The assignment below is an example of the kind of writing prompt that students will be given for the Montana/ACT Writing Sample.  Like the prompts in the field test, this one includes some information about a decision that must be made by a group of people and the criterion that will be used to make the decision.  The student is asked to assist the group by choosing one alternative and explaining why it is the better choice.

Example assignment:

The college you plan to attend has received a large donation from a recent graduate who has specified that the money be used to enhance the quality of life for students.  Two proposals for using the money have been made.  One proposal is to expand the campus bookstore to include music CD's, gifts, and a snack bar.  The other proposal is to add more computers to the computer lab.  There is enough money to fund only one of these proposals.  Write a letter to the dean of the college in which you argue for expanding the bookstore or for adding more computers to the computer lab , explaining how your choice will enhance the quality of life for students.

Scoring the Writing Sample 
Because this is a test of writing skills, responses should be written in complete sentences and paragraphs.  Papers should be organized and clearly written.  Papers will be evaluated for their focus on the topic, development and organization of ideas, and correct and fluent sentence structure, grammar, usage, and mechanical conventions.  The writing should conform to the conventions of edited American English.

Evaluators will use a six-point scale to score the papers.  Each score point reflects an evaluator's holistic (overall) judgment of the writer's performance in relationship to the skills identified above.  Two evaluators who will be carefully trained to score writing using this six-point scale will read each paper.  Papers included in the field test will be evaluated using the Montana/ACT scoring scales.