Writing Prompt Sample #1
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Speech 1: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”—Theodore Roosevelt, “Citizenship in a Republic,” given on April 23, 1910
Speech 2: “First is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills—against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. “Give me a place to stand,” said Archimedes, “and I will move the world.” These men moved the world, and so can we all. Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage such as these that the belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”—Robert F. Kennedy, “The Day of Affirmation Address,” given on June 6, 1966
In a well-developed multiparagraph essay, discuss how these speeches reflect the Mahatma Gandhi quotation. Use specific details from Speech 1 and Speech 2 to support your response.12 English III EOC Tests Assessment Guide
1st - what does the quote mean?
2nd - identify details from the 2 sources that support Ghandi’s quote.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”