Watch someone work for five minutes and write only what they do, with no guesses about what they think.Angle: verbs only: lifts, checks, wipes, waits.
Describe the first Monday of September where you live: the light, the trees, the sound of the street.Fact: in the United States and Canada the holiday falls on the first Monday in September.
Write a Labor Day thank-you short enough for a sticky note, for a worker who starts before sunrise.First line: You were here before the sun again. Thank you.
A delivery arrives before anyone on your street is awake; write the worker who brings it and what they see.First line: Nobody has ever met her, but the crates are always there.
A job is being done right now, within a mile of you, that you have never once seen; write about it.Angle: start from a clue: a manhole cover, a humming box, a locked door.
A pair of work boots stands by a door; write whose they are and what the day did to them.Angle: mud, flour, paint or sawdust. Read the boots like a diary.
Count the workers it takes to get you through one school day, and write about the one you forgot at first.Angle: you will forget someone. Everyone does.
Describe a worker's hands at work without naming the job, and let the reader guess it.Angle: what they hold, how fast they move, what has marked them.
Describe a worker's lunch break as seen from across the street.Angle: where they sit, what they eat, the moment they check the time.
For Labor Day, list every job you can see being done between your door and the end of your street.Angle: count the ones that were finished before you woke up.
For Labor Day, write about the work done in your home that nobody is paid for.Angle: who does it, when, and what a week without it would look like.
Pick one thing on your table and write, for Labor Day, the chain of workers who got it there.Angle: grower, picker, packer, driver, shelf stacker. Give each a line.
Put the sounds of one day's work in order, from the first truck to the last broom.Angle: give each sound a time and a worker.
Watch someone work for five minutes and write only what they do, with no guesses about what they think.Angle: verbs only: lifts, checks, wipes, waits.
Which job that you see every day could you not do for one hour? Write the hour.First line: I tried to carry three plates once.
Write about a machine you see at work every day and the worker who runs it.Angle: decide which of the two seems to be in charge.
Write about the first money you earned, or the first chore that felt like a real job.Angle: what it was, how long it took, and whether you would do it again.
Write one job seen at two times of day: the start of the shift and the end of it.Angle: what has changed in the worker's walk.
A thank-you to a worker 15
A bridge, a boiler or a row of lettuce thanks the worker who looks after it; write the thank-you.First line: You are the only one who knows where I leak.
A customer forgot to say thank you to a worker; write the note, delivered a day late for Labor Day.First line: I was in a hurry yesterday and you were not, and I noticed.
Thank a worker who showed you how to do one small thing properly.Angle: measuring, sweeping, folding a box. Describe the lesson.
Thank a worker who was kind to you when they were clearly busy.Angle: tell what they stopped doing in order to help.
Thank a worker whose name you do not know: describe them so exactly that they would know themselves.Angle: the hat, the wave, the time they pass your window.
Thank the night shift in a note to be read at sunrise: say what was ready for you when you woke.Angle: the lights worked, the shelves were full, the road was clear.
Write a Labor Day card to a worker in your family, for one thing they think nobody noticed.Angle: the early alarm, the late drive, the packed lunch.
Write a Labor Day poem of thanks in which every line begins with a different tool.Angle: wrench, ladle, needle, keyboard, broom.
Write a Labor Day thank-you short enough for a sticky note, for a worker who starts before sunrise.First line: You were here before the sun again. Thank you.
Write a Labor Day toast for a backyard table that thanks everyone there for the work they do all year.Angle: one line for each person, by job, and nobody left out.
Write a one-minute Labor Day speech of thanks for the workers who keep your school running.Angle: begin with whoever unlocks the doors.
Write a thank-you letter to a worker of a hundred years ago whose work you still use.Angle: a wall, a road, a tunnel, a row of trees someone planted.
Write a thank-you to a worker who grew, picked or caught something you ate today.Angle: start from the food and work backward to the hands.
Write a thank-you to the worker who fixed something for you, and say what life was like while it was broken.Angle: a bike chain, a leaking roof, a frozen screen.
Write the certificate you would hand a worker on Labor Day, with the reason in one sentence.Angle: for unblocking, untangling, carrying or staying calm.
The last day of summer 15
A summer job ends on Labor Day; write the last thing done on the last shift.First line: I hung the whistle on its hook and nobody stopped me.
Compare the first day of summer and Labor Day as two photographs of the same place.Angle: say what is taller, what has faded and who is missing a tooth.
Describe the first Monday of September where you live: the light, the trees, the sound of the street.Fact: in the United States and Canada the holiday falls on the first Monday in September.
Describe the pool, the lake or the beach on Labor Day afternoon, when everyone knows it is the last swim.Angle: the light is lower, and nobody wants to be first out.
On Labor Day, list everything you did not get around to this summer.Angle: then pick one and do it on paper.
One summer thing is packed away on Labor Day; write where it goes and what falls out of it.Angle: a beach bag, a tent, a cooler with one forgotten item.
Somebody in the family has to work on Labor Day; write how the family keeps the holiday on another day.Angle: who is on shift, and what they do on Tuesday instead.
Tell the Labor Day cookout from the point of view of the person at the grill.Angle: what they hear, what they miss, who brings them a plate.
Watch a town's Labor Day parade from the curb, at the height of a folding chair, and write it.Fact: the first Labor Day parade went through New York City on September 5, 1882.
Write a goodbye letter to summer, dated Labor Day, from someone who is secretly ready for fall.First line: Dear Summer, it has been wonderful, and my sweater misses me.
Write Labor Day as the last day of summer: the one thing you have to do before it ends.Fact: in the United States people call Labor Day summer's unofficial end.
Write the drive home at the end of the Labor Day weekend: the traffic, the sand in the car, who falls asleep.Angle: one person is still humming the song from the radio.
Write the Labor Day weekend as three postcards: Saturday, Sunday and Monday.Angle: each is shorter than the one before.
Write the last evening of the Labor Day weekend, from the moment someone says it is getting cool.Angle: who fetches a jacket and who refuses to.
Write the night before school starts, with summer still all over the floor of your room.Fact: many US school districts go back to class around the Labor Day weekend.
An opinion to argue 15
Is a parade or a picnic the better way to spend Labor Day? Take a side.Fact: one early proposal for the day was a street parade followed by a picnic.
Is a three-day weekend better than a day off in the middle of the week? Argue it for Labor Day.Fact: Labor Day always falls on a Monday, so it always makes a three-day weekend.
Is homework work? Argue whether students have earned a rest on Labor Day too.Angle: define work in your first sentence and stick to it.
Is it fair that some people must work on Labor Day so that others can rest? Argue your answer.Angle: think of who keeps the lights on and the buses moving.
Is the start of September the right time for Labor Day, or would another date suit a workers' holiday better?Fact: more than 150 other countries mark a workers' day on May 1.
Oregon made Labor Day a holiday before the whole country did; argue why a state might go first.Fact: Oregon passed the first state law recognizing Labor Day, on February 21, 1887.
Should a robot do the jobs nobody wants, and who decides which jobs those are? Argue your view.Angle: pick one such job and ask what the worker who does it now would say.
Should chores be paid work? Write the argument a kid would make and the reply a parent would give.Angle: let both sides win one point.
Should every job get the same thanks on Labor Day, or do some deserve more? Argue it.Angle: decide what you are measuring: danger, skill, hours or need.
Should school start before Labor Day or after it? Argue it for your town.Fact: some US districts start the week before Labor Day and others the Tuesday after.
Should students have jobs to do at school, such as sweeping or serving lunch? Argue for or against.Angle: give one reason from the student's side and one from the school's.
What makes a job a good job? Argue for the one thing that matters most.Angle: the pay, the people, the hours, or what gets made.
Which is harder: work done with the hands or work done in the head? Argue for one.Angle: use one real job as your example for each.
Which job in your town deserves a holiday of its own? Make the case, as Labor Day does for all workers.Fact: Labor Day itself became a US federal holiday in 1894.
Would you rather have a hard job you love or an easy job that bores you? Defend your choice.Angle: describe a Wednesday in each.
How it works
A Labor Day writing prompt can face two ways: toward the work the holiday is named for, or toward the long weekend that closes the summer. Both are here, and so are questions with two fair sides.
Read the full guide
A writing prompt about Labor Day itself
Labor Day became a US federal holiday in 1894. Twelve years earlier, on September 5, 1882, the first Labor Day parade went through New York City. Several prompts lean on that history: a parade watched from a folding chair, an argument about why Oregon made the day a holiday in 1887, before the country did.
Thanking a worker for one exact thing
The fifteen thank-yous each narrow the thanks to a moment: the worker who fixed something, the night shift whose work was ready when you woke, a builder of a hundred years ago whose wall is still in use.
Go and look before you write. Five minutes of watching real work beats an hour of remembering it.
In an opinion piece, give the other side its best point, then answer it.
Questions and answers
What is a good Labor Day writing prompt?
One that starts from work close by. Pick one thing on your table and write the chain of workers who got it there. Or describe a worker's hands at work without naming the job.
When is Labor Day?
The first Monday in September, in the United States and in Canada. It always makes a three-day weekend, and in the United States it is called the unofficial end of summer.
Why is Labor Day a holiday?
The US Department of Labor describes it as an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers. Labor activists and individual states recognized the day before it was a federal holiday.
What are good Labor Day opinion writing topics?
Should school start before Labor Day or after it? Is a parade or a picnic the better way to spend the day? Is it fair that some people must work on the holiday so that others can rest?