CHAPTER 13 / ESSAY WRITING PRACTICE 489
Sample Essays: Practice Essay 3
Consider carefully the issue discussed in the following passage, then write an essay that answers the
question posed in the assignment.Adventure seekers who merely crave the mitigating rush of adrenaline that accom-
paniesrisky feats do not demonstrate true courage. Courage is not fearlessness but the
willingness to face our unmitigated fears and vulnerabilities, particularly those fears
that make us think less of ourselves.Assignment: Does true courage always require putting something that is very important to
us at risk?Write an essay in which you answer this question and explain the reasons
for your choice. You may choose an example from literature, the arts, history, poli-
tics, science and technology, current events, or your experience or observation.Sample: 6 points out of 6
Real courage always involves putting something important at risk. Although we often think about what brave
people have to gain, like firefighters saving the lives of others, or civil rights advocates working to gain freedoms,
what makes these people courageous is not the value of what they are fighting for, but rather with the risks that
they are taking with things that are very valuable to them. This can be seen in literature in the character Pip in
Great Expectationsand also in modern soldiers, who take risks that go far beyond potential bodily harm,
sacrificing their own freedoms for ours.
Philip Pirrip, or Pip, the hero of Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens, meets a wild-looking escaped pris-
oner on the moors and helps the prisoner by giving him food. The prisoner promises to repay Pip’s kindness.
After growing wealthy in the colonies, the prisoner does return under an assumed name and serves as Pip’s
anonymous benefactor. When Pip finds out the truth, he resolves that he will help his benefactor, now named
Provis, despite the fact that Pip could be put in jail for helping a prisoner. Pip shows true courage by putting his
own freedom, as well as his hard-fought position as a gentleman, on the line. It is the same persistent courage
that he demonstrated in enduring for years the cruelty of Miss Havisham and the beautiful Estella, whom he
finally won over decades later, and in persisting with his support of the pauper Joe Gargery.
To many people, soldiers are overused as examples of courage. Obviously, they face death or injury in battle,
but they make another sacrifice we usually don’t think about. They know that a strong nation needs a unified
army. So when soldiers fight for their country, they must withhold their free speech and refrain from criticizing
their superiors. They give up a freedom that they are fighting to maintain for us: the freedom to speak their mind.
Sometimes, when soldiers return from the battlefield they do criticize the president or the strategy of the
war. But while they are in uniform, they hold their tongues for the greater good. Today many service men and
women serving in Iraq have serious moral and strategic doubts about the execution of the war. But they (at least
most of them) do not speak out, not because they are afraid, but because they are courageous enough to sacri-
fice their own right to free speech for the good of the nation, at least temporarily.
When we do something scary, like skydive out of an airplane, we risk a very tiny chance of falling to our deaths.
But when we land, we realize that we have not really lost anything, and actually have gained an exhilarating ex-
perience. Real courage involves real sacrifice of something important, like your self-importance, your freedom,
or your life.
Evaluation:This excellent essay provides a persuasive argument that “real courage always involves putting some-
thing at risk” and provides two strong examples of such courage in contrast with mere “thrill seeking.” The courage
of Pip is described from a unique perspective, supporting the idea that he sacrificed his own self-importance for the
sake of love and duty. The example of soldiers, also, provides a unique insight into a courageous sacrifice that is not
frequently acknowledged. The essay is very well organized, although the transitions could be smoother. The author
employs effective diction (execution, exhilarating, benefactor), with only occasional lapses into cliché (hold their
tongues, greater good).