CHAPTER 13 / ESSAY WRITING PRACTICE 485
Sample Essays: Practice Essay 1
Consider carefully the issue discussed in the following passage, then write an essay that answers the
question posed in the assignment.Without a clear goal to focus our energy and drive us to grow, we cease to be truly
alive. We are inert particles floating on the sea of life. This is true of not only ourselves,
but our institutions—our families, our corporations, and our societies. The moment we
cease to grow, we begin to die.Assignment: Is growth necessary to a happy and productive life?Write an essay in which
you answer this question and discuss your point of view on this issue. You may
discuss personal or institutional growth. Support your position logically with exam-
ples from literature, the arts, history, politics, science and technology, current
events, or your experience or observation.Sample 1: 6 points out of 6
Ever since the Enlightenment, Western thought has been dominated by the idea that humans are endowed with
“natural rights,” which include not only the right to free speech and the pursuit of happiness, but the right to dom-
inate the natural world and even other “less civilized” societies. The growth of an individual or a society, we be-
lieve, is limited only by one’s imagination. But not only is eternal growth an illusion, to pursue it is a danger.
Today, our media trumpet the benefits of “growth.” A company cannot be satisfied with providing a consis-
tent product or service over time; it must keep growing and expanding, preferably swallowing up competitors to
produce more and more value for investors. A school cannot be satisfied with consistently meeting the diverse
needs of its students; it must graduate a higher and higher percentage of its students, who must get higher and
higher test scores, and get into better and better colleges. But such “growth” only serves the psychological needs
of deluded consumers; it provides no real value. CEOs feel compelled to “cook the books” and educators likewise
feel compelled to “manipulate” test scores or cheat outright so that the illusion of “growth” can be maintained.
As a society, we must learn to see that the only worthwhile growth in society is that which enhances personal
growth. Better profits mean nothing unless they are from a company that helps people to experience life more
fully, and not merely give them tasty snack foods or mindless entertainment to consume. Higher test scores
mean nothing unless they reflect students who are better problem solvers and more empathetic and happier
human beings.
Growth is not a universal good. Just because a statistic is going up doesn’t mean the world is getting better.
Our statistics-obsessed society has to learn to appreciate the quality of life around us more than the quantities
that summarize and, sometimes, eviscerate it.
Evaluation:Although not exceptionally long, this essay accomplishes a great deal in four paragraphs. It effectively
supports the insightful thesis that “not only is eternal growth an illusion, but to pursue it is a danger.” The exam-
ples of humanity’s domination of nature, corporate growth, and higher test scores are very effective, although some
could be examined in greater detail. The author also demonstrates a strong facility with language, using terms such
as “eviscerate” and “empathetic” to good effect while maintaining a clear style throughout. It is well organized and
persuasive.
Sample 2: 5 points out of 6
My keyboard felt like a world unto itself. The ghosts of Muddy Waters and Stevie Ray Vaughan and Dave
Brubeck and Gustav Mahler and, I admit it, even Raffi, were an ether that engulfed the keyboard and infused
my fingers, arms and body, so that I had no choice but to play, to give a sound dimension to this world. Some-
times the music that came out was just an etude that I had practiced for Mrs. Parker years before, but some-
times, magically, it was a completely new form that seemed conjured from that ether like a genie from a bottle.