Writing Prompt - Expository

Imagine that someone invented a time travel machine and offered you the opportunity to invite and transport any person to your classroom from any time in the past. If you had your choice of the most interesting person with whom you could share the class day, who would it be? This person could someone from any part of life: politics, military, media, the arts, sports etc.

Your job is to write a five-paragraph essay to explain how this person could be of benefit and interest to your class.

Brainstorm and think of all those persons who interested you? Which one do you think would be the most enjoyable and beneficial to invite? Why? In choosing a subject, make sure that the person has a varied background. If you only know about one contribution and little about the person's life, you will probably not be able to write a good essay.

Use a planner.

Once you have written down the name, write down the general reasons that you chose the person.

Under each of those subtopics, write down things, ideas, or activities that they could share with the class. Think about specific things the class should know, could learn from the person, things they could do with them etc. Why would they be fun, interesting, or important? Write those supporting ideas too. Remember they the person is coming to your time and not the other way around.

Sort through the ideas and choose those you feel are the best.

Think about how you will originally restate the topic sentence and the supporting sentence too as part of the summary ending.

Now you are ready to write.

In your topic sentence, be sure that you set the scene and name the person. In the following three sentences, you need to tell about the things that will occur when the person is here. You are explaining why this person should be invited. You are not persuading someone to invite him or her.

In each of the paragraphs, tell about the benefits of having this person in the class. Tell what and how this person could contribute to each of your ideas. As you write, thing about how to formulate each sentence so that their structures are varied. Write in the active voice to give strength to you writing.

After you finish the summary ending, reread the essay and correct all mistakes. Errors in spelling, capitalization, changes in tense, incorrect pronoun references weaken the writing and distract the reader. Be sure they are corrected.

Be sure that each paragraph explains the contribution that the person could make to the classroom. Rewrite any sentences that do not contribute to the smooth flow of ideas.