1. PARCC Writing Prompts Three types of writing tasks on PARCC: Narrative
Literary Analysis
Research Simulation

2. Narratives Write a story
Detail an account of a story’s key elements (Characters, plot, setting, conflict, and point of view, etc.)
Write a character analysis of important figures
Describe an account of an individual, group, or society
It might be realistic or fantastic
Narrator doesn’t always mean narrative task!

3. Literary Analysis Break down the text
It will ask you to carefully analyze things like arguments, main ideas, and relevant evidence
And to compose an essay explaining your findings (often a compare and contrast essay)

4. Research Simulation
Simulation means: an imitation or enactment of something
Research means: the systematic investigation into and study of something in order to learn and establish information.
Research simulation means: an imitated process of finding out information through a systematic investigation.
It will ask you to consider and pay attention to information presented through several articles
It will ask you to compile information from multiple sources in order to write an essay using evidence from each source.

5. Successfully Writing a PARCC Essay
Identify the task
Circle clues in the intro to help you determine what type of task it is. Words such as analyze, compare and contrast, narrative, essay, original story, both texts, etc.
Identify what type of task it is
Change the prompt into a question so that you can use RATE
Underline the part of the prompt that tells you what to write
Reword the underlined part into a question OR simplify the prompt into your own words

6. Example prompts from practice test
Read the pre-reading instructions. Think about what type of task it will be.
Read the prompt
Underline the part that is telling you to do something
Change the prompt into a question using your own words