• 60 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Writing Prompts About Government

Who makes a rule, who carries it out and who settles the argument, from a tree house club to Congress.

Writing Prompts About Government

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  1. Should every decision be put to a vote? Write about one that should not be.Angle: think of a lifeguard, a pilot or a bus driver in the middle of the job.
  2. Why three branches of government and not one? Answer as a speech to a class that wants a single leader for everything.Fact: the split into three is there so that no individual or group will have too much power.
  3. Keep a cabinet member's diary for the day the advice was not taken.Fact: cabinet members serve as advisors to the president.

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All 60 prompts

Three branches 15

  • A park sign says No Vehicles, and someone rolls in on a skateboard; write the judge's decision. Fact: the judicial branch interprets the meaning of laws and applies them to individual cases.
  • A robot is built to run all three branches of government at once; write why the town switches it off. Angle: nothing goes wrong at first. Show the day nobody was left to tell it no.
  • A senator and a representative each think their half of Congress matters more; write the argument in the hallway. Angle: give each a fair point, and let a school tour walk past at the worst moment.
  • The branch that writes laws and the branch that judges them trade jobs for a day; write how it goes. Angle: show what each one misses about its own work by lunchtime.
  • Explain checks and balances with a seesaw, a three-legged stool or a game of rock, paper, scissors. Fact: each branch's ability to respond to the actions of the others is the system of checks and balances.
  • Invent a fourth branch of government and say what the other three would think of it. Angle: give it one power, then decide which branch gets to check it.
  • Keep a cabinet member's diary for the day the advice was not taken. Fact: cabinet members serve as advisors to the president.
  • Make up a riddle for each branch of government: three clues, and no branch named until the answer. Fact: Congress holds the power to make laws, the president sees them carried out, the courts judge.
  • Send a postcard from the legislative branch to the other two, saying what it does all day. Fact: the legislative branch is Congress: the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.
  • Split a tree house club into three branches of government and write its first week. Fact: the Constitution divides the federal government into legislative, judicial and executive branches.
  • Tell the story of a small rule that turned out to break a bigger rule. Fact: the federal courts decide whether laws violate the Constitution.
  • Thank the branch of government you think gets the least attention, in a short note. Angle: say what would pile up in a week if it stopped work.
  • The vice president is called in to break a tie in the Senate; write the walk to the chair. Fact: the vice president presides over the U.S. Senate and breaks ties in Senate votes.
  • Why three branches of government and not one? Answer as a speech to a class that wants a single leader for everything. Fact: the split into three is there so that no individual or group will have too much power.
  • You are a senator with one question for someone picked to be a judge of the Supreme Court; write the question and why you chose it. Fact: the president names Supreme Court justices, and the Senate confirms them.

A law for my town 15

  • A bill has been vetoed, and the lawmakers get one more vote; write the speech that turns the room. Fact: in most cases Congress can vote to override a president's veto, and the bill becomes a law.
  • A committee gets your bill and changes one word; write the argument about that word. Fact: a bill goes to a committee whose members research it, discuss it and make changes to it.
  • A new law costs money; write the town meeting that decides what to give up to pay for it. Fact: in Congress, only the House can start a bill about taxes and revenue.
  • A new town law has a loophole, and a nine-year-old finds it; write what the council does next. Angle: decide whether they close the gap or thank her.
  • A year after your town law passed, report on whether it worked. Angle: one number that changed, one person it helped and one thing nobody saw coming.
  • Announce a new town law in fewer than thirty words. Angle: what it is, when it starts, who to ask. Then cut every word that can go.
  • Draft a bill for your town: one new law, in three sentences that anyone could understand. Fact: a bill is a proposal for a new law or a change to an existing law.
  • Follow one bill from a kitchen-table idea to a signature, told by the sheet of paper itself. Fact: both chambers of Congress must vote for the same version of a bill before the president gets it.
  • The mayor of a made-up town refuses to sign your law; write the letter that tries to change the mayor's mind. Fact: in the federal government, a president's refusal to approve a bill is called a veto.
  • Propose a town law that sounds silly and turns out to be sensible. First line: No bicycle shall be left out after dark without a light of its own.
  • Two streets want opposite laws about the same thing; write the compromise. Angle: one street wants brighter lamps. The other wants to see the stars.
  • Write a law that would help only one person in town, and the debate about whether one is enough. Angle: she is ninety and cannot reach the mailbox on her corner.
  • Write a law your town needs only on the hottest day of the year. Angle: say when it starts, when it ends and who checks.
  • Write a new town law from the point of view of the animal it is about. First line: They have voted on where I may sleep.
  • Your idea for a town law starts as a petition; write the doorstep talk in which a neighbor decides whether to sign. Fact: the idea for a bill can come from a petition by people or citizen groups.

An election in class 15

  • A candidate in a class election is asked something she does not know; write her answer. First line: I do not know yet, and here is how I would find out.
  • A class election ends in a tie; write three fair ways to break it and choose one. Angle: a second round, a coin, a shared job. Say which one the losing side would accept.
  • A new student arrives on election day and must choose between two strangers; write how she decides. Angle: she has ten minutes and may ask each candidate one thing.
  • A town tries voting by something stranger than paper; write its election day. Fact: in federal elections in the U.S., you cannot vote online. Try marbles, hats or sides of a field.
  • After a month in office, a class representative reports on what got done and what did not; write the report. Angle: honest beats impressive. Put the unfinished thing first.
  • The class votes on a pet and the hamster wins; write the speech of the goldfish campaign's manager. Angle: funny, gracious and still sure the goldfish had the better plan.
  • Decide who gets a vote in an election about the playground, and defend the hardest choice. Fact: to vote in U.S. elections a person must be 18 years old on or before Election Day.
  • Design the ballot for a class election in words: the question, the choices and the instructions. Angle: make it impossible to misread, then say what happens to a ballot with two boxes ticked.
  • Give the concession speech of a candidate who lost a class election by two votes. Angle: thank, congratulate, and name one thing you still want done.
  • Put together a voter guide for a class election: two candidates, three issues and no opinion of your own. Fact: voter guides include the candidates and the issues up for a vote.
  • Report a class election for the school news, with the count and one quote from a voter. Angle: who, what, when and where come first. The quote comes last.
  • The winner of a class election has until Friday to keep one promise; write the week. Angle: the promise was a second pencil sharpener, and Monday starts with no money.
  • Write the debate between two candidates for line leader, with one question from the audience. Angle: the question is harder than either speech.
  • Write the job description for the person who counts the votes in a class election. Angle: what the counter may not do matters as much as what the counter does.
  • Your class elects someone to choose the Friday game; write the speech in which you nominate a friend. Angle: skip the flattery. Give two things your friend has actually done.

Who decides 15

  • A king wakes to find that his kingdom would like a vote; write his day. Angle: funny, and let him come round by supper.
  • A playground has a slide, a line for the slide and someone who mends the slide; write which of the three is the government. Angle: argue for one, then say what the other two would answer.
  • A whole town votes on every single question for a week; write Wednesday. Fact: in a direct democracy the people themselves deliberate and decide on laws.
  • Adults and children swap who decides in a town for one day; write the evening news. First line: Bedtime was abolished at nine this morning and restored by four.
  • Choose the question you would most like put to a vote of everyone your age, and predict the result. Angle: then say what you would do if the vote went against you.
  • Democracy is built from two Greek words; write what people and rule mean once they are joined. Fact: the word democracy comes from the Greek demos, people, and kratos, rule.
  • Describe a place where one person decides everything, then the same place run by a vote. Angle: a kitchen, a ship, a band. Say what got faster and what got fairer.
  • Five friends have one afternoon and five ideas; write how they decide without anyone storming off. Angle: voting is one way. Find a second, and say which felt fairer.
  • Is democracy slow? Write the story of a decision that took a long time and was better for it. Angle: show the fast, bad version first.
  • Most of a group wants one thing and a few need another; write a decision both can live with. Angle: nine want the music loud. One has a test in the morning.
  • Say what the word government means to you without using the words rules, laws or boss. Angle: start from one thing it does that you used this week, such as a road or a library.
  • Should every decision be put to a vote? Write about one that should not be. Angle: think of a lifeguard, a pilot or a bus driver in the middle of the job.
  • Start with the words Democracy is, and finish the sentence five different ways. Angle: one serious, one funny, one from a winner, one from a loser and one from you.
  • Who should decide what a town's park looks like: the mayor, the neighbors or the kids who play there? Fact: people are represented by elected officials at the federal, state and local levels.
  • You are elected to speak for your street; write the first three things you ask your neighbors. Fact: in a representative democracy the people elect officials to decide on laws for them.

How it works

These government writing prompts name no party and no politician. Each puts the writer inside a decision: drafting a law for the town, counting a class vote, or judging what a sign in the park really means.

Read the full guide

Writing prompts about elections

Fifteen are set in a classroom, where an election is small enough to see whole: the nomination, the ballot, the debate, the tie, the count and the speech of whoever lost.

Facts to write from

Twenty-four prompts carry a fact: what a bill is, what a veto does, who breaks a tie in the Senate. They come from USA.gov and the Constitution, and the three about the word democracy from Wikipedia.

  • Shrink it. A government is easier to write as four friends and one tree house than as a whole country.
  • Give the losing side its best argument before you decide.

Questions and answers

What is a good writing prompt about government?

One with a decision in it. A park sign says No Vehicles, and someone rolls in on a skateboard; write the judge's decision. Or draft a bill for your town in three sentences that anyone could understand.

Are these government writing prompts for kids?

Yes. They are set in tree houses, classrooms and made-up towns, and none tells a writer how to vote.

Is there a writing prompt on democracy?

Fifteen ask who decides. Democracy comes from the Greek words for people and rule, and one prompt asks what the two mean once joined. In another a whole town votes on every single question for a week, and you write Wednesday.

What are the three branches of government?

Legislative, executive and judicial. USA.gov says the Constitution divides the federal government this way so that no individual or group will have too much power.

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