they are, and they are increasingly mistaken for deep thoughts.
Adapted from Margaret Talbot, "The Perfectionist"
Prompt 1.
There are situations where flattery is mandatory: The bride is always beautiful. If we look at someone's artwork, we are obliged to say something complimentary to the artist. If we visit someone with a new baby, we are required to say the infant is cute. In such situations, to say nothing is interpreted as rudeness. We compliment each other because we understand that flattery makes life run moothly.
Adapted from Richard Stengel, You're Too Kind: A brief History of Flattery
Assignment: Is praising others, even if the praise is excessive or undeserved, a necessary part of life?
Prompt 2.
Beauty is not a quality in people or in objects themselves. It exists in the mind that perceives those objects, and each mind perceives beauty differently. To seek real beauty, in some absolute sense, is pointless. Where one person sees beauty, another may even see the opposite. For this reason, we all ought to accept our own perceptions of who or what is beautiful, and not be influenced by the perceptions of others.
Adapted from David Hume, "Of the Standard of Taste"
Conflict is not necessarily bad, and it does not necessarily indicate a failed interaction. It is a signal, a message that says, "Things aren't working around here. We've got to do something different." Thus, conflict can be a catalyst-a motivating force-encouraging people to interact and communicate in ways that are more satisfying. Conflict can actually benefit people by pushing them to make necessary changes.
Adapted from Beverly Potter, From Conflict to Cooperation